The political and social implications of the attack on USAID by the Trump White House

Benjamin Mateus

The Trump administration shutdown of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has already had a severe impact across Africa and threatens a humanitarian catastrophe. The agency’s $44 billion budget is less than 1 percent of the overall $6.75 trillion US federal budget. But even this pittance accounts for a substantial portion of famine relief and disease treatment and prevention in the world’s second most populous continent.

USAID’s stop-work order has immediately halted critical HIV research and closed many treatment clinics. Uganda and Nigeria, among the countries hit hardest by HIV, are sending healthcare workers home and have warned of medication shortages which suppress HIV positive people’s viral load and prevent transmission.

A temporary court order supposedly blocked the White House from immediately placing staffers on paid leave and repatriating the vast majority of USAID employees who are posted abroad. Should Trump and Musk have their way in this wrecking operation, the agency with more than 10,000 workers worldwide will shrink to fewer than 300 staff. Only 12 staff would remain in the African bureau and eight in the Asia.    

Despite assurances from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “life-saving” aid would continue, the abrupt cessation of USAID’s work has already resulted in food aid being stranded in warehouses. When the USAID inspector general reported that food was rotting rather than being delivered to hungry people, Trump simply fired him.

Young girls line up at a feeding centre in Mogadishu, Somalia [Photo by Tobin Jones / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0]

Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that has long depended on USAID for crucial health interventions and humanitarian relief, is set to bear the brunt of these drastic cuts. A region of nearly 50 countries and 1.24 billion people, sub-Saharan Africa is home to some of the world’s most devastating health crises, with HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis (TB) continuing to claim millions of lives annually. The average monthly salary translates to under $800. According to the World Bank, 85 percent of Africans live on less than $5.50 per day.

As of 2022, one in every five people in Africa, 264 million people, faced hunger, the worst rate for any region globally. A quarter of the population lacks access to reliable water sources. Ongoing conflicts, droughts, surging food prices, social inequality, and lack of infrastructure are all contributing factors. In sub-Saharan Africa, 40 percent of children under five are stunted due to chronic malnutrition. In 2023, Oxfam reported that over 20 million more people were pushed into severe hunger across the continent, equivalent of the entire population of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe combined.

In 2024, USAID provided approximately $6.6 billion in humanitarian assistance to sub-Saharan Africa, with a substantial portion (73 percent) allocated to health and food security programs. USAID, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture, deployed $1 billion in funding for emergency food assistance worldwide, including sub-Saharan Africa.

USAID has been one of the largest contributors to food aid programs in Africa. With its withdrawal, millions face starvation, particularly in conflict-ridden regions such as Sudan and Somalia. “Without USAID’s assistance, famine conditions will become a reality in multiple African nations,” warns Chris Newton, a food security expert at the International Crisis Group.

The role of USAID for American imperialism

Reading the headlines in the bourgeois press and listening to Trump’s vindictive declaration that the agency is “run by a bunch of radical lunatics and we’re getting them out” might give the impression that this is one more attack on social spending by this megalomaniac. This would ignore the history of USAID and its immense importance as a weapon of US imperialism from its foundation in 1961, at the height of the Cold War, to the present. 

From the time that the United States emerged as the dominant imperialist power, on the ashes of World War II, the ruling class has used foreign aid—so-called “soft power”—as a key adjunct of maintaining its world hegemony. The Marshall Plan (1948-1952) was not envisioned by the United States as an act of generosity to rebuild Europe out of the ashes of the war, but as a strategic move to maintain US economic dominance after the war. The post-war reconstruction of Europe laid the foundation for US global dominance by ensuring European capitalist economies were integrated into an American-led global system, and blocking the threat of social revolution in countries like Italy, France and Germany, with the collaboration of the Stalinist parties.

The objectives established by the Marshall Plan were eventually institutionalized in USAID as a tool for global hegemony. President John F. Kennedy’s administration remarked at the time of USAID’s foundation in 1961, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” A thoughtful representative of his class, Kennedy never wavered in defense of US imperialism. Whatever the claims of made to the humanitarian prerogatives of USAID, it was an instrument for imposing pro-corporate economic policies, funding pro-US political movements and counterinsurgency efforts, and undermined socialist and nationalist movements across the developing world.

President John F. Kennedy speaks to participants in the AIFLD, the US-government financed foreign policy arm of the AFL-CIO, in August 1962 [Photo: Abbie Rowe, White House]

It would be useful to briefly sample the thorough account made by William Blum, an American journalist and a sharp critic of US foreign policy, in his book Killing Hope, on the crimes and murders committed in the name of US imperialism by USAID, directly and indirectly:

·  In Guatemala, from 1962 to the 1980s, USAID’s Office of Public Safety (OPS) trained more than 30,000 Guatemalan police, many who were engaged in counterinsurgency operations against leftist groups. Tens of thousands of civilian deaths have been documented. Between 1970 and 71, more than 7,000 people were “disappeared” or killed. 

·  The Phoenix Program (1968-1971) in Vietnam was a USAID-backed operation aimed at eliminating the National Liberation Front’s political infrastructure through mass arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings. CIA official William Colby, who directed the operations, is on record that 20,587 alleged Viet Cong soldiers were killed during this operation.

·  In the mid-1970s in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), USAID was involved in providing dictator Mobutu Sese Seko military aid to suppress rebel movements over concerns for American mining interests while enriching the would-be dictator. The CIA funneled money through USAID-backed programs ensuring continued US influence. The country was home to one of the largest CIA stations in Africa in pursuit of its Cold War operations in containing Soviet influence while securing resources for US mining interests.

·  From 1980 to 1994, USAID contributed to the massive military expansion in El Salvador, backing the ruling military junta. The aid provided through USAID went to promote counterinsurgency efforts propping up the military government who were responsible for death squad activities and mass civilian killings. In the same period in Nicaragua, the USAID-funded Contra war resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

USAID’s numerous operations throughout the globe across the decades involved counterinsurgency and regime change operations in Latin America, support for African dictators and extraction of resources in the interest of American corporations, implementing economic liberalization policies after the collapse of the Soviet Union and ensuring US corporate access, as well as funding of opposition movements in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and the restructuring of the Middle East in the aftermath of the Iraq wars. For the past three years, the largest recipient of USAID funding has been Ukraine, where the agency supports the US-NATO war against Russia, the central foreign policy objective of the Biden administration.

Donald Trump is not targeting USAID because of this bloody record. On the contrary, as his language about “radical lunatics” suggests, he scorns the practitioners of “soft power” only because he believes that military force alone—plus direct bribery of foreign governments and corporations—are the necessary instruments of his foreign policy. Moreover, he regards the most impoverished countries, where much of USAID’s activities take place, as irrelevant, “shithole” countries, as he once described them, whose people should be allowed to starve, sicken and die without the wealthy countries lifting a finger to prevent catastrophe.

Notwithstanding the COVID pandemic that has claimed 30 million lives in the last five years. As of 2023, 733 million people, or one in 11 are facing hunger, especially on the continent of Africa. While the world produces enough food to feed everyone, estimates place nearly three billion who cannot afford a healthy diet. There are at least nine million hunger-related deaths caused each year, most involving children under five. And the recent genocide in Gaza is but a case study for the plight of the working class. In other words, the maladies of Africa and every other region of the world are a byproduct of capitalist rule in its current terminal stage. 

The attack on USAID thus signifies the exhaustion of democratic bourgeois rule and the open turn by the ruling elite to the most barbaric methods to assure its political and economic dominance over the globe. The most immediate consequences of this policy shift will be felt in the poorest regions, particularly in Africa.

A catastrophe for those with HIV/AIDS

Approximately 25.6 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live with HIV, making up more than two-thirds of the global total. Despite major progress, the epidemic remains severe, particularly among women and young girls, who are three times more likely to contract HIV than their male counterparts. USAID has been instrumental in providing access to antiretroviral therapy (ART), education programs on prevention, and support for those affected by the disease. According to Dr. Kenneth Ngure, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, “The withdrawal of USAID funding means that the fragile progress we’ve made in preventing new infections will be reversed, and millions of people may be left without lifesaving treatment.” 

The consequences of the US aid cutoff are far-reaching and potentially catastrophic. Over two million Nigerians rely on USAID-supported clinics for antiretroviral therapy. Many of these clinics have already closed, leaving patients at risk of viral rebound and increased transmission rates. “People will go untreated, leading to more infections, and ultimately, a worsening of the epidemic,” warns Dr. Rachel Baggaley, an HIV specialist and former team-lead for the World Health Organization’s HIV programs. 

The cessation of the US support for these global HIV/AIDS programs, in particular the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) would potentially see the number of HIV infections increase six-fold by 2029. This would also mean a ten-fold jump in AIDS-related deaths (6.3 million) and an additional 3.4 million orphaned children, according to UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. To appreciate the enormity of this figure, it took nearly 30 years to see cases decline 60 percent to a low of 1.3 million new cases in 2023. 

Malaria and tuberculosis

In 2023, there were an estimated 241 million cases of malaria worldwide, with close to 600,000 deaths. Over 90 percent of malaria cases occurred in Africa. The disease remains one of the leading causes of child mortality, claiming the lives of around 450,000 children under the age of five each year. USAID has played a vital role in malaria prevention through its distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor spraying programs, and the rollout of the first-ever RTS,S malaria vaccine. More than 6.6 million African children were expected to receive it by 2025. Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, an award-winning epidemiologist, warns, “Ending USAID’s malaria programs could lead to a resurgence of infections and set back our fight against this disease by decades.”

The halting of USAID’s Malaria Vaccine Development Program (MVDP) means the progress toward second-generation malaria vaccines has stalled, potentially reversing years of progress. “We were on the brink of a breakthrough,” says Professor Kelly Chibale from the University of Cape Town. “Now, the future of these promising vaccines is uncertain.”

Mycobacterium tuberculosis. [Photo: NIAID]

Tuberculosis remains a significant public health threat, with sub-Saharan Africa accounting for nearly a quarter of the world’s cases. In countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, the burden of TB is compounded by high HIV co-infection rates, which complicate treatment and increase mortality. USAID has been a key partner in developing new TB treatments and ensuring medication access for patients. “Without continued support from USAID, we risk a dramatic increase in drug-resistant TB cases, which are much harder and more expensive to treat,” states Dr. Sharon Hillier, a professor of reproductive infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh.

TB treatment requires sustained medication over months. With funding cuts, diminishing stockpiles will soon run out, leading to a resurgence of drug-resistant TB. “Interruptions in TB treatment will inevitably lead to more cases of multidrug-resistant TB, which is harder and costlier to treat,” says Dr. Timothy Mastro, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

The impact of USAID’s dismantling extends beyond direct aid and healthcare services; it has also brought critical medical research to a grinding halt. One immediate consequence has been the suspension of the malaria vaccine research program. Thousands of people in HIV prevention trials have suddenly lost access to treatment irrespective of the ethical concerns raised by abandoning these trial participants. Not only is South Africa’s HIV drug production initiative placed at risk, health experts fear the spread of drug-resistant HIV strains. 

For instance, the BRILLIANT Consortium HIV Vaccine Trials, a consortium of researchers across eight African nations was established to advance HIV vaccine research by designing and implementing early-stage clinical trials. In 2023, the consortium received a grant for more than $45 million from USAID for their initiatives. However, these important projects have now been placed on hold. “This setback could mean years of lost research that we may never recover from,” says Dr. Glenda Gray, chief scientific officer at the South African Medical Research Council. (Science, 2025)

Research on novel TB treatments, particularly for children, has been abandoned, leaving thousands of patients without innovative, life-saving care. “Cutting this research mid-stream is ethically and scientifically indefensible,” states Dr. Leila Mansoor from the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa.

According to the New York Times, more than 30 studies have been suspended that included trials in malaria treatment for children in Mozambique, treatment of cholera in Bangladesh, cervical cancer screening in Malawi, TB treatments for children and teenagers in Peru and South Africa, nutritional support for Ethiopian children, and mRNA vaccine technology for HIV in South Africa, to name a few.

Conclusion

The effective end of the fig leaf of US foreign humanitarian aid is not merely the work of Trump and Musk, the billionaire sadists who regard feeding the starving in Africa as a waste of money, just as they resent all social spending within the United States. There is a historical process involved, symbolized by Trump’s selection of Robert F Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

President John F. Kennedy established USAID (along with the Peace Corps and similar efforts) to provide a democratic and humanitarian cover for the defense of imperialist interests around the world. Sixty years later, his nephew is a high-level aide to a president who is dismantling all such pretenses of social reform, both at home and abroad, because American imperialism is bankrupt and can no longer afford them. The ruling elite will rely on brutal violence to defend its interests against the working class, in both foreign and domestic spheres.

And the inaction on the part of the Democrats only largely confirms they know well that the reformist charade is over. They are far more afraid of the mounting class antagonisms within the United States than of anything Trump may do. 

There is no doubt that the shutdown of the very limited aid provided by USAID will have devastating consequences for sub-Saharan Africa and other regions of the world reliant on the organization. The loss of funding will not only reverse decades of progress in fighting infectious diseases but will also leave millions without access to critical healthcare, food, and clean water. Without immediate intervention or alternative sources of support, the region faces an impending crisis that could claim countless lives. “The long-term effects of this decision are difficult to quantify, but they will undoubtedly be devastating,” concludes Dr. Hillier. “This is not just a funding issue; it’s a matter of life and death for millions of people.”

Trump demands Ukraine becomes de-facto US colony in exchange for military support

Thomas Scripps

US President Donald Trump is demanding concessions from the Ukrainians of the kind usually imposed on defeated enemy states, in exchange for continuing US military commitments in the region.

The media has been reporting the figure of $500 billion-worth of critical minerals demanded by Trump, but a leaked document seen by Britain’s Telegraph newspaper shows the reality is even more extreme. It shreds to pieces the lies that the US and NATO powers have been supplying Ukraine with training, weaponry and financial support out of a concern for “democracy” and preserving its “national sovereignty”. Trump’s plan would transform Ukraine into a vassal state.

Screenshot of Telegraph February 17 article "Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold" [Photo: telegraph.co.uk]

The article, “Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold”, is based on a February 7 draft of the contract the US administration pressed Zelensky to sign, marked “Privileged and Confidential”. Only sections of the document are quoted. Limited screen captures of the document have also been circulating online.

According to Telegraph author Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the paper’s world economy editor, US demands go “far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals.” They are entirely open-ended. The documents states that the desired agreement between the US and Ukraine would cover the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)”.

The US is seeking “50% of the recurring revenues received by the GOU [Government of Ukraine] resulting from licenses that have been issued to extract or otherwise monetize Ukraine’s resources subject to this Agreement, with a lien on such revenues in favour of the USG [United States Government].”

This is revenues, not profits, with the US to be paid before any other party. A source close to the negotiations told the Telegraph, “That clause means ‘pay us first, and then feed your children’.”

The same would apply to all “of the financial value received by the GOU from all new licenses issued to third parties for the future extraction or monetization of resources subject to this Agreement, as well as 50% of GOU revenue from new extraction… including any state-owned enterprises.”

The “percentage of the proceeds” to be directed towards the “reconstruction of Ukraine”—defined as “the development, production, and/or transport of natural resources, ports, and other infrastructure”—the “USG will determine” at a later date.

The US would also be granted “a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals” and have enormous powers over the direction of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy, including “the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licences and projects.

In a flagrant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, the document states, “This agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of law principles”—that is, conflicts with Ukrainian law. The Telegraph notes that the document “seems to have been written by private [i.e., Trump’s own] lawyers, not the US departments of state or commerce.”

These demands would reduce Ukraine to the status of a US colony, plundered to the point of starvation. Evans-Pritchard’s summary states, “If this draft were accepted, Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty, later whittled down at the London Conference in 1921, and by the Dawes Plan in 1924.”

The US “offer” was placed on Zelensky’s desk while Trump told Fox News, in his usual gangster fashion, “They may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But I want this money back.” This was a reference to the “more than $300 billion dollars, probably 350” Trump claimed was handed over to Ukraine by the Biden administration.

Trump’s actions have produced a torrent of articles decrying his “betrayal” of Ukraine. In fact, he is only dispensing with the fine words about “international law” and “national self-determination” used to cloak the predatory ambitions American and European imperialism have had towards Ukraine from the start.

As the World Socialist Web Site has written in the context of the White House’s policy towards Gaza, where Trump has also proposed a US takeover, ethnic cleansing and its transformation into a luxury “riviera” development on the eastern Mediterranean coast:

With the coming to power of Trump, American imperialism is abandoning any pretense that its foreign policy is governed by international law. It is to be replaced with the law of the jungle, in which the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must…

Trump’s plan is not a deviation from American foreign policy. Rather, Trump, in the words of Netanyahu, “cuts to the chase.” The American president has dispensed with the endless sacred lies used by imperialism to justify its actions, which everybody is supposed to repeat but nobody believes.

It should be remembered that the fascist-spearheaded Maidan coup in 2014 was launched in response to pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych pulling out of an association agreement with the European Union (EU) which would have involved a savage “restructuring” and “liberalising” of the country’s economy.

Throughout the war, the US and European powers have been positioning themselves for lucrative military and economic partnerships, while Zelensky uses wartime powers to advance long-held plans for slashing social protections and workers’ rights.

Trump’s new gambit has outraged the European powers primarily because it would cut them out of this feeding frenzy, dialing the US demands up to the maximum. As the Telegraph’s industry editor Matt Oliver explains, “The US and EU face a looming conflict over Ukraine’s resources because of their strategic significance.”

For Zelensky, who has always been happy to serve as the imperialists’ puppet, Trump’s deal would amount to signing his own death warrant—politically and quite likely literally—in Ukraine.

This means nothing to Trump, who responded to Zelensky’s complaints about ongoing peace talks with Russia by saying his polling numbers were “not great” and “at some point you need to have elections”. As well as striking a blow against his European competitors, his plan for Ukraine represents a major step in America’s trade and military war plans against China.

Evans-Pritchard heavily plays down the significance of Washington’s grab for Ukraine’s resources as being aimed at “a commodity bonanza that exists chiefly in Trump’s head.” The Guardian writes more honestly:

There is one big reason Trump is so keen to get his hands on Ukraine’s critical minerals: China…

With Trump effectively instigating a trade war with China with his imposition of steep tariffs on Chinese goods, US access to critical minerals is potentially under threat. As mentioned earlier, the world is being gripped by an unseemly scramble for mineral wealth. They are the building blocks of the economy of the future, and if the US doesn’t get its hands on them, someone else will.

The US-NATO war against Russia waged through their Ukrainian proxy was ultimately aimed at the same target, with the imperialist powers spending Ukrainian lives to weaken Russia, undermining the position of a potential Chinese ally. This was the policy championed by Biden and the Democrats.

Trump is now demanding an even higher price from the Ukrainians, presenting the Zelensky government with an offer they can’t refuse: accept US military support and vassalage “willingly” or suffer the consequences of a deal worked out between the US and Russia—for which the Russian oligarchy has always been eager. Such a deal would, Trump hopes, create conditions for the planned assault on China.

Turkish government crackdown on political opposition intensifies: Dozens detained and thousands under investigation

Ulaş Ateşçi

Amid a growing wave of arrests by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against the political opposition and the press, 52 people were detained on “terror” charges Tuesday morning in house raids in 10 cities across Turkey.

While Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that 60 people were wanted and 52 of them were detained within the scope of this operation, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya made a separate statement on X/Twitter and said, “In the ‘GÜRZ-46’ operations against PKK/KCK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party/ Kurdistan Communities Union] in 51 provinces for the last 5 days; 282 suspected members of the terrorist organization were captured.”

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on September. 6, 2022. [AP Photo/Armin Durgut]

The operation against the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), a coalition of nominally left parties led by the Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), is part of a much broader campaign of repression. “We have been informed that there is an HDK case and HDK investigation process involving around 6,000 people. 1,600 of them are our citizens living in Istanbul,” said İskender Bayhan, Labour Party (EMEP) Istanbul deputy.

Among those detained are leading members of the DEM Party, the Labor Party (EMEP), the Socialist Refoundation Party (SYKP), the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), the Revolutionary Socialist Workers’ Party (DSİP), the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and the Green Left Party, as well as journalists Yıldız Tar, Elif Akgül and Ercüment Akdeniz. Musician Pınar Aydınlar, painter Taner Güven and screenwriter Ayşe Bengi were also detained.

On Monday, Mehmet Türkmen, chairman of the independent union BİRTEK-SEN, which has been leading a wave of wildcat strikes by textile workers in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, was arrested and sent to prison. Earlier, the Gaziantep governor’s office announced a 15-day ban on all protests in the province.

Türkmen was arrested on charges of “incitement to commit a crime” and “violating labor and working life” for encouraging workers to use their constitutional and democratic rights to fight for better wages and working conditions. Sitting on a social powder keg, the Erdoğan government is seeking to harshly suppress any mass movement within the working class.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu (Socialist Equality Group) condemn the escalating police-state repression and demand the release of those detained. Everyone has constitutional and universal rights to engage in politics and journalism, and these fundamental democratic rights must be firmly defended by the working class.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s stated justification for the operation, as reported in the press, is the allegation that the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), a legal umbrella organization of numerous parties, is, in fact, a “terrorist organization” linked to the outlawed PKK and the KCK.

According to the daily Cumhuriyet, the targeted legal parties that are part of the HDK “organize the social sphere by carrying out actions and activities such as protest marches, press statements, rallies, etc. with a legal appearance in accordance with the instructions of the PKK/KCK terrorist organization”. In fact, with such groundless accusations of ‘terrorism,’ the constitutional activities and rights of all legal parties can be suspended.”

“It is clear that the possibility of a solution and peace [in the Kurdish issue] has started to disturb someone’s sleep,” DEM Party said in a statement on its X/Twitter account, adding: “Every day operations are launched against those who want a solution and peace, and every day, trustees are appointed to replace mayors elected by the people. Every day there are more attacks on the alliance of the peoples, on those who raise the common struggle. There is an all-out attack against society, the will of the people, the search for a solution, democracy and peace. But fear is futile; peace will surely come to these lands.”

This statement is contradictory. Because what is called “the possibility of a solution and peace” is a government policy developed with the permission and approval of Erdoğan himself. Since last October, negotiations have been going on for the release of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999, in exchange for his call for the organization to lay down its arms. A delegation from the DEM party has met directly with Öcalan twice. The PKK/KCK, which is part of the negotiations, has influence not only in Turkey but also in Syria, Iraq and Iran.

However, what is at stake here is not “solution and peace” but Ankara’s attempt to consolidate its position in the deepening imperialist war in Syria and the Middle East. The DEM Party’s claim that Erdoğan can bring a democratic solution to the Kurdish issue while eliminating the remaining democratic rights shows the dilemma and bankruptcy of their nationalist perspective.

Moreover, the DEM Party and legal Kurdish nationalist movement remain the most intense targets of the Erdoğan government’s crackdown on political opposition. Since 2016, thousands of its members, including former party leaders such as Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, have been political prisoners, and elected mayors are being unconstitutionally dismissed.

Most recently, Abdullah Zeydan, the mayor of Van, a city of 1.1 million people, was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison for “aiding a terrorist organization [PKK/KCK]” and “making terrorist propaganda through the press,” and the governor of Van was appointed as a municipal trustee. Over 100 people exercising their right to peaceful protest at the city hall were detained in a massive police operation on Saturday, and 20 were arrested.

Last week, the Public Prosecutor’s Office signaled that the HDK and its affiliated parties would be further targeted in an operation launched in Istanbul, in which 10 people were arrested in 9 district municipalities run by the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP). There, HDK was declared a “terrorist organization” and the legal local election alliance (”Urban Consensus”) between the CHP and the DEM party, which was formed last year, was declared a “crime”. Across the country, the CHP came out on top, the unfair beneficiary of growing social opposition to the government, while Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to win an election for the first time since 2002.

The CHP, a traditional pro-European Union and pro-NATO bourgeois party, responded to its electoral victory last year by launching a process of “reconciliation” and “normalization” with Erdoğan, with whom it agreed on a program of social assault targeting the working class.

The mounting state crackdown on the CHP and the DEM party is believed to be moving towards Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu (CHP). İmamoğlu, who has twice won elections against the AKP in Istanbul, is seen as the CHP’s favourite presidential candidate and polls show him ahead of Erdoğan. İmamoğlu has been the subject of numerous investigations and lawsuits due to his statements made within the scope of freedom of expression, demanding a total of 25 years in prison and a political ban.

Former AKP deputy Şamil Tayyar said on a TV channel that İmamoğlu could soon be charged with terrorism, stating: “If solid information, documents and evidence are revealed that show İmamoğlu as the architect of the relationship with the KCK within the framework of the ‘urban reconciliation,’ the investigation against İmamoğlu will fall within the scope of terrorism.”

İmamoğlu made a statement on X/Twitter on Monday, holding Erdoğan directly responsible for the lawsuits against him and reiterating the CHP’s call for early elections: “The lawsuits demanding 25 years of imprisonment against me have Mr. President’s signature, not anyone else’s, you can’t fool anyone. I challenge him for an election… Stop intrigues using the judiciary. This nation loves bravery and courage.”

The possibility of losing the presidential elections in 2028 or earlier is not the only reason for Erdoğan’s growing authoritarianism. The government is escalating its long-standing anti-democratic practices amid the growing imperialist drive for redivision in the Middle East and globally led by the United States, as well as rising class tensions at home. And Erdoğan’s actions, which do not recognize the constitution and the law, are being “normalized” globally by the practices of Donald Trump’s second administration in the US, the centre of world capitalism.

Three hundred people a day die living in poverty in Britain

Dennis Moore

Britain’s leading end of life charity, Marie Curie paints a terrible picture of over 100,000 people in the UK dying in poverty every year.

The report, “Dying in Poverty 2024”, centres on data collated from the year 2023 carried out by academic researchers at Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Social Policy.

Dying in Poverty 2024 [Photo: Marie Curie web site]

In 2021, the Marie Curie charity first commissioned the research team to examine the number of people who die in poverty in the UK that led to a landmark report, “Dying in Poverty in 2022”. The current research has been updated and includes analysis as to those in the study who are experiencing fuel poverty.

The latest data for the year 2023 estimates that 110,000 people (300 a day) died in poverty in the UK—representing 18 percent of all those that died in that year—and an increase of almost 20,000 people and 2.5 percentage points since 2019.

The data shows sharp disparities in those affected based on race, gender, age and where in the UK somebody lives.

People of working age are at much greater risk of dying in poverty, with 28 percent of people dying in poverty compared to 16 percent of people of pensioner age. The vast majority of the working aged population who die have also experienced poverty at some point in the last five years of their lives.

Women are more likely to die in poverty than men and, in the year 2023, 29.5 percent of working age women died in poverty, compared to 25.4 percent of men.

Ethnic minority groups are more likely to be in poverty, often having experienced poverty throughout their lives. Poverty rates amongst Bangladeshi households are estimated to be as high as 53 percent, with these households relying on benefits (other than the state pension) representing 20 percent of their income compared to 7 percent of white households.

Based on ethnicity, 25 percent of white working aged people between ages 20-64 died in poverty compared to a staggering 47 percent of black people, 43 percent of Asian people and 37 percent of those of mixed race or having another ethnicity.

A major contributory factor for those of working age who are terminally ill is the loss of income, often having to reduce working hours or leave work all together. This impacts other people living in the same household who may have to reduce their working hours or leave work to become carers.

A rise in poverty at the end of life is also determined by the person’s age. State pensioner benefits are normally paid at a higher rate than out of work state benefits to someone under state pension age. For those claimants of working age who become unwell and must claim Universal Credit or New Style Employment Support Allowance there can be a number of financial disadvantages.

Marie Curie have suggested that for those with less than a year to live who are under the state pension age, benefits should be paid as an entitlement, equivalent to the state pension. The costs to the Treasury would be minimal, accounting for only 0.1 percent of overall state pension spending. At present thousands of people are dying without claiming their state pension they have contributed to throughout their lives.

Across the UK the rates of poverty amongst those living with an end of life diagnosis are not equal. Poverty rates in the North East of England stood at 34 percent, 50 percent higher than areas with the lowest rates of end of life poverty.

Middlesborough had the highest rate of working age people dying in poverty at 44.5 percent, followed by Manchester in the North West at 42.3 percent and Birmingham at 39.9 percent.

The local authority of Bradford in the north of England had the fourth highest level of poverty, with more than a third of working age people living in poverty when they died.

Marie Curie states that the UK every year there are 14 million people—equivalent to one in five—living in poverty at any one time. Another assessment of poverty in Britain, published last year by the Social Metrics Commission, concluded that “At 24%, the poverty rate is now the highest it has been in the 21st Century. It means that 16 million people in the UK are living in families in poverty.”

The fall into poverty is made a lot worse for those with a terminal illness. Many of the these include families who would previously have described themselves as comfortable.

Researchers were specifically asked who dies in fuel poverty. Having a terminal illness can increase fuel costs markedly due to having to run medical equipment, maintain body temperature, and spending more time at home.

Though energy bills have come down slightly since 2022, energy prices are still not at pre-COVID pandemic levels and bills are still high. The cost of electricity for residential consumers in Britain are still some of the highest in the world. Yet the August 2024 interim results showed that profits for the energy companies amounted to over £457 billion since just before the energy crisis started. £61 billion was posted in profits in 2024 alone.

Marie Curie have reported that energy bills can rise by 75 percent following a terminal illness diagnosis, with running an oxygen concentrator costing £65 a month, a dialysis machine £27 a month, and a ventilator £35 a month.

84 percent of Marie Curie staff who have been caring for patients report that their patients have been struggling with the cost of energy.  

The Motor Neurone Disease Association found that some people living with this condition spend more than £10,000 a year alone to power devices.

Previous research carried out by Marie Curie highlighted the inconsistency and unavailability of rebate schemes for the running of medical devices, putting individuals who are dying under massive financial stress.

Not being able to afford fuel costs forcing the seriously ill to make potentially life threatening decisions, cutting back on spending on essentials such as food and heating or rationing the use of their prescribed equipment.

The highest rates of deaths in fuel poverty in England for people under the age of 65 were in London, 25.7 percent compared to 17.9 percent in the wider generally more affluent South East of England.

For those of pension age living in fuel poverty in the last year of their lives, London stood at 25.6 percent. But this figure was even higher in Northern Ireland where 27.2 percent died in fuel poverty compared to 16.3 percent in the South East of England.

Following a freedom of information request last year Marie Curie revealed that the Labour Party’s savage cut to the winter fuel payments will leave 44,000 terminally ill pensioners without the much needed payment worth up to £300. Marie Curie are calling for the winter fuel payment to be paid to all those with a terminal illness.

15 years after devastating earthquake, Haiti is being transformed into a concentration camp

Rafael Azul

US Marines patrol the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 2004 [Photo: DoD]

January 12, 2025 marked the 15th anniversary of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake [magnitude 7.0] that together with 52 aftershocks 12 days later [magnitude 4.5 and greater] shook Haiti and killed more than 200,000 people, injured more than 300,000 and left 1.3 million homeless. Lacking even minimal assistance, many survivors had to dig themselves out of the rubble. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are still grappling with the effects of one of the biggest natural disasters ever in the Americas.

This natural disaster came on top of an ongoing social disaster produced by US imperialism, which had imposed a dictatorship and transformed this Caribbean nation into a 27,750 km2 (10,710 sq. mi) concentration camp.

A key event driving this social disaster had taken place six years earlier, when the elected government of President Jean Aristide was overthrown by the CIA. Together with his family Aristide was arrested and secretly flown to Africa as a pro-imperialist regime was installed and US Marines occupied the island.

Today, Haiti is run by the Core Group, an unelected alliance of the US, Canada, the UK, Caricom, and the Organization of American States. For all effective purposes, the Core Group is dominated and financed by the US government and by global financial interests. 

The current narrative, that Haitian society is dominated by so-called gangs that with unprecedented brutality control the urban neighborhoods of Port-Au-Prince and other cities and towns, leaves out the role of US imperialism in arming these groups, and that more than gangs, these are paramilitary “death squads” entrusted with terrorizing the urban and rural working class, allied with corrupt elites and multinational corporations.

The use of death squads to pursue the aims of US imperialism is not unique to Haiti. They have been utilized to terrorize the working class across Central America, in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. These “gangs” also functioned in Colombia and the Southern Cone of South America to murder and disappear workers and youth.

In Haiti the “gangs” are split-offs of the infamous “Tonton Macoutes” paramilitary organization created by the US-backed Duvalier dictatorship in 1959 and renamed Volunteers for National Security [Milice de Voluntaires de la Sécurité Nationale —MVSN] in 1971.

As of January 2024, about 200 such “gangs,” derived from the Tonton Macoutes, operated in Haiti with nearly half based in Port-au-Prince, where they controlled the city’s impoverished working class neighborhoods. They grouped themselves into two coalitions, the G9 and G-Pep.

In the words of a 2010 study by the Council of Hemispheric Affairs (two months after the earthquake), the Haitian death squads, are truly “The Central Nervous System of Haiti’s Reign of Terror.”

Most recently, troops from Kenya and other nations have been sent into Haiti to perform policing operations, alongside the death squads. All of these forces are financed by the United States.

Despite this continuing reign of terror against the Haitian workers, prior to, and following the 2010 earthquake, the Haitian masses have repeatedly mobilized in revolutionary struggle and fought against the successive dictatorial regimes, including in a massive wave of popular protest in 2018.

A second earthquake (magnitude 7.2) shook Haiti’s southern peninsula in 2021, resulting in 2,000 deaths; an estimated 500,000 people required emergency humanitarian aid. 

The effects of the 2010 and 2021earthquakes are still being felt, an estimated 5.4 million people, nearly half of Haiti’s population, is malnourished living on one meal a day or less; over 1 million are still homeless; and currently six thousand Haitians are starving.

Haiti has the lowest per capita Gross Domestic Product (US$2700) and life expectancy (63 years) in the Americas.

Haiti shares a 400-kilometer border with the Dominican Republic. In 2023, Luis Abinader, the Dominican Republic’s wealthiest man and current president, mandated that a wall be built along the border, falsely claiming that Haiti was illegally appropriating water from the Dajabon River, on the northern part of the border. He also argued that a wall was needed to ensure the safety of the Dominican Republic from the Haitian gangs and drug trafficking.

Last October Abinader’s government announced its intention to deport 10,000 Haitian immigrants a week, including sugar cane and other workers who had resided in the country for decades, with an ultimate goal of deporting 1.5 million Haitian immigrants.

On February 4, the first flight of Haitian deportees from the US landed at the Cap-Haïtien airport in northern Haiti. The next day Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the Dominican Republic to rubber stamp Abindar’s deportation program.

Last week, 500 Haitian immigrants were deported from the Dominican Republic through a narrow opening in the border wall, in a scene reminiscent of the deportation of Jews into Nazi concentration camps. Some were interviewed by NBC and AP News: “They were the first deportees of the day, some still clad in work clothes and other barefoot as they lined up for food in the Haitian border city of Belladère before mulling their next move… ‘They broke down my door at 4 in the morning’ said Odelyn St. Fleur, who had worked as a mason in the Dominican Republic for two decades. He had been sleeping next to his wife and a 7-year-old son.”

Among the deportees at the border have been pregnant women, Dominican-born children of Haitian immigrants, retirees and chronically ill people.

The AP article also reported on the reaction by Dominican workers in defense of their Haitian class brothers: 

“Last year, a group of Dominican men, outraged at what they said was the treatment and arrest of their Haitian neighbors, threw rocks, bottles and other objects at authorities. One man tried to disarm an immigration official before shots were fired and everyone scattered.”

Sealing the perimeter to the Haitian concentration camp are the naval patrols by the Navy of the Bahamas, British warships, the Cuban border patrol and the US Coast Guard as part of a blockade operation to prevent Haitian refugees from leaving their country. The UK warships are intended to prevent Haitians from seeking refuge in the Turks and Caicos British colony. Also participating in the blockade is the State of Florida, which has increased marine and aviation patrols.

While the blockade is designed to prevent the movement of people; the same cannot be said for the entry of weapons from the US and other nations to arm, and provide ammunition for, the terror squads (80 percent originate in the US). 

According to a CNN study published last May, despite the naval blockade: “guns and drugs keep pouring in, crossing international waters and airspace to reach the embattled country —most of the firepower originating from the US.” Much of that weaponry originates in Florida, one of the participants in the blockade that surrounds Haiti, and is the source of enormous profits for weapons merchants. 

Haiti is an agricultural and clothing exporter, a source of profit for transnational firms and the wealthy elites that live in privileged areas near Port-Au-Prince, surrounded by shanty-towns and protected by the death squads. These elites benefit from the hunger wages and terrible working conditions that are enforced through terror. Haiti also has significant oil reserves as well as important mineral reserves, ripe for exploitation by US and European corporations.

One of the biggest sources of dollars entering Haiti is the remittances from the Haitian diaspora in the US, Canada, the Dominican Republic and other countries. These will surely diminish with the mass deportation of Haitian workers from the US, now accelerating under the fascist policies of  Donald Trump.

Fifteen years after the Haitian earthquake and in the context of the disaster unleashed by profit-seeking capitalism and imperialist war preparations, Haiti has been transformed into one of the world’s largest concentration camps. Its people confront a slow genocide from starvation, disease and terror squads, armed by US imperialism and in the service of the native elites and transnational corporations, all of which have stood in the way of reconstruction since the 2010 and 2021 earthquakes.

Musk, Trump begin to purge US government workers—except military and police

Jacob Crosse

President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

Under the direction of the world’s richest fascist, Elon Musk, over the last 48 hours hundreds, if not thousands, of US federal employees have been fired across multiple agencies. In order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and expanding military and police budgets, thousands of workers across agencies that provide oversight, testing, education and environmental protection are being eliminated.

At this time it appears that the bulk of the current layoffs are hitting probationary workers, as they are easier to terminate. This is only a down payment on what is to come. There is no doubt Musk, President Donald Trump, and the rest of the financial oligarchy they represent are eager to purge permanent government workers as well.

Out of some 2.3 million people working in the US federal government, roughly 200,000 are currently on probation, which typically lasts for a year, but can be as long as three years, depending on the agency and position.

USA Today reported that layoffs were “underway at multiple federal departments.” Foreshadowing tens of thousands more federal job cuts, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday night, that “White House officials are eyeing cuts to agency budgets of between 30 and 40 percent, on average, across the government—centered on significant staff reductions.”

The largest layoffs, so far, have been announced at the US Forest Service. On Thursday, Warner Vanderheuel, president of the Forest Service Council, told Bloomberg Law that 3,400 workers out of more than 20,000 would be laid off. The agency is currently charged with managing some 193 million acres with a focus on natural resource conservation and managing forests to prevent wildfires.

Over 100 probationary employees at the Department of Education and the Small Businesses Administration (SBA) were fired on Wednesday, according to CNN, which cited union sources and government documents. The network reported that fired workers received a letter that read in part, “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”

On Thursday, two Department of Energy staffers told Politico that their department plans to “lay off most or all probationary employees.” Another DoE source said the planned purge of probationary employees at the Energy Department will be replicated “for the full federal government.”

Also on Thursday, Reuters reported that termination emails had been sent to probationary employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the General Services Administration (GSA). Probationary staff at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Reuters noted, “were fired in a group call Thursday.”

An OPM worker told Federal News Network that no union representative was present during the group call and that the meeting’s moderator “disabled microphone and camera access for all employees on the call after someone asked about union representation.” The worker said that about 70 employees were on the call.

It is unclear how many probationary workers have, or will be fired. Reuters said that at least 45 workers at the SBA, 100 at the GSA and 160 workers at the Education Department had been laid off. Federal workers on social media have reported layoffs at the US Patent Office, Veteran’s Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Internal Revenue Service and Department of Agriculture, among other agencies.

The confirmed layoffs are just the tip of the iceberg, with more on the horizon. In a statement to Federal News Network, an OPM spokesperson menacingly stated, “the probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment.”

The layoffs come on the heels of an estimated 75,000 workers, roughly 3 percent, accepting a supposed “buyout” from the Trump administration. In a repeat of his 2022 takeover of Twitter, now X, Musk issued a “Fork in the Road” ultimatum to federal employees, offering a deferred resignation with pay supposedly until September 30. The proposal had been on a court-ordered hold after federal unions sued the government to block it, arguing that it was unfunded, illegal and gave workers only a few days to decide.

On Wednesday, a judge lifted a pause on the program and the offer ended at midnight. The Trump administration had hoped more workers would accept the buyout, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previously stating the goal was between 5 and 10 percent of the current federal workforce (100,000 to 200,000 workers).

The layoffs began in earnest this week, following an executive order issued on Tuesday by Trump, which called for mass reductions in the size of the federal workforce under the direction of Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency.”

Marxists have long maintained that the state is an instrument of class rule, not a neutral arbiter of competing social forces and interests. The US government is not an expression of the democratic will of 330 million people, but a tool of the financial oligarchy, used to advance the class interests of the ruling elite.

Tuesday’s executive order issued by Trump not only underscores this reality, but is a qualitative step towards dictatorship. The executive order requires the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought, author of the Project 2025 blueprint that was so reactionary that Trump had to disavow it during the election campaign, to submit a plan to reduce the federal workforce to “maximize efficiency and productivity.”

It calls for agency heads to undertake “large-scale reductions in force” with a focus on all “agency diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.” This means targeting all workers engaged in anti-discrimination efforts, and empowering fascists and bigots.

Notably, the order does not apply to “functions related to public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement.” Exclusions also include “military personnel” and any position that agency heads deem “necessary to meet national security, homeland security, or public safety responsibilities.”

Seeking to sabotage departments by barring them from hiring needed workers, the “Plan” requires agencies to “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.” This would quickly render most departments unable to function, simply from ordinary attrition and retirements.

Asserting direct control over the hiring process, the order calls for the new hires to be made “in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead.” Furthermore, the agency should not fill “any vacancies for career appointments that the DOGE Team Lead assesses should not be filled,” unless overruled by the agency’s head—another Trump appointee.

Federal workers, many whose departments are facing complete “deletion,” in the words of Musk, cannot rely on the Democrats, trade unions or courts to protect them. None of the federal trade unions or Democratic politicians have called for strike action, let alone a general strike of all federal workers, to protect jobs and fight the layoffs. Instead, they have filed lawsuits which will either be overruled by pro-Trump judges or produce rulings that Trump will simply ignore.

Trump’s call with Putin plunges European powers into crisis

Peter Schwarz

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump give a joint news conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. [AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais]

The announcement by President Donald Trump that the United States would “immediately” begin negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine has plunged European politics into a deep crisis.

Before his “long and very productive” phone call with Putin on Wednesday, Trump had informed neither the Ukrainian government nor European leaders. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky only learned about it afterward from Trump himself. The Europeans received the news through social media. It appears they will also play no role in the planned negotiations.

Prior to this, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had made it unequivocally clear at a meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in Brussels that it was unrealistic to expect Ukraine to return to its 2014 borders—reclaiming Crimea and Donbas—or to become a NATO member. Both of these had previously been considered non-negotiable conditions for ending the war by Kyiv and Brussels. Hegseth also emphasized that ensuring future peace would be Europe’s responsibility; the US would provide neither troops nor financial support for this purpose.

Under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, the US and Europe had jointly pursued the war against Russia. Their goal was to integrate Ukraine into NATO’s and the EU’s sphere of influence and weaken Russia strategically to ensure unrestricted access to its vast resources.

However, despite providing Ukraine with military and financial aid exceeding €200 billion ($209 billion US)—most of it from Europe—the Ukrainian army remains on the defensive. After suffering hundreds of thousands of casualties and facing increasing desertions, Ukraine is struggling even to recruit the necessary soldiers for the front line.

Now, the Europeans fear that Trump may strike a deal with Putin at their expense and without their involvement. Numerous high-ranking politicians have protested against Trump’s unilateral approach.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against excessive concessions to Russia. “We must ensure that there is no dictated peace,” he told Politico, insisting that the US must continue its military involvement.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated, “It should be clear to everyone that we cannot be left sitting at the kids’ table.” He criticized the Trump administration for revealing publicly concessions to Putin before negotiations had even begun. “From my perspective, it would have been better to discuss a potential NATO membership for Ukraine or territorial losses at the negotiating table,” he said. “Peace can only be secured from a position of strength.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote in capital letters on X that Ukraine, Europe, and the United States should work together for a “JUST PEACE. TOGETHER”.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte stressed that “it is important that Ukraine is closely involved in everything that concerns Ukraine.”

Earlier this week, President Zelensky had already attempted to persuade Trump with economic incentives. In a lengthy Guardian interview, he offered lucrative business opportunities in exchange for continued US military support, promising Trump preferential access to rare earth minerals worth $500 billion, as well as Ukraine’s substantial uranium and titanium reserves.

“It is not in the interests of the United States for these reserves to fall into Russian hands and potentially be shared with North Korea, China, or Iran,” Zelensky said. “This is not just about security but also about money… Valuable natural resources where we can offer our partners investment opportunities that did not exist before… For us, this will create jobs, and for American companies, it will generate profits.”

At the same time, Zelensky made it clear that he did not believe the European powers were capable of replacing the US militarily. “There are voices saying that Europe could provide security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” he told the Guardian. According to Zelensky, ensuring Ukraine’s security would require 100,000 to 150,000 foreign soldiers—a number that Europe cannot muster.

It is currently difficult to predict how far Trump’s initiative will go. It is unlikely that Moscow would agree to a deal that includes the deployment of European or American troops in Ukraine, as NATO’s eastward expansion was the primary reason for the war’s outbreak three years ago.

Nevertheless, Trump’s initiative and the alarmed European reactions mark a political turning point. Neither of these developments is about peace. Instead, they signal the fragmentation of the power blocs and alliances that have dominated global politics since World War II in favor of imperialist conflicts where everyone fights for their own interests.

As Der Spiegel concluded in its coverage of “Trump’s Call to the Kremlin”: “The US has begun its shift away from Europe. Trump’s conversation with Putin and Hegseth’s appearance in Brussels have dispelled any remaining doubts.”

The former head of Britain’s MI6 commented: “We’ve moved from a world of rules and multilateral structures and institutions to strongmen making deals over the heads of weaker and smaller countries.”

Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio summed up the “America First” policy as follows: “The interest of American foreign policy is to further the national interest of the United States of America.” Under the banner of rejecting a “unipolar world,” Rubio is turning his back on Europe’s traditional “partners” in order to refocus US military power on territorial expansion and competition with China.

At the Munich Security Conference, which takes place from Friday to Sunday, this debate will play out in public. Alongside numerous European politicians and military officials, US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio will also be in attendance.

The Munich Security Report 2025, which serves as the basis for the conference, is titled “Multipolarization” and describes a world where the emergence of competing power blocs “increases the risk of disorder and conflict and undermines effective cooperation.”

Regarding the US, the report states: “Donald Trump’s presidential victory has buried the US post–Cold War foreign policy consensus that a grand strategy of liberal internationalism would best serve US interests. For Trump and many of his supporters, the US-created international order constitutes a bad deal. As a consequence, the US may be abdicating its historic role as Europe’s security guarantor—with significant consequences for Ukraine. US foreign policy in the coming years will likely be shaped by Washington’s bipolar contest with Beijing.”

Europe’s only response appears to be massive rearmament in pursuit of its own imperialist interests, combined with the increasingly harsh exploitation and repression of the working class to cover the costs of militarization. In this, Europe is moving in the same direction as Trump.

A prime example of the prevailing war hysteria is a guest article in Der Spiegel by Green Party politician Ralf Fücks. As the former head of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Fücks played a leading role in the 2014 right-wing coup in Kyiv that laid the groundwork for the current war.

Now, he accuses Trump of “throwing Ukraine under the bus.” He blames German and European policies for failing to support Ukraine sufficiently. “If Europeans do not pull themselves together now and do everything to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty and the foundations of the European peace order, they will seal their own political insignificance. Europe will become nothing more than a pawn of the great powers,” Fücks argues.

This approach is also shaping Germany’s upcoming federal election. All major parties—from the Left Party, Social Democrats, Greens, Liberal Democrats, and Christian Democrats to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)—agree that Germany must drastically increase its military spending while cutting social programs accordingly. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, (BSW) an anti-migrant split-off from the Left Party, meanwhile, praises Trump as an alleged peacemaker.