Report finds decline in the well-being of American Millennial women when compared to previous generation

Alex Findijs

A recent report by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) found that young women in the United States are experiencing a decline in well-being when compared to the previous generation. The report, titled “Losing More Ground: Revisiting Young Women’s Well-Being Across Generations,” expanded on research from 2017 that found that social progress for Millennial women was stalling in comparison to Generation X. 

Chief Nurse Executive Danielle Maness stands in an empty examination room that was used to perform abortions at the Women's Health Center of West Virginia in Charleston on Wednesday, June 29, 2022. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade, the clinic had to suspend abortion services because of an 1800s-era abortion ban in West Virginia state code. [AP Photo/Leah Willingham]

According to the report’s metrics for social well-being, Millennials (born between 1981 and 1999), have seen a six percent decline in overall well-being in comparison to their parents in Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980). In 2017 the decline had only been one percent, demonstrating the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people. The PRB used a series of metrics to rate well-being, using Gen X as a base of 100 points. 

A number of key metrics stand out as worrying indicators of the decline in the health and safety of young women. 

Increases in suicides and homicides

There has been a rapid increase in the suicide rate for young women in recent years. When Gen X was aged 25-34, suicide rates for women were at a low of 4.4 per 100,000 people. By 2017 the figure for Millennial women had risen to 6.3 and by 2023 that number is now 7 per 100,000. This rise in suicide rates is connected to socio-economic factors, such as high rates of loneliness, depression, and stress. The report notes that two-thirds of young women report feeling overwhelmed with stress most days. 

The overturning of the constitutional right to abortion by the Supreme Court, leading to bans in multiple states, likely also plays a role. Nearly 20 percent of postal-natal and maternal deaths are attributed to suicide. 

Suicide rates for white women declined somewhat between 2018 and 2021 from 9.5 per 100,000 to 8.5. Meanwhile, rates for non-white populations have risen by similar amounts. Black women saw an increase from 4.9 to 5.7, Hispanic women from 5.1 to 5.4, and people who reported multiple races from 5.8 to 6.4. By far the most impacted group is Native American and Alaska Native women, with an increase from 23 to 26.9 per 100,000.

Millennial women are not just harming themselves at increased rates, homicide rates have also increased substantially. Unlike suicide rates, homicides were declining as late as 2017 but saw a significant increase during the pandemic along with increased rates of domestic violence. The homicide rate overall for young women was 3.3 per 100,000 in 2017, rising to 4.5 by 2023. Black and Native American populations face considerably higher homicide rates than their white, Hispanic, and Asian peers. The homicide rate for black women is 14 per 100,000 and 11 for Native American women, while the homicide rate for white, Hispanic and Asian Millennials is 4, 3 and 1 per 100,000 respectively. 

Homicide has even become a leading cause of death for pregnant and post-natal women. According to research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, homicide of pregnant and postal-natal women exceeded the three main medical causes of maternal mortality (hypertensive disorders, hemorrhage and sepsis).

Highest maternal mortality rate in 90 years

This figure is in the context of rising maternal death rates over the past two generations. Maternal death rates saw their lowest point in history during the Baby Boomer generation, at 7.5 per 100,000 births. By 2017 that number had risen to 19.2 and during the pandemic rose to 30.4, higher than during the Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945).

COVID-19 played a significant role in this most recent spike, being involved in every one-in-four maternal deaths. As states and Congressional Republicans move to implement full bans on abortion, maternal mortality will only increase further. A full ban on abortion nationwide is expected to increase maternal mortality by 20 percent. 

A number of preventable medical issues make up the bulk of maternal deaths. Hemorrhage accounts for 14 percent, cardiac and coronary issues 13 percent, infection, thrombotic embolism and cardiomyopathy each 9 percent, and hypertension 7 percent. The leading cause of death, however, is not a physical ailment but a mental health crisis among pregnant women and new mothers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mental health related causes of death like suicide and overdose are the leading contributors to maternal mortality at 23 percent of deaths. 

Different factors are leading causes of death when women are divided by race and ethnicity. Mental health is the leading cause for white and Hispanic women, while cardiac and coronary issues were the leading cause for black women and hemorrhage was the leading cause for Asian women. Women in Alaska Native and Native American communities see mental health conditions and hemorrhage account for 50 percent of maternal deaths combined. 

The rate of maternal mortality for black women is twice the national average. A wide array of factors contribute to this, including community health risks, improper health care in majority African American areas, and racial discrimination. Black women have higher rates than average of pre-existing health risks and perinatal complications that can contribute to maternal mortality.

One study published in the World Journal of Gynecology and Women’s Health found that 75 percent of black births occurred at hospitals with a high delivery rate for black mothers. These “black serving hospitals” are more likely to be “located in an urban area, located in the South, be a teaching hospital, have a higher delivery volume, have larger bed size, and have a higher proportion of Medicaid deliveries,” and had higher rates of maternal mortality than low black serving hospitals. 

The researchers concluded that existing comorbidities and location of delivery plays a significant role in maternal health risks. While black mothers have higher risk across the board, white mothers had increased risk at the same hospitals as their black peers, suggesting that location and quality of care is a major contributor to increased maternal deaths for women of all races. 

Historical indicators of well-being hide deep class inequalities

The PRB report notes the decline in the health and safety of young women is paired with an increase in well-being through other metrics. Millennial women are more likely to have a college education, be in higher paying professional careers, have lower incarceration rates, and make more than previous generations of women at their age. The gender wage gap for all women is reported at around 80 percent but for Millennial women that number is closer to 90 percent. These are important metrics that show that key indicators of social well-being are no longer guarantees of increased health and safety, nor are they reflective of the well-being of that group as a whole. 

What is missing from this analysis is any attempt to break this data down by class. The report spends a considerable amount of time breaking the data down by race and ethnicity, but makes no effort to explore how these trends affect women of different social classes amid record levels of social inequality. 

Regardless of what is missing from the data, the findings in the PRB report are a stark indication of the assault on working class living standards in the United States, especially during the pandemic. These impacted women in a particularly harsh way, as businesses were shut down for in person service or forced their workers to labor in unsafe conditions. Now that pandemic era financial supports are over, such as expanded funding for food programs and child tax credits, many women are facing a new wave of economic and social pressures. This is especially true for single mothers and families where the mother is the primary income earner.

During a webinar on the findings of the report, Cata Brumfield, Associate Director at the Georgetown Center on Poverty, noted that “Poverty is a policy choice.” This rings true beyond the narrow definition of poverty in the United States, but speaks more broadly to failure of the capitalist system as a whole.

Irish government seizes on far-right riot as pretext for state clampdown

Steve James

The Irish government has seized on last month's far-right riot in Dublin as a pretext for a series of attacks on democratic rights. The November 23 scenes were triggered by social media commentators following a stabbing incident in Parnell Square, Dublin, outside a primary school.

Three children were stabbed, one of whom is still in intensive care, along with a crèche worker who is also still in hospital. The violent assault, by a 49-year-old naturalised Irish male, was ended by members of the public, during which the attacker was badly injured.

Riots in Dublin 2023 [Photo: In Defence of Marxism/X]

The man is reported to have suffered a brain tumour two years ago, after which his mental health sharply declined. He had previously been charged with knife offences. No motive has yet been established and he has not yet been in a condition to be interviewed by police.

None of these facts mattered to a right-wing social media milieu which, based on inaccurate reports of the assaults apparently sourced in the police, blamed the attack on immigrants in inflammatory, racist and fascistic terms.

Over the next few hours, right-wing protestors attacked police and their vehicles, setting a bus and tram on fire. Shops were looted, pointing to the broader social tensions contributing to the eruption. In all, some €20 million worth of damage was done. 34 people were arrested on November 23. The dispatch of 220 or so riot police was the largest deployment in the history of the Irish state.

Next day, the Fianna Fail/Fine Gael/Green government moved to strengthen their law-and-order arsenal. Under the pretext of targeting the far-right and criminal gangs, premier Leo Varadkar pledged to strengthen CCTV and “laws against incitement to hatred and hatred in general.” Two water cannon vehicles were borrowed from British-controlled Northern Ireland, where the legacy of the British “dirty war” and partition means that youth riots against the police are not unusual.

Fine Gael's Minister of Justice Helen McEntee announced her intention to order 200 Tasers and stronger pepper spray, recruit more trained riot police, and equip them with “enhanced” riot control vehicles and improved riot shields to allow the use of snatch squads. The Garda Dog Unit is to be expanded. McEntee also announced legislation to expand Facial Recognition Technology, a new clampdown against shoplifters, “Operation Táirge”, and talks with social media companies to aid the removal of posts deemed to have “fueled” public disorder.

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At the same time, the government used the actions of the far-right to justify adapting to its “Ireland is Full” slogan and tighten its asylum policy.

Since 2022 Ireland has seen an increase in asylum claims and migration, beyond the minimal figure of between 1,200 to 4,000 authorised since 2014. Some 13,319 applied for asylum last year; 70,000 refugees arrived from Ukraine due to NATO’s proxy war against Russia.

The government has only provided minimal income, housing and social support while simultaneously overseeing an endless intensification of pressure on housing, health and living costs which are becoming impossible for much of the working population. Migrants are generally dumped in hotels and hostels, often in working-class areas or in isolated villages and army camps.

This has been exploited by Ireland's small far-right. In early 2023, in the impoverished working-class estate of Ballymun, North Dublin, the Irish National Party instigated anti-immigrant protests against the use of a local hotel for asylum seekers, previously used for homeless people. As many as 169 protests were reported concerning immigration up to August this year, although the numbers have since fallen off.

Many migrants have been totally abandoned and left defenceless. In May, 520 migrants were left to sleep in tents in the middle of Dublin. One encampment, in Upper Sandwith Street, was burnt out following a confrontation with anti-migrant protesters. Further confrontations took place on Mount Street. As late as November, days after the Dublin riots, some 437 vulnerable migrants were still living in tents. Some asylum seekers were displaced to the remote Kilbride army camp in County Wicklow.

Days before the Dublin riots, Varadkar had already announced his intention to “slow the flow of migration.” Last week, the Irish state refused to offer 83 asylum seekers any accommodation at all, eventually offering places to only seven of them. Those without accommodation will get €113.80 a week, far short of the cost of even a room in the cheapest shared house in Dublin. Ukrainian refugees, now numbering 100,000, will in future only be offered accommodation for 90 days. Entitlement to €220 weekly job seeker’s allowance will be removed for new arrivals. Ukrainian refugees will now face the same miserable circumstances as asylum seekers, crammed into unsuitable hostels with a pittance of €38.80 on which to live.

The far-right is being deliberately strengthened because its agenda corresponds to the needs of the ruling class to destroy democratic rights, scapegoat the most vulnerable, drive down wages and conditions and prepare for war.

Particularly in a country like Ireland, from where emigrants have set sail for centuries seeking a better life, and in which there is broad sympathy for the oppressed everywhere, the carefully nurtured far-right serves as a knife in the hands of the financial oligarchy with which to attack the democratic and social rights of the working class.

They are only able to play this role because the so-called “left” parties and organisations, particularly Sinn Fein, the trade unions and their pseudo-left apologists, offer no genuine alternative or opposition.

Ahead of the ruling parties in the opinion polls and hoping to be part of the next coalition government, Sinn Fein—the former political wing of the disbanded Irish Republican Army—responded to the Dublin riots by praising the police and putting themselves forward as the party of law and order. It proposed a no confidence motion in the Fine Gael Justice Minister.

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said, “Let me be clear, I have full confidence in gardaí and the garda on the beat but I have zero confidence in the Justice Minister Helen McEntee.”

Sinn Fein has nothing to offer the working class to alleviate the social crisis. The bourgeois nationalist party's recent budget proposals amount to a few disposable measures to offset the very worst aspects of the cost of living, health and housing crises, without encroaching in the slightest on the wealth of the super-rich or disrupting the vast flow of profits made and recycled in Ireland to large numbers of US-based corporations. Sinn Fein’s sole budget comment on corporation tax is a pledge to ensure “that volatile corporation tax receipts are not used to fund day-to-day current spending.”

On immigration, speaking in a December 6 Dáil Éireann debate proposed by the right-wing Rural Independents, Sinn Fein speaker after speaker made clear they had few differences with the government. Pa Daly, parliamentary representative for Kerry, proclaimed, “Nation states can and should manage their borders and we do not believe in an open border policy. We believe that all states should manage migration, and this includes having an immigration and asylum system with well-functioning rules and regulations.”

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions roundly condemned November's anti-immigrant riots and called demonstration of some thousands of workers on November 27. But the trade unions are organically tied to the Irish capitalist state and to the stability of Ireland as an investment platform for the expansion of profit. They offer nothing by way of alleviation of the deepening social crisis, working to suppress strikes and the class struggle in the interests of the employers while diverting struggle after struggle through the operations of the Labour Court.

Hundreds of thousands of workers and young people have marched in Ireland over the last weeks against the Israeli government's genocidal war against the Palestinians. These protests have far outnumbered the miserable and disoriented layers mobilised by the far-right.

Malaysian government confronts mounting and intractable issues

Kurt Brown

One year after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Pakatan Harapan coalition formed government, the Malaysian ruling class confronts mounting and increasingly intractable issues spanning the economy, declining social conditions, and international relations.

On December 5, Fitch Ratings re-affirmed its BBB+ credit rating on the Malaysian government’s long-term debt. This is not far removed from junk bond status. The credit rating agency explained that there was “an increase in the government debt ratio over the medium term, for instance, due to insufficient fiscal consolidation.”

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, centre with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, left, and other leaders at UMNO headquarters, Aug. 12, 2023. [AP Photo/Vincent Thian]

In plain English, this amounts to a demand for the government to reduce debt, which will invariably mean by cutting social programs and forcing workers and the poor to foot the bill. Fitch stated, “We expect fiscal adjustments such as a broad and immediate removal of subsidies and the introduction of broad-based consumption taxes.”

The Malaysian government debt currently stands at about RM1.51 trillion or about $US320 billion. This is approximately equal to 81.6 percent of Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP). In 2022, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 80.7 percent.

The high level of debt and the increasing probability that it will not be repaid is of deep concern to local and international creditors and investors. According to the budget tabled on October 13, debt service repayments in 2024 are forecast to be RM46.1 billion or about 15.2 percent of 2024 government revenue.

The increased attacks on social conditions are already compounding the social crisis facing Malaysian workers, youth, and rural poor. The Malaysian government intends to slash its price subsidies, which cover fuel, electricity, and basic food products such as rice and cooking oil. This has already caused food prices to rapidly escalate. The subsidy program is expected to cost to RM81 billion ($US17.4 billion) in 2023.

The Anwar government on November 1 removed the chicken subsidy that previously capped the price of chicken at RM9.40 per kilogram. It is estimated that this cost-cutting measure saves the government RM100 million per month. Chicken is a primary protein in Malaysia.

Hasni Muhammad Nasir, a poultry seller in Johor Bahru, noted that at the expiration of the subsidy the price of 1 kg of chicken started at about RM8 then climbed to RM8.50 one week later. As of November 17, the former ceiling price had been reached and reports now abound of prices well in excess of this.

Also in Johor Bahru, Tan Lee Peng stated: “I am currently paying RM11 for a kilo of chicken at the wet market.” She noted that if the price climbs above RM12, her family would have to halve their chicken consumption. “Other meat and seafood are quite expensive these days,” she said. Other market goers also stated that they could not afford the new price increases.

Chicken prices as well as the price of eggs and other food items are affected by higher input prices such as the price of fertiliser, wheat and corn stemming from the ongoing war in the Ukraine. Both Russia and the Ukraine are significant suppliers of these commodities.

Another significant global factor fueling inflation in Malaysia is the weakening Malaysian ringgit which in October reached a 25-year low value of RM4.67 to the US dollar. In part, the weakening ringgit is due to the decision of Bank Negara, Malaysia’s central bank, to pause overnight cash rate increases since July.

Malaysia imports about 60 percent of its food. In 2022, food imports totaled about RM76 billion ($US16.3 billion). These imports coupled with a depreciating currency are another conduit for inflation.

Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank in Singapore, noted that the government “subsidy roll-back” is likely to lead to further increase inflation. Pressure is therefore building to increase central bank lending rates in order to precipitate higher unemployment, thereby stifle any wage push by Malaysian workers. Such a move, though, would invariably lead to further pain within poor households from higher home loan repayments.

Economist Yeah Kim Leng of Sunway University in Kuala Lumpur noted that while overall inflation has fallen to 1.9 percent for the 12 months to September, food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation was still running at 3.9 percent. “Of concern is food inflation that continues to be persistently high, which is close to double of overall inflation.”

Conscious of the potential for social unrest under these conditions, the Anwar government is sensitive to any expressions of discontent including over the Israeli government’s genocidal war on the Palestinians in Gaza. The prime minister has postured as a defender of the Palestinians in an attempt to deflect growing anger towards his government.

While Malaysia is Muslim dominated, opposition to the brutal assault, principally on Gazan children and women, is widespread regardless of religion. The extent of this opposition is also significantly underreported in the mainstream media and only emerges intermittently. Tens of thousands have participated in protests since October, opposing not only Israel but the role of US imperialism in supporting the slaughter taking place.

Increasingly, Anwar’s statements supposedly defending Palestinians come across as grandstanding. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting held in San Francisco last month, Anwar condemned the actions of the Israeli government.

At APEC, however, the Malaysian government and business delegation secured approximately RM63 billion ($US13.5 billion) in proposed investments by US companies, including Google, Microsoft, Ford Motor Company, Boeing, and Amazon Web Services. Anwar also courted the fascistic multi-billionaire Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, and Twitter/X.

Boeing in particular is in the business of manufacturing weapons. In early October, it was reported that Boeing delivered one thousand 250-pound small diameter bombs to the Israeli government. Boeing has also extensively supplied the Israeli military with missile guidance systems, with Israel recently taking delivery of as many as 1,800 such units. Analysts believe that Israel used Boeing-made missile guidance systems in strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza that left an estimated 195 dead. It is almost certain that Boeing weaponry has been regularly raining down on Gaza since early October.

In addition, Microsoft provides cloud services (internet-based computer infrastructure) to the US Department of Defense which supports the actions of the Israeli government and its military. On November 17, Musk posted a Twitter/X tweet, pledging to censor pro-Palestinian posts on his Twitter/X platform.

The Anwar government will do nothing alienate US imperialism and to jeopardize these deals.

Change of government in Poland ushers in period of bitter class conflict

Martin Novack & Peter Schwarz

On Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda swore in the leader of the right-wing liberal Civic Platform (PO), Donald Tusk, as the new head of government. This marked the end of eight years in which Jarosław Kaczyński’s ultra-nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) ruled the country.

President Duda (left) appoints Donald Tusk as head of government [Photo by gov.pl]

Tusk leads a coalition of around a dozen parties, which are divided into four parliamentary groups in the Sejm and have a majority of 18. With the exception of PiS and the fascist Konfederacja, the coalition encompasses the entire political spectrum of the country—from conservative to economically liberal, to green and social democratic parties.

They had already declared their intention to jointly replace the PiS before the election and owed their election victory on October 15 to pent-up anger at the latter’s attacks on democratic rights.

The PiS government had abolished the right to abortion, clamped down on the judiciary and the media and imposed its ultra-nationalist ideology on universities, schools and museums. In June and October, half a million people took to the streets in Warsaw alone to protest against these reactionary policies, and the turnout in the parliamentary elections was the highest since the end of Stalinist rule in 1990.

In an hour-long statement made on Tuesday before his election as head of government in the Sejm, Tusk endeavoured to build on the hopes associated with the parliamentary election. “When it comes to the freedom of the individual and human rights, Poles never give up,” he declared. “The rule of law, the constitution, the rules of democracy” were “things we cannot argue about.”

International media outlets also attempted to portray Tusk’s return to power—he had previously been Polish head of government from 2007 to 2014—as a triumph of the rule of law and democracy.

Stefan Kornelius wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Democracy has survived the attack, it has disempowered the PiS with the remaining constitutional rules, it has fended off their attacks on the judiciary and through far-reaching control of the media, especially over the heads of the people.” It showed “that all the painful injuries to the state system can be healed, that one election day is enough to end eight years of destruction.”

What nonsense! The policies of Tusk and his government are not determined by flowery words about democracy but by the war in Ukraine, the capitalist crisis and the associated escalation of the class struggle.

Tusk, who was president of the Council of the European Union from 2014 to 2019, is one of the most tried and tested representatives of the Polish and European bourgeoisie. He chaired the European Council, the EU’s most important decision-making body, when it imposed one brutal austerity programme after another on Greece. In contrast to Kaczyński, who fueled sentiment against the EU and Germany for domestic political reasons, Tusk is unreservedly committed to Brussels and Berlin and their policies of militarism and social cuts. This policy cannot be reconciled with democratic rights in any country.

Tusk is one of the worst agitators in NATO’s proxy war against Russia. In his government statement, he promised that Poland would support Ukraine even more in the war against Russia. “We will loudly and resolutely demand the full mobilisation of the free Western world to support Ukraine in this war,” he said, declaring that Poland would be a strong part of NATO and a strong ally of America.

Tusk has appointed Radosław Sikorski as his foreign minister, a post he already held in his previous administration. Together with the then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Sikorski organised the right-wing coup in Kiev in 2014, which ultimately provoked the current war. Sikorski’s wife, the American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, is one of the best-known and most foul warmongers.

The PiS government had also fully supported Ukraine in the war against Russia and had begun to build up the Polish armed forces into the largest army in Europe. Jarosław Kaczyński had developed a pathological hatred of Russia after his twin brother Lech, then Polish president, died in a plane crash in Smolensk in 2010. Nevertheless, the narrow-minded nationalism of the PiS has led to tensions with Ukrainian nationalists, who are historically deeply hostile to the Poles and have mutual territorial claims.

There are also economic conflicts. Poland closed its borders to Ukrainian grain imports to prevent the low prices from ruining Polish producers. Polish lorries have been blocking the border with Ukraine for weeks because Ukrainian hauliers, who have been allowed to operate within the EU since 2022 due to an EU exemption, are undercutting the slave wages of Polish hauliers.

The PiS government also reacted with mistrust to Germany’s growing influence in Kiev. Germany has replaced Poland and the UK as the most important arms supplier after the US and is one of the most important financiers of the Zelensky regime. Germany’s growing influence in Kiev has thwarted the Intermarium, or “Three Seas” project, which was intended to develop Eastern Europe under Polish leadership as an economic counterweight to Germany. Corresponding infrastructure projects have stalled or have not been completed.

Under Tusk, Berlin and Warsaw now want to work closely together again. However, this does not make military support for Ukraine any less costly. And these costs must ultimately be borne by working people.

In addition, there is a severe economic crisis with devastating consequences for the Polish working class. The PiS had gained influence not least because, following the neoliberal policies of the first Tusk era, it had introduced a relatively high child benefit compared to the low wages, and increased pensions and the minimum wage. In the meantime, inflation has eaten all of this up again.

At 7 percent, the inflation rate is well above the European average; a year ago it was as high as 18 percent. As a result, real wages fell by 7 percent in 2022 alone. The economy temporarily slipped into recession, and domestic demand collapsed by up to 5 percent, driving many smaller companies into bankruptcy.

Tusk, who is far to the right of the PiS on social issues, will try to solve this crisis at the expense of the working class, whose interests are not compatible with democracy.

It is significant that during the election campaign, Tusk had already tried to overtake the PiS on the right on refugee policy, which serves as a spearhead for the attack on democratic rights everywhere. In his government statement, he mentioned “democracy” and “secure borders and a secure national territory” in the same breath and promised that Poland would take on a leading role in the EU and “become a partner in border protection.”

The extent to which Poland has now moved to the right was demonstrated by an antisemitic provocation staged by Konfederacja parliamentarian Grzegorz Braun in an anteroom of the Sejm immediately before Tusk’s government statement. He unpacked a fire extinguisher and used it to extinguish the candles of a seven-branched candelabrum, which is lit there every year on the occasion of the Jewish Hanukkah festival.

Although Braun also injured a woman who stood in his way, he was able to sit unhindered in the plenary chamber and insult Judaism as a “satanic cult.” Only then was he expelled from parliament. Even though PO and PiS distanced themselves, it is their right-wing policies that have created the conditions for the emergence of such fascist elements.

Tusk’s neoliberal economic policy during his first term in government had paved the way to power for the PiS. His return to government does not usher in an era of democracy but rather a period of bitter class conflict.

In the 1980s, when 10 million people organised themselves into the Solidarność trade union, the Polish working class proved what tremendous struggles and efforts it was capable of. However, Solidarność was steered into a capitalist dead end by the combined efforts of the Catholic Church, the Stalinists, its own leaders and pseudo-left civil rights activists such as Jacek Kuroń.

Private property took precedence over workers’ rights. The large factories in which the workers had fought were shut down or downsized. Right-wing parties such as PiS and PO emerged from the leadership of the trade union. It is significant that Tusk quoted John Paul II, the arch-reactionary pope from Poland, in his government statement and thanked Solidarność leader Lech Wałęsa for his services to Poland.

In bipartisan vote, US House passes authoritarian resolution calling on Harvard, MIT presidents to resign

Jacob Crosse

In bipartisan 303-126 vote Wednesday evening, the US House of Representatives passed a McCarthyite resolution calling on the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to resign, based on the false claim that they are fostering antisemitism on their campuses.

House Resolution 927, introduced by far-right New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, was supported by 84 Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Every single Republican, except Kentucky libertarian Thomas Massie voted in favor of the resolution, which condemned the testimony of all three private university presidents who appeared in front of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on December 5.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican-Louisiana, speaks during a press conference with Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, Republican-New York at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. [AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades]

According to the resolution, the presidents failed to “condemn the genocide of Jews” on college campuses and “Presidents Elizabeth Magill, Claudine Gay, and Sally Kornbluth were evasive and dismissive.”

House Resolution 927 continues, “President Magill has resigned and the other Presidents should follow suit.”

While the resolution claims to be addressing the alleged “rise of antisemitism” on college campuses, its real target is the hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and the broader population as a whole who have protested for over two months against the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Thousands of Jews have participated in these protests as well, so the claim that the demonstrations are “antisemitic” is absurd and reactionary.

Millions of people around the world, including hundreds of thousands of students in the US, are horrified at the war crimes being carried out by the Israel Defense Forces with the full military, political and economic support of the Biden administration and the Democratic and Republican parties.

Unable to crush this mass opposition to genocide and war, the US ruling class is trying to stifle anti-war protests by slandering them as “antisemitic,” while applying pressure to college presidents and administrators to ban pro-Palestinian and anti-war groups, such as Students for Justice in Palestine.

Working together to crush the burgeoning anti-war movement, Biden’s Department of Education has opened up dozens of “investigations” into college campuses and high schools where protests have been held. At the same time, Republicans in the House have introduced several right-wing bills falsely equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, laying the groundwork for future anti-democratic police-state measures, while also effectively blaming all Jews for the crimes of the Netanyahu government in Israel.

Despite claiming to fight “antisemitism,” H. Res. 927 says nothing about the Republican Party, one of the largest proponents of antisemitic politics in the world. Ex-president Donald Trump, who has promised to be a dictator on “day one” of a second presidency, and virtually the entire party have embraced the anti-immigrant and antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory” (GRT).

GRT posits that Jews and left-wing groups are seeking to “replace” white people in Europe, Australia and America with “lesser stock” from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The sponsor of H. Res. 927, Rep. Stefanik, an ardent supporter of Trump, has tacitly promoted the fascistic conspiracy theory, which has led to several massacres in recent years, including in El Paso, Texas and Buffalo, New York.

H. Res. 927 likewise makes no mention of the Republican Party’s support for far-right campus organizations, such as Turning Point USA, which regularly invite antisemitic speakers, such as members of the Proud Boys militia group, to college campuses. Nor does the resolution note the role of the Republican Party in embracing outright neo-Nazis such as Nick Fuentes.

As for the resolution itself, it first falsely claims that “Hamas terrorists” alone were responsible for the “deadliest attack” on Jewish people “since the Holocaust.”

As the World Socialist Web Site has previously reported, of the roughly 1,000 people killed in October 7 attack, it appears a significant number were gunned down by Israeli helicopter pilots or blown up by Merkava tanks. Furthermore, on Tuesday, Electronic Intifada, citing Israel outlet Ynet, reported that Israeli military officials admitted that an “immense and complex quantity” of “friendly fire” incidents occurred on October 7.

The Ynet article, written by Yoaz Zitun, reads: “Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF believes that… it would not be morally sound to investigate them.”

As for the resolution, in order to buttress bogus claims that antisemitic activity on college campuses emanates from left-wing students and faculty advocating for Palestinian human rights, the resolution launders discredited statistics from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that falsely claim that since the Hamas prison break there have been “2,031 antisemitic incidents” in the US, including “400 antisemitic incidents” that allegedly occurred on college campuses.

However, according to the ADL itself, 905, or nearly half, of these so-called “antisemitic incidents,” since October 7, are actually “anti-Israel rallies.” A map created by the ADL shows that virtually all of the “anti-Israel rallies” cited by the organization are simply anti-genocide protests that have taken place on virtually every major college campus across the United States.

Despite the broad participation of large numbers of students in the anti-genocide protests, including many Jewish students, all the university presidents during last week’s hearing denounced the protests that occurred on or near their campuses as “abhorrent.” The presidents also stated their support for the state of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, in which non-Jews, particularly Palestinian Arabs, are relegated to the status of second-class citizens, like black South Africans under apartheid.

While several self-declared “progressive” Democrats, and every member of the “Squad,” did not vote in favor of H. Res. 927, over 40 percent of House Democrats joined their “Republican colleagues” in backing the measure, including Minority Leader Jeffries.

Notably, in the elections for House Speaker in January and November of this year, Jeffries was supported by every single Democratic member of the House, including Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), Cori Bush (Missouri) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York).

According to OpenSecrets.org, the top contributor to Jeffries’ campaign committee for this election cycle is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. The Zionist lobby, which has given over $4.3 million to Joe Biden since 1990, has contributed over $323,000 to Jeffries in this current election cycle, roughly six times more than his next top contributor, MetLife Inc.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, (New York-Democratic) speaks in favor of US military support to the IDF at the March for Israel rally in Washington DC, November 14, 2023. [Photo: Jewish Federation of Greater Washington]

That Jeffries voted in favor of Stefanik’s resolution exposes all of the Democrats who have previously supported him as speaker. Their claims to be opposed to Israel’s genocidal policies are completely hollow if they support for Speaker someone who would support the same genocidal policies as the current Speaker, while at the same time attacking university presidents for not sufficiently kowtowing to the cynical attempts of fascistic Republicans to posture as defenders of Jewish people.

The fact is, as Wednesday’s vote shows, Democrats would sooner join with Republicans in suppressing the democratic rights of students and workers to protest genocide, than oppose the growing authoritarian tendencies in the Republican Party and the US ruling class as a whole.

IWMF Kim Wall Memorial Fund 2024

Application Deadline:

18th December 2023

Tell Me About Award:

The IWMF’s Kim Wall Memorial Fund will provide $5,000 grants to journalists whose work embodies the spirit of Kim’s reporting. The grant will fund women or non-binary reporters covering subculture, broadly defined, and what Kim liked to call “the undercurrents of rebellion.” Kim wanted more women to be out in the world, brushing up against life, and the Kim Wall Memorial Fund honors this legacy.

Who Is Eligible:

All applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Affiliated or freelance women or nonbinary journalists with one (1) or more years of professional experience working in news media from anywhere in the world. Internships do not count toward professional experience.
• Applicants must have excellent written and verbal English skills in order to fully participate in and benefit from the program. However, reporting may be published in any language.
• Applicants must be able to show proof of interest from an editor or have a proven track record of publication in prominent media outlets.
• The IWMF believes that gender does not conform to one notion. We are inclusive of all women, non-binary and gender non-conforming journalists.

How Many Awards:

Not specified

What Is Value Of Award:

Grants will be awarded to cover reporting-related costs including travel, logistics, insurance, visa fees, professional stipends and payments for producers, translators, etc. The IWMF does not cover the cost of equipment purchase or rental and cannot support academic research or research for academic publication.

How To Apply:

The IWMF is accepting applications from November 15 to December 18, 2023, at 11:59 PM EST via Submittable. The IWMF cannot consider time-sensitive proposals. Applications will be reviewed in January and February 2024, and applicants will receive a response no later than the end of February 2024. Grantees will be publicly announced on Kim’s birthday, March 24.

Visit Application Webpage For Details

Africa-China Initiative Postdoctoral Fellowship 2024

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

15th December 2023

Tell Me About Award:

The Africa-China Initiative at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University is pleased to partner with the Center for African Studies at Howard University to offer a one-year ACI Research Fellowship. The purpose of the ACI Fellowship is bring African scholarship, expertise, and perspectives on Africa-China (and more broadly, Africa-Asia and Global South) research to Georgetown and Howard faculty and students, research and policy centers, and government agencies in the Washington, DC area.

TYPE:

Fellowship

Who Can Apply?

The fellowship will be awarded to a doctoral graduate (Ph.D.) from an accredited university or degree- granting institution. Applicants must have a record of relevant research in the disciplines of history, political science, international relations/affairs, global studies, sociology, economics, anthropology, or related disciplines. Applicants will be assessed on the originality and relevance of their scholarship, the quality of their academic record, and their track record on Africa-China issues. We are especially keen to hear from applicants with an interest in at least one of the themes of our ACI Phase Two grant, specifically: human mobility and its impacts; climate change, natural resource extraction/exploitation, and environmental issues; digital infrastructure, technology; changing global power dynamics and influences; OR transregional (and inter-regional) engagements as they relate to Africa-China.

HOW ARE APPLICANTS SELECTED?

The ACI Fellowship is available to both non-tenured and tenured holders of PhDs. We are particularly interested in early- and mid-career scholars (including recent recipients of PhDs) with a broad range of international experience, strong teaching record, and a strong Africa-China research and publication record. We especially encourage African scholars to apply to bring an African perspective to ACI and our respective institutions.

WHERE WILL AWARD BE TAKEN?

The ACI Fellow must be in residence in the Washington, DC area for at least 10 months. The ACI Fellow will spend one academic term at Georgetown and a one academic term at Howard. These terms must be consecutive. The ACI Fellowship is funded through the ACI – Henry Luce grant award and will be administered by Georgetown.  

HOW MANY AWARDS?

Not specified

What Is The Benefit Of Award?

Remuneration for the one-year fellowship is $60,000 plus benefits and one round-trip flight.

Throughout the academic year, the ACI Fellow will spend half of their time supporting the work of Georgetown University’s Africa-China Initiative and African Studies Program during one semester, and the Africa-China activities of Howard University’s Center for African Studies and African Studies Department during one semester. During this time, the ACI Fellow will be expected to engage in Africa-China-related activities, including but not limited to: delivering one public lecture at each of the two institutions, guest lecturing on the Fellow’s areas of expertise in relevant courses, and engaging with students through meetings, attendance at public events and other formal and informal mentorship activities. The other half of the fellowship should be spent conducting research and writing projects. The ACI Fellow is encouraged to take advantage of the Washington, DC location to use The Library of Congress, The National Archives, and meet with colleagues in the U.S. government and at the area’s numerous research centers and think tanks.

How To Apply:

All applications should be submitted via Interfolio at https://apply.interfolio.com/136434

Cover letter
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Names of two references*
500 -word research / publication proposal
Writing sample (dissertation chapter, book chapter, or article)
* If you are shortlisted for the fellowship, you will be notified and asked to submit two recommendation letters. The letters will be requested to be submitted via Interfolio.

Applications for the 2024-2025 ACI Fellowship will be due December 15, 2023. Questions about the fellowship may be directed to Dr Yoon Jung Park, Program Director of ACI, at yp114@georgetown.edu.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Argentina’s Milei announces first batch of class war measures dictated by the IMF

Andrea Lobo

On Tuesday evening, Argentine Economy Minister Luis Caputo announced the first set of economic measures under the country’s fascistic new president, Javier Milei.

Javier Milei, president-elect of Argentina, speaks at his campaign headquarters after polling stations closed during primary elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, August 13, 2023. [AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko]

The economic “adjustment” program outlined by Caputo is supposed to set a new bar for attacks against living standards of workers everywhere. The measures were dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose director, Kristalina Georgieva, celebrated them as “bold initial actions.” 

Amid fears over the response of Argentina’s combative working class, with the Financial Times warning that Milei “faces the briefest of honeymoons,” the announcement was not made until two days after the inauguration. Caputo also delayed the broadcast to re-record it several times and offered no news conference. 

The first measure announced by Caputo was a devaluation of the official peso, which dropped from 366 to 820 per dollar. He then outlined cuts to subsidies and the removal of price caps on fuel, public transportation, electricity, gas, water, private healthcare and other basic goods.

These two measures alone are expected to immediately cause major price hikes or “tarifazos,” and further impoverish workers at a time when the poverty rate stands at 45 percent, and 63 percent for children. 

Milei, a self-proclaimed enemy of state interference in the economy, will also increase the PAIS tax on imports from 7.5 to 17.5 percent, further increasing the price of many basic necessities.

Infobae has already estimated a 98.7 percent average price increase on 30 staple goods “in the very short term” as a result of Tuesday’s announcements.

There will be “months of a strong recession and strong inflation,” commented former Central Bank director Enrique Szewach to the online daily, adding that this will be combined with brutal social cuts. “It is a brutal adjustment; not an orthodox one. Or at any rate, it is a brutally orthodox adjustment.”

Declaring his goal of bringing the public deficit from about 5 percent of GDP to zero in the medium term, Milei has already halved the number of state ministries from 18 to nine and ended all new public works, which will impact tens of thousands of jobs.

Caputo also said the budget for the provinces will be cut to a minimum. As a result, social services and pensions will run out of funding. Rural and semi-rural areas in the northern Chaco region, already facing serious shortages, are being condemned to a major humanitarian crisis. 

The government also plans to eliminate the current inflation adjustment formula for pensions and replace it with discretionary decrees, and the local media reported plans to reinstate a tax on middle class incomes lifted only two months ago.

While Caputo did not dare to include it in his speech, government officials have already leaked to the media a “Liquidation Plan” to stop monthly or quarterly wage negotiations, named “paritarias,” in the public sector and effectively freeze wages. 

This would starve out a large percentage of the 3.5 million public-sector workers, forcing them into the private sector or unemployment. The Milei administration said it will not renew labor contracts less than a year old.

While obliterating jobs and wage levels, Caputo said the budget for the main welfare program Potenciar Trabajo will be frozen. Other officials said the program will “start from scratch,” claiming that each case will be investigated for supposed “irregularities” to sort out any beneficiaries who they find ineligible.

With about 40 percent of Argentinians relying on welfare, the assigned benefits in food cards will only increase 50 percent, and the universal assistance per child will increase 100 percent. These increases will be erased within weeks. 

Milei’s plan consists of measures planned long ago by the Argentine ruling class and Wall Street to place the entire cost of years of vulgar financial parasitism—embodied by the IMF debt and high interest rates—on the shoulders of the working class and other impoverished layers. 

While Milei will continue to rely on Chinese currency swaps to pay the IMF, since Argentina has run out of foreign reserves, the IMF itself has offered a new credit line on top of what is already the greatest loan of the entity’s history, surpassing $45 billion. This reflects the strong backing of the US ruling class for Milei’s policies.

The message is clear. In response to the crisis of global capitalism and the drive to world war, global finance capital is demanding an intensification of the rate of exploitation to the point of threatening to starve millions of workers and their families into submission. 

Milei’s “free-market” hokum, promising that investors will magically replace government-provided services and jobs and that Argentina will regain its old glory as one of the richest countries, has been exposed as an empty cover to justify an intensification of the state-directed transfer of wealth from the bottom 90 percent to the richest few.

Such policies are incompatible even with the limited democratic trappings adopted at the end of the fascist-military dictatorship in 1983. Milei and vice president Victoria Villarruel are both known apologists for the mass killings, detentions and torture during the dictatorship.

During his inauguration, Milei referred to the “triumph of light over darkness” after citing the Old Testament on the Maccabean revolt by the Jewish people, deliberately using the same mystical language and references being employed by fascist Zionist officials in Israel to justify the genocide in Gaza. The “loco” Milei sees his regime as taking a lead in a global war against any resistance to imperialism and his bosses in the financial aristocracy.

In this context, the complacent and nationalist response by the pseudo-left is nothing short of criminal. The forces in the so-called Left and Workers Front (FIT-U) parties are doing what they have always done: minimizing the threat of dictatorship and fascism while already seeking to resurrect the political corpse of Peronism, which just suffered a sweeping electoral defeat at the hands of a fascist like Milei. 

While compelled to call for limited demonstrations given the explosive anger from below, the FIT-U continues to appeal to the Peronists, knowing full well that they represent no challenge to Milei or the IMF diktats. In fact, many top Peronist officials have joined the Milei administration—Daniel Scioli, Flavia Royón, Mario Russo, Marco Lavagna, Leonardo Madcur, Franco Mogetta, Olsvaldo Giordano, Guillermo Michel, etc. 

The union bureaucracy, after having entered the Peronist government and blocking national strikes for four years, is already offering Milei its help in suppressing protests for a seat at the table.

The election of Milei has demonstrated that the FIT-U and its orbit are as rotten politically as the Peronists and represent a trap for workers and youth who seek to resist Milei´s social attacks and the threat of dictatorship and fascism.

In one particularly revealing episode after Milei’s election, the PO leader of the “Piqueteros,” who organize informal and unemployed workers, Eduardo Belliboni, said on national television that vice president Villarruel “might want to return to the dictatorship, but in this country we don’t accept dictatorships anymore.”

The journalist was dumbstruck by the complacency, warning “there could be dead,” and recalled that Ramiro Marra, the president of Milei’s party, told Belliboni on that same program that “If you block the street, you go to jail” and “I will beat you up.” 

Belliboni gave an answer that should be tattooed on his forehead: “The fate of a person is in his name. This guy is named Marra,” suggesting like a first grader that Marra is a mamarracho, or “mess.”