Chad ends longstanding military cooperation with France

Kumaran Ira

On November 28, the Chadian government announced that it is “putting an end to the defense cooperation agreement signed with the French Republic.” The announcement came just after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot left Chad. It signifies a major setback for French imperialism’s influence in its former African colonial empire.

France's President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo, center, welcome Chad's President General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno for the 19th Francophonie summit in Villers-Cotterets, France, Friday, October 4, 2024. [AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard]

Chad, in North-Central Africa, was under French rule from 1900 until formal independence in 1960. French imperialism has continued to exert strong influence on the post-independence regime, through military and political as well as financial means. Chad hosts a significant French presence, with about 1,000 soldiers as well as warplanes stationed in the country.

During the Operation Barkhane phase of France’s war in Mali, from 2014 to 2022, Chad played a pivotal role as a key enabler of France’s war. The operation’s headquarters were based in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. This strategic location allowed French forces to coordinate and launch operations throughout the Sahel region, particularly targeting countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Chad also furnished a substantial number of troops as cannon fodder for the French army to mount operations.

After mass protests and military coups in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, however, France was compelled to withdraw its troops from these countries. They also left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and established a rival defense alliance, the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES). Meanwhile, protests mounted in Chad against France’s military presence.

On Thursday, Chad's Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah announced, “After 66 years since the independence of the Republic of Chad, it is time for Chad to assert its full sovereignty, and to redefine its strategic partnerships according to national priorities.”

Koulamallah stated this would result in the departure of French soldiers stationed in the country “in accordance with the terms” and “within the time frames provided for in the defense agreement.” He said this decision was “taken after in-depth analysis” and marked “a historic turning point” in a century-long history of near-continuous French military presence in Chad.

The Chadian government, however, specified that “this decision in no way calls into question (...) the friendly ties between the two nations.”

Also on Thursday, Senegal, a former French colony in West Africa, announced France should close its bases in the country. This followed French President Emmanuel Macron’s admission that France was responsible for the massacre of Senegalese soldiers in 1944, as the country commemorated the 80th anniversary of the tragedy. “Senegal is an independent country; it is a sovereign country and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” said Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

The Chadian government’s decision reportedly stunned not only the French authorities but also several Chadian officials.

Le Monde wrote, “At the Elysée presidential palace, the Defense Ministry, or at the Quai D’Orsay [Foreign Ministry], no one seemed to have been warned. Several French officers, visiting N’Djamena to discuss continuing military cooperation, did not seem to have been informed, either. And indeed, even on the Chadian side, some seemed surprised. According to multiple concurring sources, the minister of defense himself learned of the decision of President Mahamat Idriss Déby just before the communiqué was published.”

Chad was the first French colony to support Free France against the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy French authorities during World War II. Despite gaining independence in 1960, Chad was still partially governed by the French military until 1965.

The country has witnessed numerous French military operations, including “Limousin” (1969-1971) and “Epervier” (1986-2014). The French military played a key role in facilitating Hissène Habré's rise to power in 1982, and then his overthrow by Idriss Déby in 1990. It attacked rebel forces who threatened to seize the capital, N'Djamena, in 2019.

Following the death of longtime President Idriss Déby Itno in April 2021, senior military officers staged a coup d’état, leading to the establishment of a military government. Idriss Déby’s son, Mahamat Idriss Déby, was appointed interim president. In February 2024, heavy gunfire erupted in N’Djamena after the announcement of a long-anticipated election date, as government forces clashed with members of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF). A presidential election was held in May this year, with Mahamat Idriss Déby declared the winner.

Chad’s sudden ending military ties to France comes amid mounting geostrategic conflicts in Africa bound up with the NATO war with Russia in Ukraine and economic rivalry with China. Surging food and oil prices driven by disruption of grain imports from Russia and Ukraine have devastated millions. French imperialism in particular is challenged by growing economic and diplomatic ties between its former colonies and both Russia and China.

Russia is bolstering its military presence in Sahel countries, including Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Sudan, and Chad. Russian mercenaries, notably from the Wagner Group, have been deployed in several African countries. They are supporting the governments and armed forces of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, and are also engaging in combat alongside them against Al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants.

China has also strengthened its relations with Chad and Senegal, announcing projects for electricity, running water, farming, telecommunications and airport infrastructure. In May, former Chadian Ambassador to China Allamaye Halina had become the country’s prime minister. Later in the year, China also signed contracts to provide arms and equipment to the Chadian National Army.

The entire region is being pulled ever deeper into NATO’s escalating global war. Chad’s ending and Senegal’s threat to end military cooperation with France come as the NATO powers escalate war with Russia in Ukraine, and Trump’s election threatens war with China. Given the massive unpopularity of French imperialism in Africa, and the economic and military advantages of ties to China and Russia, a number of African states are responding to these explosive military pressures by moving away from Paris.

This year, Russia has steadily worked to increase its influence in Chad through military cooperation and economic investments. In January, Idriss Déby met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. During their meeting, Putin stated that the two countries had “great opportunities to develop our bilateral ties.”

Déby continued to cultivate his relationship with Putin following their meeting. Ahead of Chad’s presidential elections, Déby published an autobiography titled “From Bedouin to President.” In February, Déby presented a copy of his book, inscribed with a personal message for Putin, to the Russian ambassador to Chad, Vladimir Sokolenko. The book also included a photograph of Déby and Putin from Déby's January visit to Russia.

In his autobiography, Déby criticizes Macron for allegedly trying to dissuade him from running in the election during a phone call. “I’m not going to change the transition charter under threat!” he wrote.

Chad’s ending of the unpopular military cooperation with Paris comes just before parliamentary elections scheduled for December 29. His main opponent, former Prime Minister Succès Masra, who has criticized France for favoring Déby's family, saying: “France has clearly chosen a family to the detriment of the Chadian people.”

Finance capital increases its domination of healthcare

Marc Wells

Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and chief executive officer of Blackstone, Inc. USA, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 24, 2008. [Photo by World Economic Forum/Remy Steinegger / CC BY-SA 2.0]

The US healthcare industry is under increasing dominance by private equity firms and financial institutions, reflecting a broader trend of financialization in the sector and commodification of public health. Equity firms, such as Blackstone, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), The Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management, have spearheaded acquisitions in hospitals, emergency care, nursing homes and behavioral health.

Billionaires with influential political ties to both big business parties control these firms. To name a few:

• Stephen Schwarzman ($55.6 billion)—CEO of Blackstone, Inc. which owns major healthcare firms like TeamHealth

• Henry Kravis ($6.5 billion) and George Roberts ($12.2 billion)—Founders of KKR, heavily involved in acquisitions like Envision Healthcare

• David Rubenstein ($4 billion)—Co-founder of The Carlyle Group, known for investments in healthcare, including ManorCare nursing homes

• Bill Gates ($106.6 billion)—Via his foundation and investments in healthcare systems

• Warren Buffett ($148.3 billion)—Through Berkshire Hathaway, a significant investor in healthcare-related stocks

The financialization of healthcare has drastically accelerated the industry’s crisis over recent decades. Beginning in the early 2000s, private equity firms, such as Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo Global Management, began targeting healthcare sectors, including physician practices, hospitals and nursing homes. They view them as stable and profitable investments due to consistent demand, third-party reimbursements and ample opportunities for cost-cutting.

In the first decade of the 21st century, private equity firms began acquiring smaller healthcare entities, often through leveraged buyouts. During the 2010s, private equity investments in healthcare surged, with deals growing from $5 billion annually in 2000 to over $100 billion by 2018. Sectors such as urgent care, primary care and specialty practices became significant targets.

The COVID-19 pandemic amplified the trend as healthcare providers faced financial strain. Private equity firms acquired distressed practices and hospitals, consolidating market power while introducing aggressive cost-cutting measures.

By 2023, private equity firms had spent $505 billion on healthcare acquisitions over five years, leveraging financial pressure to extract profits through increased fees, reduced staffing and operational consolidation.

A 2021 study published in Health Affairs analyzed the impact of private equity ownership on nursing homes. It found that facilities acquired by private equity firms, like Blackstone and The Carlyle Group, experienced a decline in patient care quality and reported a 10 percent increase in mortality rates. These outcomes were largely attributed to reduced staffing, cuts in essential supplies, increased patient-to-staff ratios and cost-cutting measures aimed at maximizing profits, such as reducing budgets for essential services.

Companies like TeamHealth and Envision Healthcare, backed by Blackstone and KKR respectively, have implemented aggressive billing practices. They use surprise medical bills as a revenue stream, charging exorbitant fees for out-of-network care. These practices drew national attention, with patients being billed thousands of dollars for emergency services. Envision in particular has focused on increasing profits through the consolidation of emergency departments, often resulting in closures in less profitable rural areas.

Acquisitions in behavioral health have also led to increased costs for patients, often accompanied by cuts in essential services. Private equity now owns approximately 7 percent of addiction treatment facilities and over 6 percent of mental health clinics in the US. Essential but less profitable services, such as community-based mental health programs and addiction treatment, have been scaled back or discontinued after private equity acquisition.

The broader implications of these trends are stark. By consolidating healthcare into fewer, larger corporate entities, finance capital wields unprecedented control over public health. This commodification undermines access to affordable care while enriching a narrow layer of investors. The restructuring of healthcare is not merely a technical issue but a political one, necessitating organized action from workers to pursue public healthcare systems that prioritize human need over profit, a task that is in stark contrast with the capitalist system.

Both big business parties in the US are fully complicit and unanimously invested in this process. In only a few weeks, Donald Trump will install the most reactionary cabinet the US has ever seen, a government of the oligarchy, by the oligarchy, and for the oligarchy composed of fascists, billionaires and xenophobes.

Among them, Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine advocate, as Secretary of Health and Human Services after RFK Jr. endorsed him. Other healthcare posts went to similar open enemies of public health: Mehmet Oz for Medicare and Medicaid, Martin Makary for the FDA, and Dave Weldon for the CDC. Each appointee reflects anti-scientific stances on public health, opposing vaccination, abortion rights or pandemic safety measures.

There is a clear intersection between the financialization of healthcare and politics. The dismantling of the public health infrastructure by private equity has the full support of both parties.

Blackstone has a significant influence in both finance and politics. Schwarzman, a prominent Republican donor, has close relationships with politicians like Donald Trump and has advised on financial policy during the Trump administration. Blackstone’s investments in real estate and healthcare have been shaped by deregulation efforts supported by these political ties.

Apollo Global Management maintains deep ties with politicians, including by hiring former Republican Senator Pat Toomey and Harry Reid’s Chief of Staff David Krone. These connections strengthen its position in healthcare, real estate and finance sectors, facilitating corporate influence over public welfare.

KKR’s Henry Kravis, a significant Republican donor, has advocated for policies that benefit private equity, including tax structures favoring carried interest. (Tax breaks favoring carried interest refer to a special tax treatment that benefits private equity managers, hedge fund managers, and venture capitalists.)

These ties leak into the military sector. Known for its close ties to Washington D.C., The Carlyle Group has employed former politicians, including former President George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, as advisers or partners. These connections have helped Carlyle secure lucrative defense contracts and investments in regulated industries.

Figures like RFK Jr. capitalize on public dissatisfaction, blaming science or government institutions for the failure of capitalism to satisfy the basic needs of healthcare, rather than financial interests. But his attacks on science align completely with the profit motives of private equity firms, promoting individualistic and market-driven approaches that leave systemic healthcare issues unaddressed.

In the context of a rapid growth of the class struggle and ongoing strikes in the healthcare industry, such as the walkout by Kaiser’s mental health workers, the trade unions’ role must be placed under scrutiny. Unions have facilitated the process of consolidation and cost-cutting measures under the guise of securing jobs and maintaining institutional stability. This standpoint has frequently aligned union leadership with corporate management on the basis of the financial imperatives driving restructuring efforts.

Unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have historically partnered with healthcare corporations to enforce “labor–management partnerships.” These agreements have at times endorsed cost-saving measures, such as reduced benefits or wage stagnation, in exchange for promises of job security.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, HCA Healthcare proposed cuts to wages and benefits, including eliminating weekend and evening pay differentials, suspending 401(k) contributions and freezing wages. The SEIU facilitated the concessions, threatening workers with more drastic layoffs and the failure of operations if they did not accept them.

In some cases, the SEIU has supported the privatization or consolidation of public hospitals, arguing that these moves would protect jobs. A case in point was the “Vital Brooklyn” initiative, which aimed to consolidate several struggling Brooklyn safety-net hospitals (Interfaith, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center and Brookdale) into the One Brooklyn Health network. This restructuring plan was supported by 1199 SEIU, with assurances that jobs would be retained and that the reorganization would result in an “extraordinary investment in communities historically underserved.”

In its contracts with Kaiser Permanente, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) has agreed to terms that include minimal wage increases and fail to address critical understaffing issues. Workers have criticized these agreements for prioritizing management’s cost-cutting strategies over the quality of patient care and working conditions. The ongoing NUHW strike at Kaiser highlights the fact that these burning issues have only gotten worse.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has negotiated contracts for public healthcare workers which included wage freezes and benefit reductions. This concession was often justified as necessary to maintain funding and prevent closures.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) is also known for collaborating with management, especially at Kaiser Permanente, which funnels millions in corporate funding to the unions through the so-called “Labor-Management Partnership.”

Union agreements framed these attacks as necessary compromises. Since the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have increasingly adopted telehealth and “command center” staffing models. These approaches often replaced registered nurses (RNs) with lower-paid, less-trained staff to execute directives, effectively creating a “generic workforce.” This restructuring led to heavier workloads for RNs, who had to oversee less-experienced staff while managing patient care remotely or across multiple facilities​.

What these agreements have in common is their prioritization of the financial viability of employers over the needs of workers. Unions have negotiated contracts that endorse wage freezes, benefit cuts and increased workloads under the justification of keeping struggling hospitals open or making them more “competitive.” They have supported mergers, nurturing false illusions by arguing that larger systems provide job security by creating economies of scale, even though this often leads to layoffs and the erosion of working conditions.

Romanian fascist Georgescu wins first round of presidential elections

Andrei Tudora

Self-declared fascist Calin Georgescu, running as an independent candidate for president gestures while delivering a speech to media, in Izvorani, Romania, Tuesday, November 26, 2024, after making it to the December 8 election runoff. [AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda]

A first round of the presidential election was held in Romania on November 24. Calin Georgescu, an avowed fascist running as an independent, produced an electoral upset and came in first place with over 22 percent of the votes. He will be joined in the runoff by Elena Lasconi of the opposition liberal USR (Save Romania Union). The candidates of the two traditional ruling parties, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and National Liberal Party (PNL) who have governed Romania in a Grand Coalition since 2021, were eliminated.

The election has triggered an intense political crisis in Romania’s ruling establishment. Pre-election polls showed a comfortable win for the Social Democrats and a slew of candidates vying for the runoff spot, while Georgescu polled only fifth place in the days before the election. The leadership of both the PSD and PNL have been sacked, as the two parties brace for general elections on December 1, which are expected to place several far-right parties in the legislature.

Georgescu was virtually unknown to the wider public before the elections. He had been associated with the fascist Alliance for the Unity of Romania Party (AUR) but was expelled, as his open glorifications of Nazis and war criminals interfered with AUR attempts to dress up its image and get votes.

Georgescu’s campaign openly violated election regulations. He declared zero campaign expenses and failed to add election markings to his videos. In the days after the elections, multiple press outlets received an email containing photos purporting to show Georgescu in the company of his close entourage. It includes two former Romanian secret service chiefs, as well as Adrian Thiess, a media mogul tied to the Trump staff, who had recently organized Trump Jr.’s trip to Hungary.

Far-right commentators have talked about a near-future visit to Romania by Robert Kennedy Jr., the anti-science hack nominated by Trump to head the US Department of Health, ostensibly to promote his book The Real Anthony Fauci, with a forward by Georgescu. Georgescu is himself a well-known figure within the fascistic swamp of COVID denialism.

The country’s Supreme Defense Council was summoned by the country’s outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis, on Thursday. It issued a report that found “cyberattacks with the purpose of influencing the correctness of the electoral process.” The report issued unsubstantiated allegations that the election result was due to “state and non-state actors, especially the Russian Federation, who has a growing interest to influence Romanian society’s public agenda and social cohesion.”

The Special Telecommunication Service (STS), part of Romania’s overgrown internal spying apparatus, issued a statement denying the existence of “cyberattacks.” A similar report had been issued by the Romanian Information Service (SRI) prior to the elections, after Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu accused candidates of using “troll farms.”

The Supreme Court has ordered a vote recount and given itself until December 2 to take a decision on whether to cancel the election result outright.

The official campaign against Georgescu, focused solely on technical-legal issues, serves to obscure the social and political issues involved. It is driven not by any aversion for his far-right views, many of which are shared by his rivals, but more by his criticisms of NATO and the Ukraine war. Politico noted: “Georgescu’s success has triggered alarm as Romania has in recent years been viewed as one of the EU’s more reliable members in Central and Eastern Europe when it comes to rule of law and security—with a major NATO base on the Black Sea.”

The election result is first of all an indictment of the Romanian ruling establishment, who came to believe their own lies about a pro-war “national consensus.” Georgescu, who made criticism of the war the focus of his campaign, centered on Telegram and TikTok, built an audience among workers and youth who could find no progressive outlet for their concerns.

An important political role of this campaign is to amalgamate opposition to war with Georgescu’s fascist sympathies. The ruling capitalist parties suppress opposition by falsely arguing that all opposition is necessarily fascist.

The ongoing COVID pandemic has led to the near-collapse of the healthcare system. In the summer, revelations of mass deaths in a public hospital led to the framing of two doctors by prosecutors and the media for murder. The case against them has since been dismissed by a judge, but this ongoing “social murder” is continuing unabated.

Romania is heavily involved in the imperialist war against Russia in Ukraine, which risks turning into a direct conflict between nuclear armed states. As a Black Sea state bordering Ukraine, Romania would undoubtedly suffer heavily in any expansion of the war. Yet any deviation from the official pro-war line is denounced as the result of Russian interference. The pro-war official consensus is backed by pseudo-left groups like the Socialist Action Group (GAS), which denounce “Russian imperialism.”

The global cost of living crisis has been compounded by austerity measures demanded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan as well as ballooning defense spending. A recent pension cut deprived many elderly workers, notably in mining and nuclear sectors, of cost-of-living adjustments. 2025 is expected to bring new rounds of austerity in Romania.

The policies of war and austerity have degraded the bourgeois democratic norms, such as they were after the Stalinist regime’s restoration of capitalism in the 1990s. The ruling establishment, with the post-Stalinist PSD at its head, swung towards the far right, adopting extreme forms of nationalism, irredentism, and COVID denialism. Fascist parties like the Alliance for the unity of Romanians (AUR) and the SOS Romania Party were staffed by PSD apparatchiks, Stalinists, academics and union bureaucrats.

A report published in November by the Romanian site PressOne highlights the AUR’s dominant political position in the Jiu Valley mining region:

Demoralization and confusion prevail among the remaining miners, after suffering decades of defeats and closures at the hand of the state and the unions. A revolving door of Stalinists, union bureaucrats and local politicians forms the basis of AUR’s activities in many deindustrialized regions. One such example is Nicu Bunoaica, a mining union leader and former associate of the pseudo-left Association for the emancipation of workers (AEM) who ran as an AUR candidate in local elections earlier this year.

The elevation of a fascist admirer of interwar Romania’s Iron Guard to the highest office appears to be a less “shocking” bolt from the blue as it has been described in the media.

Similar to other far-right leaders elected in recent years, Georgescu is first of all the expression of the ruling class’ increasingly open abandonment of democratic norms, under conditions of global war and intensifying working class resistance. The main responsibility for the rise of the far right lies with the nominal left political forces, who have adapted to nationalism and have surrendered any resistance to war.

General strike in Italy opposes fascist Prime Minister Meloni’s austerity budget

Marc Wells

On Friday, half a million workers across Italy went on a one-day nationwide strike. The strike, called by several unions in response to mounting pressure from the rank and file, reflects broad working class opposition to the austerity policies and deepening social inequality overseen by fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Workers in Rome hold a banner reading "Wrong budget law, general strike" as they gather during a public and private sectors' national strike called by the labor unions to protest the government's budget law, Friday, November 29, 2024. [AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia]

Many sections of workers participated in the strike action, and protest marches were held in dozens of cities. Public transport was affected in numerous cities, as bus, subway and tramway drivers walked off the job. Baggage handlers at the Milan and Venice airports went on strike, as did WizzAir Malta pilots and cabin crews. Public schools were significantly impacted as teachers struck to demand better funding and to oppose austerity measures. Stellantis workers struck in Naples, as did workers at the Fincantieri shipbuilders and auto parts maker Marelli.

Italian workers oppose the Meloni government’s 2025 budget, which includes massive cuts to all social programs but increases the military budget by €2 billion, bringing it to a record €32 billion. This aligns the Meloni government with NATO’s spending objectives amid its war with Russia in Ukraine. Proposed across-the-board five percent cuts would devastate Italy’s public healthcare system, already teetering on the brink of collapse due to underfunding and staffing shortages. The same would apply to education, transportation and other essential services.

Public sector workers are being offered a paltry 6 percent wage increase over three years, against a cumulative increase in essential living costs since 2021 estimated at 16 percent. Furthermore, pensions are set to rise by a tiny €3 per month, while the Fornero Law raising the retirement age remains in force.

Workers also protested increasingly perilous working conditions leading to deaths on the job, dubbed by workers as “workplace homicides.” Moreover, the government’s draconian “Security Decree 1660” has introduced harsh penalties against various forms of protest and dissent, aimed at workers in general and immigrants in particular.

Against the strike and its impact on public transport, far-right Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini threatened to invoke minimum service requirements, which seek to curtail the right to strike inscribed in Article 40 of the Italian Constitution.

These measures are part of an escalating, global class war waged by the capitalist ruling elites on the workers that is provoking mounting opposition. The bourgeoisie’s savage movement to the right is epitomized by Meloni’s close ties with the cabal around fascist US President-elect Donald Trump, which is preparing a staggering $2 trillion austerity program against US workers to be overseen by the world’s richest man, billionaire Elon Musk.

In recent months Elon Musk, appointed by Trump to head the new Department of Government Efficiency, has publicly praised Meloni as “authentic, honest, and thoughtful.” Meloni, in turn, called Musk a “precious genius.” Musk has expressed interest in expanding his businesses in Italy, including Starlink satellite internet services and building a Tesla manufacturing facility, in return for tax cuts.

Massive budgetary attacks are similarly being prepared against the working class across Europe. In October, Britain’s Labour government adopted an austerity budget imposing £40 billion in spending cuts. Now, the French government is teetering on the verge of collapse over its budget, as the ruling class demands more military spending and spending cuts beyond the €60 billion the budget proposes.

The main political obstacle to a political counteroffensive of the working class against these threats are the bankrupt pro-capitalist parties and labor bureaucracies, linked to Stalinism, that seek to tie the working class to capitalism and subordinate it to austerity and imperialist war. This is the role played in Italy by the successor of the Stalinist Italian Communist Party (PCI) after its self-dissolution in 1991, the Democratic Party (PD).

The PD now has a decades-long history of attacking the workers. After World War II, the Italian bourgeoisie was compelled to grant labor laws and social benefits offering significant protections for workers. The Italian working class had organized mass strikes and armed uprisings against Mussolini’s fascist regime, and while the PCI blocked a socialist revolution, the capitalist class for a time had to make social concessions. But in the decades since the 1991 Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, successive PD-led governments systematically rolled back these gains.

The much-hated 2014 Jobs Act, implemented by then-PD Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, undermined job security by easing restrictions on dismissals and facilitating precarious employment.

Now, current PD leader Elly Schlein is criticizing Meloni but at the same time endorsing further austerity reforms, declaring: “We stand with workers who demand dignity and justice. However, we must approach reforms responsibly to ensure long-term stability.”

The PD, like the Stalinist CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour) union bureaucracy and the social-democratic UIL (Italian Labour Union) bureaucracy, works to channel mounting working class anger into politically manageable avenues compatible with capitalist rule. Even facing Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party descends directly from Mussolini’s Fascist Party, the bureaucracies bend over backwards to maintain “social peace” and stabilize capitalism.

At the strike yesterday, Maurizio Landini, the secretary-general of CGIL, called for collaboration and dialogue with the Meloni government, stating: “This government must listen to the streets and open a serious dialogue with the trade unions to build a better future for all.”

Significantly, the transport unions limited the strike to 3 or 4 hours (depending on location), while exempting rail workers from the strike altogether and guaranteeing service in compliance with an Ordinance of the Minister of Transportation.

For workers, Meloni’s government represents a dangerous convergence of far-right nationalism, austerity and militarism. In its two years, it has aggressively pursued anti-immigrant policies, attacked democratic rights and participated in NATO’s imperialist wars. This is part of a broader global trend, where capitalist governments exploit economic crises to impose authoritarian measures and deepen inequality despite growing militancy and opposition among workers.

French government on brink of collapse over 2025 budget vote

Alex Lantier

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government, installed after the July 2024 elections, is hanging by a thread amid growing conflicts in the ruling elite over his 2025 austerity budget. Last night, Barnier went on prime-time TF1 news and threatened to ram the budget through parliament without a vote, using Article 49.3 of the constitution. He warned of “severe turbulence on financial markets” if the National Assembly reacted by censuring and bringing down his government.

New French prime minister Michel Barnier looks on right during the handover ceremony, Thursday, September 5, 2024 in Paris. [AP Photo/Stephane de Sakutin]

Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s New Popular Front (NFP) coalition and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) have both threatened to censure the government over the budget, which imposes €40 billion in social cuts. The French state is already technically in violation of the law: it must approve a budget each year by October 1, which it has failed to do. But if the NFP and RN both voted to censure the government, it could lead to an unprecedented situation of France having no budget as the 2025 year begins.

The 2025 Social Security budget is to be presented on December 2, the end-of-year 2024 budget on December 4, and the full 2025 budget on December 18. In each case, censure votes against the Barnier government could be held in the National Assembly two days later.

The fall of Barnier’s government by itself would not stop French and European capitalism’s downward spiral of austerity and war. France’s parliamentary parties are not seeking to give expression to mass popular dissatisfaction with the established order. Rather, Barnier’s cuts are no longer deep enough to satisfy the bourgeoisie. A bitter debate is unfolding in the ruling class over how to recalibrate its policies as it prepares, sooner rather than later, for explosive conflicts with the working class.

After Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections, French imperialism is on the warpath against Russia and against the working class at home. Trump’s team is threatening to cut a staggering $2 trillion in US government spending and cancel US military aid to Ukraine for war with Russia. Top French diplomats have called to bomb Russia with French SCALP missiles and to send French ground troops to Ukraine to fight the Russian army.

Arming the French military for total war with Russia, and keeping French capitalism economically competitive amid the onslaught Trump is preparing against US workers, would require a massive plundering of financial resources from the French working class to the army and the banks.

Instead, ruling circles are increasingly dissatisfied with Barnier’s budget and the draft amendments proposed by government ministers and the Assembly’s parliamentary subcommittees. Members of Mélenchon’s NFP, far-right Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and leaders of right-wing government parties like Laurent Wauquiez of The Republicans (LR) have all intervened to eliminate spending cuts and posture as friends of the people.

“The budget-cutting objectives for 2025 increasingly lack ambition,” Le Monde wrote last week. “If it agrees to the demands of this or that person, letting go €500 million here, €1 or 2 billion there, can the government keep to its initial objective of solving the budget deficit? … Financial markets, already highly dubious of the announced focus on austerity, could at any time punish France by sharply raising interest rates.”

Charles Sitzenstuhl, a deputy of Macron’s Renaissance party, complained: “While Michel Barnier claimed budget deficits would be cut mainly by slashing spending and a bit by increasing taxes, each passing day shows the reverse: we are preparing budget stimulus like a left-wing government.”

As this dissatisfaction grew within the bourgeoisie, Le Pen ultimately shifted her position on Barnier. When Barnier’s minority government was initially formed, Le Pen and the RN pledged to support the government’s austerity agenda, vote for its measures in parliament, and provide it with a working parliamentary majority.

But on November 20, as NFP members including Mélenchon ally Eric Coquerel called to censure Barnier’s government to punish it for its austerity policies, Le Pen turned 180 degrees and said she might support censuring Barnier. She told RTL radio: “We will not accept any further reductions to the French people’s purchasing power. That is a red line for us. If the red line is crossed, we will vote for censure.”

Yesterday, Le Pen published a column in Le Figaro, defending threats to bring down Barnier and block the budget. This, she implausibly claimed, would have no major consequences: “Even if the government is censured, taxes would be gathered, state officials paid, pensions paid out, and health costs would be reimbursed. All the censured government would have to do would be to vote, in a caretaker capacity, a special law allowing at a minimum the continued application of the 2024 budget [into 2025], until a new government emerges and a formal budget is voted.”

The prospect of a vote by significant sections of the NFP and the RN that could bring down Barnier has intensified the factional struggle within the political establishment.

While NFP leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is campaigning to censure Barnier and predicting that his government will fall “between December 18 and 21,” other NFP officials oppose this. Former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve of the big-business Socialist Party (PS) stated that bringing down Barnier “risks a big jump into a crisis of rule.” He called on “all democratic political forces” to be “lucid enough to rally together” to support Barnier.

Significantly, among those spreading rumors about a fall of the government is its titular leader, President Emmanuel Macron. At a recent meeting in the Elysée presidential palace, he told Renaissance officials: “The government will fall. She [Marine Le Pen] will censure it at a certain point, and it will come earlier than what people expect.” Macron, these officials told Le Parisien, thinks that “RN legislators could act on her threats in the coming days, during the votes of the different budgets in the National Assembly.”

The debate on the French budget is a carnival of political reaction. Neither the reactionaries supporting Barnier’s austerity budget, nor the bourgeois supporters of his parliamentary ouster represent the interests of workers.

The spread of H5N1 bird flu among animals and the growing possibility of a pandemic

Frank Gaglioti

Bar-headed goose wing flapping in Hadinaru lake, Mysore [Photo by Vinay bhat / CC BY 4.0]

The panzootic—a pandemic in animal species—of the highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 of avian influenza is cutting a swathe through wild and domestic bird populations internationally, and has now jumped into numerous mammalian species, including humans, several times.

The virus has spread to every continent except Australia, where scientists estimate it may arrive in the southern hemisphere by spring via migratory birds from Antarctica. Scientists have warned that bird flu poses an enormous danger of a human pandemic, which could easily dwarf the devastation wrought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 903 people have become infected with H5N1 since 2003. Of these, 463 died, a lethality rate of 51 percent. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with a much lower infection fatality rate, has killed over 27 million people. If a bird flu pandemic does develop, it would likely have a catastrophic impact globally.

Most strains of avian influenza found in wild bird populations have a low pathogenicity (LPAI) with no ill effect on the infected animals. There are two highly pathogenic strains (HPAI), H5 and H7 that are extremely lethal. The virus that has reached panzootic levels and is of most concern is H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b. A clade consists of viruses that have a common ancestor. 

Dr. Michelle Wille [Photo: Doherty Institute]

In a comment titled, “Chickens, ducks, seals and cows: a dangerous bird flu strain is knocking on Australia’s door,” senior research fellow at the Doherty Institute Dr. Michelle Wille maps the development of the panzootic from its first detection in a goose in China in 1996. The virus became established in wild bird populations and poultry, where it killed most of the birds it infected. It is spread through the migration of wild birds.

By 2003, the virus had become endemic in poultry in Southeast Asia. In an important communication by H. Chen et al., from the Joint Influenza Research Center at Shantou University in China and published in Nature in July 2005, “H5N1 virus outbreak in migratory waterfowl,” presciently warned that the virus “constitutes a major pandemic threat to humans.”

The communication described a mass-death event that occurred on 30 April 2005 of mostly bar-headed geese (Anser indicus) at Qinghai Lake in western China. By May 4, bird mortality was more than 100 per day. By May 20, approximately 1,500 birds were dead. The authors warned that the virus had the potential to migrate over the Himalayas. 

Chen et al. stated, “There is a danger that it might be carried along the birds’ winter migration routes to densely populated areas in the south Asian subcontinent, a region that seems free of this virus, and spread along migratory flyways linked to Europe. This would vastly expand the geographical distribution of H5N1.”

In fact, this is what occurred, with the virus spreading to Europe and Africa in 2005. In 2014, the virus again entered Europe and then spread to North America, and in 2016 it re-entered Africa.

In 2020, a major shift occurred when outbreaks in wild birds and poultry increased dramatically. 

Dr. Wille stated, “In 2021, reports streamed in of mass mortality events in Europe and the virus rapidly travelled the world. The world was in the grip of a ‘panzootic’ – a global pandemic in animals.”

By October 2021, the virus crossed the Atlantic and reached North America. A year later the virus travelled the length of South America. In October 2023, the virus was detected in brown skuas, scavenging birds in sub-Antarctic islands. In February this year, it was detected in Antarctica.

The avian influenza virus is made up of a single strand of ribonucleic acid (RNA) with a genome consisting of eight gene segments. The virus can evolve very rapidly as it has a huge propensity to mutate. When one virus is in a host cell also occupied by another type of virus, it can acquire genes from the other virus in a process known as reassortment, giving the virus the potential to make great evolutionary leaps.

Although the avian influenza virus is mostly restricted to birds, the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b has infected numerous mammal species including humans. This has usually occurred in scavenger species when it eats a dead infected bird. When the virus crosses over into non-avian species, which is known as a spillover event, this increases its chances of evolving to enable infection within the species. The more times this occurs, the greater the probability.

The H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b is known to be very lethal, with the panzootic killing a huge number of wild birds, poultry and mammals. Some bird species may have been driven to the edge of extinction. 

An assessment by Ashley Banyard and his team at the Influenza and Newcastle disease work group, Animal and Plant Health Agency, Weybridge, United Kingdom, published in an OFFLU bulletin in December 2023, “Continued expansion of high pathogenicity avian influenza H5 in wildlife in South America and incursion into the Antarctic region,” outlined the devastating impact in South America.

Although the virus only arrived in South America in October 2022, within one year it had killed 597,832 birds of at least 82 species and 50,785 mammals of at least 10 species, with most of the deaths occurring in Peru and Chile. Most of the mammals killed were South American sea lions (Otaria byronia), with approximately 32,000 deaths, and southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), with approximately 17,000 deaths. This gives a glimpse of the horrific slaughter of wildlife internationally, most likely in the millions.

The next step was the sub-Antarctic islands where the virus was detected in October 2023 in the South Georgia part of the Scotia Arc among several bird species. The first bird found with the virus was the brown skua (Stercorarius antarcticus) although numerous other infected species have been found since.

A microscopic photo of H5N1 Bird Flu virus (gold). [Photo: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]

A groundbreaking paper published in Nature in April 2022, “Climate change increases cross-species viral transmission risk,” shows that climate change increases the probability of spillover events in which dangerous viruses come into contact with human populations, thereby increasing the risk of pandemics. This occurs when animals that naturally harbour viruses are driven from their natural habitats due to the ravages of climate change.

Importantly, scientists have determined that the genetic changes in the bird flu’s genome, that have accelerated the development of the panzootic, have been driven by climate change. A comment by wildlife ecologist Diann Prosser at the Eastern Ecological Science Center located in Maryland Laurel US and her team, published in Nature Microbiology in November 2023, titled, “Climate change impacts on bird migration and highly pathogenic avian influenza,” stated that “Climate change patterns appear to parallel an unprecedented global spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).”

They note that “Three HPAI expansion events demarcating spread from a source region to a new, previously uninfected continent have coincided with EWEs (extreme weather events) and an increased amount of virus in the source region.”

In 2005, the avian influenza spread out of Asia and was followed by increased outbreaks in Asia that were associated with extremely low temperatures in Europe and earlier frosts that altered the migration of wild birds. In December 2014, the H5N8 virus spread from Asia to North America, with a large expansion of outbreaks preceding Super Typhoon Nuri that moved up the coast of Asia and across the Bering Strait to the North American Pacific Flyway. The expansion of H5N1 to the Americas, following the 2021–2022 winter transatlantic introduction of H5N1 from Europe to North America, was associated with cyclone storms in this period.

Prosser et al. continued, writing:

Phylogenetic analyses have shown high virus sequence identity between source and introduction regions, supporting the hypothesis of wild bird dispersal of HPAI, whether from natural migration patterns where species from cross-continent wintering grounds share breeding locations (for example, Iceland or Bering Strait region), or from rapid EWE-induced vagrant bird movements.

The current outbreak in US dairy cows poses an enormous threat to human populations. This threat is being expanded by the US ruling elites’ program of trashing basic public health measures in the interests of big business with the continuing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. “Forever COVID” is being expanded to avian influenza, but with even more lethal consequences if it becomes a pandemic.

The US dairy cattle outbreak was first detected in March and has now extended to 15 states across 650 dairy cattle herds. The inexorable spread of the virus is shown in California, the largest dairy producer in the US, where 248 cattle herds have been affected just in the last month.

The recent detection in Oregon of the H5N1 strain among pigs this October raises very serious concerns, as pigs are known to harbour numerous viruses and, as well, present the virus with a rich environment for reassortment.

Over 40 humans have been infected so far in the US, mostly people who were in close contact with cows. In Canada, a previously healthy teenager has now been hospitalized for over a week with H5N1, requiring a ventilator in order to breathe.

Principled scientists are raising the alarm. The editorial of the npj viruses journal published in May stated:

Further adaptation of HPAIV H5N1 to cattle must be prevented. Stringent measures such as testing regimes (e.g. via bulk milk diagnostics), strict transport controls, quarantine measures and optimized milking hygiene must be implemented. In addition, much more basic epidemiological data is needed …. It should also be considered that the most efficient virus shedding cows should be isolated or even euthanized.

A Science journal editorial published in July, titled, “Stop H5N1 influenza in US cattle now,” raised the alarm and warned, “Although the H5 2.3.4.4b virus seems poorly optimized for infection or spread in humans, with fewer than 20 cases since 2016, influenza leaves no room for complacency.”

However, these appeals are falling on deaf ears. Official “complacency” is a vast understatement. Indifference and even a eugenicist-style welcoming of the consequences of a devastating pandemic are more apt descriptions of the sentiments dominating in ruling circles. Even such basic requirements of testing and sequencing of viruses infecting affected animals is not being done in anywhere near a timely or rigorous manner, meaning scientists are flying blind to the scope of the virus.

The developing avian influenza panzootic and the growing possibility of a pandemic bring to the fore the existential questions for humanity of climate change and the destruction of public health, both of which must be stopped in order to control the growing threats.

German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp to cut 11,000 jobs

Dietmar Gaisenkersting

Thyssenkrupp aims to cut 11,000 jobs in its steel division, which is 40 percent of the current total of 27,000 jobs. Germany’s largest steel company announced this on Monday, leaving steelworkers on the Rhine and Ruhr, in the Siegerland and Sauerland shocked. Meanwhile, the IG Metall trade union has made clear that it will support these attacks—provided, as with the cutbacks of recent decades, plant closures and compulsory redundancies are ruled out.

Steelworkers demonstrate in Duisburg on June 9, 2022 in front of the Thyssenkrupp Steel headquarters

On Monday, the management board of the company’s steel division presented the long-announced “comprehensive industrial future concept” to the strategy committee of the supervisory board. It is an austerity plan designed to secure profits in the escalating global trade and economic war at the expense of the workforce.

By 2030, 5,000 jobs are to be cut at steelworks and factories at all sites, and this also includes “a significant streamlining of the administrative functions.” The processing plant in Kreuztal-Eichen in the Siegerland region, which employs almost 600 people, is to be closed. The largest steelworks in Germany, in the north of Duisburg, is also likely to be particularly affected. Almost 13,000 people currently work there.

Another 6,000 jobs are to be shed through outsourcing to external service providers or through sales. This particularly affects the 3,000 steelworkers at Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) in the south of Duisburg.

Thyssenkrupp is the largest shareholder there with 50 percent, Salzgitter Stahl holds 30 percent, the French group Vallourec 20 percent. If the current purchase negotiations with the Hamburg-based financial investor CE Capital Partners (CEC) fail, “Thyssenkrupp Steel will hold talks with the other shareholders about mutually agreed closure scenarios,” the group explained.

The remaining 16,000 employees face wage cuts of 10 percent in order to bring personnel costs “to a competitive level,” according to the company. This is to be achieved, among other things, by cutting special payments and bonuses. Newly hired employees are to receive lower wages.

On the day the cuts were announced, Oliver Burkhard, the parent company’s chief human resources officer, announced that he would be resigning from this job on January 31, 2025. Burkhard, who was the North Rhine-Westphalia district leader of IG Metall before joining the group’s executive board, wants to devote himself entirely to his second job as CEO of the shipyard division Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).

The arms manufacturer, which produces submarines and warships and employs 6,500 people, is almost drowning in orders because of escalating wars. It is currently working hard to go public, and Burkhard says he wants to concentrate fully on this task.

It is not yet known who will succeed him as head of HR at ThyssenKrupp. Within IG Metall, knives are already being sharpened. Tekin Nasikkol, the chairman of the general works council, will compete with other “distinguished” union officials for the job, which promises a salary of €400,000—per month.

Knut Giesler is likely to be among the applicants. The successor to Oliver Burkhard at IG Metall immediately declared his willingness to support the cutbacks in the steel division. Yesterday morning, he told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the union’s “red lines” were layoffs and plant closures. As soon as a commitment not to do so was secured, he said, negotiations could begin.

Jürgen Kerner, deputy chairman of IG Metall and deputy chairman of the Thyssenkrupp supervisory board, took the same line, demanding, “We expect clear statements on the exclusion of redundancies and the preservation of all locations.”

A joint “Duisburg Declaration” by all Thyssenkrupp works council representatives is even clearer. “We do not close our eyes to the reality of the weak economy and the weak sales market in the automotive industry,” it says. They were also aware “that the European framework conditions for the steel industry are challenging.”

The works council reps are also calling for no compulsory redundancies and site closures. With this meaningless formula, IG Metall has already agreed to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the past—it also has other methods of pushing workers out of the company—and has ultimately accepted the closure of most threatened steelworks in the past.

The Thyssenkrupp board is familiar with this game. It has already made assurances that it remains its “declared goal” to “avoid compulsory redundancies.”

It is therefore already clear that IG Metall and its works council reps will follow the line of the group’s management. “We know that restructuring is necessary,” Giesler confirmed on Deutschlandfunk. “We have never opposed that.” But the break-up must “make sense.”

He and the IG Metall are demanding a financing commitment for the steel division of more than two years, as the parent company under CEO Miguel López had already given. The parent company is currently trying to transfer the steel division to a joint venture with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. He already has a 20 percent stake in the steel division through his EP Corporate Group (EPCG). It is unclear whether he will end up with the desired 50 percent.

The disputes over the amount of the financing commitment led to the departure of several members of the management and supervisory boards of the steel division at the beginning of August. CEO Bernhard Osburg, Chief Human Resources Officer Markus Grolms (IG Metall), Chief Production Officer Heike Denecke-Arnold, Supervisory Board Chairman Sigmar Gabriel (Social Democrat, SPD) and his deputy, former IG Metall leader Detlef Wetzel, subsequently resigned.

At the time, the chairman of the steel works council, Ali Güzel, announced in the presence of Gabriel and Wetzel: “We will fight from tomorrow on. Someone has to stop this madness.” Almost four months later, nothing of the sort has happened. IG Metall has, like the proverbial deer in the headlights, waited spellbound for the announcement of the jobs massacre that has now been presented. It exceeds even the horror scenarios of the union, which had warned of the loss of 10,000 jobs.

Nevertheless, Giesler is jubilant that the capacity reduction in steel production will be less harsh than feared. Thyssenkrupp Steel wants to reduce its production capacity from the current 11.5 tonnes to 8.7–9 million tonnes per year.

Giesler expressed his satisfaction: “This would mean that both steelworks in the north of Duisburg would be retained.” The commitment to the DRI (direct reduction) plant was also “the right signal,” according to the IG Metall district manager. With the help of the direct reduction plant, the steel is to be smelted with “green hydrogen,” and thus CO2-free. The first blast furnace is under construction, with Thyssenkrupp receiving €2 billion in taxpayers’ money from the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

However, the construction of a second DRI plant is still in the air. Nevertheless, the management board plans to shut down blast furnaces 8 and 9 permanently after the first direct reduction plant goes into operation and to decommission blast furnace 1 (nicknamed the “Black Giant”) in 2031.

The works council complains that this would make the company dependent on steel suppliers. Furthermore, operating the Black Giant for another seven years would require investments of €300–400 million. Nobody believes that this will be made available for the old, CO2-spewing steel mill technology.

The steelworkers of Thyssenkrupp and HKM cannot defend their jobs without breaking with IG Metall and their works council reps. They must ally with their colleagues in the auto, chemical and other industries, where tens of thousands of jobs are also being destroyed. And they must join forces with workers in other countries and wage the struggle internationally.

The jobs massacre in the steel industry is not a natural disaster, but a consequence of the bankruptcy of the capitalist system, which subordinates the needs of society to the profit hunger of billionaire oligarchs. A ruthless struggle for raw materials, energy and markets is being waged at the expense of the workers, which is now escalating into a third world war, as in the NATO war against Russia and in the Middle East.

The steel industry is particularly affected by the consequences—by the economic crisis in general, the slump in sales in the automotive industry, which is one of the main consumers of steel, and the price war on the world market. Now US President-elect Donald Trump has announced he will further raise tariffs on steel, which will particularly affect European steel producers.

The union bosses, with their high five-, six- and seven-figure incomes, are reacting by making the workforce pay for the pro-war policy and maintaining the shareholders’ profit interests.

Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has announced that domestic industry will be protected against international competition for security reasons—as a supplier to the arms industry. In other words, he is further tightening the screws of trade war and war.

In a joint statement with the Südwestmetall employers’ federation issued after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Baden-Württemberg association of the IG Metall supported NATO’s proxy war against Russia and announced: “These measures will demand sacrifices from all of us.”