US and Israel escalate covert war against Iran and its allies

Jean Shaoul

In the past weeks, the US and Israel have carried out a series of strikes on Iranian targets in Syria and elsewhere, setting the stage for a dangerous escalation of conflict in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Israel launched its 24th reported strike on Syria this year, hitting Aleppo’s international airport, damaging the runway and putting the airport out of action. Warehouses belonging to Iran-linked militias and other compounds were also hit. Syrian state media said that air defences had intercepted Israeli missiles, downing several. This was the second attack within a week on civilian airports. On September 1, Israel struck Damascus airport, months after a previous attack, as well as Aleppo’s runway forcing an Iranian plane attempting to land to turn away.

This photo released Sunday June 12, 2022 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a bulldozer work at a damaged runway of the Damascus International Airport, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Friday, in Damascus, Syria. Syria's Transportation Ministry said the Israeli airstrike caused "significant" damage to infrastructure and rendered the main runway unserviceable until further notice. [Photo: SANA via AP/WSWS]

State media also reported Israeli air strikes from the west, near the coastal city of Latakia, that according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights damaged an arms depot storing Iranian-made ground-to-ground missiles in Masyaf and whose production was overseen by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Masyaf has been the target of previous strikes, one of which injured 14 civilians. Other strikes on Damascus and Tartous killed three Syrian soldiers, according to reports.

Israel’s strikes generally go unimpeded by Russia’s air defence system in Syria, although occasionally provoking protests from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The New York Times reported that last year Syrian President Bashar al-Assad prohibited Iranian forces attacking Israel from Syrian soil, a ban that has been in effect for three years, to limit tensions between the two countries.

Israel’s strikes are aimed at disrupting Iran’s ability to fly in weapons to its allies in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon, with the US providing intelligence and military support for Israel. The attacks on Masyaf come after Russia’s removal of its S-300 anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to a Russian port near Crimea, according to Israeli satellite images, to bolster air defences against Ukraine. The more advanced S-400 battery remains in Syria.

On Wednesday, Ram Ben Barak, the chair of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, threatened regarding the hit on Aleppo international airport, “The attack meant that certain planes would not be able to land, and that a message was relayed to Assad: If planes whose purpose is to encourage terrorism land, Syria’s transport capacity will be harmed.”

Syria’s Foreign Ministry said that Israel’s repeated airstrikes on civilian infrastructure constituted war crimes for which Israel should be held to account.

The latest airstrikes come amid three days of US airstrikes, authorised by President Joe Biden, on the Ayyash depot in the eastern province of Deir el-Zor on August 24. While the US claimed there were no casualties, a local website reported that IRGC-backed Afghan Fatimeyoun Brigades control the Ayyash complex and that 10 militia members were killed and at least three others wounded.

The US said that the strikes were in response to rocket and drone attacks on three US-led coalition bases in Syria launched by groups linked to the IRGC in Iraq: the attack on the al-Tanf garrison on Syria’s southern border with Iraq and Jordan launched from Iraq, the second on the Mission Support Green Village, east of the Euphrates River in rural Deir el-Zor, which provides “protection” for its Kurdish allies, and the third on the Mission Support Site Conoco in northeast Syria on August 15. These strikes follow the US bombing in June of facilities in Iraq and Syria Washington claimed were being used by Iranian-backed militias to attack the US and its proxies in Syria.

The US has since early 2016 stationed troops at al-Tanf, situated close to the strategically important main Baghdad-Damascus highway, and the Green Village, supposedly to counter the threat from Islamic state. This is defiance of Syria which views the base as a gross infringement of its sovereignty. Some 900 US troops are stationed in Syria, as well as US contractors.

The US and its regional allies have set up a network of unmanned drones aimed at gathering intelligence information and curtailing Iran’s activities in Middle Eastern waters. The US Navy’s Task Force 59 has been operating 23-foot Saildrone Explorer drones in the Red Sea with cameras that can take 360-degree photos, while Task Force 153 patrols the Gulf of Aden, as the Pentagon diverts some of its forces to the Far East.

The Pentagon aims to have 100 naval drones in operation by next summer with additional countries joining the taskforce, possibly including Kuwait and Israel. This has led to two incidents in the last two weeks, where the US claimed that Iranian forces had attempted to seize drones.

The uptick in US and Israeli attacks on Iranian targets comes as Washington declared that Iran’s latest proposed changes to the text aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, unilaterally abandoned by the Trump administration in 2018, were “not constructive.” Tehran, desperate to get rid of the ever-tightening sanctions that have wrecked its economy, had largely withdrawn its preconditions for a deal, including that the US withdraw its designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

The US and its European allies are using their tried and tested ally, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to criticise and bully Iran over its nuclear programme, pushing through a resolution in June censuring Iran over its supposed lack of cooperation with the IAEA. Director Rafael Grossi said that if this didn’t change over the next three or four weeks, “this would be a fatal blow” to reviving the nuclear deal, which the Europeans had backed but now appears to have been ditched by the Biden administration and the European Union (EU) under pressure from Washington.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has warned that any attempt to restore the nuclear deal would require UN inspectors to end their investigations, stating that, “Without resolving safeguards issues, talking about an agreement would be meaningless.”

Iran’s clergy-led bourgeois nationalist regime has always maintained that its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes. The major powers, the IAEA and the CIA, have all admitted that there has been no evidence of Iran having any type of nuclear weapons programme since 2003, as the current CIA Director and former deputy Secretary of State William Burns acknowledged in his autobiography.

The nuclear issue has long been a smokescreen. For more than 25 years, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aligned with the most anti-Iran political factions in Washington, has claimed that Tehran was just a year away from producing a nuclear bomb.

The Biden administration had initially hoped to use the renewal of the 2015 nuclear deal as a means of detaching Iran from Russia and China and opening up additional energy supplies to Europe. In the event, under Raisi, who hails from Iran’s conservative faction opposed to the 2015 deal, Tehran has sought to take advantage of the Russia-Ukraine war and western sanctions on Russia to stress Iran’s importance as a transport hub connecting China and Central Asia with Europe and Russia with India, in a bid to make it independent of the fate of the talks in Vienna, while keeping all options open.

It has signed an agreement with Baghdad to build a railway line between Shalamcheh and Basra, a vital link in its efforts to create a trade and transport corridor from the Gulf to Syria, Lebanon and the Mediterranean via Iraq.

China is considering transport projects linking Syria’s Mediterranean port of Tartus in the north with Iraq and a North-South highway and the establishment of a Free Trade Zone in Latakia, 100 km north of Russia’s naval base in Tartus. Beijing is also investing heavily in Iraq where Tehran wields considerable political and economic influence, financing $10.5 billion worth of energy and infrastructure projects, while working as a primary or subcontractors at 15 oilfields in southern Iraq.

Iran is trying to secure China’s support via its Belt and Road Initiative’s (BRI) flagship project of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor to develop its Makran coast close to Pakistan’s new Gwadar port and build ports and an oil export terminal in the Gulf of Oman, outside the Persian Gulf and the narrow Strait of Hormuz. The US role in policing the Gulf threatens not only Tehran but also Beijing’s vital energy supplies.

Cost of energy crisis pushes piles more pressure on UK’s National Health Service and social care

Rory Woods & Richard Tyler

Surging energy bills running into additional millions pose a direct threat to patients’ treatment in UK hospitals and resident’s wellbeing in care homes.

Rory Deighton, the senior acute lead of the NHS Confederation, representing National Health Service trusts across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, explained, “This isn’t an abstract problem, as the gap in funding from rising inflation will either have to be made up by fewer staff being employed, longer waiting times for care, or other areas of patient care being cut back.”

The entrance to the Arthur South Day Procedure Unit at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, January 2006 [Photo by Francis Tyers / CC BY-SA 4.0]

The NHS is already in a perilous situation because of years of underfunding, staff shortages and privatisation, further worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still placing a major burden on health and care services.

Experts fear hospital admissions will rise due to soaring inflation and resulting widespread fuel poverty, with many households forced to choose between heating and eating. The NHS Confederation has warned that fuel poverty means thousands of excess deaths this coming winter in a “humanitarian crisis”. As NHS trusts already starved of adequate funding are forced to slash patient care to pay for soaring energy bills, this “humanitarian crisis” will turn into a social catastrophe.

An investigation initiated by the BMJ (formerly, British Medical Journal) has found that rising energy prices will cost hospitals millions more each month. Many health trusts estimate energy costs will rise by up to 200-300 percent over the coming period, putting enormous pressures on hospital budgets. For example, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trusts, which runs seven hospitals, told the BMJ it faced a 110 percent hike on the electricity and gas bills it had paid in early 2022. The trust is anticipating it will have to pay an additional £2 million a month from the beginning of 2023.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Metro newspaper found a similar situation at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, one of the busiest in the country, which expected its energy bills to rise by £4 million in the next financial year.

Since the government’s energy “cap” only applies to private households, health and care providers are exposed to the full surge in energy prices. As well as hospitals, local GP surgeries—which since the “reforms” introduced by the Cameron Conservative government in 2012 have had full responsibility for their own budgets—face eyewatering increases.

Doctors worry that without additional financial support to cover higher gas and electricity bills, cuts to staff or services could be unavoidable.

Dr. Paul Evans, a GP partner at Bridges Medical Practice in Gateshead, told gponline.com his energy bills could jump 50 percent this year. If doctors are forced to reduce their drawings from the practice to cover this, it would equate to “a real terms cut to partners’ pay” and more partners leaving the profession.

“Practices will cut expenses, maybe not covering holidays with a locum, maybe replacing expensive staff with cheaper ones; there’s only so far that partners’ incomes can fall,” Dr. Evans said.

The situation is equally dire in the social care sector. According to the National Care Association, representing small and medium-sized care providers, some facilities are predicting tenfold increases or higher in their energy bills, the effect of which would be “devastating”.

A care home whose fixed-term contract for electricity for the last two years amounted to roughly £20,000 per annum faces new charges of about £125,000 a year. The manager told the i newspaper this would mean residents being charged an additional £100 a week.

The four homes in Scarborough belonging to the Saint Cecilia’s Care Group spent £67,929 on gas in 2021. Managing director Mike Padgham told the paper that he anticipated this cost would rise to £166,637 for 2022, a 145 percent price hike. The electricity bill was expected to balloon by 90 percent.

“I’ve been [in] the sector 33 years. This is the toughest bit that I’ve known in that. It’s almost as challenging, if not more so, than Covid,” he said.

In Wales, some health boards are anticipating rises of at least 200 percent, a crippling increase in running costs. Similarly in Scotland, the health system faces gas and electricity bills set to rise by at least £70 million, with hundreds of GP and dental practices potentially unable to absorb the increases.

Taken as a whole, one estimate is that the NHS will need at least £4 billion to compensate for inflation during 2022, even before further possible rises in wholesale energy prices.

No assistance will be forthcoming from the government, which intends to slash public services to fund its war drive and maintain the profits of the major corporations. As the WSWS recently noted of new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s plans to massively ramp up military spending by 2030, “Paying for this would mean income tax increases of 5 percent and unprecedented cuts in social spending. £157 billion is equivalent to the annual spending on the National Health Service (NHS) for the whole of the UK.”

Instead, the burden will be borne by health workers and those in their care.

University Hospitals Dorset (UHD), which runs Royal Bournemouth Hospital and the Poole General Hospital, has stated that it needs to save £14 million this year. Managers have asked already burnt out, overworked staff to come up with “Cost Improvement Planning (CIP)” ideas, pushing them to further undermine their own terms and working condition and jeopardizing patient safety.

University Hospitals Dorset, which runs Royal Bournemouth Hospital and the Poole General Hospital, said it needs to save £14 million this year. Managers have asked already burnt out, overworked staff to come up with "Cost Improvement Planning" ideas, pushing them to further undermine their own terms and working condition and jeopardizing patient safety. [Photo: WSWS]

A front-line nurse spoke scathingly about the scheme: “Everything is cut to the bone. There is no room for further cuts without risking patient lives. Over the last 10-12 years, consecutive governments starved the funds going to hospitals. We haven’t got enough nurses and other health workers. How can we look after patients safely? Every day we function without a safe level of staff in the majority of wards. Nearly 1,400 patients died of COVID in our trust alone.

“We have seen a massive erosion of the nutritional value of patient diets. My colleagues often wonder if the food is meant for feeding the birds when they see the portion sizes.

“They suspended parking charges temporarily in 2020 during the pandemic, when we were being cheered by the government as ‘heroes’. Then management resumed charging health workers to come to work from June this year. They have already increased the parking charges and plan to increase them again.

“The Bournemouth Private Clinic was established a few years ago. The aim was to try and compensate for funding shortfalls and promote privatisation. It effectively created a two-tier system for patients.

America: The Land of Inequality

David Rosen

Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

“America is the land of opportunity – there is no other country where I could have done this,” declared Elon Musk in 2020.  He is founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and has a current estimated net worth of $254 billion.

But is it a land of opportunity for all?

In January 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2020, there were 37.2 million people in poverty, approximately 3.3 million more than in 2019 – that’s an official poverty rate of 11.4 percent, up 1.0 percentage point from 10.5 percent in 2019.  The “poverty threshold” for a four-person family in 2020 was $26,496.

The Census Bureau also reported that between 2019 and 2020, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics. Among non-Hispanic Whites, 8.2 percent were in poverty in 2020, while Hispanics had a poverty rate of 17.0 percent.  In addition, Black Americans had the highest poverty rate at 19.5 percent.

Economic inequality involves differences between (i) household income (often determined by wages) and (ii) personal or household wealth (determined by the value of assets such as a home or a savings account, minus outstanding debt [e.g., mortgage or car loan]). Such inequality reverberates through innumerable aspects of both personal and social.  Such inequality has increasingly come to (re)define “opportunity” — let alone life — in today’s America.

The economic difference between Musk’s wealth and the U.S. poverty rate illustrates the one – and perhaps gravest — form of inequality that defines American today, income and wealth inequality.  As Kimberly Amadeo points out, “Between 1979 and 2007, after-tax income increased by 275% for the most affluent 1% of households. It rose by 65% for the top fifth. For the bottom fifth, it only increased by 18%, even adding all income from Social Security, welfare, and other government payments.”

More revealing, the Federal Reserve reports that in 1989 the top 1 percent controlled 23.5 percent of the nation’s wealth and, in 2022, its share had increased to 31.8 percent or $44.9 trillion.  As Warren Buffett once said, “There’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years and my class has won.”

Amadeo identifies the process of “class warfare” as “structural inequality,” noting that it “is a system of privilege created by institutions within an economy.”  She argues that such inequality involves “the law, business practices, and government policies. They also include education, health care, and the media.”  She adds most pointedly:

They are powerful socializing agents that tell us what we can achieve within society.  Inequality is structural when policies keep some groups of people from obtaining the resources to better their lives. They do not have a chance to pursue their idea of happiness.

She warns, “Structural inequality clouds this vision and limits economic growth for the whole society.”

The U.S. of A. is a capitalist nation with the “marketplace” mediating nearly-all social relations and, sadly, increasingly more and more aspects of personal life.

***

Inequality in America?  Let us count the ways.

Some of the ways are obvious even to those who close their eyes to the world around them.  They include:

Gender inequality

This involves discrimination based on sex or gender causing one sex or gender to be routinely privileged or prioritized over another.  And guess who still remain privileged?

Pew Research reports “the gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 15 years or so.”  In 2020, it reports, “women earned 84% of what men earned.”  It further points out, “based on this estimate, it would take an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020

Racial inequality

The U.S. has struggled over racial inequality since before it formally became a nation and fought a civil war over it and now, a century-and-a-half later, it still persists.

A 2018 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis concluded, “The historical data also reveal that no progress has been made in reducing income and wealth inequalities between black and white households over the past 70 years.”

Racial inequality persists through the unequal distribution of economic opportunity, education, healthcare and neighborhood conditions. It involves racial disparities in wealth, education, employment, housing, mobility, health, rates of arrest and incarceration, to name but a few factors.

Of special concern, the nation’s demographic character is fundamentally changing.  As the 2020 Census makes clear that the demographic clock is ticking against the notion that the U.S. is a “white” nation.  The racial/ethnic composition of the country is changing and, by 2050, the U.S. is projected be a “majority-minority” country, with white non-Hispanics making up less than half of the total population.

Legal inequality

The Sentencing Project reports that “Black Americans are imprisoned at a rate that is roughly five times the rate of white Americans.”  Yet, Black or African Americans make up only 13.6 percent of the nation’s population.

A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences found that “dying at the hands of law enforcement is a leading cause of death among young Black men.”

Going further, it noted that “1 in 1,000 Black men and boys can be expected to be killed by police at some point in their lifetime.”  It also notes that that Black males are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white males.”

Health/wellness inequality

Health and health care reflect the endemic disparities defining the broader inequities, especially racial discrimination.

Amidst the Covid pandemic, the U.S. was characterized by zones of “vaccine deserts,” geographic areas where people have little or no convenient access to vaccines. According to one estimate, 17 million people live in rural vaccine deserts and 50 million people live in urban vaccine deserts.

The outcomes from these deserts is obvious from the rates of Covid sicknesses and deaths experienced throughout the country.

Urban/rural inequality

The U.S. is becoming an ever-increasing urban nation with about 83 percent of the population living in cities. Rural America is losing it population to more attractive urban centers, most often supporting Democrats.

During the decade following the Great Recession of 2007–2009, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in rural America lagged behind urban GDP growth.  Rural areas in the aggregate experienced post-recession growth of 14.8 percent while urban areas registered 19.2 percent growth.

These are but some of “inequalities” that define 21^st century America and there are still others.

***

Inequality in America takes many forms and structural inequality is significantly higher here than in almost any other developed nation — and its increasing.

And as inequality increases so does political polarization.  A Pew Research report finds that “Democrats and Democratic leaners are much more likely than Republicans and those who lean to the GOP to say reducing economic inequality should be a top priority for the government (61% vs 20%).”  It goes further, noting: “Democrats are nearly twice as likely as Republicans to say there’s too much economic inequality in the U.S. these days (78% vs. 41%).

This deepening political divide is most evident in higher vs lower income communities throughout the country.  In the 2016 election, “Trump votes was higher in counties with a higher share of white, middle-income, US-born, rural and less-educated voters. In that more unequal states were more likely to vote for Trump.”

Insight into the issue of income and voting is further revealed in a CBS survey for the 2020 elections.  It found that for families with income under $50,000, 55 percent voted for Biden while 44 percent voted for Trump; for families with income of $50,000 or more 51 percent voted for Biden while 47 percent voted for Trump.  However, for families with incomes of over $100,000, 54 percent voted for Trump while 42 percent voted for Biden.

Inequality will likely increase as we face the 2022 congressional and the 2024 presidential elections, and political divisions only intensify.  A new America, the land of inequality, is taking shape.

UK: Truss announces £150 billion energy cost relief package

Robert Stevens

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss announced an energy bill relief package Thursday, estimated to cost around £150 billion.

She was forced to make necessary concessions, with energy bills set to increase to an average of £3,300 from October and up to £6,600 in 2023 and widespread predictions this would spark civil unrest.

Prime Minister Liz Truss leaves 10 Downing Street for the House of Commons where she made her energy bill relief package announcement [Photo by Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street/Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0]

Truss was following in the footsteps of governments across Europe forced to make similar interventions in recent days. Stating that “Extraordinary challenges call for extraordinary measures”, she announced an “energy price guarantee” limiting average annual household bills to £2,500 over the next two years. Retaining the Johnson government’s £400 energy bill discount and the temporary removal of green levies costing £150, means the next bills in October are kept around their current still high level of £1,971.

Truss announced that businesses would receive “equivalent support”, to be reviewed in six months. The cost of the measure is around £90 billion for the household element, with the rest to cushion price rises for businesses.

Truss made her statement amid a growing air of crisis in ruling circles with Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle having to intervene during the debate to inform parliament that the queen had been taken under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle, Scotland.

Despite predictions that Truss would unveil a “shock and awe” level of relief for the UK’s 24 million households, the measures are nowhere near enough. Millions will still be unable to turn the heating on this winter or even to cook a hot meal. Over 10,000 people already die in Britain annually due to fuel poverty and thousands more will die this year.

Energy prices remain at record high levels, unaffordable for many. Over the last 18 months energy bills have doubled, with several million mainly poorer people using prepayment meters, and those who pay quarterly bills, paying even more in unit costs. In April household energy bills increased by 54 percent with the energy cap reaching its current level of £1,900 from the previous £1,277.

Truss’s move applies to the unit cost of energy, so there is no overall limit as to what a household can pay. Families with larger households, or with requirements to use more power, will have to pay higher amounts than the headline figure announced by the prime minister.

Rising energy costs are just one element of a cost-of-living crisis, with inflation shooting up to 12 percent last month. Last week the Resolution Foundation reported that the prospect for living standards was “shocking” and “terrifying” as spending power for families would crash by an average £3,000 by the end of 2023—the biggest drop in 100 years.

Prior to the announcement, the media across the spectrum warned that Truss would have to allocate “tens of billions” in support—with the Financial Times warning of “the real prospect of unrest over bills this winter.” The FT predicted Truss would “launch a pandemic-sized package”, but such is the scale of the mammoth increase in energy prices that the measures announced dwarf the £70 billion costs of the jobs furlough scheme at the height of the pandemic.

The cost of the package must be ultimately paid for by the working class. The money is being raised in increased government borrowing to be paid back in increased taxation. Not a penny will come from the profits already accrued by gas producers and electricity generators, or the staggering projected profits of £170 billion that they will reap in “excess profits” over the two years of the energy price freeze.

In another boon to the energy profiteers, Truss revealed that further tens of billions in free money will be shoveled at them. “This morning, together with the Bank of England, we will set up a new scheme, worth up to £40 billion, to ensure that firms operating in wholesale energy markets have the liquidity they need to manage price volatility.”

The measure “will stabilise the market and decrease the likelihood that energy retailers need our support, like they did last Winter.”

In another boost to big business, Truss took the opportunity to tear up an election manifesto commitment made by Johnson, stating, “We will end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale, which could get gas flowing in as soon as six months, where there is local support.” The extraction of shale gas proved so dangerous to the environment and the safety of local populations that it was banned in England in November 2019 after a scientific report concluded it was not possible to predict the magnitude of earthquakes it might trigger.

Truss also announced that 100 new North Sea drilling project licenses would be handed out as part of “accelerating” the extraction of “all sources of domestic energy”.

With estimates that the relief package will take overall UK debt to around £2.5 trillion, any relief can only be temporary. Its cost will be clawed back through savage assaults on the working class including slashing social spending and what remains of the welfare system.

With Britain heavily involved in NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine to the tune of billions of pounds, Truss is committed to the biggest uplift in military spending since the 1950s, with the RUSI thinktank calculating that increasing military spending to 3 percent represents £157 billion going to the Ministry of Defence.

The ability of the ruling Conservatives to remain in power with Truss the fourth Tory prime minister in six years, and free to impose their agenda or class war at home and war abroad, is entirely the responsibility of the Labour Party and trade union bureaucracy.

Starmer’s response to Truss’s statement was typically calibrated not to sound too radical. He called for a windfall tax on the profits of the energy firms, knowing that it won’t happen, with Truss ruling it out even before taking office. Even if such a tax was imposed it wouldn’t touch the sides financially. Backdating it to January and accounting for higher oil and gas prices, as Labour proposes, the tax would raise just £8 billion.

Starmer was careful to advise the government that the tax would not impede the operations of the conglomerates in the slightest, stating, “There is no reason why taxing them would affect investment in the future. Do not just take my word for it. Asked which investment BP would cancel if there were a windfall tax, the chief executive said, ‘None’—his word, not mine.”

As millions of workers move into direct opposition to the government and corporations through strikes and industrial action ballots, the trade unions have stepped up their policing of the class struggle. The latest initiative of the trade union bureaucracy designed to curtail a fight against a government doing the bidding of the corporations is a lobby of parliament announced by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on October 19.

Ahead of this, the well-heeled bureaucrats in Congress House have ensured that there be no motion mentioning a “general strike” being debated at their upcoming Congress on September 11-14.

The TUC said its lobby was being organised to “tell our MPs: we DEMAND better” and “to support a budget that delivers for working people.” Stating, “We will help you through the process”, the call explains, “the TUC will help you book a meeting with your MP and make the most of the meeting.”

UK Commonwealth Scholarships 2023

Application Deadline: 18th October 2022 at 16:00 GMT.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Developing commonwealth countries

Subject Areas: All subject areas are eligible, although the CSC’s selection criteria gives priority to applications that demonstrate strong relevance to development.

About Scholarship: Each year, UK Commonwealth Scholarships for Master’s and PhD study in the UK are offered for citizens of developing Commonwealth countries. These scholarships are funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), with the aim of contributing to the UK’s international development aims and wider overseas interests, supporting excellence in UK higher education, and sustaining the principles of the Commonwealth.

Offered Since: 1959

Type: Masters, PhD

Who is qualified to apply? To apply for these scholarships, you must:

PhD

To apply for UK Commonwealth Scholarships, you must:

• Be a citizen of or have been granted refugee status by an eligible Commonwealth country, or be a British Protected Person
• Be permanently resident in an eligible Commonwealth country
• Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September 2023
• By September 2023, hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) honours standard, or a second-class degree (2:2) and a relevant postgraduate qualification (a Master’s degree)
• NOT be registered for a PhD, or an MPhil leading to a PhD, at a UK university before September 2022
• NOT have commenced and be currently registered for a PhD, or an MPhil leading to a PhD, in your home country or elsewhere
• Have the support of a potential supervisor from at least one UK university listed in your application form
• Have provided all supporting documentation in the required format
• Be unable to afford to study in the UK without this scholarship

Masters

To apply for UK Commonwealth Scholarships, you must:

• Be a citizen of or have been granted refugee status by an eligible Commonwealth country, or be a British Protected Person
• Be permanently resident in an eligible Commonwealth country
• Be available to start your academic studies in the UK by the start of the UK academic year in September 2023
• By September 2023, hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) honours standard, or a second class degree (2:2) and a relevant postgraduate qualification (usually a Master’s degree). The CSC would not normally fund a second UK Master’s degree. If you are applying for a second UK Master’s degree, you will need to provide justification as to why you wish to undertake this study
• NOT be registered for a PhD, or an MPhil leading to a PhD, at a UK university or in your home country before September 2023
• Be unable to afford to study in the UK without this scholarship
• Have provided all supporting documentation in the required format

The CSC promotes equal opportunity, gender equity, and cultural exchange. Applications are encouraged from a diverse range of candidates.

Selection Criteria: Applications are considered according to the following selection criteria:

• Academic merit of the candidate
• Quality of the proposal
• Potential impact of the work on the development of the candidate’s home country

Selection process

Each year, the CSC invites selected nominating bodies to submit a specific number of nominations.

The CSC invites around three times more nominations than scholarships available – therefore, nominated candidates are not guaranteed to be awarded a scholarship. There are no quotas for scholarships for any individual country. Candidates nominated by national nominating agencies are in competition with those nominated by other nominating bodies, and the same standards will be applied to applications made through either channel.

Number of Scholarships: Approximately 300 scholarships are awarded each year. The CSC invites around three times more nominations than scholarships available – therefore, nominated candidates are not guaranteed to get a scholarship. There are no quotas for scholarships for any individual country. Candidates nominated by national nominating agencies are in competition with those nominated by universities/university bodies, and the same standards will be applied to applications made through either channel.

Duration of Scholarships: 12 months for Masters and up to 36 months for PhD

Value of Scholarships: Each scholarship provides:

• Approved airfare from your home country to the UK and return at the end of your award (the CSC will not reimburse the cost of fares for dependants, nor usually the cost of journeys made before your award is finally confirmed)
• Approved tuition and examination fees
• Stipend (living allowance)
• Thesis grant towards the cost of preparing a thesis or dissertation, where applicable
• Warm clothing allowance, where applicable
• Study travel grant towards the costs of study-related travel within the UK or overseas
• For PhD Scholars, fieldwork grant towards the cost of fieldwork undertaken overseas (usually the cost of one economy class return airfare to your fieldwork location), where approved
• For UK Commonwealth Scholarships PhD Scholars, paid mid-term visit (airfare) to your home country (unless you have claimed (or intend to claim) spouse and/or child allowances during your scholarship, or have received a return airfare to your home country for fieldwork)
• If you have children and are widowed, divorced, or a single parent, child allowance of £529 per month for the first child, and £131 per month for the second and third child under the age of 16, if you are accompanied by your children and they are living with you at the same address in the UK (rates quoted at current levels)

To be taken at: UK Universities

How to Apply for UK Commonwealth Scholarships: You must apply to one of the following nominating bodies in the first instance – the CSC does not accept direct applications for these scholarships:

• National nominating agencies – this is the main route of application
• Selected universities/university bodies, which can nominate their own academic staff
• Selected non-governmental organisations and charitable bodies

All applications must be made through one of these nominating bodies. Each nominating body is responsible for its own selection process and may have additional eligibility criteria. You must check with your nominating body for their specific advice and rules for applying, their own eligibility criteria, and their own closing date for applications.

You must make your application using the CSC’s online application system, in addition to any other application that you are required to complete by your nominating body. The CSC will not accept any applications that are not submitted via the online application system.

You are advised to complete and submit your application as soon as possible, as the online application system will be very busy in the days leading up to the application deadline.

The CSC will not accept supporting documentation submitted by nominating agencies or outside the online application system.

Visit PhD Scholarship webpage for details. Read carefully for guidance.

Visit Masters Scholarship webpage for details. Read carefully for guidance.

WAAW Foundation Undergraduate STEM Scholarships 2023

Application Deadline: 12th November, 2022.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Young women from all African countries

To be taken at: Applicants home country

About the Award: The Working to Advance African Women (WAAW) foundation aim to increase the pipeline of African women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related disciplines, and work to ensure that this talent is engaged in African innovation. Scholarships are renewable annually, following proof of the student’s continued academic performance.

Eligible Fields of Study: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related courses at any African university;

• a. All fields of Engineering
• b. All computer science
• c. Science & Mathematics related fields; Industrial chemistry, environmental sciences
• d. Medical courses; Pharmacy / Biomedical, Biochemistry, Zoology, Agriculture, Geography, Statistics, etc.

Not Accepted Courses:

a. Core medical courses like Medicine and Surgery, Nursing, etc.

b. Social Science courses

c. Art courses.

Type: Undergraduate

Selection Criteria and Eligibility: WAAW foundation’s annual scholarship initiative is aimed at supporting need based African female STEM-focused college education. Please read the eligibility criteria before you apply. All non qualifying applications will be automatically deleted! Criteria for eligibility includes:

Please read the eligibility criteria before you apply. All non-qualifying applications will be automatically deleted! Criteria for eligibility include:

• Female students of African origin, living and studying in Africa.
• Currently enrolled in an undergraduate B.S.degree program.
• Studying STEM-related courses in a University or college in Africa.
• Demonstrable financial need
• Excellent Academic Record.
• Proven leadership, volunteering, and community service
• Below the age of 32 years.
• Only students in their first and second year are eligible to apply. And also students in their third year if studying a five-year course.

Please note that WAAW does not fund graduate (masters, MBA, or Ph.D.) programs, second or subsequent degrees, students older than 32 years, non-STEM focused courses, or Diploma degrees. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to these requirements.

WAAW Foundation awards annual scholarships to students who demonstrate need and prove their status as full-time students in a STEM-related course in an African University. Recipients will be required to start a STEM Outreach Chapter at their university.

Number of Scholarship: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: Scholarship recipients will receive an award of $500 for the academic year, or the equivalent in their country’s local currency. Scholarship recipients may reapply for renewal the following year, with proof of continued excellent academic performance.

Duration of Scholarship: Scholarship is a onetime fund but is renewable annually, following proof of the student’s continued academic performance.

How to Apply: Your application will include the following:

• The application form should be filled out completely.
• Personal and Contact Information.
• Educational background and Family Information.
• A statement of need should describe why scholarship funds are needed and what the funds will be used for if received.
• Essays are vital criteria in determining candidates who are shortlisted. Responses to essay where to buy modafinil online reddit questions that address career goals and how you expect the WAAW scholarship will assist in your education. Please have your essay responses ready before you begin the application.
  1. In 500 words or less, please write an essay on your future career goals and how you expect the WAAW foundation scholarship will assist in fulfilling those goals.
  2. In 300 words or less, please describe what you believe about female education in Africa and its impact on research, development, or advancement in African economies.

  3. In 500 words or less, what is your proudest achievement to date

  4. Describe in ten or fewer sentences why you need a scholarship. Tell us about your need or personal/family/financial situation and how the funds from the WAAW scholarship will assist your education and career plans.
• Two academic/professional references. Note recommendation letters and transcripts ARE NOT REQUIRED at the time of application. ONLY after a candidate has been shortlisted. However, you must provide the names of 2 references in your application.

ONLY Shortlisted candidates will be required to send the following additional items in order to complete this process.

• 2 references; one MUST be written by a professor from your institution of study and the other from an academic supervisor/advisor or mentor to be emailed by your referee to us.
• A copy of a current signed and sealed transcript from your University is to be emailed to transcripts@waawfoundation.org
• A copy of the student’s School identity card must be scanned and emailed to us.

Please do not email inquiries until you have reviewed all the requirements above,  including the list of accepted and unaccepted courses in the FAQ link above.

Please visit our FAQ page for answers to your questions

For further information or inquiries please email: scholarship@waawfoundation.org

APPLY NOW

Visit Programme Webpage for Details