The Republican debate and the degradation of US politics

Patrick Martin

The appearance of the Republican presidential candidates Thursday night in Houston, Texas was described by CNN as a debate. But there was no actual debating, in the sense of a discussion of issues or the offering of contrasting political programs. Instead, viewers were confronted with a repulsive display of the degraded state of official politics in the United States.

The three leading candidates—billionaire demagogue Donald Trump, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas—engaged in a barrage of name-calling, mudslinging, insinuation and insult that marked a new low in an already dismal series of such political freak shows.

Rubio set the tone with a series of prepared attacks on Trump’s business career, baiting him as an employer who hired illegal immigrants despite the real estate mogul’s current posture as the arch-hater of immigrants. (Trump advocates deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants). None of the candidates criticized Trump’s fascistic proposals to bar Muslims from entering the US or his support for waterboarding and other forms of torture.

Trump responded in kind, insult for insult, and generally fell back on boasting of his personal wealth as the ultimate answer to all criticism. From there, the “debate” descended even further into the realm of reality television, with simulated rage, threats and bombast pitched to the most backward and demoralized elements in American society.

Not only the candidates, but the CNN moderator, the reactionary pro-war hack Wolf Blitzer, and the audience, which responded to the verbal brawl with shrieks and catcalls, contributed to the demeaning spectacle.

American bourgeois politics has never been particularly edifying. However, Thursday’s spectacle marked a new low, a fact that was acknowledged even by some veteran media commentators. Bob Schieffer of CBS observed, “I thought things couldn’t get lower than they’d already reached in this campaign. I mean, the political discourse, but last night it went even below where I thought it could possibly go. I mean, no discussion of the issues, but people arguing, screaming, hollering. It was like kids out behind the barn rather than a political debate.”

The degraded character of Thursday’s event did not stop the media from treating it seriously afterwards, hailing Rubio’s performance as a stunning political comeback. This was a prearranged narrative. The Republican Party establishment is belatedly trying to check Trump’s momentum after his surge to frontrunner status, winning three of the first four contests and leading in most polls for 15 more statewide primaries and caucuses in the coming week.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who pulled out of the presidential race in the fall after failing to attract support in the polls, told a charity fundraising event in Washington Thursday night that Trump’s lead in the primaries and polling meant, “My party has gone batshit crazy.”

But the endorsement of Trump Friday by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who dropped out of the presidential campaign just over two weeks ago, is a signal that the “Stop Trump” movement is getting little traction. Trump is expected to sweep the Super Tuesday contests and is now favored to clinch the nomination before the end of March.

The level of discourse continued downwards in the 24 hours after the debate. Rubio accused Trump of being a “con artist” and suggested that he had wet his pants during the debate. Trump called Rubio a “nervous Nellie,” a “lightweight” and a “choker.”

Trump also threatened the media at a press conference, declaring that if he became president, “I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money… So that when the New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when the Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money…”

One of the three, Trump, Rubio or Cruz, will likely become the Republican presidential nominee and potentially the next US president. The background of each of these individuals testifies to the decline in the caliber, even by American political standards, of the personnel advanced by the US corporate-financial elite to fill its most important government position.

Trump is, as he endlessly proclaims, a billionaire, who made his fortune servicing the personal needs of the wealthy through hotels, luxury apartments, resorts and casinos. After a series of financial near-disasters, including four corporate bankruptcies, he cemented his position, both monetarily and as a celebrity, through “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice” reality TV programs, in which Trump as CEO hired high-level assistants from a list of applicants. It was there that he perfected the bullying, blowhard persona that is currently on display at campaign rallies and debates.

Cruz and Rubio are both first-generation Cuban-Americans who took slightly different paths. Rubio graduated from the University of Miami law school and went straight into local Republican politics, dominated by the fascistic anti-Castro exile milieu. He moved up from city commissioner to state representative before being chosen as House Speaker under then-Governor Jeb Bush.

Cruz came from a Texas milieu of ultra-right Christian fundamentalism and went straight to the highest levels of the Republican Party in Washington. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist before working on the House Republican effort to impeach President Bill Clinton. Soon after, he participated in the Bush campaign’s efforts to halt vote-counting in Florida in the 2000 elections, which led to the Supreme Court’s notorious Bush v. Gore decision handing the White House to the loser of the popular vote. Denied a leading position in the Bush administration, he moved back to Texas to become solicitor general.

Both Rubio in 2010 and Cruz in 2012 were elected to the US Senate as challengers to the candidates favored by the Republican Party establishment. Both had the backing of the ultra-right Tea Party faction. The two first-term senators began planning presidential bids almost as soon as they arrived in Washington DC. They have each raised tens of millions in campaign funds from hedge fund investors and other billionaires.

Even by the meager standards of American two-party politics, the 2016 presidential campaign has been a demonstration of the staggering decay in the intellectual and moral level of the political representatives of the American ruling elite. This is true of the Democrats as well as the Republicans, although it takes somewhat different forms given the different roles the rival parties play in manipulating popular sentiments and allowing a narrow financial aristocracy to rule over a complex mass society of more than 330 million people.

The process has gone furthest in the Republican Party, which over the past four decades has become the main repository for what is most foul, bigoted and backward in American life. This was acknowledged in a remarkable column published in the Washington Post Friday by Robert Kagan, the neoconservative who was one of the leading apologists for the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the war crimes committed by the Bush administration. Kagan now declares that “the only choice will be to vote for Hillary Clinton.”

“Trump is no fluke,” Kagan writes. “Nor is he hijacking the Republican Party or the conservative movement, if there is such a thing. He is, rather, the party’s creation, its Frankenstein’s monster, brought to life by the party, fed by the party and now made strong enough to destroy its maker.” He described Trump as “tapping the well-primed gusher of popular anger, xenophobia and, yes, bigotry that the party had already unleashed.”

Kagan voices the mounting concern in ruling circles, Republican and Democratic alike, that the two-party system is fracturing and the reactionary, militaristic and authoritarian views advanced by Trump, all too openly and crudely, will provoke popular revulsion and completely discredit the entire political structure.

Kagan is wrong is stating that Trump is simply the Frankenstein creation of the Republican Party. He is, rather, a particularly naked expression of the criminality, parasitism, backwardness and moral degradation of the financial aristocracy that presides over American society and runs the political system and media.

Alternative approach to nuclear fusion energy at German lab takes important first step

Gregory McAvoy

On December 10, 2015, an experimental device 14 years in the making, called Wendelstein 7-X, achieved an important first milestone in its mission to prove that fusion, the process that powers the sun, can be harnessed by mankind for power generation. The device produced its first helium plasma—more on what this actually means later.

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

Wendelstein 7-X, known more technically as a stellerator, is located at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany and is the result of an international collaboration, with funding coming predominantly from the German government and the European Union (EU). To commemorate its “maiden voyage,” the event was streamed live to fusion laboratories across Europe. It received widespread media coverage in Germany and abroad.

The source of the excitement surrounding the operation of the device derives from what it hopes to achieve. The scientists and engineers who designed and built the stellerator are attempting to show that a new type of reactor design could provide a more attainable path to the coveted prize of commercial fusion power. Fusion could be the silver bullet for humanity’s energy woes; it is carbon-neutral, and its source of fuel is cheap and practically limitless. Moreover, fusion reactors would produce far less troublesome radioactive waste than nuclear fission and there is no risk of chain reactions like the one that caused the Chernobyl disaster.

However, it has been notoriously difficult to prove that a viable fusion reactor can be created: the physical conditions necessary for fusion to occur are extreme. An individual fusion reaction requires two small, positively charged atomic nuclei, composed of protons and neutrons, to “fuse” together. The result is a comparatively large amount of energy, in accordance with Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc2, but since the nuclei are both positively charged and so repel each other, they need to be travelling at high speeds to overcome this barrier.

The last of the five field-period modules of the stellarator experiment Wendelstein 7-X was installed at the end of 2011. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

Correspondingly, the fusion fuel must attain temperatures about ten times hotter than the centre of the Sun. At these temperatures, the fuel enters the fourth state of matter, known as plasma: the electrons and nuclei that are typically bonded in atoms become partially or completely disassociated (or ionized). Evidently, there are no materials capable of containing such energetic charged particles without themselves disintegrating, and one scheme to confine the fuel plasma is to use magnetic fields of extraordinarily high magnitude.

As a stellerator, Wendelstein 7-X uses numerous, strangely shaped electromagnetic coils in a “toroidal” or donut arrangement to create a correspondingly bizarre magnetic cage.

This complex design required over ten years of planning and theoretical calculations conducted on incredibly powerful supercomputers to produce what the physicists hope will be an optimal result. The 70 coils, each about 3.5 metres tall and weighing a few tons, are made of expensive superconducting material and needed to be placed with millimetre precision. In all, the magnets and supports weigh 425 tons and must be enclosed in a cryogenic vacuum vessel, all cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero.

This wide-angle view inside the W7-X stellarator (April 2013) shows the stainless cover plates and the water-cooled copper backing plates (which will eventually be covered by graphite tiles) that are being installed as armour to protect against plasma/wall interactions. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

It is hoped that this arrangement will optimally confine the fusion plasma, avoiding the instabilities and particle losses endemic to other strategies. The December 10 event marked the first plasma produced in Wendelstein 7-X using helium atoms as fuel. A further step was taken on February 3, 2016 using a different fuel, hydrogen. This is important because the ideal fusion reaction is between isotopes (i.e., heavier forms) of hydrogen.

Of course, to reach this impressive achievement and conquer the numerous complexities, many man-hours and extensive funding were necessary. In total, over one million assembly hours and €370 million for components, rising to €1.03 billion if operating costs are included, were required. Such logistics are not uncharacteristic of large-scale, international scientific endeavours. A related project to build the world’s largest fusion reactor, called ITER, has a current estimated cost of between €13 and €15 billion, earning the title of humanity’s most expensive experiment, and construction will not likely be completed until the early 2020s.

Cutting-edge science is necessarily costly in every sense of the word, but some context is required to evaluate whether enough resources are being directed towards fusion research. An apt comparison is with the fossil fuel industry, since fusion will one day enter the energy market. Minimal new research funding has been directed to fossil fuel extraction because it is a fairly mature industry, but in 2013 alone, it is estimated by the IEA (International Energy Agency) that global government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry totalled $530 billion.

Scheme of coil system (blue) and plasma (yellow) of the nuclear fusion plasma experiment Wendelstein 7-X under construction at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Greifswald, Germany. For example a magnetic field line is highlighted in green on the plasma surface shown in yellow. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics

This is staggering to contemplate. Even if the costs for the most expensive science experiment in the world, viz. ITER, were condensed into one year, this would still only account for about 3 percent of the amount governments spend in supporting the consumption and production of fossil fuels. Even more perplexing is the fact that the scientific community widely accepts that fossil fuels are the main contributing factor to anthropogenic climate change.

In this light, it would seem foolish to quibble over the comparatively minor budgets of scientific research projects that could directly assist in providing clean, abundant energy. Yet the exact opposite is the case. For instance, NCSX, a similar device to Wendelstein 7-X, which was being built at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in the United States, was cancelled by the Department of Energy due to cost overruns. Similarly, the ITER project is at risk because of its budgetary woes, construction delays, and the looming threat that the US government may pull its support.

Such a contrast in funding and neglect of foresight can only be explained by a global political and economic system that is completely subservient to short-term profits and capital accumulation. It is solely through a mass movement of the working class that this system can be overturned, so that science is at liberty to solve humanity’s problems and fully conquer nature.

Hundreds of Australian climate-change science jobs to be axed

Perla Astudillo & Richard Philips

The announcement earlier this month that the federally-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) plans to sack up to 350 climate scientists has been condemned by scientists in Australia and internationally. The decision is a major blow to scientific research into ocean temperatures, greenhouse gas levels and other indices that provide a deeper understanding of climate change.

Almost 200 positions will be cut from the Oceans and Atmosphere (O&A) division, with the remaining jobs eliminated from the Land and Water division. The O&A monitors atmospheric and ocean carbon dioxide levels from Cape Grim, a rocky outpost on the northwestern tip of Tasmania.

An O&A scientist told the science journal Nature: “More than 80 percent of our climate scientists will be cut. This is not about myself, it’s about my people and the capability we spent 40 years to build. It will be going overnight.”

CSIRO chief Larry Marshall informed staff about the cuts via email. There was no longer any need to “prove” that climate change was real, he wrote. “[T]hat question has been answered” and so it was now necessary to move from research on climate change to the sort of products that could supposedly cope with the environmental consequences.

Marshall—a former Silicon Valley venture capitalist—was appointed by the Liberal-National Coalition government in late 2014 as part of a deliberate strategy to transform the CSIRO into a profit-driven enterprise. This month Marshall told the Australian Financial Review that the “CSIRO is too often ‘science push’ than ‘market pull.’”

This short-sighted, profit-driven approach ignores the fact that the changes to climate are ongoing, complex and have far-reaching consequences for humanity as a whole. The planned sacking of the CSIRO scientists will have ramifications for climate research around the world.

Australian climate research programs have provided a quarter of the world’s ocean observing capacity in the Southern Hemisphere. Data on the temperature and salinity of the upper 2,000 metres of the ocean is collected by 3,000 drifting floats.

A protest letter signed by 3,000 scientists from nearly 60 nations declared: “The decision to decimate a vibrant and world-leading research program shows a lack of insight, and a misunderstanding of the importance of the depth and significance of Australian contributions to global and regional climate research.”

The World Climate Research Program issued a statement warning that the proposed cuts risked severing “vital linkages with Australian colleagues and to essential southern hemisphere data sources, linkages that connect Australia to Britain, the US, New Zealand, Japan, China and beyond.”

On Monday, the Climate Council of Australia issued a 22-page report entitled Flying Blind: Navigating Climate Change without the CSIRO. It pointed out that research and data collected by CSIRO was vital to “predict changes in the climate and building preparedness for our worsening extreme weather events. Further cuts to model development will leave us dangerously exposed to the escalating risks of climate change.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull claimed to have been ‘blindsided’ by the CSIRO’s announcement about the job destruction. A spokesman for Science Minister Christopher Pyne told the media that the cuts were not the responsibility of the Turnbull government but “an operational decision of the CSIRO.”

These claims are a fraud. Last year the federal government slashed $115 million or 16 percent of CSIRO’s annual funding, which led to the elimination of over 1,000 jobs. Successive Coalition and Labor governments have systematically reduced CSIRO’s budget over the past two decades, resulting in the agency losing some 30 percent of its staff.

Climate-change science and research has been particularly targeted by the Coalition government, previously headed by Tony Abbott, whose backers downplayed or outright denied climate change. Turnbull deposed Abbott last September, but the government as a whole has close connections to the coal and other fossil fuel industries. Turnbull has also made clear that climate-change funding must be tied to “innovation”—that is, it must have commercial value.

The overall funding for the CSIRO’s climate-monitoring sites are miniscule compared to other areas of government spending. This year’s funding for Cape Grim would be $226,246, with the Bureau of Meteorology contributing another $458,500. The overall government budget for CSIRO for 2015 was $181 million, a small fraction of the $31.8 billion spent on the military.

The importance of the work of climate scientists is underscored by the fact that eight of the ten warmest years recorded since 1860, when instrumental records began, have been in the past decade. The causes of such developments are due to a complex interaction of long-term changes to the atmosphere and oceans.

Climate models are carefully developed from the years of information gathered by scientists such as those being cut at the CSIRO. Future modelling is vital, not only to predict major changes in weather patterns but to assist work in the field of natural disasters and how to possibly prevent them.

The CSIRO cuts are another indication of the inability of the capitalist profit system to address, let alone avert, a looming ecological disaster. The technical means to halt climate change exist, but can be implemented only on a rational basis under a globally planned socialist economy.

UK government proposes to set up Muslim-only jail

Barry Mason

The UK government is considering setting up a secure prison unit solely to house convicted Islamist terrorists. The UK has 130 such prisoners, who all face being moved into the proposed secure prison.

If the proposal were implemented, it would overturn the standard practice in place since the 1960s of housing convicted terrorists in the general prison population. Currently, convicted terrorists are held in one of six maximum-security jails, Frankland near Durham, Full Sutton near York, Long Lartin in Worcestershire, Wakefield, Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire and Belmarsh in south London.

Convicted terrorists held within these prisons are regularly transferred to different locations. A single unit for Islamist terrorists has been dubbed by the media a “British Alcatraz,” a reference to the US prison built on an island off San Francisco to contain dangerous prisoners. A more apt analogy would be the “British Guantanamo,” in reference to the United States military prison camp in Cuba, where prisoners deemed “unlawful combatants” are held by the US authorities in order to deny them official prisoner-of-war status and the most rudimentary human rights.

The new secure unit could be contained within one of the six maximum-security prisons—a “prison within a prison”—or could be established as a new separate entity.

The proposal for a separate unit comes from a review of how to deal with prisoners convicted of terrorist offences, set up by the Justice Secretary Michael Gove. The review, led by former prison governor and senior Home Office official Ian Acheson, is to be published in March.

The last occasion in the UK when prisoners were held together based on sharing an ideological belief was the infamous “H block” cells in the Maze prison in Northern Ireland in the 1980s. In the H blocks, the inmates were deemed to be political prisoners and were classed as either loyalists or nationalists, and duly segregated.

In a recent speech, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron all but signed up to setting up a separate unit for Muslims convicted of terrorist offences. He said, “I am prepared to consider major changes: from the imams we allow to preach in prison to changing the locations and methods for dealing with prisoners convicted of terrorism offences, if that is what is required.”

The proposals to isolate Muslim prisoners in British prisons is part of the demonization of Muslims, who are constantly associated with “terrorism” and “extremism” in the press.

Prior to Cameron’s speech, Home Secretary Theresa May called for an “extremism officer” to be sited in prisons to deal with “radicalisation.”

What is defined as “extremism” by the government is now so broad, it could include virtually any form of opposition to the British ruling elite. In December 2013, the then Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition published a report entitled “Prime Minister’s Task Force on Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism.” It defined “extremism” as “vocal or active opposition tofundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also include in our definition of extremism calls for the death of members of our armed forces, whether in this country or overseas. There is a range of extremist individuals and organisations, including Islamists, the far right and others.” [emphasis added]

There are now more than 85,600 people in UK prisons. While five percent of the general population is Muslim, in prisons the figure is one in seven (roughly 15 percent) and in high-security prisons the figure is nearer 20 percent. The number of Muslims in jail has roughly doubled over the decade from 2004 to 2014, with their numbers going up from around 6,500 to over 12,000.

A Muslim Council of Britain report published last year, based on the latest census data, showed the unemployment rate among Muslims to be higher than the average. It found that around half of the British Muslim population lives in the bottom 10 percent of local authority districts rated by deprivation.

Cameron and May are following the example of the escalating assault on the social and democratic rights of Muslims being enforced in France. The French government trialled a separate secure unit for convicted Islamist terrorists at Fresnes prison, near Paris. This has now been extended to five other prisons throughout France, with the prospect of eventually setting up such units in 26 prisons nationwide.

Each of these units holds between 20 and 25 prisoners. Their access to social and recreational activities is severely restricted, as is their access to the Internet and phone communication. They are held under close surveillance. This level of isolation and surveillance is comparable to that imposed at Guantanamo Bay.

A February 12 Guardian article on the secure units in France noted: “Inmates are selected based on the supposed radicalization threat they represent using a ‘detection grid’ assessing personality, background and observed religious behaviour. France has also recruited nearly 400 extra wardens, social workers, psychologists and surveillance specialists for its larger prisons, as well as more Muslim chaplains.”

The over representation of Muslims in French prisons is even more stark than in British prisons. The Guardian noted a 2004 survey by Farhad Khosrokhavar, an Iranian-born Professor of Sociology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. He estimated that around 50 percent of the French prison population are Muslims. This figure rose to 70 percent for those short-term prisoners held in jails on the outskirts of large cities.

As in Britain, many French Muslims, mainly of Algerian origin, live in conditions of deprivation and wretched poverty in areas of high unemployment, such as in the banlieues (housing estates) around Paris. Many of the Muslims held in French prisons come from such run-down estates.

The assault on the democratic rights of Muslims is far advanced in France. As far back as September 2010, the French Senate voted into law a bill banning the wearing in all public places of full-face veils, such as the burqa or niqab, worn by some Islamic women. Following the terrorist attacks in Paris in November last year, a state of emergency was declared. Recently, the lower house of the French parliament voted for the state of emergency to be incorporated into the French constitution, making it a permanent feature.

A report issued at the beginning of February by Human Rights Watch noted how the state of emergency was being used to target Muslims and create an atmosphere of fear and panic. It noted, “France has carried out abusive and discriminatory raids and house arrests against Muslims under its sweeping new state of emergency law. The measures have created economic hardship, stigmatized those targeted, and have traumatized children.”

The Cameron government’s pursuit of anti-Muslim policies à la française is ominous. The ongoing scapegoating of Muslims is being consciously utilised in order to shift politics further to the right.

The demonization of Muslims in France has only benefited far right and fascistic forces. Although it eventually came third, the far-right Front National emerged strengthened from the December regional elections, after winning the first round amid a poisonous atmosphere of police repression and anti-Muslim hysteria.

Downsizing begins as Fiat Chrysler seeks merger partner

Shannon Jones

The recent announcement by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne that the company will stop production of small and midsize vehicles throws into question the status of thousands of jobs at the automaker’s US operations.

The change is part of continuing plans by Marchionne to seek a merger partner for the auto company. The Fiat Chrysler CEO said he plans to eliminate small car production in order to focus on larger, more profitable vehicles such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Ram truck.

Meanwhile, some 3,000 autoworkers are continuing on a six-week layoff at FCA’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant outside Detroit. The facility, originally set for shutdown in 2009, was retooled to build the Chrysler 200, one of the vehicles the company now says it wants to phase out.

Workers began the layoff February 1 and are scheduled to return on March 14. The plant is scheduled for another temporary shutdown in April.

As the World Socialist Web Site and the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter warned at the time of the 2015 auto contract negotiations, Fiat Chrysler and the UAW were concealing the implications of a potential merger from rank-and-file autoworkers. In fact, the 2015 agreement contained no job guarantees.

A second tier worker at the Sterling Heights Stamping plant, where 150 workers are on voluntary layoff due to the shutdown of the nearby Sterling Heights assembly plant, spoke to the WSWS. Under the two-tier wage system second tier workers receive significantly lower pay and inferior benefits to tier one workers. “The shutdown is not being discussed in union meetings. I don’t think it is right. If Marchionne was planning on selling the company, he was planning during the contract time. I don’t understand a lot of things that go on. They are a corporation, so they can do what they like.”

She said that she had been very critical of the sellout agreement rammed through by the UAW during the 2015 contract negotiations. “I couldn’t see voting for something without a pension, especially with me being older.”

“There will still be tier one and tier two with the new contract. They got rid of the cap (on the percentage of tier two workers.) It is just amazing to me how they could let that happen.”

Workers at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant have faced delays in receiving their unemployment benefits from the state of Michigan. What the company calls issues in timing caused some hourly workers to receive only one week’s unemployment pay instead of two.

Workers seeking to collect unemployment benefits must navigate the state’s automated response line or website. Mistakes in the filing process can result in workers not receiving their benefits. Job cuts to state employees often make it difficult for those applying for benefits to reach a live representative in case problems arise in the course of filing.

In the past workers got up to 95 percent of their regular pay when they are laid off under terms of the national agreement. Part of that money comes from the company—in the form of Supplemental Unemployment Benefits (SUB)—and part comes from state jobless benefits. But, any delays in getting money from the state cause a hold up in pay from the company as well.

A veteran worker at the Sterling Heights Assembly told the WSWS, “The state is only paying you when they are ready. It is not easy being on unemployment. I would rather be working.”

Under the terms of the new UAW labor deals the companies are not making any additional SUB payments. In a conference call with investors late last year, a Ford executive boasted that freezing SUB pay would “allow us to adjust our workforce in a fairly cost effective way because our newer employees have lower seniority and they would be the first to be impacted in the event of a downturn.” SUB pay for so-called in-progression workers “maxes out at 26 weeks and is roughly 74 percent of their pay,” he said.

Fiat Chrysler is now planning to end production of the Dodge Dart, which is built in Belvidere, Illinois, in addition to the Chrysler 200. The plant currently employs 4,000 hourly employees and there is no estimate of the impact on jobs.

The Dundee, Michigan engine plant south of Detroit could also be impacted by these moves, since the facility currently produces engines for the Dart and Chrysler 200. That facility employs 570 hourly workers.

In preparation for the shutdown of production of the Chrysler 200 the company plans to cut production from 189,000 vehicles last year to 120,000 this year. This likely means that Sterling Heights Assembly workers will be dealing with continued layoffs as the company ramps down production.

Earlier, the Detroit Free Press reported that Fiat Chrysler plans to shift production of the Ram 1500 pickup from the Warren Truck Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit to Sterling Heights. That would likely not happen before 2018, but the Chrysler 200 could be completely phased out in the meantime.

Meanwhile, there have been reports that Warren Truck would build the Jeep Grand Wagoneer in place of the Ram. But the Wagoneer is a slow selling vehicle, so it is not clear how many workers would need to be retained at the facility, one of Fiat Chrysler’s oldest assembly plants and a worksite long rumored to be on the list for closure.

The Sterling Heights Assembly worker explained, “You know how many times Chrysler has been married and divorced. All we know is what we hear on the news. The union isn’t saying anything. They lied all the way around. The (2015) contract was a joke. I spent the signing bonus money in one day.

“Now we are laid off and they are sending the second tier workers to Jefferson North Assembly and Warren Truck. You ask the union any questions about it and they mark you as a troublemaker. They do what they want to do.”

Fiat Chrysler is reportedly looking at a number of different companies as possible merger partners. While General Motors has repeatedly turned down overtures from Marchionne, a number of other companies are cited as merger candidates by the Free Press. These include PSA Peugot Citroen, the French automaker; Hyundai-Kia of Korea; Japanese-based Honda and Mahindra, the Indian conglomerate.

The plans to shut down small car production and focus on larger, higher fuel consumption vehicles are based on the gamble that low fuel prices will continue into the indefinite future. Further, a deepening economic slump could quickly make a shambles of all these calculations.

For its part the Free Press warned that a botched merger could “devastate FCA and lead to job losses and plant closures.”

Fiat Chrysler’s latest moves underscore the degree to which the jobs and livelihoods of autoworkers are dependent on the whims of management and the vagaries of the capitalist market. It underscores the irrational and chaotic character of private ownership and production for profit.

The United Auto Workers has been largely silent on the implications of continued talks of a merger. It responded to Marchionne’s announcement of the phasing out of production of the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 by asking for a meeting. The UAW defended Marchionne’s plan to focus on high fuel consumption vehicles, discounting the possible impact of a rise in gas prices on sales. “I see that trend going for a long, long time,” UAW President Dennis Williams told Reuters of current sales patterns. “In part because of improving fuel economy of larger vehicles.”

As an organization based on American nationalism and defense of the capitalist profit system, the UAW has no answer to the threat of layoffs and plant closings. Its only “solution” to the threat of job cuts is to join with management to extort more concessions from workers and aid company efforts to squeeze out greater productivity to make the company more “competitive” with its US and overseas rivals.

The working class must advance its own solution to the chaos of capitalist production by fighting for a program based on the public ownership of the auto companies under the democratic control of the working class. Only in that way can the resources of society be allocated in a rational and planned matter to meet both the needs of the public to safe and high quality vehicles and for workers to have secure and decent paying jobs.

Hillary Clinton's Global-Burning Record

Eric Zuesse

On 17 July 2015, Paul Blumenthal and Kate Sheppard at Huffington Post bannered, “Hillary Clinton's Biggest Campaign Bundlers Are Fossil Fuel Lobbyists”  and the sub-head was "Clinton's top campaign financiers are linked to Big Oil, natural gas and the Keystone pipeline.” This description of her fits for a politician who does the lobbyists' bidding while she provides liberal rhetoric that denies she will, and so who burns-up not only the planet but the trust of the liberals who have voted for her in the mistaken belief that because her label is “Democrat” and because she makes her appeals to women, Blacks, Hispanics, and other disenfranchised groups, she's not actually representing (just like the Republicans do) their common-enemies, which go beyond such ethnic or other groups and constitute the top-0.0001%-economic-class that's exploiting almost the entire public — including  women, Blacks, Hispanics, etc.

Her record does show that she represents those lobbyists, not the public. As I had reported previously, the Hillary Clinton State Department's two environmental impact statements on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline were triple-hoaxes that totally and scandalously ignored the proposed pipeline's impact on climate-change but that did discuss the impact of climate-change on the proposed pipeline (as if anybody even cared about that); neither of the two studies had even one climatologist on the team that prepared the report; and the State Department didn't do either of the reports themselves, but instead hired two oil-industry contractors that were proposed to the State Department by TransCanada Corporation, which is the company that was proposing to build and own the pipeline. So: those ‘studies' were rigged to enable the President to approve the Pipeline — which he ultimately decided not  to do.

Furthermore, on 2 May 2013, Steve Horn headlined, "Digging Into TransCanada's Lobbying History,” and he found that, indeed, Hillary Clinton was surrounded by TransCanada lobbyists while the reports were being prepared by TransCanada's chosen oil-industry contractors. On 12 March 2014, I headlined "Keystone XL Pipeline Corruption With State Department Should Not Be Legal,”  and reported that, "The Office of Inspector General (IG) of the U.S. State Department has determined that all of the corruption that was entailed in the preparation of the Hillary Clinton State Department's two Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) on the TransCanada corporation's proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, and that is still present in the John Kerry State Department's final EIS, was legal.” This didn't mean that it was at all ethical. It was disgustingly corrupt, regardless of whether it was legal. But, he found: it was legal.

Hillary Clinton is also a big champion of fracking. In September 2014, Mariah Blake bannered "How Hillary Clinton's State Department Sold Fracking to the World,” and reported that, "As part of its expanded energy mandate, the State Department hosted conferences on fracking from Thailand to Botswana. It sent US experts to work alongside foreign officials as they developed shale gas programs.” The energy-companies didn't pay for those sales-calls by the U.S. Secretary of State; taxpayers did.

On 10 April 2015, New Yorkers Against Fracking sent a letter to Clinton, opening, "We, the undersigned citizens groups from across the United States, write to urge you to join the growing majority of Americans against fracking.” Probably, she will, verbally, ‘join' them, but her record shows that she often doesn't follow her word, but that she does reliably follow her money: where that points, she goes (but as much in the dark as she possibly can — ergo, her private email server being used for government-business).

She earns her keep, for the lobbyists, and for her financial backers.

Forecast 2016: Afghanistan

Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy

In 2015, Afghanistan swung back and forth between several transitions. Insurgency reached levels insofar unseen since 2001. As late as December 2015, the Afghan Taliban, notwithstanding its internal problems, showed no signs of retreating for winters, as has usually been the case. Instead, their offensives intensified. The Islamic State (IS) too managed to establish itself as a player in the country. The incumbent National Unity Government (NUG) is struggling to convince the electorate of its efficiency, trustworthiness, and commitment to reforms, and rising insecurity, a bad job market, and declining confidence in the NUG prompted a massive outbound migration of 1,50,000 Afghans.

Nonetheless, in 2015, Afghanistan also witnessed some forward movement in important sectors such as women's rights and their involvement in decision-making processes – especially towards peace-building – and regional cooperation vis-à-vis trade, energy and connectivity.

In 2016, the country will face challenging tests in key sectors, and will have to carefully cross every bridge, on time.

Security

In 2015, Afghanistan recorded almost 10,000 insurgent attacks. At present, two of the country's four key security establishments – the ministry of defence and the national directorate of security – do not have full time chiefs.

Although the splintering in the Afghan Taliban ranks appears to be waning, continued internal discontent with potential to escalate could be expected throughout 2016. The splintering slowed down primarily to deal with the challenges posed by the IS and others; achieving a stronger position during negotiations with Kabul; and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) gaining relatively more influence on the group. If internal disgruntlement in the Taliban structure continues, one could expect intensification in localised warring. Increased collusion between local criminal gangs and insurgent groups – especially the Haqqani Network – for logistical and ancillary activities could be expected.

Peace negotiations with the Taliban, irrespective of the numbers of the meetings, can only succeed if vital divergences in endgames of the various involved parties – non-state and state – are resolved. Problematically, the Taliban is no longer the single, united entity it used to be. And Kabul cannot accommodate the demands of those Taliban open to talks either without squandering away the gains made since 2001 and any leftover credibility among the Afghans. Even if talks succeed, the chances and sustainability of the achieved success is unknown.

Grim times are ahead in the north and south unless fault-lines are addressed before the October 2016 election. The variety in the terrorist groups and their complex linkages and goals has further complicated matters. For instance, the Taliban is estimated at 1,300 members, but the presence and numbers of foreign insurgent groups such as the Junbish-e-Nasr-e-Tajikistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the IMU-breakaway Jundallah, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Haqqani Network are increasing, which presages a culmination in a grave situation by 2016 end. Developments in Kunduz's Dasht-e-Archi and Chahrdara districts warrant close monitoring.

In the south, a relative degeneration in the security set-up together with the Taliban's growing strength and network, particularly in Helmand and Kandahar, might test the government’s control over territory. Here, Spin Boldak district – strategically located and that houses a major crossing point for people and goods between Afghanistan and Pakistan – is squarely placed to be one of the prime Taliban targets for capture and control.

Last year, the IS expanded its presence in Afghanistan, and Nangarhar – which witnessed among the highest numbers of attacks in 2015 – became its stronghold. Security in the eastern and southeastern provinces, especially in Nangarhar, might witness deterioration. The IS presence increased in Kunduz, Logar and Ghazni provinces, as also reportedly in the outskirts of Kabul. It was also reported in the eastern, southern and western provinces, and in relatively fewer numbers in northern provinces such as Sar-e-Pul and Samangan. The splintering within the Pakistan-based Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan could become resourceful for the IS inside Afghanistan. The IMU's allegiance to the Afghanistan-based IS will make matters worse. Ominously, child soldiers are now part of the insurgency.

However, irrespective of the potential setbacks that may arise, the Afghan army – which is extremely stretched in finances, manpower, equipment and morale, and urgently requires aerial support – could be expected to prevent the insurgents from retaining if not capturing strategic connectivity links.

Governance

Both Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah approach almost every issue divergently from the outset, and personal considerations towards their individual political and other calculations often take precedence. This has caused several delays in decision-making and reforms on key issues. Corruption is still high, and public confidence in the NUG is rapidly declining.

There has been some progress, as demonstrated via the passing of media laws, among others, but the pace is sluggish and the citizens' patience is running low. Even if Ghani and Abdullah intend to work towards the larger cause of Afghanistan, electoral and support-related compulsions of a coalition government of two competing parties prevent them from doing so substantially. Yunus Qanuni's candidature for the Afghan High Peace Council chief position is an example.

Chances are some reforms may be hurriedly carried out in an attempt to gain some credibility before the October elections and the convening of the Loya Jirga. Meanwhile, the political cleavage between Kabul and the north is growing and will become increasingly apparent. Warlordism is returning, and the inefficiencies in governance are working in the Taliban's favour towards consolidation of presence, especially in the border areas.

Elections

Parliamentary and district council elections were announced for 15 October 2016 but whether or not polls take place will depend both on the NUG and the pace of reforms. The Electoral Reform Commission's proposal to replace the current single non-transferrable vote (SNTV) system with a mixed-proportional representation system, in the upcoming elections, will be impractical to implement and violates Article 83 of the Afghan constitution. The SNTV is imperfect but is simple and practical at this point, given the country's low literacy, resource and stability levels.

The Loya Jirga has to be convened before the NUG completes two years this year. Any result or delay in either or both will challenge the NUG's legitimacy. Increasingly, both Ghani and Abdullah seem anxious about their futures for when the Loya Jirga convenes (or does not).

Regional Outlook

Unless Pakistan gets sincere about resolving the regional insurgency, Afghanistan's troubles will be far from finding an end. Although Islamabad is currently not in a position to dictate terms to the Afghan Taliban like earlier, the former still wields substantial influence over the group, in part due to its relationship with the Haqqani Network. The IS' entry has added a new dimension. The extent of Pakistan's support to insurgent groups ends where the chances of the former gaining an upper hand end. Unlike in the case of the Taliban, Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, LeT or JeM, Rawalpindi will be unable to influence or control the IS. And no terrorist group in the region is able to operate smoothly without Rawalpindi's support or assent. This equation will increasingly have a bearing on the regional security scenario where the Taliban are gradually being perceived as the lesser of the evils and as a counter to the IS.

The outcome of the 2016 US presidential elections will impact several key issues. There is a good chance Washington is seeking a presence in Afghanistan a la South Korea – but if this is formally actualised, it will not be met with enthusiasm from the Afghans or regional countries. Here, improvement in US-Iran ties may have a role to play in 2016.

Russia is seeking greater involvement, and reportedly views the Taliban as a counter to the IS. Moscow is already set to supply small arms to Kabul. In an event of escalation or spillover of insecurity into its strategic backyard, Central Asia, the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organiaation's Collective Rapid Reaction Force is likelier to be the choice of force deployed.

And, however low key it may want to project it as, an increasing Chinese involvement in Afghanistan can be expected in 2016.

India-Afghanistan

India's cautious approach towards involving itself in the Afghan peace process is reasonable given the Taliban-Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) relations as well as past experiences. The new great game afoot in the region among various countries as well as among the insurgent groups may make a case for New Delhi's involvement too, but it would be wise for India to dodge the temptation and be measured, taking into account at every level that for any peace and reconciliation effort to be achieved and sustained, it will have to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. This is likely to be the case.

New Delhi will remain steadfast in its commitment to progress and stability in Afghanistan and like Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "India is here to contribute not to compete." India-Iran-Afghanistan cooperation can be expected in 2016. It will be interesting to see how New Delhi's engagements with Central Asian countries proceed.

Overview

Although the current condition seems portentous, a return to the Taliban era is unlikely in 2016. Also, the electorate is maturing at a pace quicker than several post-conflict societies. A pan-country ‘Afghan’ identity has somewhat consolidated itself alongside other identities. The country now requires a comprehensive leadership that is sincere, meticulous, coordinated and efficient. Afghanistan is capable of resolving its issues by itself. What it needs from the global community is steadfast support, and while at it, an end to meddling.

VIDEO: Interview With Julian Assange

Afshin Rattansi

Afshin Rattansi goes underground with the world's most wanted publisher - the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. He has just co-authored a book - the WikiLeaks Files, and it paints a picture of systemic US torture and killing as well as the destruction of the lives and livelihoods of billions of people right around the world.

NLNG Post-Graduate Scholarship 2016

Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) invites applications from qualified candidates for the NLNG Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme for entry into Masters Programmes in the United Kingdom in September 2016.

Criteria For Award
Prospective beneficiaries must:

• Have a provisional admission from select UK institutions to study any of the following disciplines:
  • Engineering,
  • Geosciences,
  • Environmental Sciences,
  • Management Sciences,
  • Information Technology,
  • Law
  • Medicine
• Possess a minimum of 2nd Class Upper degree in a relevant field of study
• Provide identification documents from their LGAs
• Possess an international passport valid for travel at least one year from September 2016
• Provide evidence that they are available to travel in September 201 6 if selected
• Not be a spouse, child nor ward of staff of Nigeria LNG Limited
• Have completed the NYSC programme
• Be no more than 30 years of age
• Be Nigerian nationals resident in Nigeria

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply

Note: All requested documents must be attached. Only shortlisted applicants shall be invited for the selection interview. Applicants are therefore advised to be on the lookout for the short list on the NLNG website.

Application Deadline  19th June, 2016.

At least 29 dead, thousands displaced after Cyclone Winston hits Fiji

Oscar Grenfell

On Tuesday morning, the official death toll from Cyclone Winston, which struck the South Pacific country of Fiji on Saturday, rose to 29. The category five storm has been described as the most powerful ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, generating winds of up to 325 kilometres an hour and leaving a trail of destruction. Some low-lying areas have been engulfed by floodwaters.

Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s military-backed government declared a 30-day state of emergency and deployed the army to affected parts of the country.

The death toll from the disaster is expected to continue to rise in coming days as initial contact is made with the hard-hit areas in remote regions of the multi-island state. At least four people are missing at sea, while more than 8,000 have been displaced after their homes were destroyed. The country’s total population is less than a million.

The tropical cyclone made landfall on the northeastern coast of Viti Levu, the country’s main island, on Saturday evening. Coastal areas were hit with gale-force winds and massive waves, while power and phone lines were downed across the country. Some 80 percent of the population was without power within hours of the storm striking.

Communication with six islands and islets, Vanua Balavu, Lakeba, Cicia, Nayau, Taveuni and Qamea, was cut-off shortly after the storm hit. Aerial photographs taken in the past days over the islands of Taveuni, Lau, Koro and Rabi and others in the northern and eastern divisions of the country revealed the destruction wrought by the storm. Entire villages were completely flattened.

According to local witnesses, 80 to 90 percent of homes have been levelled in the southern half of Taveuni Island. At Kade village on Koro Island, all structures were reportedly felled, including the school, church and community hall. Eight bodies were found on the island early on Tuesday. Across the country’s eastern division, at least 150 homes were demolished, while more than 60 were severely damaged.

The disaster has created a mounting humanitarian crisis, with thousands of people still housed in around 735 makeshift evacuation centres. Aid groups have warned of the threat of disease outbreaks, with safe drinking water and power unavailable and food supplies tainted in many parts of the country.

The poorest are the most vulnerable. Thousands reside in improvised tin shacks. Over 250,000 people, some 35 percent of the population, live below the poverty line. Many crops have been damaged or destroyed, threatening livelihoods and imperiling subsistence farmers.

Radio New Zealand spoke to people in the Lovu squatter settlement, which is home to some 300 families on Viti Levu. One of them, Vena Chand, commented: “We’re afraid of having some kind of disease ... the itching has started. And the muddy water that we walk around … and the mosquitos around in the houses.”

“Everything was very nice before ... but now we feel like crying all the time. And no help, nothing, we have to do everything ourselves,” she said. Residents have been forced to travel to neighbouring areas with buckets in search of drinkable water.

Michael Naisau, a pastor, said: “This is one of the poorest settlements ... and the least supported by our business people. For some of them it’s back to zero, there’s really nothing.”

The cyclone has underscored the growing vulnerability of island nations in the Pacific to extreme weather events. According to climate scientists, warmer sea temperatures, stemming in part from climate change, contributed to the severity of the storm. The region is also affected by the El Niño weather pattern, which involves warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific, producing a host of extreme weather events.

Ocean surface temperatures were the warmest on record in 2014, while sea temperatures have reportedly risen in the Pacific this year. Climate experts have noted that records do not go back far enough to establish a definite trend, but have warned that ongoing warming will likely result in storms of greater intensity developing more frequently.

In March 2015, the South Pacific was hit with Cyclone Pam, a category five storm that affected at least 132,000 people, or almost half Vanuatu’s population, and left an estimated 21 people dead. In December 2012, Cyclone Evan killed at least 14 people in Samoa, and caused widespread destruction in Fiji.

In addition to heavy storms, Fiji and other Pacific island nations face rising sea levels. Last year, Bainimarama’s government said it planned to relocate 45 coastal communities over the next five to ten years. It has already begun moving villages inland.

Above all, the severe social consequences of natural disasters throughout the region are a product of the endemic poverty and low-level of economic development that is the legacy of imperialist domination over the South Pacific.

Following the cyclone, the response of the two regional powers was paltry. The Australian government announced it would provide $5 million in emergency aid, while New Zealand contributed just over $2 million.

Both governments, however, are dispatching military aircraft. Australia offered to send two Orion surveillance planes and army transport helicopters. New Zealand deployed a C-130 Hercules military plane, ostensibly to deliver aid, along with a surveillance craft. As in previous natural disasters, both countries are using the disaster as an opportunity to test the waters for extending the presence of their militaries in the region, while likely cultivating contacts and gathering information that could be of future use.

Geo-strategic tensions are rising in the Asia-Pacific, stemming from the US government’s pivot to Asia to confront China. Fiji has strengthened ties with China and received two shipments of arms from Russia this year, to the consternation of Washington and its allies in the region, Australia and New Zealand.