Australian “military secrets” laws threaten researchers

Mike Head

Two draconian pieces of “military secrets” legislation came into operation simultaneously in Australia this month, pointing to intensifying preparations for a US-led war against China or any other country designated as a danger to US or Australian geo-strategic interests.

Both Acts were pushed through parliament in late March, with virtually no publicity, by the Labor government in partnership with the Liberal-National Coalition. They are part of a broader array of laws to implement the AUKUS military pact.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles in Brisbane for AUSMIN talks, July 28, 2023 [Photo by DoD by Chad J. McNeeley / CC BY 2.0]

This involves spending hundreds of billions of dollars on long-range nuclear-powered submarines, other weaponry and upgraded Australian military bases for use in a war against China, and ensuring that all research is subordinated to that effort.

The legislation has far-reaching implications, especially for university and other researchers in a wide range of science and technology fields. That is particularly so for those who might be accused of any links to, or partnership with, colleagues from China, Russia or other proscribed countries.

Researchers in universities, research institutes and companies will be in danger of being prosecuted for collaborating, directly or indirectly, with overseas colleagues. Researchers and graduate students from many countries, except for the US and UK, could be barred. Universities and businesses will be placed under wartime-style scrutiny and required to obtain permits for research.

The Safeguarding Australia’s Military Secrets Act, or SAMS Act, sets jail terms of up to 20 years for anyone, including former defence department or military personnel who train or work for, or “on behalf of” any overseas organisation or state-backed company, unless the defence minister grants them an individual “foreign work authorisation.”

The Defence Trade Controls Amendment Act (DTC) sets prison terms of up to 10 years for “supplying” or disclosing military-related or supposed “dual-use” goods, technology or services on the Defence and Strategic Goods List (DSGL) to non-Australian citizens, with the explicit exception of US and UK authorities and companies.

“Supplying” can mean simply sharing research results—which is integral to the development of science and technology. In addition to imprisonment, fines of nearly $800,000 apply for individual researchers and almost $4 million for corporate bodies, including universities.

According to the explanatory memorandum for the DTC amendment, “dual use” goods include “equipment and technologies developed to meet commercial needs but which may be used either as military components, or for the development or production of military systems.”

The Act’s list of dual-use technologies is extensive, including materials and infrastructure that almost all scientific and engineering researchers use, such as supercomputers, semiconductors and sonar scanners. “Electronics” and “Telecommunications and Information Security” are also on the 10-category list, which can be changed constantly by ministerial regulations.

Restricted services include “design, development, engineering, manufacture, production, assembly, testing, repair, maintenance, modification, operation, demilitarisation, destruction, processing or use of DSGL goods.”

An unclear exception exists for “fundamental research” that is “intended for public disclosure, or would ordinarily be published or shared broadly.”

This huge reach of the legislation takes to a new level the measures that were first introduced by the Greens-backed Gillard Labor government through the Defence Trade Controls Act, or DTC Act, of 2012, as part of its support for the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” to confront China.

Divulging military or security secrets has long been a serious offence, as evidenced most recently by the sentencing of former military lawyer David McBride to nearly six years’ jail for exposing war crimes committed by the Australian military in Afghanistan. But these laws go far beyond that, covering entire areas of research and the economy.

The legislation matches similar measures in the US and UK, whose authorities have demanded such provisions as a condition of the AUKUS pact. It hands sweeping arbitrary powers to the government, via the defence minister, to decree which countries are subject to the restrictions, decide what goods and technologies are listed on the DSGL, and grant, refuse or suspend permits and “foreign work authorisations.”

The Albanese government has introduced this regime despite widespread objections by researchers, research organisations and sections of business because of the chilling and crippling impact it will have in many scientific fields that depend heavily on international collaboration.

A large proportion of Australia’s research workforce is from overseas. In the area of semiconductor development, for example, evidence was given in a parliamentary inquiry into the legislation that some research teams have 75 percent of their workforce coming from non-AUKUS countries, such as India and South Korea.

In a submission to the inquiry, however, Universities Australia, the peak management body of the country’s 39 public universities, aligned itself with the AUKUS agenda, noting that “Australia needs to leverage its research sector to full effect in order to meet AUKUS challenges.”

University managements have embraced, and helped enforce, military controls since the 2012 Act came into effect. Starved of government funding, the universities have become dependent on war-related research, as well as attracting full fee-paying international students. There are expanding ties with military conglomerates, such as the Lockheed Martin research centre at the University of Melbourne.

The Labor government is moving to enforce the new regime. Last week, the defence department’s Defence Security Division asked universities and their staff to join a briefing on the legislation, warning:

“Universities, research institutions, organisations, and companies operating in and outside of Australia should consider if their personnel, students, contractors or sub-contractors are impacted by the new legislation.”

The Albanese government is determined to proceed because the legislation is part of its escalating commitment to US militarism and Washington’s war offensive, from the Israeli genocide in the Middle East, to the war against Russia in Ukraine and the military and economic confrontation with China.

The US Congress passed AUKUS-related legislation that exempts Australia and Britain from some of the export control requirements under the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) scheme, but only on the condition that both countries implemented parallel laws.

The explanatory memorandum for the DTC amendment cited the Albanese government’s Defence Strategic Review, issued last year, that outlined a vast military expansion and the development of an “whole-of-nation” war economy. It said the review made clear that it is “critical that Australia works with like-minded partners, especially with the United Kingdom and the United States, to enhance defence trade, deepen military interoperability and enhance defence capabilities.

“Realising the full potential of AUKUS will not be possible without major changes to the way that AUKUS partners cooperate on defence industrial and technology issues.”

This is taking place amid a definite political climate. There has been relentless anti-China and anti-Russia propaganda in the Australian corporate media, fueled by unsubstantiated claims by US-linked intelligence agencies of pervasive “meddling” in the country, including via university research projects.

For all the propaganda about “foreign interference” in Australia, Washington has politically intervened to ensure support for these military preparations, and the Labor government is enforcing the turn to war.

New Caledonia unrest continues amid massive French security operation

John Braddock

French President Emmanuel Macron is flying to New Caledonia today in a direct attempt to shut down riots and unrest that have enveloped the colony for the past eight days.

French President Macron, 2nd right, chairs a security and defence council at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, May 20, 2024 [AP Photo/Benoit Tessier]

Macron said the main objective was to “install” a “dialogue mission” to resume political talks with all stakeholders and find a “political solution” to the crisis. Macron’s spokesperson Prisca Thévenot said a “return to order” was a preliminary condition for any talks.

The French Pacific territory has entered a second week of unrest despite the imposition of an emergency decree by Macron last Wednesday. Rioting, largely by indigenous Kanak youth, has devastated the island’s capital, Nouméa. By Friday five people, three young Kanaks and two gendarmes, had been killed.

The rioting erupted as the French National Assembly pushed through a constitutional amendment to allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years since 1998 the right to vote in provincial elections and for the 54-member Congress. The move is opposed by pro-independence leaders who claim it will dilute the vote of indigenous Kanaks, who make up over 40 percent of the population.

The protests, involving thousands of Kanaks, have been met with fierce repression from the French state and been confronted with armed pro-France vigilante groups. So far 230 people have been arrested. The 12-day state of emergency gives authorities extensive powers to ban gatherings, impose travel bans, and conduct house arrests and searches.

A contingent of 1,000 French police and army reinforcements arrived on Friday, bringing armed security personnel to 2,700, including riot and crowd control squads.

Over the weekend, the media reported an “uneasy calm” had settled over Nouméa’s suburbs, where scenes of violence, arson and confrontation had continued throughout Friday. Despite the military-police crackdown, however, enforcement agencies still had not regained control of the capital’s central districts, with fires and other damage occurring overnight Saturday.

France’s High Commissioner Louis Le Franc claimed: “With massive reinforcement, we will soon be able to regain control of these areas.” But Nouméa’s mayor, Sonia Lagarde, said while overnight violence had eased due to a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, “we are far from a return to normal.” “The situation is not improving—quite the contrary—despite all the appeals for calm,” she said, adding that Nouméa was “under siege.”

The unrest has spread to rural areas. On Saturday, a sixth death was reported after a man was killed near the town of Kaala-Gomen, about 355 kms north of the capital, in an exchange of gunfire at one of many barricades blocking roads on the island. Le Franc said security forces would stage “harassment” raids to reclaim other parts of the territory held by pro-independence groups.

A major armed police operation was mounted Sunday to regain control of the main roads in and around Nouméa. Le Franc warned: “Republican order will be re-established whatever the cost.” More than 600 gendarmes used tanks to clear protesters and roadblocks from the road connecting Nouméa with Tontouta International Airport, which remains closed for commercial flights until further notice.

On Monday Macron claimed that there was “clear progress in the restoration of order,” while authorizing the military deployed to bolster police protecting public buildings in Nouméa. Islands Business correspondent Nic Maclellan reported scattered attacks were still occurring around the capital, including on shops and businesses. Roadblocks were also maintained by pro-independence forces into the Northern Province.

Australian and New Zealand governments yesterday began dispatching military aircraft to evacuate their citizens after French authorities authorised the flights to land at the domestic airport. According to Maclellan, the foreign ministers of Australia and NZ had earlier contacted their French counterpart to “press action” over delays.

France remains determined to tighten its grip on the colony. As the US and its allies prepare for war against China, French imperialism is seeking to play a role in the militarisation of the Pacific. New Caledonia hosts a major French military base and holds nearly a quarter of the world’s reserves of nickel, essential in the manufacture of stainless steel and in the arms industry.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has been chairing daily meetings of an “inter-ministerial crisis cell” involving Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin, his deputy Marie Guévenoux, Army Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti. On Friday, Attal met leaders of the parliamentary parties to discuss whether to extend the state of emergency beyond 12 days, which would require the approval of both the lower house National Assembly and the Senate.

Two pro-France parties, Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement, told a press conference on Tuesday that to withdraw the constitutional amendment would amount to “condoning the rioters and looters’ actions.” “Terrorism, violence must not win (…) We’re asking the French State to restore law and order,” local pro-France politician Virginie Ruffenach declared.

Pro-independence figures led by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) have been calling for the measure to be scrapped and that a French “dialogue mission”—similar to the delegations sent by Paris before the signing of the 1998 Nouméa Accord—headed by a “high, recognised and independent official” should come and negotiate a compromise.

The alliance of five pro-independence parties that make up the FLNKS represent an indigenous elite that has a vested interest in maintaining the existing voting arrangements, while posing no real alternative to the imperialist-dominated establishment.

New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou— a Kanak politician from the National Union for Independence, part of the FLNKS— bluntly condemned the actions of the rioters, saying “anger cannot justify harming or destroying public property, production tools, all of which this country has taken decades to build.”

The explosive rioting has exposed the vast class chasm between Kanak workers and youth in particular and the colony’s wealthy layers. Maclellan posted on X/Twitter that the young people “burned symbols of wealth and targeted large shopping centres and businesses. They live in urban areas and face daily difficulties. With their families, they are in poverty. They don’t have a job.”

Andre Qaeze from Noumea’s Radio Djiido similarly told RNZ Pacific that Kanak youth “don’t have any training, they go out from school with no job… The rich become richer and the poor become poorer, and they say no, we have to change this economic model of sharing. I think this is the main problem.”

Amid an escalating economic crisis, with the vital nickel industry in turmoil and people reeling from escalating living costs, the official parties representing both pro-independence and rival anti-independence forces stand on the side of the business elite, opposing any meaningful measures to end poverty and social inequality.

Across the region, meanwhile, there is growing outrage over France’s repression. The Melanesian Spearhead Group, formed in 1986 by Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands to back decolonisation, blamed France for the riots and demanded it drop the electoral reform.

An alliance of over two dozen Pacific non-government organisations also condemned France for what they say is a “betrayal” of New Caledonia’s Kanak population. The Pacific Regional Non-Government Organisations (PRNGOs) condemned “the Macron government for its poorly hidden agenda of prolonging colonial control over the territory.”

The outgoing chair of the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said “greater autonomy” for the indigenous Kanak population is needed. Noting that many Forum members are former colonies, Brown said Pacific peoples value “sovereignty” and the protests were in response to that.

The reality is that none of the impoverished Pacific Island countries are fully independent: all of them rely heavily on aid from the imperialist powers and their governments are subject to routine interference from Australia, New Zealand, the US and France. Some analysts are concerned, however, that France’s police repression could undermine the propaganda about an alliance of “democracies” seeking to push back against “autocratic” Chinese influence in the region.

Reuters reported that one commentator for the Sydney-based Lowy Institute, Oliver Nobetau, declared that the “heavy-handed” response to the protests by France would backfire in the region, where decolonisation was “expected.” “France is trying to re-emerge as a Pacific partner and this will evidently not help that image,” he warned.

Working class life expectancy falling in England

Simon Whelan

Analysis of official data by the Institute of Health Equity (IHE), titled “England's Widening Health Gap: Local Places Falling Behind”, deepens understanding of the patterns of widening life expectancy due to class.

Sir Michael Marmot, the Director of the IHE, said of the impact of government cuts on the life expectancy of those who live in the poorest parts of England: “They are suffering avoidable ill-health and living shorter lives than they should due to poor policies and cuts to essential services”.

Sir Michael Marmot, at the NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition, 2010 [Photo by NHS Confederation/Flickr / CC BY 2.0]

The IHE report confirms that life expectancy for the working class is stagnating and falling. Simultaneously, life expectancy inequality between the classes is growing as the life expectancy of the wealthiest rises. Growing health inequality is one expression of the explosion of social inequality set in train in the late 1970s.

In 2021, Public Health England (PHE) figures confirmed that life expectancy in the UK was at its lowest in almost a decade and a half. Growth in life expectancy began slowing in 2010-11, with a strong causal link to the “age of austerity” including sweeping cuts to the National Health Service (NHS) and local government services.

The PHE found that inequality in life expectancy between the richest and poorest residential areas of England is at its highest level since the former government department began recording data on deprivation-linked life expectancy 25 years ago. For men the gap was 10.3 years in 2020, a year longer than in 2019; for women it was 8.3 years—0.6 years more than in 2019.

The growth of health inequality is not only an issue of shorter lives but of the vast difference in the quality of life.

Under the subheading “Regional Trends”, the IHE report notes, “Healthy life expectancy in 2017-19 was lowest in the North East for both sexes (59.0 and 59.4 for females and males, respectively) and highest in the South East for both sexes (65.9 and 65.3 for females and males, respectively).”

The protracted growth of deep poverty and deprivation together with the decline in working conditions, social and health services and welfare benefits mean many more workers are living a life of desperate want and poor health, especially in later years.

These widening inequalities, the IHE argues, are the direct result of reductions in local authority spending between 2010/11 and 2015/16. In these years central government support to local authorities fell by an average of 41 percent per head of population in England and the tax raised by councils themselves fell by eight percent per head of population.

After 2015/16, extra revenue raising powers allowed councils to increase the amount raised by them each year, so that by 2019/20 it had risen by four percent compared with 2010/11 in real terms. However central government support was 58 percent lower in 2010/11, resulting in council budgets down per person by 34 percent in 2019/20.

“These changes have affected the most vulnerable in two ways” says the report:

“First through cuts to council services on which they depend. Second, council taxes are unrelated to income and rely on the scope each council has for levying these taxes. The real term increase in funding raised through council tax since 2015/16 therefore increases the proportion of income contributed by poorer households more than richer ones. One result of this, in combination with other above general inflation increases faced by those on low incomes, is that the total amount owed in council tax arrears has increased by over 70 percent in the past five years in the 100 largest councils often with dire results for those concerned.”

IHE researchers studied every local authority in England and plotted levels of health, inequalities in health and cuts to their financial budgets.

Their report highlights 17 local authorities with statistically significant increases in inequalities in life expectancy and overviews widening regional inequalities in life expectancy. The data reveals how, since 2010, central government spending cuts to local authorities were highest in areas with lower life expectancy and more health inequalities.

Speaking to Conservative Party members in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 2022, the prime minister (then chancellor) Rishi Sunak boasted to his well-heeled audience of how the government had altered inherited spending formulas to take public spending previously allocated for deprived urban areas and spend it instead on wealthier districts.

The IHE identified 14 local authorities in England where the difference in female life expectancy between the least deprived and most deprived neighbourhoods showed a “significant increase” between 2010-12 and 2017-19, along with three local authorities where the same occurred for males. More than half of all authorities saw an increase in life expectancy inequality for both males and females from 2010-12 to 2017-19, and not a single authority recorded a statistically significant decrease.

Screenshot of the report: England's Widening Health Gap: Local Places Falling Behind [Photo: instituteofhealthequity.org]

Inequalities in life expectancy for women increased significantly in the North East, North West, Yorkshire & the Humber, East of England, East Midlands, and the South West. For men they increased in the North East, Yorkshire & the Humber, and the East of England.

Deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately impacted working-class communities, contributed to life expectancy falling in the period from 2012 up until 2022. But researchers from the IHE say healthy life expectancy had already fallen slightly for women and stagnated for men in the 10 years up to 2019.

Speaking on the findings, Marmot drew attention to the vast social inequality that characterises British society: “Put simply, Britain is a poor, sick country, getting sicker, with a few rich and healthy people; the results of a dismal failure of central government policies since 2010.”

He continued, “Health is also an indicator of how well a nation is performing. Unfortunately, Britain is performing poorly… Action is needed on the social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. These social conditions are the main causes of health inequalities.”

The IHE’s research follows its “Lives Cut Shorter” report published in January, which exposed how a million people in 90 percent of areas in England lived shorter lives than they should between 2011 and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recent findings also add weight to the institute’s two previous reviews of health inequalities. In their 2020 report, “Health Equity in England: The Marmot Review 10 Years On”, the IHE revealed that, since 2011, life expectancy in England has stalled for the first time since at least the turn of the last century.

In “Build Back Fairer: The COVID-19 Marmot Review”, the IHE detailed how the pandemic, together with the cumulative impact of austerity funding cuts, which impact poorer areas more heavily, contributed to life expectancy stagnating overall and actually falling for women in the poorest 10 percent of areas, and general health inequalities widening.

Marmot calls on the government to alleviate entrenched social inequality, but this falls on deaf ears in a ruling elite which has plenty of money to funnel to the rich and the military budget.

Were the Labour Party in office, as they are expected to be following this July’s general election, its agenda would be no different. It was mainly via Labour-run local authorities in working-class area that tens of billions of pounds in austerity cuts were imposed on behalf of Tory central government. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has reassured the capitalist class that the “spending taps” will be kept switched off on his taking office.

Italian Government Bachelors, Masters & PhD Scholarships 2024/2025

Application Deadline: 14th June 2024 at 2pm

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: International

To be taken at (country): Scholarships can be awarded only for study/ research projects at institutions within the Italian public education and research system.

Fields of Study: Courses for which grants are available:

•        Master’s Degree (Laurea Magistrale 2° ciclo)
•        Courses of Higher Education in Arts, Music, and Dance (AFAM)
•        PhD programmes
•        Research under academic supervision (Progetti in co-tutela)
•        Italian Language and Culture Courses

About Scholarship: The Italian Government awards scholarships for studying in Italy both to foreign citizens and Italian citizens resident abroad (IRE). The aim of these scholarships is fostering international cultural cooperation, spreading the Italian language, culture and science knowledge and promoting the economic and technological sectors of Italy all around the world.

Type: Masters, PhD, Research

Eligibility:

1. Academic qualifications: Applications must only be submitted by foreign students not residing in Italy and by Italian citizens living abroad (IRE)* holding an appropriate academic qualification required to enroll to the Italian University/Institute. https://studyinitaly.esteri.it/en/Recognition-of-qualification.
2. Age requirements:
   • Applicants for Master’s Degree/Higher Education in Arts, Music, and Dance (AFAM) Programmes/ Italian Language and Culture Courses should not be over 28 years old by the deadline of this call, with the sole exception of renewals.
   • Applicants for PhD Programmes  should not be over 30 years old by the deadline of this call, with the sole exception of renewals.
   • Applicants for Research Projects under academic supervision should not be over40 years old by the deadline of this call.
3. Language proficiency
   • Applicants must provide a certificate of their proficiency in Italian language. The minimum level required is B2 within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR): (https://www.linguaitaliana.esteri.it/data/lingua/corsi/pdf/tabella_certificazioni.pdf).
   • Proof of proficiency in Italian is not required for courses entirely taught in English.
   • In this case applicants must provide a language certificate of their proficiency in English Language. The minimum level required is B2 within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
   • For Italian language and culture courses, applicants must provide a certificate of their proficiency in Italian language. The minimum level required is A2 within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR):

Number of Scholarships: not specified

Value of Scholarship:

• Normally, the scholarship holders are exempt from the payment of the university tuition fees, in accordance with existing regulations. However the Universities, as part of their autonomy, may not allow such exemption. Candidates are therefore recommended to contact the chosen Institution in order to be informed on eventual taxes or tuition fees.
• For the sole period of the scholarships granted by the Italian Government, the scholarship-holders are covered by an insurance policy against illness and/or accident. Air tickets are not granted, except for Chilean citizens.

Duration of Scholarship: 1 year

How to Apply: 

• Click here to access the registration form
• Before applying, please read carefully the Call for Procedure

Visit Scholarship Webpage for Details

Rising infection and death rates from COVID contracted in Australian hospitals

John Mackay

Documents recently obtained by an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) journalist Hayley Gleeson under Freedom of Information laws reveal that alarming numbers of patients admitted to hospitals for medical care in Victoria are being infected with COVID and dying from the virus.

Nurses protesting outside Westmead Hospital on January 19, 2022. [Photo: NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association]

The data, which was published by the state-funded news outlet but largely ignored by the corporate media, shows that 6,212 patients caught COVID in the state’s public hospitals in the past 24 months, and that 586 patients—approximately 1 in 10—died from the hospital acquired infections or at the rate of six deaths per week. COVID data is difficult to access because Australian health departments do not publish incidences of COVID being caught in hospital.

The latest revelations came amid a recent 30 percent surge in COVID hospitalisations in Victoria, Australia’s second most populated state. The latest COVID surveillance report released May 17 showed a weekly average of 284 coronavirus hospital admissions per day, compared with 208 up to May 10 and 160 a week prior to that.

Previous reports have indicated substantial transmission within the hospitals, as well as a mortality rate of around ten percent for hospital-acquired infections. The significance of the latest data is that they confirm this trend is continuing. That is nothing short of criminal on the part of the state and federal Labor governments and the health authorities, which are implementing policies that they know will claim hundreds of lives among this vulnerable cohort.

The high level of hospital-acquired COVID infections and deaths is a direct result of the bipartisan “let it rip” policies adopted in December 2021, which overturned successful mitigation measures that had initially been implemented under popular demand.

That “reopening” has been followed by the successive removal of even the most basic safety precautions, such that virtually none remain.

Basic protective measures, availability of free COVID testing across the country, systematic tracking of the virus, isolation of those infected, and compulsory mask-wearing by medical professionals in health facilities have been systematically removed.

These “let it rip” policies, has seen over 24,400 COVID deaths in Australia, more than half of these under the Albanese government, and with the global death toll now over 30 million. Significantly the federal Labor government, acting in tandem with state Labor administrations in office across the country, have gone further than the widely-despised Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison could.

In Victoria, it was the Labor government of Premier Daniel Andrews and now Jacinta Allan that abolished mandatory mask-wearing in many hospital settings, together with all other even minimal protective measures.

This program amounts to a war on the most vulnerable. While hospitals are scenes of infection and preventable death, so too are aged-care facilities.

The Department of Health and Aged Care reported on May 17 that there are 378 active outbreaks in aged-care facilities across the country, an increase of 83 in a fortnight. In those two weeks, 2,812 residents and staff have contracted the virus, a figure that will almost inevitably translate to scores of deaths. Despite the high vulnerability of residents and the failure to keep the virus out of care homes due to “let it rip,” there is no serious attempt to mitigate the carnage. Only 43.4 percent of Victorian nursing home residents had received COVID vaccine boosters in the last six months.

While Australian governments—state and federal—and the corporate media continue to downplay the spread of COVID infections, the recent summer period in Australia saw a wave of COVID illness and death that was largely unreported.

Commenting on the rising incidences of hospital-acquired COVID infections, Burnet Institute Chief health officer for COVID and health emergencies Associate Professor Suman Majumdar told the ABC, “The numbers indicate that there is a big problem here—these infections and deaths are potentially preventable. We’re talking about a specific setting where people are sicker, more vulnerable and more at risk. We need to drastically reduce the risk of people catching COVID in hospital when they don’t come in with it… that should be the starting point.”

Deakin University Associate Professor of Nursing Stephanie Bouchoua, who is also president of the Australian College of Infection Prevention, said there is no consistency between health services. “There doesn’t seem to be leadership from the Department of Health,” she said. “We want to reduce COVID infections in healthcare, therefore … we need to do universal testing, we need to mandate N95 masks for healthcare workers.’”

There should be an attempt to “aim for zero, similar to what is expected for the bacterial infection golden staph [staphylococcus aureus infection] or tuberculous,” she added. “[A]ny hospital acquired infection is concerning. So why don’t we do that with COVID?” Golden staph is a life-threatening blood infection. There are about 600 staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia infections each year, with a similar death rate to COVID.

When ABC journalist Gleeson posted her article on X/Twitter she was flooded with comments thanking her for revealing the extent of the COVID infection crisis in the hospital system and the impact of the government rollback of basic protective measures.

One person reported on the death of a relative: “My uncle died ‘of DLBCL’ [diffuse large B cell lymphoma] in 2022. His chemo had been going great and his prognosis was excellent: until he got COVID. From there his health went into a free fall. Two months later he died ‘covid free.’ I bet there are many more like him.”

Others noted the lack of response from the trade unions, which endorsed the federal and state government removals of COVID-safe measures and now march in lock step with the authorities and the corporate media in covering up the real extent of the pandemic. “Why are the health services/workers unions not taking action? Which masters are they serving…” one commentator wrote.

The latest hospital data emerges amid warnings that a new variant of COVID 19 JN.1 may lead to decreased effectiveness of the immune response to infection leading to larger rates in the community. Current wastewater measurements from the Victorian Department of Health also indicate that COVID viral loads are increasing throughout the state.

As noted by the ABC report, a pre-print study soon to be published by the Lancet from a Burnett Institute scientist and Victoria Health Department staff, found that if hospital workers wore N95 masks there would be substantial reductions in infection and deaths.

The study created a mathematical model simulating viral outbreaks and examined the impact of varied interventions, such as different masks and testing patients for the virus. It revealed what has long been established, that these basic measures would effectively decrease spread of the infection inside health facilities and significantly cut costs by reducing “patient bed days and staff replacement needs.”

President Ruto grovels to Washington to put Kenya on the global war map

Kipchumba Ochieng

Kenya’s President William Ruto will be arriving in Washington for a state visit to the US Wednesday.

The Kenyan press is celebrating the visit, terming it “the first state visit by an African leader in more than 15 years”, a “major milestone and investment opportunity” and a “historic moment” that is putting “Kenya on the map”. Ruto is “eating big things,” wrote the Nation newspaper, adding, “Kenya has to wear big-boy pants”.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Kenyan President William Ruto, on the margins of the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly High Level Week, in New York City on September 21, 2022. [Photo: Ron Przysucha]

Far from this delirium, Kenya and the entire African continent are being drawn into the maelstrom of an expanding global war. The continent’s geostrategic position and vast mineral resources are viewed by Washington as critical in its conflicts with Russia, Iran and China.

Ruto is the sixth head of state invited for a state visit by US President Joe Biden since he took office. The other five visits were related to Washington’s war theatres across the globe. Leaders of South Korea, India, Australia and Japan were invited to discuss military alliances against China. France was accorded a state visit to discuss NATO’s war on Russia in Ukraine.

It was not long ago that Washington viewed Ruto as a political thug threatening US interests in the region. Washington backed the International Criminal Court (ICC) charges against him over his involvement in Kenya’s 2007-2008 post-election violence. Ruto played a crucial role in planning and organising violence that that left over 1,200 dead and over 600,000 internally displaced. The case was eventually dropped as witnesses disappeared and the US lost interest in backing Ruto’s prosecution after he become deputy president.

Today, Ruto is given a red carpet to establish Kenya as Washington’s main military ally in the region. His visit coincides with the landing of 200 Kenyan police officers, the first batch of a thousand, in Haiti as part of a US-funded mission.

The officers, mainly from the special forces, known for their brutality in anti-terror operations, will operate from US Army-built military barracks. They are tasked with terrorizing the Haitian population and ensuring months of gang warfare does not precipitate an outflow of refugees to the US and Canada and destabilize the Caribbean region.

Countering Chinese influence

The main issue on the agenda will be countering China’s influence across the African continent. According to the White House press release, “The leaders will discuss ways to bolster our cooperation in areas including people-to-people ties, trade and investment, technological innovation, climate and clean energy, health, and security. The visit will affirm our strategic partnership with Kenya and further the vision set forth at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.”

The US-Africa Leaders Summit was held in December 2022, with 49 African heads of government attending. It was a clear signal that Washington was not going to let China’s influence grow unopposed in Africa. The Biden Administration’s US Africa strategy states that China views Africa as “an important arena to challenge the rules-based international order, advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests, undermine transparency and openness, and weaken U.S. relations with African peoples and governments.”

The “rules-based international order” is the world order established by US imperialism in the aftermath of World War II, in which it sets the rules. The expansion of Chinese influence in Africa over the past 15 years directly threatens US and European imperialism’s control over the lion’s share of Africa’s natural riches and disrupts Washington’s ability to encircle China and strangle it economically. At the same time, Western corporations and banks, eager to plunder Africa’s vast economic resources and its working masses, have been losing ground to China.

In this conflict African governments and political establishments have been torn between their military-political ties to Washington and the economic gains from closer ties with Beijing, whose investments have dwarfed those of the US.

Kenya is a clear example of this process. As part of its “Look East” policy, Nairobi’s relations with China intensified under the presidencies of Mwai Kibaki (2002–2013) and Uhuru Kenyatta (2013-2022). China-Kenya trade grew more than thirty-fold, from $106 million in 2000 to $6.55 billion in 2022.

China is now Kenya's largest trading partner, with more than 16 percent of the total merchandise trade volume, followed by the European Union, India, and the United Arab Emirates. The US is relegated to fifth place.

China has emerged as the preferred source country for electronic goods, textiles, cosmetics, vehicle accessories and machinery. It is responsible for major infrastructure projects in the country including the Thika Super-highway easing transportation of raw materials and finished products between Nairobi and the country’s second-most industrialised town of Thika, the Nairobi-Mombasa railway connecting Nairobi to the coast, and projects like the Kipevu Oil Terminal in Mombasa Port, Lamu Port, Liwatoni Floating Bridge and Thwake Dam.

Last October, Ruto, despite his anti-Chinese rhetoric during the presidential elections in 2022, met with President Xi Jinping as part of a three-day state visit. Ruto asked for $1 billion in loans, adding to Kenya’s $6.3 billion debt to China, to help complete infrastructure projects. Last week, Kenya secured commitment from China’s Exim Bank for the funding of the standard gauge railway from Nairobi to the Ugandan border.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, second left, with Deputy president William Ruto, right, look at the SGR route maps during the unveiling of a cargo train at the Mombasa, Kenya, port containers depot, May 30, 2017. [AP Photo/Khalil Senosi]

For years, the Kenyan ruling class hoped it could balance between Chinese loans and infrastructure projects and Washington’s political and military support. In 2020, then President Kenyatta told a conference hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington, “We don’t want to be forced to choose. We want to work with everybody, and we think there is opportunity for everybody.”

Those days are over. With the politics of the entire continent on a knife’s edge, Biden will demand Ruto to distance himself from China.

A glimpse of the underlying threat was seen last December when the US State Department made the unfounded claim that Beijing was planning to set up military bases in Kenya as part of its pursuit of a global military logistics network to counter the US. It stated, “China is seeking to expand its overseas logistics and basing infrastructure to allow the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Party to project and sustain military power at greater distances”.

This was only weeks after US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Kenya and held a series of meetings with defence officials and Ruto.

Kenya as the anchor state of US imperialism

Ruto’s visit comes at a time when Washington’s influence across Africa is rapidly diminishing. South Africa, a traditional ally of the US, took its main Middle Eastern ally, Israel, to the International Court of Justice over its genocide in Gaza. Last year, the South African military participated in joint military exercises with Russia and China along South Africa’s east coast.

Ethiopia, Washington’s previous preferred security partner in the Horn of Africa, is increasingly orientating towards China, following decades of authoritarian rule by the US-backed Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) since 1991. In 2020, a civil war erupted between forces aligned with the new Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF.

In Niger, the new military junta booted US troops out of the country and handed over the US military bases, one of the largest US drone bases in Africa, to Russia.

In Chad, the US has withdrawn its military after the country demanded they leave last month.

As one US diplomat bemoaned in an article on International Crisis Group when asked why the Biden administration had invited the Kenyan leader to Washington: “If not Ruto, who?”

Washington is hoping to transform Kenya, which has a track record as a satrap for US and European imperialism in maintaining their strategic grip over Eastern and Central Africa, into a strategic military partner against China and Russia in the Horn of Africa.

Over the past 18 months since Ruto came to power, Washington high-ups have visited Nairobi, including CIA chief William Burns, Commander of United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) General Michael Langley, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, and anti-China hawks like US Senator Chris Coons and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

In September, Austin signed a five-year defence deal with Nairobi providing US-led training of Kenya Defence Forces. “In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, our ability to work seamlessly together is paramount,” said Kenyan Defence Minister Aden Bare Duale. “This cooperation will enable us to respond effectively to the ever-evolving security challenges in our region.”

These visits took place as Ruto backed US foreign policy. Kenya signed up to US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, the military operation against the Houthi militias in Yemen that have attempted to disrupt supplies to the Israeli military, in solidarity with the Palestinians. Ruto endorsed airstrikes on the impoverished nation, after supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The US will likely request Ruto to expand its troop presence at its Camp Simba base in Manda Bay, which serves as host for US drones and surveillance to project its control across the Indian Ocean, the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, particularly over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a chokepoint critical to securing global energy.

U.S. Army Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, commander, U.S. Africa Command, addresses force U.S. military service members at Camp Simba, Kenya, February 12, 2020. [Photo by US Africa Command / CC BY 4.0]

The base has played a key role in the undeclared war on the Al-Shabaab insurgency in Somalia, where thousands of people have died in US drone strikes, and where Kenya continues to deploy thousands of troops as the US proxy since 2011.

The US is also likely to use Kenya’s army in proxy wars across Africa. It has already tested the country’s soldiers in its war in Somalia, and in eastern mineral-rich DR Congo, and is now using Kenya’s US-trained special forces police in Haiti.

Ruto is eager to play this role. In a country where malnutrition is rampant, defence spending grew by 38 percent between 2021 and 2024, from $925 million to $1.2 billion. Earlier this month, Nairobi announced it was acquiring a high-tech missile defense system from the genocidal regime of Israel using a $1 billion loan from Tel Aviv. The sophisticated system, which could have only been offered with Washington’s approval, offers protection against aircraft attacks, helicopters, cruise and ballistic missiles. Nairobi ludicrously claims growing security threats in the Gulf of Aden from Al-Shabaab in Somalia, which has no aircraft, and the Houthis in Yemen, who have a single fighter jet, an ancient F-5.

Washington also hopes to use Kenya, the largest economy in the Eastern African Community economic bloc, and its growing influence in the African Union to steer African countries away from Russia and China. The US and Ruto are currently backing Kenya’s main opposition leader, the millionaire Raila Odinga, nominated to lead the African Union (AU). Odinga is a longtime supporter of US and French imperialist interventions in Africa.

Raila Odinga speaking at visit to Peace Corps, 19 June 2008 [Photo: US Government]

Ruto’s war on the working class and rural masses

The intensified orientation to the US and its war aims is not merely a political choice by Ruto. It is based on fundamental objective relations between the Kenyan ruling class and imperialism.

In exchange for supporting the US, the Kenya Kwanza government of Ruto hopes to receive crumbs, in the forms of a trade deal and more US investment, which will be syphoned by the parasitical layer running the Kenyan state. The Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry plans to pitch over $20.5 billion in investment opportunities, showcasing more than 30 promising projects to potential American investors. Ruto is also hoping to conclude the US-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership this October, to boost US investment and exports to the US.

US companies such as Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger already profit out of the exploitation of cheap Kenyan labour in the Export Processing Zones across the country, which are exempted from paying taxes.

In return for Ruto’s pledge to draw Kenya into wars across the continent and even around the planet, Ruto will seek Washington’s backing for his Kenya Kwanza alliance government’s war against the working class and rural poor. Last year, the government imposed brutal International Monetary Fund (IMF)-dictated austerity measures that have decimated the living standards of Kenyan workers, including the introduction of a housing levy, doubling Value Added Tax on petroleum products from 8 per cent to 16 percent, tripling sales tax for small businesses from 1 percent to 3 percent, and introducing a new medical insurance tax of 2.5 percent.

Ruto’s taxes have resulted in a skyrocketing cost of living, compounded by NATO’s war in the Ukraine.

This year, Ruto has vowed to escalate the class war. A Finance Bill will propose a battery of new taxes including motor vehicle tax, minimum top-up tax, economic presence tax, withholding tax, and digital content tax. Ordinary bread, a staple which was among the zero-rated items, will cost more following the imposition of 16 percent VAT.

The Kenyan military and police are being prepared not only to support US-led wars abroad but also as shock troops at home.

Last year, mass anti-austerity protests were savagely drowned in blood, leaving over 70 dead, most shot by the police. Widespread discontent is re-erupting. Earlier in the year, Ruto teargassed pro-Palestinian protests in Nairobi, and a pro-Palestinian gathering at a bookshop was dispersed and activists arrested. Last week, hundreds of interim teachers protested demanding permanent jobs, threatening to strike as the unions shut down a two-month nationwide doctors’ strike.

The Kenyan opposition party, Azimio la Umoja, is threatening new countrywide protests, after Odinga called them off last year fearing they were breaking free of his party’s control.

Iranian president killed in helicopter crash

Peter Symonds

A helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi as well as Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials crashed Sunday in mountainous area some 600 kilometres northwest of the capital of Tehran.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attends a meeting with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev during the inauguration ceremony of dam of Qiz Qalasi, or Castel of Girl in Azeri, at the border of Iran and Azerbaijan, Sunday, May 19, 2024. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP) [AP Photo/ Det iranske presidentskapskontoret]

Both Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian have died, Iranian news agencies have confirmed.

Raisi and his entourage had been returning from Iran’s East Azerbaijan province to inaugurate a dam with neighbouring Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev near their border on the Aras River. Raisi’s helicopter was one of three in transit—the other two returning safely.

In comments on state TV, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said: “The esteemed president and company were on their way back aboard some helicopters and one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to the bad weather and fog.” He said that rescue teams had been hampered in reaching the areas as a result of difficult weather conditions.

According to Iran’s state TV, the “accident” took place near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan.

The IRNA news agency reported that more than 60 rescue teams using search dogs and drones had been sent to a mountainous forest area near the town of Varzaghan. Soldiers, police and personnel from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) have also been sent.

Raisi’s death could trigger a political crisis and lead to sharp infighting in the country’s Islamic bourgeois clerical regime. He was installed as president, replacing the so-called moderate Hassan Rouhani, who had to step down after serving two terms, in an anti-democratic election limited to a handful of hand-picked candidates.

Raisi, a conservative, is regarded as close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was Tehran’s prosecutor-general from 1989 to 1994, deputy chief of the Judicial Authority for a decade from 2004, and then national prosecutor-general in 2014.

His election took place amid the breakdown of Iran’s nuclear deal with the US and European imperialist powers known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which Rouhani had championed. The crippling US-led sanctions regime had produced a severe economic and social crisis, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic that fueled growing political unrest.

A significant element of the sanctions was a US ban on the export of much-needed spare parts necessary to maintain and repair Iran’s aging fleet of aircraft and helicopters. Raisi and other officials were flying in a civilian Bell 212 helicopter mainly manufactured in the US.

The 2021 election placed the hardline or principalist faction, aligned closely with the IRGC, in firm control of all branches of the state apparatus. Under Raisi, the regime responded to the eruption of protests and strikes with savage repression, including executions.

A comment in the US-based Atlantic headlined, “Who would benefit from Ebrahim Raisi’s Death?” suggested indirectly that the crash, if confirmed, might not be accidental. After noting that an accident was certainly possible given the state of Iran’s helicopter fleet, the terrain and poor weather conditions, the writer declared: “Yet suspicions will inevitably surround the crash” and the question “who benefits” is posed.

The article itself is limited to an examination of the competing political factions within Iran. Raisi faced opposition not only from the so-called moderates that have championed market reform and closer relations with the West, but more hardline factions critical of Raisi’s lack of tougher measures.

However, the question “who benefits” also has to be placed within the context of the rapidly intensifying geo-political tensions developing throughout the Middle East, fueled by the US-backed Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel, the US and its allies are engaged in a de-facto military conflict in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The chief target is Iran and any militia, parties or governments aligned with Tehran.

While waging its barbaric war in Gaza, Israel has carried out numerous airstrikes inside Lebanon and Syria, not only against leading members of the Hamas and Hezbollah militias but against top Iranian officials. The most provocative was an airstrike on April 1 on the Iranian embassy in Damascus that killed three senior IRGC leaders.

The murder of Iranian officials inside diplomatic grounds that by international convention constitute Iranian territory was an act of war designed to inflame tensions and fuel conflict with Iran. In the event, Iran responded on April 13 by launching a barrage of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles on Israeli airfields, but telegraphed its action days in advance, ensuring that Israel, the US and its allies were able to shoot most down. Little damage was done.

Even as it wreaks death and destruction in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, driving a new wave of Palestinian refugees, the fascistic Zionist regime, backed to the hilt by US imperialism, is more than capable of carrying out further provocations. It is notorious throughout the Middle East for its lawlessness, including sabotage and assassinations inside Iran.

The list of who stands to benefit from political turmoil inside Iran must also include Israel and the United States.