Transportation unions call for strike in Argentina

Rafael Azul

Seven key transit and transportation unions in Argentina meeting at a National Transportation Conference (Mesa Nacional de Transporte) decided on a 24-hour protest strike against the policies of the Javier Milei administration which, in less than a year, have sunk millions of Argentines into joblessness, hunger and extreme poverty.

Workers protesting in front of Argentina's national Congress against Milei's changing of labor laws. [Photo by Axrg / CC BY-SA 4.0]

At the conference last week were leaders of the truckers, pilots, flight crews, as well as rail, dock, maritime and transit workers.

The protest strike will take place on October 17, an important anniversary in the history of Argentine Peronism. On October 17, 1945, over 100,000 workers rallied in Buenos Aires, demanding that Labor Secretary Juan Peron and his wife Eva be released from military arrest. Nine days earlier the military Junta, that Peron himself had been part of—alarmed over his pro-union and corporatist demagogic policies—placed him under arrest.

Though the conference delegates declared that the choice of date had nothing to do with the October 17 anniversary, they did so with large photographs of Juan and Eva Peron behind them, symbolizing the unions’ subordination to a bourgeois party that provides the fascistic Milei indispensable support.

The protest-strike call was triggered by the proposed privatization of state-owned Aerolíneas Argentinas.

Aerolíneas, a successful airline established as a government airline under Peron in 1949, was privatized in 1990 under the Menem administration (also a Peronist) as part of a neo-liberal wave of privatizations, which turned the debt-free airline into a private corporation managed by Iberia Airlines (Spain). Two years later as a result of mismanagement and corruption, the airline had accumulated debts of $530 million and had to be rescued by the Argentine government through the purchase of shares of stock. In 2008 heavily in debt and on the edge of bankruptcy, the airline was re-nationalized under the (Peronist) administration of Cristina Kirchner, to be run as a public utility and in large part, based on the sacrifices of its workers.

The privatization of Aerolíneas Argentinas was part of the government’s policy of privatizing every possible public enterprise. This was seconded by Transportation Secretary Franco Mogetta, who called on Congress to approve a decree to be formalized this week, in order to “force Aerolíneas Argentinas to submit to the dictates of the market, and function like all the other airlines.”

On September 27, the Milei administration declared its intentions to privatize the airline once again by transforming it into a privately owned corporation. The privatization of the airline had been originally included in, and then removed from, the Law of Bases legislation (also known as the “Omnibus Bill”) approved by Congress earlier this year.

In its message motivating the decree Milei indicated that in a nation with a poverty rate of 52.9 percent, “it is irresponsible and inadmissible for the State to keep financing the deficit [of the airline] and the privileges of a few by taxing those that cannot make it to the end of the month.”

Specifically, the Milei administration identifies the “privileged few” as the supposedly overpaid pilots of the airline.  

The president’s message contrasted the hunger wages and pensions of the working class of the country with the wages and benefits of pilots. “Monthly pilots’ wages range from US$2400 to US$8000 … family members and friends enjoy free tickets.”

In this way, the government, which has broken off negotiations with the pilots’ union, is attempting to pit the more oppressed sections of the working class against the pilots.

Manuel Adorni, Milei’s press secretary, denounced the fact that the airline employs 15 pilots per airplane, which he considers “absolutely unnecessary.” 

Currently the airline flies 11 million passengers a year on 95,000 flights. It is the only airline serving 22 cities in the country’s interior.

Nothing in the Decree message acknowledges that the conditions of poverty that affect millions of  workers and retirees in Argentina today are the direct consequence of Milei’s brutal austerity policies. These policies have included the removal of food entitlements and the cancellation of wage and pension increases to keep up with the increase in the cost of living, including food, fuel, medical care, child care and housing (the Total Basics Basket, Canasta Basica Total, CBT).

Recent statistics indicate that Argentina’s poverty rate among households living below the CBT in the first semester of 2024 reached 52.9 percent, the highest in 20 years, a 13 percent increase since Milei took power. The level of indigence, those households unable to afford the Basic Food Basket (Canasta Basica Alimentaria, CBA), stands at 18.1 percent, up from 6.2 percent in the first semester of 2023. For children under the age of 14, the figures are even more alarming—with 66 percent, or 6.9 million, now living in poverty and 27 percent indigent, or over 3 million children, unable to afford the most basic necessities of life, condemned to a life of hunger, with little or no education.

This month, municipal surveyors in the industrial and port city of Rosario (population 1.4 million) reported a 40 percent increase in the number of people scavenging garbage [cartoneros] in Rosario’s city center. Nationally over 150,000 workers live off the collection of cardboard and other materials, an occupation that did not exist prior to 2001, a mark of poverty which increases every year. Cartonero workers, many of whom are homeless, report that the recycling firms that buy their recyclable trash have cut down on the amount that they pay. Currently, each collector earns less than half of the minimum average daily wage.

Two new studies on mucosal vaccines and Long COVID underscore the criminality of the “forever COVID” policy

Benjamin Mateus

The ninth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is finally receding, with estimated daily new infections based on wastewater data now standing at 669,000 per day, down from the August peaks of over 1.3 million. However, experts predict that the tenth wave will begin in late fall and continue through the winter holidays, as has taken place every year of the pandemic so far.

COVID-19 wastewater levels in the United States indicating that 669,000 Americans continue to be infected every day [Photo by PMC, Michael Hoerger]

With one in 70 individuals currently infectious, the risk of coming into contact with someone in a classroom, work, or dining at a local facility with 25 to 50 people is considerable. And despite the relative lull in cases, there is more COVID-19 transmission now than during 56.1 percent of the pandemic. In other words, the “forever COVID” policy essentially means that COVID is now everywhere all the time.

Under these conditions, forced upon society by the capitalist ruling class, repeat infections act like a battering ram, taking a growing toll on the foundation of everyone’s overall wellbeing. There is a growing body of evidence that each hit weakens the organ systems, aging them biologically beyond the person’s stated age until sufficient injury begins to manifest in physically measurable symptoms.

At present, more than one billion cumulative COVID infections have occurred in the US, at a rate of around one per year per person, with somewhere between 3-4 infections on average among the entire population. Estimates place the number of Long COVID cases at over 410 million globally in just the first four years of the pandemic, while excess deaths are nearing 30 million.

Clearly, the pandemic is ongoing and remains a significant health risk for the global population. The criminality of the “forever COVID” policy is highlighted by the fact that virtually no funding is allocated to the development of next-generation mucosal vaccines, improved treatments during the acute phase of infection, or any treatments for Long COVID patients. While trillions are squandered on war and bank bailouts for the rich, nothing is provided for critical life-saving research.

Last week, results from the first clinical trial of a mucosal vaccine were released, showing remarkable levels of efficacy after a second dose.

The important study published by Chinese investigators demonstrated that an intranasally administered anti-COVID vaccine can induce robust mucosal immunity against the coronavirus in human subjects (128 healthcare workers). The study found that the vaccine provided substantial immune protection against COVID while demonstrating safety and tolerance.

Esteemed clinical researcher Dr. Eric Topol wrote on Twitter/X, “[two] doses of a COVID nasal vaccine spray led to more than a 50-fold increase in spike specific secretory IgA antibodies against 10 strains of SARS-CoV-2, indicative of potent mucosal immunity.” Furthermore, Topol added, “At least 86.2 percent of participants who completed two nasal vaccines doses maintained uninfected status, likely without even asymptomatic infection, for at least three months.”

Emergency room physician and indoor air quality proponent, Dr. Kashif Pirzada, replied, “This could potentially give a real ending to the pandemic. No more waves of illness, no more rushing for tests and antivirals if you’re elderly or vulnerable. Hope this comes out soon!”

However, large Phase 3 clinical trials are costly, requiring multiple participants to obtain statistically relevant information on clinical endpoints, not to speak of the research and development investment to identify a therapeutic that can be tested. Thus, under capitalism, there is virtually no investment in these large-scale trials and nothing is being done beyond offering boosters of the current vaccine, despite their greatly reduced efficacy in preventing transmission.

The mucosal vaccine study was conducted just as Chinese officials acquiesced to the demands of the imperialist powers to abandon their life-saving Zero-COVID public health program, resulting in the infection of virtually the entire population and the deaths of 1-2 million people. What could such a vaccine have meant to these millions that perished needlessly and the millions more globally since then?

This raises the broader question of why the international community, facing a devastating pandemic, could not bring its accumulated scientific bodies to address the need to develop a preventative treatment against COVID?

As a trigger event in world history, the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated and exposed the deep-seated contradictions in global capitalism, which demands the accumulation of profits at any costs. The ruling class has nothing but contempt for workers, refusing to invest in any social programs that can improve the lives of masses of people. Short sightedness, corruption, mistrust, and suspicion epitomize their actions, which are rapidly progressing to a world conflagration carrying the danger of nuclear war.

Simply put, the ruling class cares not one iota about mucosal vaccines, just as they harbor resentment against any public health policy that infringes on their ability to conduct business.

Refusing to invest in these life-saving technologies, the capitalist ruling class has condemned humanity to face a lifetime of reinfections with COVID-19. What are the implications of this criminal policy?

Multiple previous studies have highlighted the dangers posed by reinfections with SARS-CoV-2. A recent study uploaded as a pre-print publication on Research Square (under review with the journal Nature Portfolio) by the Patient-Led Collaborative has once again found similar results when attempting to characterize the association between reinfections and the chronic debilitating condition known as Long COVID.

Among 3,382 participants (22 percent never had COVID, 42 percent with one prior infection and 35 percent with two or more infections), the risk of Long COVID was 2.14 times more likely among those with two COVID infections and 3.75 times more likely among those who had three or more COVID Infections compared to just one. Limitations in physical functioning measured in their study included ability to dress, bathe, perform moderate activities like vacuuming and functioning socially. Reinfections led to poorer overall health and worse immune health, including more severe outcomes and longer recovery from other infections.

As the authors wrote:

Relative to those who did not report infections or experienced COVID-19 once, reinfections were associated with increased likelihood of severe fatigue, post-exertional malaise, decreased physical function, poorer immune health, symptom exacerbation before menstruation, and multiple other Long COVID symptoms. While vaccinations and boosters prior to infection are associated with lower likelihood of Long COVID, reinfections diminish their protective effect. The probability of reporting Long COVID remission is generally low (11.5 percent to 6.5 percent).

Fatigue Severity Scale and Post-Exertional Malaise probability as a function of the number of infections compared to no prior infections. [Photo by Patient-Led Research Collaborative / CC BY 4.0]

Another interesting finding of the study, which underscores the complete abandonment of public health efforts regarding COVID, is that a tiny number of those infected were prescribed antivirals during their acute COVID infections. Those with reinfections were also less likely to test, as the “forever COVID” policy has inured people from taking any protective measures to prevent infections.

The current alphabet soup of COVID strains is sees KP.3.1.1 dominate across the US and Europe, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all strains. However, a new variant known as XEC that was first detected in Germany in June has spread to more than 27 countries and accounts for six percent of all recently sequenced SARS-CoV-2 viruses in the US. Virologists expect this strain, derived from JN.1 through a complex recombination event and which has nearly twice the growth advantage, to overtake KP.3.1.1 and be the dominant variant during the winter season.

Variant proportions in the US [Photo: CDC]

In a COVID update by TACT [Together Against COVID Transmission], the authors explain the dangers posed by these evolutionary developments of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses, writing:

These variants can evade much of the immune responses from both vaccines and recent infections. Since they can evade antibodies to earlier variants, then that raises the risk of organ damage, vascular and neurological dysfunction, brain damage, and persistent infections which often leads to Long COVID. The unmitigated spread is raising concerns about their impact in the coming months.

Hospitalization rates for those 65 years and older and children were one of the highest during the summer from COVID and remain on par with the prior year’s summer/fall wave. The number of people that died from COVID In the week ending August 31, 2024, has climbed to 1,239, four times higher than the lows seen in June. At the present rate, it is expected that at least 60,000 people will officially lose their lives from acute COVID this year, not including deaths incorrectly attributed to another cause or due to the impact on the population’s health from accumulated infections.

These are not incidental and speculative issues. In a provocative report released by the Swiss Re Group, titled “The future of excess mortality after COVID-19,” one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance and insurance, who specialize in financing the risk of death, they said, “[If] the ongoing impact of the disease is not curtailed, excess mortality rates in the general population may remain up to three percent higher then pre-pandemic levels in the US and 2.5 percent in the UK by 2033.”

They advised their investors:

Based on current medical trends and expected advancements, we conclude that COVID-19 is still driving excess mortality both directly and indirectly. In the long term, lifestyle factors that contribute to poor metabolic health and lead to obesity and diabetes may become another compounding factor in population excess mortality. Insurers may wish to continue to monitor excess mortality and its underlying drivers in the general population closely, as well as the differences between general and insured populations.

Israel launches ground operations in Lebanon amid ongoing air bombardment

Jordan Shilton

The Israeli military launched its ground incursion into southern Lebanon early Tuesday morning. While Israeli officials claimed that ground operations would be limited in scope, scale and duration, the claims are no more believable in the case of Lebanon than in Gaza.

Underscoring the central involvement of American imperialism in the escalating region-wide war, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington is in “continuous conversation” with the Israeli military about its invasion, while public broadcaster Kan referred to “intensive coordination” between Israel and the US on how to deal with an Iranian attack.

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. [AP Photo/Hussein Malla]

Reuters reported late Monday that Lebanese army units were seen leaving positions on the Lebanon-Israel border and were retreating 5 kilometres inside Lebanese territory. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced a “closed military zone” encompassing several northern communities along the border, emphasising that entering the area was forbidden. An official told the Times of Israel that one goal of the operation would be to eliminate Hezbollah positions along the border. A meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet later Monday decided to proceed with the operation.

Heavy shelling and air strikes targeted several locations along the border. The IDF ordered residents in Dahiyeh, the southern suburb of Beirut and a traditional Hezbollah stronghold, to leave their homes. Shortly afterwards, major explosions were heard as at least eight strikes occurred shortly after midnight Tuesday morning, according to Lebanese news agency NNA, destroying several residential buildings.

The invasion of southern Lebanon follows a weekend of unrestrained violence by the Zionist regime, including the massacring of hundreds of civilians in air strikes across the country. The targeted assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah Friday claimed some 300 civilian lives, as six multi-story buildings were flattened in Beirut’s southern suburbs. In the 24 hours to Monday, 136 people were reportedly killed by Israeli strikes. The intensive bombing, which included the first strike on central Beirut Sunday night, has forced some 100,000 people to flee to neighbouring Syria, where a fratricidal conflict stoked by US imperialism for over a decade is ongoing.

Israel also struck the ports of Hodeidah and Ras Issa in Yemen, some 2,000 kilometres from its border, Sunday. The strikes, which targeted power plants and facilities used by the Houthis to import oil, killed six people and injured 57.

While Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets into northern Israel, the sustained attacks of the past two weeks appear to have seriously undermined its capabilities. Brussels-based military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera that Israel has struck at least 3,000 to 3,500 Hezbollah missile units. “There are thousands of Hezbollah operatives who’ve lost their hands or their eyesight, and they’ve been evacuated to hospitals in Syria and Iran. Therefore, these fighters are out of the equation and can no longer participate in any potential war,” he added, referring to the consequences of Israel’s terrorist attack on September 17, when hundreds of communication devices exploded. In addition to Nasrallah, dozens of top Hezbollah commanders have been murdered.

In an indication of the indiscriminate character of the onslaught, akin to the ongoing slaughter of the Palestinians in Gaza, 14 Lebanese paramedics were killed in two days of bombing up to Sunday. On Monday, the health ministry reported the deaths of a further six paramedics in renewed air strikes.

Asked at a press briefing about the reports of a ground invasion, Miller confirmed US imperialism’s intimate involvement in the major escalation of the war. “They have informed us about a number of operations,” said Miller, referring to Israel. “They have at this time, told us that those are limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border, but we’re in continuous conversations about it.” With breathtaking cynicism, he added, “Military pressure can at times enable diplomacy.”

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken became the latest US official to revel in the mass slaughter, hailing the assassination of Nasrallah. The Hezbollah leader was a “brutal terrorist” and “the region, the world are safer without him,” he said.

Behind the bogus public statements about a “limited” operation, Israel’s far-right regime is clearly launching a massive offensive to revenge the setback it suffered during the month-long 2006 war on Lebanon, when Hezbollah mobilised broad popular support against an IDF invasion. The United Nations confirmed that its 10,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was tasked with monitoring the ceasefire agreement that brought the 2006 war to an end, was no longer in a position to carry out patrols due to the intensity of fighting.

Speaking to troops in northern Israel, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who infamously labelled Gaza residents as “human animals” as Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians began, declared, “the elimination of Nasrallah is a very important step, but it is not everything.

“We will use all the capabilities we have. If someone on the other side did not understand what the capabilities mean, it is all capabilities, and you are part of this effort.”

Netanyahu’s far-right regime intends to annex parts of Lebanon, alongside Gaza and the West Bank, as part of its US-backed drive to restructure the entire Middle East. Netanyahu and other leading officials have bluntly laid out this agenda, including in speeches to the US Congress in July and UN General Assembly last week.

Israel’s aggressive expansion of the conflict, which is rapidly assuming the dimensions of a Middle East-wide war, is made possible by the unflinching support it enjoys from US imperialism. As the World Socialist Web Site explained within days of Israel launching its destruction of Gaza, Washington endorsed the genocide because it viewed it as a critical component of the preparations for a region-wide war with Iran. In an October 23, 2023 Perspective column taking note of the US surging of troops and naval vessels to the region following the commencement of Israel’s assault on Gaza, the WSWS wrote,

The Biden administration is escalating the war in the Middle East and threatening to directly attack Iran as part of what it sees as a globe-spanning conflict for world hegemony, stretching from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and the Pacific. American imperialism, confronted with the economic rise of China and the global decline of the US economy, sees war as the means to assert world domination.

Over the past year, Washington has supplied billions of dollars in weaponry to Israel, including the 2,000-pound bombs that have turned Gaza into a wasteland and are now devastating Beirut and southern and eastern Lebanon.

The Pentagon announced Monday that Washington will send “a few thousand” more US troops to the region, increasing the number of US soldiers in the Middle East to 43,000, according to the AP. The bulk of the new forces consist of squadrons of fighter jets and attack aircraft. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated Sunday that he had extended the deployment by a month of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. A second aircraft carrier strike group, the USS Harry Truman, recently departed from Virginia and is expected to arrive in the region in a week.

With their repeated escalatory actions, Israel and its US paymaster are attempting to goad Iran into some sort of response, which can then be used to launch a vicious attack on Tehran. Already this year, Israel assassinated seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members in Damascus and humiliated Iran’s bourgeois-clerical regime by killing Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was visiting Tehran as a guest at the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. For their part, the Iranian regime and its bourgeois-nationalist allies throughout the region have nothing to offer in the face of this imperialist-led onslaught, other than vain pleas for an accommodation with the imperialist powers.

Japan’s ruling party selects far right leader as prime minister

Ben McGrath

Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Shigeru Ishiba as its new president on Friday. As head of the party, he will be installed as the country’s new prime minister at a parliamentary session tomorrow, replacing Fumio Kishida.

Shigeru Ishiba (right) with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (left) celebrates after Ishiba was elected as new head of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, September 27, 2024, in Tokyo [AP Photo/Hiro Komae, Pool]

Ishiba’s selection marks a significant further shift to the right in official Japanese politics that will accelerate remilitarization and preparations for war against China.

Nine candidates ran in what was a highly anti-democratic affair. In the first round of voting, Ishiba came in second to fellow anti-China hawk Sanae Takaichi, who was close to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and represented Abe’s faction. Falling short of a majority, the two went to a run-off vote. Ishiba then received 215 votes to Takaichi’s 194.

The voting process heavily favored the LDP’s parliamentarians from both the lower and upper houses of the National Diet, who were each allotted one vote for a total of 368. The party’s membership of 1.1 million received a fraction of a vote, with their totals also equaling 368 points. In the run-off, the Diet members kept their vote totals while other party members were excluded. Each of the LDP’s chapters from Japan’s 47 prefectures instead received a vote.

Outgoing PM Kishida announced on August 14 that he would not stand for reelection as party president, essentially resigning as prime minister, after coming under pressure over corruption scandals that have gripped the party. Rather than corruption, the chief concerns of the LDP and ruling class were the ability of the government to prepare for war while suppressing growing working-class opposition to attacks on living conditions at home.

This paved the way for Ishiba, who has often postured as a party “outsider,” pledged to “clean up” the LDP. In reality, he is a longstanding member of the party and, like many in the Japanese government, comes from an established political family.

His father, Jiro Ishiba, began his career as a bureaucrat before World War II and was governor of Tottori Prefecture from 1958 until 1974 before being elected to the upper house of the National Diet. Jiro Ishiba also served in the cabinet of Zenko Suzuki as home affairs minister. Following his father’s death in 1981, the LDP recruited the younger Ishiba to run for a Diet seat from Tottori Province in 1986.

Ishiba’s career has been marked by involvement with the military and a focus on Japan’s remilitarization. From 2002 to 2004, he served as the director of the Defense Agency, which became the Defense Ministry in 2007. He then became defense minister from 2007 to 2008. He has held other cabinet positions while also serving as the LDP’s secretary-general from 2012 to 2014. He previously ran for LDP president in 2008, 2012, 2018 and 2020. Ishiba is a member of Nippon Kaigi, an ultra-nationalist organization that not only advocates remilitarization, but the tearing up of basic democratic rights.

To the extent that Ishiba differs from other politicians within his party, it has been over the pace of remilitarization. Ishiba has advocated a more rapid program of rearming, which includes spending more on the military than the current plan to double the military budget to 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2027. He was a critique of the right-wing Abe government for not going far enough, even as it carried out constitutional “reinterpretations” to work around post-World War II legal barriers to remilitarizing and rammed legislation through parliament to enable Japan to go to war alongside allies.

Now, without even waiting to be confirmed as prime minister, Ishiba has made clear that his government will be one of militarism and war. In an article for the right-wing Washington-based Hudson Institute published shortly after his election as LDP chief, Ishiba reiterated the LDP’s longstanding plans for constitutional revision.

Though Ishiba did not state it explicitly, he has on previous occasions declared that Article 9 of the constitution, which formally bars Japan from maintaining a military or going to war, should be deleted, not just changed to directly recognize the existence of the armed forces, currently called the “Self-Defense Forces,” as the Abe faction has advocated.

Ishiba called for the creation of an “Asian NATO” that would be capable of fighting a war with China, as well as Russia and North Korea. In doing so, he is pushing for Japan to play a larger role militarily within the Indo-Pacific, speaking for sections of the capitalist class that advocate more independence from Washington.

In addition, Ishiba proposed revising the post World War II US-Japan security treaty, changing it “into a treaty between ‘ordinary countries.’” He criticized the existing treaty for being “structured so that the US is obligated to ‘defend’ Japan, and Japan is obligated to ‘provide bases’ to the US.”

Ishiba suggested that a revised treaty could allow Japan to station its military at Guam, a US island territory in the west Pacific. He is thus attempting to create the conditions for Japanese imperialism to project power throughout the Pacific. To date, Tokyo has only one overseas military base, located in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, ostensibly to combat piracy.

Ishiba declared that an “Asian NATO” should “specifically consider America’s sharing of nuclear weapons or the introduction of nuclear weapons into the region.” Any open introduction of US nuclear weapons into Japan could set a precedent for Japan to acquire its own weapons, which Ishiba has long advocated.

Any move by Japan to introduce US nuclear weapons or acquire its own nuclear arsenal would provoke considerable opposition as memories of the horrific toll of the US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during 1945 run deep among working people.

Ishiba justified his stance in his Hudson Institute piece by repeating a phrase often used by Kishida that “Ukraine today is Asia tomorrow,” accusing China of planning an “unprovoked” war against Taiwan.

Raising tensions with China, Ishiba in August led a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan where he met with President Lai Ching-te. Ishiba declared that Japan should stand “shoulder to shoulder” with supposed “democratic” governments in the region against Beijing.

In reality, Washington and its allies, including Tokyo, have goaded and stoked tensions with Beijing over Taiwan, just as the US provoked the Moscow regime into invading Ukraine, including by expanding NATO to Russia’s borders.

The US and its partners are increasingly challenging the One China policy which states that Taiwan is a part of China. For more than four decades, both Washington and Tokyo have had formal diplomatic relations with Beijing de facto recognizing it as the legitimate government of all China including Taiwan. China’s ruling elite is conscious that Taiwan could become a military base for future imperialist attacks on the mainland.

Chinese central bank unleashes major financial stimulus

Nick Beams

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has unleashed a series of financial stimulus measures, highlighting the mounting concern in the Xi Jinping regime over the lowered Chinese growth rate and fears that it will not meet the official target of “around 5 percent” for this year.

Governor of the People's Bank of China Pan Gongsheng in Beijing, Wednesday, March 6, 2024 [AP Photo/Ng Han Guan]

The decisions were announced at a one and a half hour briefing by the PBoC governor and other officials on Tuesday.

However, in the absence of any moves by the government for a fiscal stimulus—that is, increased government spending—doubts were immediately raised that the financial measures, while providing a boost, will be sufficient.

The measures are largely directed to the financial system, the stock market and better-off sections of the middle class, who form the social base of the regime.

The main decisions were a cut in the central bank’s base interest rate from 1.7 percent to 1.5 percent, and a reduction in the reserve requirement rate (RRR) by 0.5 percentage points while signaling a further cut of 0.25 to 0.5 percentage points later this year. The PBoC said the reduction would add 1 trillion renminbi ($142 billion) in liquidity to the banking system.

A note issued by Goldman Sachs, reported by the Financial Times, said the “rare simultaneous cut of policy rates and RRR, the relatively large magnitude of cuts and the unusual guidance on further policy easing indicated policymakers’ growing concerns over growth headwinds.”

Other measures were aimed at trying to boost the stock market and the property sector. The central bank said 500 billion renminbi ($71 billion) would be provided to help brokers, insurance companies and funds buy stocks, with 300 billion available to help companies make share buybacks.

Announcing the decision to make available a total of $114 billion, the central bank governor Pan Gongshen said it was the first time the PBoC had “innovated” and used such measures. He indicated they could be doubled or tripled if they worked.

The measures saw a rise in the benchmark CSI share index of 4.3 percent, but it is still down 40 percent from its peak in 2021.

Another significant move aimed at shoring up support in the better-off sections of the middle class was the decision to reduce the minimum down payment on a second home purchase from 25 percent to 15 percent.

The PBoC will also try and boost the property market by ramping up its re-lending program for state-owned firms to acquire unsold property by providing 100 percent of the principal of bank loans for these purchases, lifting it from the 60 percent it announced last May.

The very sharp downturn in the property market has weighed heavily on consumer confidence and spending. According to calculations by Barclays, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, the “property crunch since 2021 has incinerated some $18 trillion in household wealth.”

Central bank governor Pan said the new measures were intended to “support the stable growth of China’s economy” and promote a modest rebound in prices. Economists have warned that the slowdown in growth risks pushing China into a deflationary cycle.

Pan gave a more upbeat assessment. “The Chinese economy is recovering and the monetary policies introduced by our bank this time will help support the real economy, incentivise spending and investment and also provide a stable footing for the exchange rate.”

This is not the view of economists, both in China and internationally, who insist that the government must intervene with a fiscal stimulus package to boost the economy. There is no indication that it has any intention of doing so, even though such measures were employed in the past, because it fears they will add to debt, with the potential to cause major financial problems.

The official line of the government is to develop what President Xi calls “high quality productive forces,” based on high-tech and more efficient methods of production, and increase exports to the rest of the world.

But there is no indication that this strategy is providing a boost to the domestic policy, which critics of the government say is necessary. Moreover, it is running into obstacles in the form of increased tariffs imposed on Chinese goods.

Consequently, while the PBoC measures were broadly welcomed, they were regarded as being insufficient.

The size of the “big bazooka,” which many are calling for, was outlined in a speech given by a former top government adviser to an economic policy conference, held last week on the eve of the PBoC announcement.

Liu Shijin, former director of the State Council’s Development Research Centre, whose remarks were reported in the South China Morning Post, said the stimulus package should be at least 10 trillion renminbi, or $1.42 trillion.

He said it should be funded by ultra-long-term bonds and be directed to addressing gaps in social facilities.

“A key area is to significantly improve basic public services for new citizens, particularly rural migrant workers moving to the cities, in areas like affordable housing, education, health care, social security and elderly care.”

The focus on these areas reflects concerns, in sections of the regime and their economic advisers, that the falling growth rate means a decline in the prospects for the working class and could lead to major class struggles. The Chinese leadership used to say that 8 percent growth was needed to maintain “social stability.” Now it will struggle to make 5 percent, with most forecasters predicting a continuing downward trend.

While not specifying the size of the fiscal boost, numerous commentators and analysts insisted the PBoC measures were not enough.

Morgan Stanley said the boost to the stock market was “an absolute positive move,” but said improvement and a rebound rally was “more dependent on macro recovery as well as corporate earnings growth bottoming out.”

Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China Economics at Capital Economics based in Singapore, told the WSJ the central bank’s measures were a step in the right direction, “but are not really enough to drive a turnaround in the economy” and more aggressive fiscal support was missing.

Liu Chang, a macro economist at BNP Paribas Asset Management, told the FT that while the stimulus was “certainly positive,” officials needed to act “very quickly in the weeks ahead to implement additional measures if they wish to get to the 5 percent target.”

“In this regard, we think there is still a worrying lack of urgency behind their words around stimulus,” he continued.

An FT editorial comment summed up the general sentiment, saying the measures failed to grapple with the reality of China’s economic challenges.

“Domestic demand is saddled by high precautionary saving rates and low confidence in the private sector,” it said. “Beijing’s desire for export-led growth is also under pressure from the intensifying trade war with the US. The latest measures are poorly targeted for these problems, and may largely be a cosmetic effort to hit Beijing’s annual 5 percent economic growth target.”

Israeli government rejects calls for ceasefire in war on Lebanon

Thomas Scripps

Israeli government officials delivered a uniform, savage rebuttal Thursday to the ceasefire proposal for the war with Lebanon proposed by 12 of Tel Aviv’s close allies, including the United States, UK and the European Union.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced bluntly: “The news about a ceasefire—not true. This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond. The news about the supposed directive to moderate the fighting in the north is also the opposite of the truth.

“The prime minister instructed the IDF to continue the fighting with full force, and according to the plans presented to him. Also, the fighting in Gaza will continue until all the goals of the war are achieved.”

Touching down in the US, where he will speak at the United Nations, Netanyahu said, “We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals,” which he claimed was the return of evacuated Israeli residents to the north of the country.

A man carries pictures of his relatives standing at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Saksakieh, south Lebanon, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. [AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari]

No effort was made to suggest that Israel would consider future proposals. The line from the prime minister on down was that the war would continue as long as they wished.

Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened, as he has over Gaza, to lead his Jewish Power party out of coalition with Netanyahu and collapse the government if a ceasefire were agreed. He said, according to Haaretz, “Every day that this ceasefire is in effect and Israel does not fight in the north—Otzma Yehudit [Jewish Power] is not committed to the coalition.”

His close political ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich commented, “The campaign in the north should end in one scenario—crushing Hezbollah… Surrender of Hezbollah or war, that’s the only way”.

The sentiment of these two most openly fascist members of the Israeli cabinet is shared by them all.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared, “There will be no ceasefire in the north. We will continue to fight against the terrorist organization Hezbollah with all our might until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant confirmed that the Israeli military would “continue throwing Hezbollah off balance and deepening their loss,” including by “eliminating Hezbollah terrorists, dismantling Hezbollah's offensive infrastructure and destroying rockets and missiles”.

Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi was even more bloodthirsty: “We need to continue attacking Hezbollah, we have been waiting for this opportunity for years.”

After Halevi said Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces were preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon, the IDF announced Thursday that it had carried out exercises simulating “combat in thicketed, mountainous terrain,” adding, “During the exercise, the troops enhanced their operational and logistical readiness for various combat scenarios in enemy territory on the northern front.”

The belligerence of the Israeli government comes in the face of an extremely muted response from its target in Lebanon, Hezbollah. The organisation released a video Wednesday stating, “We can escalate, but we are choosing to de-escalate at the moment.”

Israeli negotiators strung along the idea of de-escalation in pantomime ceasefire talks over the last few days. Jacob Magid, US bureau chief for the Times of Israel, wrote after speaking with a senior Western diplomat, “Netanyahu’s conduct is extension of how he handled the Gaza hostage talks where he has privately agreed to show flexibility only to make public statement immediately afterward… thwarting progress.”

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the statement endorsing the ceasefire US President Joe Biden had released with French President Emmanuel Macron “was indeed coordinated with the Israeli side.”

Nevertheless, over Wednesday night and into Thursday, IDF airstrikes continued on scores of targets across Lebanon, and over the border with Syria. The worst was on a three-storey building in the Lebanese town of Younine, where 23 Syrians were killed—mostly women and children.

Sixty people were killed in total in the latest 24-hour period reported by the Lebanese authorities, and 81 injured, taking the total killed since Monday to more than 600, roughly a quarter of them women and children. These deaths bring the number slain in Lebanon since the genocide in Gaza and cross-border hostilities with Israel began to more than 1,500 people, plus over 5,400 injured.

A new round of strikes began Thursday night.

At least 200,000 people are now displaced in Lebanon, with more than 70,000 living in over 500 shelters around the country. Its interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi estimated that the real number of displaced is approaching half a million, in a country which hosts 1.5 million displaced Syrians and the largest number of refugees per capita and square kilometre anywhere in the world.

Over 15,000 Syrian citizens have now fled back to Syria, alongside more than 16,000 Lebanese.

Luna Hammad, medical coordinator in Lebanon for Doctors Without Borders, explained that the injuries and displacements were placing “immense pressure on an already fragile health system,” adding that “Health facilities are operating with extremely limited capacity due to the shortages of fuel, supplies and staff… People here are already facing immense hardship due to the economic crisis and this has deepened their suffering.”

The response from Israel’s imperialist backers has been to issue new ineffectual calls for a ceasefire. Lloyd Austin, the US secretary of defence, told reporters, “A full-scale war between LH [Lebanese Hezbollah] and Israel could be devastating for both parties and it could lead to a larger conflict throughout the region. That’s not in the best interests of anyone.”

Asked if the US would withhold military support to Israel if the country refused a ceasefire and proceeded to a ground invasion, however, he answered that Washington had been “committed from the very beginning” to providing Israel with “things that are necessary for them to be able to protect their sovereign territory—and that hasn’t changed and won’t change”.

Underscoring the point, Israel announced that it had secured an $8.7 billion military aid package from the US, including, according to Reuters, “$3.5 billion for essential wartime procurement, which has already been received and earmarked for critical military purchases, and $5.2 billion designated for air defense systems.”

Reuters added that Israel’s Defense Ministry “said the deal underscores the ‘strong and enduring strategic partnership between Israel and the United States and the ironclad commitment to Israel's security’, particularly in addressing regional security threats from Iran and Iranian-backed militias.”

Confirming this ultimate target of US-backed Israeli aggression, the Jerusalem Post, sure of a warm audience, editorialised Thursday that “the West and the US” should not “fall for” new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who spoke at the UN that day, “and grant any kind of relief to the country that is the source of so much of what ails the region”.