Public anger over cover-up of Pike River mine disaster

Tom Peters

There is widespread anger at the New Zealand government’s decision to seal Pike River coal mine, ending the manned underground investigation into the 2010 disaster that claimed 29 lives. The Pike River Recovery Agency is currently working on a permanent concrete seal at the mine entrance.

The Labour Party-led government, including its then-coalition partner NZ First and the Greens, promised before and after the 2017 election to re-enter the mine to look for bodies and examine physical evidence. Its stated aim was to prosecute those in Pike River Coal’s management responsible for the appalling lack of safety in the mine, which led to the series of underground explosions. More than a decade later, no one has been held accountable for this preventable tragedy.

Family members and supporters protest on July 9, 2021, on the road to the Pike River mine. (Credit: Kath Monk)

The majority of the victims’ families opposed the decision to seal the mine without exploring the mine workings to establish the precise cause of the explosions. Their wishes, supported by international mining experts and thousands of ordinary people, have been disregarded.

Every party in parliament supports this cover-up, as does the trade union bureaucracy. The corporate media is complicit; it has completely blacked out the broad opposition in the working class to the government’s actions.

Malcolm Campbell, whose son, also named Malcolm, died at Pike River, responded in the Facebook group Uncensored Pike to the September 18 WSWS article reporting on the sealing of the mine:

“Now we have come to the end of our fight for justice and recovery of our loved ones killed doing their jobs for these incompetent so-called mine managers and corrupt government.” He asked how the dangerous mine got approved and was allowed to operate.

“So sad for all the families it has come down to our loved ones [remaining in this] hellhole, they deserved better,” Campbell said. “We as a family thank all our family and friends here and around the world for their everlasting support and kind words over these difficult years, so sorry we couldn’t get Malky home, thinking of you all xx.”

In the Facebook group Underground Miners, which includes thousands of mineworkers from around the world, the WSWS’s article received more than 200 reactions and 50 comments, almost all denouncing the NZ government.

Troy Reynolds wrote: “Very disappointing for the families and yes it feels a little like a cover up. Even if there is no fault to be had I am sure there are some poor mums and dads who will now go to their grave without closure.”

Jamie Harris commented: “The government should give the families some closure over this. They want to know. They also want other companies to learn from this, so others don’t have to go through it. No family should have to go through waiting for their loved ones to come home from work.”

In the Uncensored Pike group, Karyn Stewart was one of hundreds of people who commented, opposing the sealing. She questioned the role of Andrew Little, minister responsible for Pike River re-entry, who was leader of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) when the mine exploded.

“Isn’t this a conflict of interest?” Karyn asked. “How can Little front the recovery when he was a part of the union that allowed the health and safety violations?” She added: “The issues with Pike have been beset with corruption from beginning to end and one of the problems seems to be that the mainstream media are silent (have been silenced) over publishing anything.”

The union took no industrial action that could have prevented the disaster and made no public criticism of the life-threatening conditions in the mine. Little’s immediate response following the first explosion was to defend the company’s safety record.

Marc Thomlinson, who worked at Pike River mine, wrote a statement on Little’s Facebook page on September 23, highlighting that Little was aware of Pike River’s violations in 2009:

“I remember the first time I met you Andrew. I was a union delegate at an EPMU meeting held in Reefton, 2009. [...] You shook my hand at the conclusion of the meeting where we both shared a concern with the Pike River Mine in regards to the [inadequate] ventilation and secondary egress.” In violation of the law, government regulators allowed Pike River to operate with no proper emergency exit.

Thomlinson said to Little: “You looked me in the eye and affirmed to me that you were aware of the situation.” He urged the minister to “bring our men home to where they belong, because it is the right thing to do.”

The World Socialist Web Site has also received a statement supporting the Pike River families from Professor Maan Alkaisi, whose wife, Dr Maysoon Abbas, was one of 115 people who died in the collapse of the CTV building in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

In late 2017 Brendan Horsley, then deputy solicitor-general, advised police not to lay any charges against those responsible for the building’s design, despite a mountain of evidence that it violated numerous laws and regulations and was essentially a death trap.

“After more than ten years the victims of the CTV building collapse are still waiting for accountability and justice,” Alkaisi said. “We have been let down by the very people who are supposed to protect us and apply the rules of law. The similarities of the CTV case with Pike River tragedy [show] that our legal system is dysfunctional when it comes to ensuring justice for victims.

“This is demonstrated by the delay in starting the investigation, by ignoring significant evidence, relying on irrelevant matters, the decision not to prosecute anyone for the loss of lives, the silence of government and legal officials, the lack of accountability when it comes to influential, well-connected wealthy culprits, and not answering our legitimate questions.”

He believed Crown Law, the state’s solicitors, “avoid going through cases of national or even international significance” because they are part of an “old boys’ club” and are “incompetent and scared” of facing lawyers hired by the wealthy.

On February 23, 2021, the day after the tenth anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in parliament that New Zealand would continue to “stand with” the victims.

However, Alkaisi said that the day before, “when I asked our PM to meet to explain to her in private our concerns regarding the decision not to prosecute, and victims’ mistreatment, she refused to meet with me. How do you expect us to trust the politicians? How do you expect us to trust the decision Crown Law made not to prosecute was the right decision? Why were decisions made behind closed doors and without documentation? Why not conduct a just trial in front of a Judge and Jury?

“Our government has both a legal and moral responsibility to uphold our justice system to ensure it protects all citizens, and to ensure in situations where lives were lost, that those responsible will be held accountable in accordance with the rule of law. That is justice.

“The CTV collapse and Pike River tragedies will only end, when those responsible are held to account, when there is proper closure for victims and when justice is done.”

The Human Costs of iPhones

Mike Ferner

Like many of you, I use an iPhone. It is a technological wonder and allows me to do things unimaginable even a few years ago; it has more computer power than NASA had to put men on the Moon in the late 1960s-early 1970s. These phones are designed by Apple, Inc.

Yet, how many of us users ever ask what are the conditions under which these iPhones are produced?  What are these conditions doing to China’s workers, who assemble such wonderful instruments?

These are questions rarely asked in a world where the “free market” reigns.  Actually, the free market is an ideological construct, where basic questions about the impact on workers or upon the environment are precluded by definition:  the whole game is to focus concentration on consumption.  In other words, as long as you have the money (or access to credit), you can get whatever your heart desires, and issues of size, style, color, texture, etc., prevail. But just don’t ask about the workers, or the environment.

Until now, the fate of the workers (and the environment) in the production of the iPhone has been ignored.  However, with Dying for an iPhone:  Apple, Foxconn, and the Lives of China’s Workers, those days are over:  Jenny Chan, Mark Selden and Pun Ngai examine in great detail the lives of workers of a company called Foxconn, the company that produces the overwhelmingly large number of Apple’s products.  (Foxconn also produce for other American companies, such as Amazon, Microsoft, and others, but the overwhelming focus in this book concerns production for Apple.)

Because Foxconn is based in Taiwan, with much production in China that is produced for consumers in the United States, this is a global study of labor discipline, and we need to keep that perspective in mind.  But it’s strength is the detailed examination of production within China.

Motivating this study was a number of suicides by Foxconn workers during early 2010:  workers were killing themselves to spare themselves further misery of working in these factories.  The authors begin the book with a statement from a Chinese worker’s blog:

To die is the only way to testify that we ever lived.  Perhaps for the Foxconn employees and employees like us, the use of death is to testify that we were ever alive at all, and that while we lived, we had only despair.

These workers were largely migrants from rural parts of China, seeking a better life for themselves and their loved ones.  Their paths took them into Foxconn’s factories.  Not all survived, but factory life took a toll on all of them.

Foxconn’s parent company was started in 1974 and has become a corporate behemoth.

Within four decades, Foxconn would move evolve from a small processing factory to become the world leader in high-end electronics manufacturing with plants extending throughout China and, subsequently, throughout the world.  Foxconn has more than two hundred subsidiaries and branch offices in Asia, the Americas, and Europe.

Foxconn is the world’s largest industrial employer, with over 1 million workers, mostly based in China.  This book focuses on working conditions in China:  “Foxconn’s largest customer by far is Apple,” and “Apple’s success is intimately bound up with the production of quality products at high speed.”

With this understanding and beginning in the summer of 20l10, researchers from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong began undercover research in Foxconn’s major manufacturing plants in nine different Chinese cities.

Theirs's is a sophisticated study, not only looking at different plants in China but in recognizing the differences—and lower wages—for workers in the interior from those working in coastal regions.  Accordingly, these looks at the developmental processes by the Chinese government as it seeks to improve the lives of Chinese people throughout the country.

Accordingly, this book looks at the intersection of Apple’s products, Foxconn’s production facilities, and Chinese development policies—and how, together, they affect Chinese workers, especially in Foxconn’s factories.

The authors do not see workers as passive victims; they seem them as active subjects trying to maintain their personal dignity, their unity, and their sanity while working under extremely demanding conditions.  Obviously, not all survive.  Yet these workers often seek opportunities to engage in collective efforts, and strikes are not unheard of.  One example provided was a strike during 2011:  workers struck in one plant when Foxconn was under pressure to produce a new model of the iPad.  Within 10 minutes after workers walked off the job in one action, senior management was down on the shopfloor talking with the workers about their demands after previously refusing

Yet the typical response is quick:

In massive strikes, either the employer or government officials require workers to elect representatives, generally limited to five, to engage in talks.  Once worker representatives are elected, the company moves to take control.  Their intervention typically marks the beginning of the fragmentation, co-optation, and crushing of worker power.  Frequently, the worker representatives are identified as troublemakers and dismissed.

Yet the workers also learn.  When this strike took place, instead of sending up a few representatives, the workers’ cried, “We are all leaders,” and refused to back down.  It was interesting to see the Chinese workers provide an answer to management that was the same used by Wobblies in the US in the early 1900s!

There are also environmental problems affecting workers’ lives.  For example, the shiny aluminum MacBook cases need to be grinded down, putting aluminum dust in the air, harming workers’ respiratory systems.  There are also chemicals used in production that are discharged into the environment, and toxic wastes are often untreated before discharging.

In short, this is not just about China, Taiwan, or the United States:  it is a very sophisticated study of the development of capitalism—whose key is control of labor—in modern electronics factories around the world.  There is much to learn from it.

This is the latest in a growing literature on China and Chinese workers under the Chinese Communist Party.  It shows there are major inequities still remaining, and like said above, much of it is based on labor being controlled.  This book is a major contribution to understanding the situations of Chinese workers and it is extremely well done.  I give it my highest accolade:  I wish I had done this study.

Yet, following, there are two things I think the growing globalization from below literature shows:  Chinese workers need to be able to extend their organization not only within particular regions, but across regions of the countries; they must learn from others’ experiences as how to do this.  Yet I doubt they can solve their problems alone.  At the same time, American and other workers around the world, and especially those within unions, need to develop links to these Chinese workers’ organizations as they develop, and build on-going and practical solidarity with these workers:  my thinking is that seafaring, longshore, and transportation workers in particular need to further organize among themselves, and be prepared to support Chinese workers’ efforts.

The Untold Story of Why Palestinians Are Divided

Ramzy Baroud

The political division in Palestinian society is deep-rooted, and must not be reduced to convenient claims about the ‘Hamas-Fatah split’, elections, the Oslo accords and subsequent disagreements. The division is linked to events that preceded all of these, and not even the death or incapacitation of the octogenarian, Mahmoud Abbas, will advance Palestinian unity by an iota.

Palestinian political disunity is tied to the fact that the issue of representation in Palestinian society has always been an outcome of one party trying to dominate all others. This dates back to Palestinian politics prior to the establishment of Israel on the ruins of historic Palestine in 1948, when various Palestinian clans fought for control over the entire Palestinian body politic. Disagreements led to conflict, often violent, though, at times, it also resulted in relative harmony – for example, the establishment of the Arab Higher Committee (AHC) in 1936.

These early years of discord duplicated themselves in later phases of the Palestinian struggle. Soon after Egyptian leader, Jamal Abdel Nasser, relinquished his influential role over the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) following the humiliating Arab defeat in 1967, the relatively new Fatah Movement – established by Yasser Arafat and others in 1959 – took over. Since then, Fatah has mostly controlled the PLO, which was declared in Rabat, in 1974, to be the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”.

The latter caveat was arguably added to ensure Arab rivals do not lay claim over the PLO, thus impose themselves as the benefactors of the Palestinian cause. However, long after the danger of that possibility had passed, Arafat and Fatah continued to control the PLO using the phrase as a moral justification for dominance and the elimination of political rivals.

While it is easy to jump to conclusions blaming Palestinians for their division, there is more to the story. Since much of the armed Palestinian struggle took place within various Arab political and territorial spaces, PLO groups needed to coordinate their actions, along with their political positions, with various Arab capitals – Cairo, Damascus, Amman and even, at times, Baghdad, Tripoli, Algiers and Sana’a. Naturally, this has deprived Palestinians of real, independent initiatives.

Arafat was particularly astute at managing one of the most difficult balancing acts in the history of liberation movements: keeping relative peace among Palestinian groups, appeasing Arab hosts and maintaining his control over Fatah and the PLO. Yet, even Arafat was often overwhelmed by circumstances well beyond his control, leading to major military showdowns, alienating him further and breaking down Palestinian groups to even smaller factions – each allied and supported by one or more Arab governments.

Even Palestinian division has rarely been a Palestinian decision, although the Palestinian leadership deserves much blame for failing to develop a pluralistic political model that is not dependent in its survival on a single group or individual.

The Oslo Accords of 1993 and the return of some of the Palestinian groups to Palestine in the following months and years was presented, at the time, as a critical step towards liberating Palestinian decision making from Arab and other influences. While that claim worked in theory, it failed in practice, as the newly established Palestinian National Authority (PNA) quickly became hostage to other, even greater influences: Israel, the United States and the so-called donor countries. This US-led apparatus linked its political and financial support to the Palestinians agreeing to a set of conditions, including the cracking down on anti-Israel ‘incitement’ and the dismantling of ‘terrorist infrastructures.’

While such a new political regime forced Palestinian groups to yet another conflict, only Hamas seemed powerful enough to withstand the pressure amassed by Fatah, the PA and Israel combined.

The Hamas-Fatah feud did not start as an outcome of Oslo and the establishment of the PA. The latter events merely exacerbated an existing conflict. Immediately after Hamas’ establishment in late 1987, PLO parties, especially Fatah, viewed the new Islamic movement with suspicion, for several reasons: Hamas began and expanded outside the well-controlled political system of the PLO; it was based in Palestine, thus avoiding the pitfalls of dependency on outside regimes; and, among other reasons, promoted itself as the alternative to the PLO’s past failures and political compromises.

Expectedly, Fatah dominated the PA as it did the PLO and, in both cases, rarely used truly democratic channels. As the PA grew richer and more corrupt, many Palestinians sought the answer in Hamas. Consequently, Hamas’ growth led to the movement’s victory in the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. Conceding to a triumphant Hamas would have been the end of Fatah’s decades-long dominance over the Palestinian political discourse – let alone the loss of massive funding sources, prestige and many other perks. Thus, conflict seemed inevitable, leading to the tragic violence in the summer of 2007, and the eventual split between Palestinians- with Fatah dominating the PA in the occupied West Bank and Hamas ruling over besieged Gaza.

Matters are now increasingly complicated, as crises of political representation afflicting the PLO and the PA are likely to soon worsen with the power struggle under way within the Fatah movement. Though lacking Arafat’s popularity and respect among Palestinians, Abbas’ ultimate goal was the same: singlehandedly dominating the Palestinian body politic. However, unlike Arafat who, using manipulation and bribes kept the Fatah movement intact, Fatah under Abbas is ready to dismantle into smaller factions. Chances are the absence of Abbas will lead to a difficult transition within Fatah that, if accompanied with protests and violence, could result in the disintegration of the Fatah movement altogether.

To depict the current Palestinian political crisis in reductionist notions about a Hamas-Fatah ‘split’ – as if they were ever united – and other cliches, is to ignore a history of division that must not be solely blamed on Palestinians. In the post-Abbas Palestine, Palestinians must reflect on this tragic history and, instead of aiming for easy fixes, concentrate on finding common ground beyond parties, factions, clans and privileges. Most importantly, the era of one party and a single individual dominating all others must be left behind and, this time, for good.

Child Labor: Which Side are Democracies On?

Timothy Ryan

Two years ago, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro favorably promoted the idea of labor for children as young as eight or nine, his minister for Human Rights, Family, and Women shot back: “Let us be clear that for children to work is a violation of their rights, something that cannot be allowed.” The Brazilian National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labour publicly expressed “its vehement repudiation of the statement of Mr. Jair Bolsonaro…The declaration reveals a total disregard for the 1988 Federal Constitution…which prohibits all forms of child labour under the age of 16.”

According to the International Labor Organization’s latest report last fall, despite years of declining rates worldwide, child labor is indeed on the rise again. And the increase began before COVID exacerbated the situation.

Shortly before Bolsonaro issued his statement, more than a dozen anti-child labor organizations from Central and South America came together in Costa Rica to take stock of the struggle and make plans for 2021, the UN-designated Year for the Elimination of Child Labor. One challenge had become clear: the surge in right-wing authoritarian governments across Latin America has threatened years of progress.

“This is particularly worrying,” said Kailash Satyarthi, founder of the Global March Against Child Labor, in 2019, “since Latin America has seen some of the most significant progress over the past decade to eliminate child labor.” Satyarthi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for his decades of rescuing tens of thousands of child laborers and advocating for the rights of children.

From the viciously anti-civil rights platform of Bolsonaro to the string of authoritarian governments coming to power in Central America, child labor activists in the region feel embattled and under pressure. The forum participants from Nicaragua said flatly they would not be able to hold such a meeting of child labor groups in the current atmosphere in their country. Fortunately, the government of Costa Rica remains committed to this process and aspires to be the first country in the world to eliminate child labor.

But this trend isn’t limited to the Americas. It’s been axiomatic that everywhere right-wing authoritarians have recently gained power they have attacked basic civil liberties including human and labor rights. And child labor is the canary in the coal-mine of all other labor rights violations.

This year’s focus on child labor by the UN affords organizations like the Global March important advocacy opportunities. Two that were discussed in advance of the UN General Assembly meeting in September, and one now on the agenda of the International Labor Organization, offer democratic countries the opportunity to distinguish themselves from the authoritarians and dictators.

The first of these, promoted by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the trade union umbrella organization representing 200 million workers worldwide, is the Global Fund for Social Protection. This is an effort to institutionalize more defined social safety net investments by governments and help poorer countries to protect marginalized workers. “The time has come to extend social protection to the half of the world’s people who have none and to the almost 20 percent who only have only partial coverage,” says Sharan Burrow, ITUC general secretary. “Many governments are finally having to recognise the urgency of social protection—including unemployment protection for people who have lost their livelihoods, paid sickness benefits, and access to healthcare.”

The second campaign, led by Satyarthi and supported by child labor groups around the world including the Global March, is the call for a “Fair Share for Children.” Such provisions in the national budgets of all governments would address child rights, including child labor, and provide universal quality education for all.

The inequities and inequalities these initiatives were formulated to address were immensely important pre-COVID. Now with child labor again on the rise and the pandemic affecting hundreds of millions of workers and their families, the adoption of these policies is critical.

So, when it comes to child labor, this is an opportunity for democracies to demonstrate which side they are on. Although the challenge is steep for poorer countries, the issue here isn’t about rich countries versus poor countries—it’s about the values of liberal democracy and human rights versus totalitarian impulses in countries that may also be wealthy. Beyond the UN and the ILO, the G20 presents another challenge to address this issue. South Africa, the UK, Germany, and France are some of the democracies that presumably are taking these questions seriously. But the G20 also includes Brazil, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey where relative wealth has little to do with how repressive their regimes are.

With the new Biden administration bringing into the government many progressive voices on labor and human rights, it will be interesting to see which way the United States goes on these questions. The Department of Labor has demonstrated a long-term commitment to supporting organizations fighting child labor. But with these new policy options on the table, will democracies commit to practical, progressive alternatives or side with the authoritarians?

Mexicans protest on seventh anniversary of disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students

Rafael Azul

Seven years after the disappearance 43 students from the Ayotzinapa rural teaching college in the southwestern state of Guerrero, workers and youth mobilized in a week of protests across Mexico.

On the night of September 26–27, 2014, 57 students from the school, on their way to a protest rally in Mexico City, were seized after a confrontation with the police and the Mexican Army. In the confrontation, six were killed and 25 injured. Of those who were abducted, 43 went missing. Since then, the partial remains of three of the students have been found and identified.

The days of protests began on September 21, when parents of the 43 missing students marched in the streets of Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero State, together with members of the Mexican Federation of Socialist Rural Students (Federación de Estudiantes Campesinos Socialistas de México, FESM). The Chilpancingo demonstrators demanded a resolution to the case of the 43 students who were disappeared by the Mexican state.

"Ayotzinapa Lives" (Credit: Rocío Arias Puga)

This demand was repeated in all the rallies that took place across the country during the week, culminating in a mass demonstration in Mexico City on Sunday, September 26. Thousands of workers and students marched in the capital city and across the country chanting, “Where are they?” and “¡Vivos se los llevaron, vivos los queremos!” (They were taken alive, we want them back alive!) and demanding that the government respond.

The parents of the 43 disappeared students denounced the government’s refusal to bring to justice the architects of the “historical truth” about the crime—a fictional account of the events leading up to the disappearance of the 43 students that night, seven years ago—concealing evidence of the involvement of the Mexican armed forces in their disappearance and presumed murder.

In October 2018, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) included uncovering the truth of the events of that night as one of his campaign promises when running for office. Almost halfway into his six-year mandate, this promise is still unfulfilled.

At a recent meeting with the parents, Lopez Obrador declared that the government is pursuing two lines of inquiry: seeking to recover remains and investigating the role played by officials of the Peña Nieto government (2012-2018) who invented the phony narrative misnamed “the historical truth.”

On September 24, as the protests were taking place, it was announced that 40 videos have been brought to light, further exposing the lies of the government’s “historical truth.” The videos, taped by the now-defunct National Investigations and Security Center (Centro de Investigaciones y Seguridad Nacional, CISEN), show government officials in the act of torturing witnesses in 2014 to extract confessions buttressing their false narrative. The videos, compiled by the Special Unit of Investigation and Litigation (Unidad Especial de Investigación y Litigación, UESIL), are further proof showing the initial investigation was manipulated by the Peña Nieto government.

The interrogations were videotaped between October 2014 (just days after the disappearance of the 43) and January 2015. The objective was to torture witnesses and suspects into repeating the government’s manufactured version of the facts. At the center of this plot were Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam and the Director of Criminal Investigations Tomas Zeron, who has since fled to Israel.

As a result of these maneuvers, the government of President Peña Nieto announced that the 43 students had died at the hands of a local criminal drug cartel, Guerreros Unidos, which had burned their bodies at a garbage dump, placed their remains in plastic bags and thrown them into the San Juan River in Cocula, a town near Iguala, where the attack on the students took place.

Federal authorities insisted that their findings were not to be doubted, calling them the “historical truth,” a phrase first used by Murillo Karam. With this incantation, the investigation of the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa 43 was effectively frozen, covering up the role of the military.

Evidence since then has revealed that the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, stationed in Guerrero State, was deeply involved. The disappeared students were taken to the army base, tortured and then delivered to the Guerreros Unidos gang for incineration at a local mortuary. Small pieces of remains were planted in the vicinity of the San Juan River to lend veracity to the official story.

From the beginning, relatives of the disappeared students questioned this official story. Their suspicions were confirmed by an investigation carried out by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) and its Interdisciplinary Independent Experts Group (GIEI) that demolished the government’s account.

A year ago, President Lopez Obrador indicated that arrests would begin of 89 people involved in the case. So far, 40 individuals have been arrested, including Capt. Jose Martinez Crespo of the 27th Infantry, allegedly for conducting the interrogations of the disappeared students. The relatives insist that this is the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile, the armed forces continue to stonewall the investigation.

Twenty-one on the arrest list have either died or been assassinated.

Since 1964, over 90,000 people have been “disappeared” in Mexico. In addition, some 52,000 bodies have yet to be identified out of an estimated death toll of 250,000. This war on society accelerated under the presidency of Felipe Calderon (2006-2012). Under the pretext of a “war on drug gangs,” the Mexican government unleashed a brutal class war targeting human rights advocates, left-wing activists and the press. The attack on the Ayotzinapa students was part of this campaign. Only a small minority of the casualties and arrests from this war involved members of drug syndicates.

The so-called war on the drug gangs took place in the context of the Merida Initiative, a US-Mexico military alliance, established in 2007, supporting the Mexican armed forces with training and armaments that have been used mainly to repress the population.

Mass COVID-19 infections of children follow Macron’s reopening of French schools

Will Morrow

As in the United States and across Europe, the Macron government’s policy of keeping schools open throughout the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to produce the mass infection of children.

A school in Strasbourg, eastern France, on September 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Jean-François Badias)

The government announced last Friday that 2,366 classrooms had been closed over the previous week, down from 3,299 the week earlier. A classroom is closed only in primary school upon the detection of a single case. In total 6,383 students tested positive for the virus, down from 9,748 the week earlier.

The total number of daily cases for all age groups remains at over 5,700. This is down from approximately 20,000 daily cases one month ago on August 23. However, while the warmer weather combined with the impact of vaccinations have temporarily reduced case numbers, scientists are continuing to warn that the ending of social distancing measures is preparing a new wave as autumn begins, that could well be as deadly as last year.

The reopening of schools has already led to a significant surge of the virus among children. In its latest national bulletin published on September 23, Public Health France reported that the incidence rate among those aged 0-9 was 94 per 100,000 people this week, compared to 73 for the general population. Last week was the first time in the previous 10 weeks that the incidence rate for this age group was higher than the population at large. The incidence is highest among children aged 6-10.

The government is in fact responding to the spread of the virus in schools by loosening social distancing protocols. On Wednesday, September 22, government spokesman Gabriel Attal announced that masks will no longer be compulsory in primary schools as of October 4, in departments where the incidence rate is below 50 per 100,000 people. There are currently 40 departments where this would apply.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that the Macron government would be “experimenting” with a new health protocol in a number of school districts. Under the new policy, a case detected in primary school will also not close the class, but only result in the testing of all students in the classroom and the sending home of positive students. It will result in additional delays that will allow even more time for the virus to spread among students.

These events make clear the importance of the October 1 school strike call made by UK parent Lisa Diaz, a member of the SafeEd4All group who works with the UK Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee. “We need collective action, and we need to keep raising awareness,” Lisa told the WSWS. “Because the politicians have failed us. The unions are failing children. The claim that children are not so affected by this is a lie.”

In France, the Macron government’s own scientific advisory council is predicting a new wave of the pandemic, particularly among school-aged children. On September 13, the Scientific Council provided the government with an update, noting the “the absence of vaccination protection among children less than 12 years old and the still weak vaccination rate of those from 12-17 (67.1 percent with a single dose and 53.6 percent with total vaccination).” The report was only made public last week.

It called attention to “a significant viral circulation in the general population … with incidence rates among the 0-9 and 10-19 age groups elevated in certain regions (such as in Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur, with 300 cases per 100,000 people, and 428 in the Bouches-du-Rhône.)”

In the last week of August, more than 10,000 cases were reported among those aged 0-9, and more than 20,000 among those aged 10-19, compared to 300 and 3,100, respectively, for the same age groups at the same time last year.

The report refers to the development in the United States of “a sharp rise in paediatric hospitalisations tied to the Delta variant (5 times in June and August), particularly among the 0-4 ages (10 times over the same period)” which “could be tied to the rise in incidence in this population but also to the increased paediatric severity [of the variant.] Also, an increased viral circulation among minors could lead to a major growth in long Covid among children …”

The document warns that contaminated children could make up 35 percent of cases and 5 percent of hospitalisations in the course of the coming weeks. At even current hospitalisation rates, this would mean the hospitalisation of many hundreds of children.

But other scientific modelling predicts a course of development that is even more grave. On September 6, the Pasteur Institute published modelling projections of the development of the spread of the Delta variant, under varying assumptions of immunity rates within the population. It found that even with a total vaccination rate of 70 percent for 12-17 year olds, 80 percent for 18-59 year olds and 90 percent for those over 60, daily hospitalisations would exceed 5,200 people in a new wave within the coming months, higher than during the first and second waves of the virus.

Simon Cauchemez, the Pasteur researcher and a member of the Scientific Council, noted that these results “can be surprising” given current vaccination rates, “but during the first wave, we estimate that five percent of the French population were infected—no doubt less among the most fragile, who had fewer contacts—and this was sufficient to overwhelm the health system. Even with a coverage of 90 percent among the oldest people, which means there would be 10 percent of vulnerable people, meaning three times as much as the infected population during the first wave.”

The Pasteur Institute modelling, moreover, is based on an R value of 5 for the Delta variant, which they note is on the lower end of current estimates.

Under these conditions, Macron is proceeding with the ending of social distancing measures. Last week, the government also indicated it would consider ending the “health pass,” which effectively mandates vaccination for travel to public places on a region-by-region basis.

Macron’s policy is dictated by the interests of the corporate and financial elite. Social distancing measures are being ended using the justification of partial and insufficient vaccination because this is required to ensure that corporate operations can continue. Children are being kept in overcrowded classrooms so that their parents can continue to work. This not only ensures that many tens of thousands of people will die unnecessarily but increases the danger of the development of new variants.

Macron has relied on the support of the political establishment, including the nominal opposition of the Socialist Party and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Unsubmissive France, as well as the nominal right Republicans and Le Pen’s National Rally, to implement this policy of mass death. It has also depended upon the support of the trade unions, which have enforced the reopening of schools in unsafe conditions.

UK government crisis deepens as lorry driver shortage leaves fuel stations empty

Robert Stevens

A fuel shortage has left drivers queuing for miles at garages nationwide in Britain, amid warnings of a devastating impact on industry and the already overwhelmed National Health Service (NHS).

Such scenes epitomise the post-Brexit crisis wracking the Britain’s Conservative government. They come after weeks in which the public have been hit with shortages of basic items in supermarkets, with UK supply chains hit due to Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic, and an unprecedented shortage of long-haul lorry drivers.

The latest crisis was sparked by an announcement last week by BP, which operates 1,200 BP branded petrol stations nationwide, that it would be necessary to temporarily close a small number due to a lack of lorry drivers to supply them.

Cars queuing up a petrol station in Bournemouth, England, on the first day of the fuel shortage crisis. September 24, 2021 (WSWS Media)

Long queues started to build up outside fuel stations, fearing that supplies would soon run out. On Friday forecourt petrol sales were already up 180 percent and by Sunday the Petrol Retailers Association said that between 50 and 85 percent of all independent service stations nationwide were empty. On Monday, most of the UK 8,000 petrol stations had been drained of fuel.

By Tuesday, Royal College of Nursing England director Patricia Marquis warned that some nursing staff had told management they would be unable to get to work this week because of queues for petrol and empty stations. The BBC reported that one junior doctor in London, “went to 17 petrol stations after work on Monday in search of fuel—but wasn't able to get any”.

The Guardian reported Tuesday that it had “learned that several cancer patients due to attend appointments this week at University College hospital (UCLH), one of London’s largest hospitals, have been told they will have to be rescheduled.” A spokesperson for the hospital said it was necessary due to complications with its non-emergency patient transport provision due to “the national fuel supply”.

Despite reassurance by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government and after carrying out out 18 measures to get the crisis under control, including placing military drivers on standby, drivers were still queuing for fuel.

Sealed off petrol pumps with a sign reading "No Petrol" at a garage in Bournemouth on September 28, 2021 (WSWS Media)

On Sunday evening, as the crisis worsened, the government was forced to exempt the entire energy industry from the 1998 Competition Act in order that companies could legally share basic data and prioritise deliveries to areas where fuel was needed most.

This occurred as it was revealed that one of the UK’s six oil refineries, which collectively supply about 85 percent of UK fuel demand, is threatened with imminent bankruptcy due to an unpaid tax bill. The Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port supplies about a sixth of Britain’s road fuel. Run by two billionaire brothers, Ruia and Ravi Shashi, through their company Essar Oil UK, it is pleading poverty after taking advantage of one of the Johnson governments big business pandemic bailout measures. Under the Value Added Tax deferral scheme they were able to benefit to the tune of £356 million.

In an emergency meeting with Cabinet ministers and senior government officials Monday, Johnson requested the army be put on standby to fill fuel stations under a contingency plans known as Operation Escalin. It is unclear that this would do much to stem the crisis, given that the Ministry of Defence could only supply around 150 qualified army tanker drivers on short notice to deliver fuel (75 now and another 75 if needed), with another 150 military personnel on hand in a support role. Additional military forces, if they are available, require specialised training.

The Tory government, delirious on visions of a “Global Britain” bestriding the world and boasting that a substantial portion of its armed forces would be away from May for six months on its provocative mission to the South China Sea, has ignored for months the implications of the staggering shortage of HGV drivers in Britain. The UK is estimated to be short of more than 100,000 lorry drivers, meaning that much of basic industry and a supply network, much of it integrated into complex just in time production operations, has seized up.

The shortage has been exacerbated by Brexit, with an estimated 25,000 drivers returning to Europe since 2016. The pandemic has also intensified the crisis, with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) cancelling 30,000 HGV license tests last year.

The government is now offering “temporary” visas to 5,000 foreign fuel tanker and food lorry drivers, and with the profitable Christmas period of trading threatened with being massively disrupted, to 5,500 foreign-based poultry workers. It is also attempting to bring back around a million existing HGV drivers into the industry, under conditions in which many have left due to the intolerable working conditions and low pay for what is a highly skilled job. Plans were also announced to train 4,000 new HGV drivers under conditions in which there is now a backlog of 50,000 lorry drivers waiting to take their tests.

The government is not simply planning to enlist army personnel as truck drivers, but also to break a potential strike of DVSA test examiners who voted for industrial action last Friday in protest at DVSA plans to increase the number of tests from 2,000 a day pre-COVID to 4,000.

The pro-government Daily Telegraph cited a “road haulage industry insider” who said, “There has been talk of bringing in the Army to drive fuel tankers, but the simplest solution would be to deploy the Army to the DVLA to sort out the applications.”

The crisis of rule in a country which becomes more dysfunctional by the day is epitomised by the ever more frequent calls being made for the army, down to just 82,000 full-time personnel, to take over everything from building temporary field hospitals at the height of the pandemic last year, to currently helping run chronically under pressure ambulance services in Wales and Scotland. This was lampooned by the Times in a cartoon Tuesday under the caption reading “Panic Governing” with Johnson at his desk, having no other solution, screaming out, “Bring In The Army!”

Social tensions are at breaking point and this can only be intensified with around a million workers being forced off the government-backed furlough scheme in a matter of days and going back into the labour market—threatening unpresented social dislocation. This is at the same time as the £20 weekly uplift given during the pandemic to millions of Universal Credit welfare recipients, including many of the lowest paid workers, will also end.

The institutions of the capitalist class and media are not mincing their words as to the implications of the threatened catastrophe. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, in a speech to the Society of Professional Economists, made an analogy to the Biblical plague, asking, “When are the locusts due to arrive?'

Daily Mail City Editor Alex Brummer commented Tuesday, “We live in perilous times and Bailey, who is not heard that often, is sounding the alarm.”

The Financial Times was scathing of Johnson, using his own franglais insult directed against President Macron for complaining about the AUKUS military pact. Its editorial was headlined, “Memo to Boris Johnson: prenez un grip”. It noted, “First came gaps on supermarket shelves, then soaring energy bills. Now petrol stations are running out of fuel; the army is on standby to help out. Less than two weeks ago, Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle was intended to be a relaunch for the post-Covid era. Instead, his team seems increasingly to be buffeted by events but not in control.”

COVID-19 outbreaks and staff resignations deepen crisis in Southwest US schools

D. Lencho

With the reopening of schools across the United States, there has been an explosion of outbreaks of COVID-19, and the Southwest is no exception. Rather than implement shutdowns and remote learning, school districts are plowing ahead with either homicidal “herd immunity” policies or so-called mitigation measures. Meanwhile, teachers and staff have quit in droves amid a disturbing trend of concealing needed information on COVID-19 from the public.

Elementary school students on the first day of classes in Richardson, Texas, August 17, 2021. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

In Arizona, only 30 percent of the state’s 215 school districts provide COVID-19 dashboards, and just one county health department out of 15 in the state, Pima County, publicly monitors active COVID-19 cases by district. There is no comprehensive and transparent picture of where the virus is being contracted.

A ban on mask mandates inserted into the Arizona state budget by the Republican-majority state legislature with the approval of the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, has been challenged in court. A recent poll shows 57 percent opposition to it among Arizona residents. Ducey has said that there is no need to revisit the issue and it is scheduled to take effect September 29.

Ducey plans to bribe schools to obey the ban by granting them funding that will be denied to school districts that do not comply. Tucson Unified School District, which has a mask mandate and whose infection rate has been about half of that of another non-mandated district in Pima County, plans to defy the ban, though most other districts are likely to cave.

As in the rest of the US, Arizona has lost teachers and staff to infections, deaths and resignations, causing a scramble to fill vacancies. The Cartwright District in Phoenix raised the daily pay rate for subs to $200, almost twice the statewide average, and another district now offers a $3,100 bonus for those who work a certain number of hours. No experience or education outside of a high school diploma is required. Districts are having to revise or cancel bus routes due to the shortage of drivers.

Nevada, with a Democratic governor and legislature, is pursuing a mitigation approach which is entirely unable to prevent infections. Following the early August reopening of schools, some were forced to resume distance learning due to COVID-19 outbreaks, only to resume in-person instruction by the end of the month. Predictably, cases grew, and on September 21, state agency Nevada Health Response issued a statement calling for mask mandates in all counties from September 24-30. This will do little to stop or slow the spread of infections.

Meanwhile, bus service has been spotty or nonexistent for various districts. Clark County School District, which covers Las Vegas, is short about 240 drivers, and sometimes students must wait hours for their bus. Top pay is $19.98 an hour and drivers work split shifts, sometimes as few as 30 hours a week. With the district facing a shortage of staff and teachers, substitute teachers are offered a $1,000 stipend for working 15 days per quarter. Washoe County, which includes Reno, offers a $10 a day bonus for subs teaching in the midst of the pandemic.

Utah instituted a law for the 2021-22 school year forbidding schools from changing to virtual learning in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak without the approval of Governor Spencer Cox, the President of the State Senate, the State Speaker of the House, all Republicans, as well as the State Superintendent of Education. The legislature also banned schools from imposing mask mandates, with the governor claiming, “masks are not as effective as most of the pro-mask crowd are arguing.”

Yet another law, called “Test to Stay,” requires schools with 1,500 students or more to test all students for COVID-19 only when two percent of the student body tests positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days. For those with fewer than 1,500 students, 30 students must test positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days to trigger the testing of the entire student body. By September 17, over 650 students had tested positive, nearly half of whom were between five and 10 years of age. After one month of school, the number of COVID-19-positive students, teachers and others at schools was 6,200.

New Mexico has more than 1,000 openings for public school teachers for 2021-22. School districts are trying to lure teachers, substitutes, educational assistants, bus drivers and other staff with various incentives. Santa Fe Public Schools has held two job fairs recently, and New Mexico school districts are using federal pandemic dollars to attract teaching assistants, who currently earn around $25,000 a year, into teaching.

On September 15, Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham again extended, this time until October 15, the indoor mask mandate that her office had put into effect August 20 after 109 schools in the state reported COVID-19 cases following the statewide reopenings. The order also requires all school workers in public, private or charter schools who are not fully vaccinated or who are unwilling to provide proof of vaccination to their respective supervisors or provide proof of a COVID-19 test on a weekly basis.

Across Texas, school districts have experienced shortages of teachers as the danger of COVID-19 in the schools receives a minimal response due to the “herd immunity” policies of the state’s governor and legislature. Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state, reported 700 unfilled teacher slots at the start of the year, more than seven times higher than its average of less than 100 vacancies in previous years.

As the number of COVID-19 cases at Texas schools continues to grow—52,000 among students and over 13,000 among staff since the school year began—teachers have experienced burnout, stress, overwork and fear from the reckless policy of keeping schools operating at all costs. And, as in other states, accurate and up-to-date information is getting harder to find.

These concerns are shown on Facebook and other social media platforms.

A Fort Worth teacher recently complained, “There are kids missing in my class every day. I don’t know if they’re quarantining or if they’re sick. I could have kids that are supposed to be in quarantine but aren’t. I have no idea. There is no testing, no reporting, no transparency, no support. I’m retiring after this year. I’ve made sacrifices for the last eighteen months and I’m done. [This] shit is taking years off my life. There’s been nothing normal about any of this.”

Another teacher from Irving Independent School District posted, “I did not think things could be worse than last year. But they [the administration] are clearly covering up how bad things are. They aren’t going to get better. We’re just expected to take it. I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

Others have resigned, unwilling to endure the thankless grind, with one posting, “I resigned today and cited COVID and my anxiety about that as well as wanting to home school my son. I’m not sure if SBEC [State Board for Educator Certification] will suspend my certification, but it would be nice to find a remote position. I used to love my job so much and still love teaching. I’m sad, but everything is too overwhelming now. Life is too short to be unhappy and consumed by stress.”

Another responded, “Resigned at the end of the summer to take care of my mother. Educators do so much, and beyond, that we put ourselves last. This past year taught me that the State & the district could care less. We need to put ourselves and our families first. You're doing the right thing.”

One teacher expressed her anger and frustration with the harassment and pressure she faces at her school, saying, “So, someone who has decades in education, my 5th year as SPED [special education], COVID shutting down schools, wreaking havoc… why am I getting such horrible (and numerous) evaluations? I'm not teacher of the year… but I know I don’t deserve what I’m getting. I’ve been so happy… til now. There's a freakin’ shortage of teachers, they want to drive away the ones who are risking their lives, putting up with the reading academy BS, etc.?”

The teacher asked, “Kick me while I'm down, won’t ya? Why do they keep making this so hard? I honestly don't have a clue how to handle how I feel.”

The stonewalling and lack of transparency of districts regarding student cases prompted another teacher to ask, “What are some of the protocols your districts have in place? No testing, no masks, no communication with teachers or students about possible exposure or even if a child has tested positive in your room. Had eight out, now only have two out positive. Only found out because I asked the nurse.”

A colleague replied, “Yes, I was disgusted when I got a call from my niece’s school asking why she wasn’t in school. I told them that in the last few days 5 of the family members had tested positive… I was told she needed to be in school. I repeated it all again assuming she hadn’t heard me and [went] on to say she can’t taste so she likely has it. She told me again bring her to school or she’s truant. She’s 6, she can’t be vaccinated and hearing that woman tell me to take her in left me disgusted. I didn’t take her in. She came back positive later that day.”