Spain’s Podemos rejects inquiry into Melilla massacre of migrants

Alejandro López

The “Left Populist” Podemos party has refused a parliamentary inquiry into the June 24 massacre of 37 refugees in Melilla, joining its social-democratic government partner, the Socialist Party (PSOE), the right-wing Popular Party (PP) and the neo-fascist Vox party. This came after El País released a joint investigation with Lighthouse Reports, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and Enass showing that at least one death likely occurred on Spanish soil. Podemos is leading a cover-up.

Migrants run for safety after crossing the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in Melilla, Spain, Friday, June 24, 2022. [AP Photo/Javier Bernardo]

On June 24, 2,000 migrants from war-torn and poverty-stricken Chad, Niger, Sudan and South Sudan tried to cross the border between Morocco and Spain's North African enclave of Melilla. Spanish border police fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to drive them back. On the other side, Moroccan gendarmerie, using batons, tear gas and smoke guns, cornered hundreds of migrants along the walls of a courtyard along the border. Spanish police refused to open the doors, beating and tear-gassing migrants instead. The savage repression provoked a deadly stampede.

The combined effects of the tear gas, migrants falling from the top of a 6-metre-high fence as they were shot with rubber bullets, and the stampede left many dead. Afterwards, the combined efforts of Spanish and Moroccan police to deprive the injured of the necessary medical attention increased the total.

UN experts put the death toll at 37. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights, says that at least 77 people are dead or missing. The death toll was the highest-ever on the land border between the European Union (EU) and the Maghreb, including the 2014 infamous Tarajal Massacre, when heavily armed police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on migrants attempting to swim across Ceuta. This left 15 dead, most of them drowning after suffocating on tear gas in the water.

Spain’s ombudsman found that as many as 470 migrants who had managed to cross to the Spanish side were sent back across “with no consideration for their national or international legal rights.” Thirteen migrants who crossed the border received two-and-a-half-year jail sentences in Morocco.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez reacted to the massacre with a fascistic tirade, claiming it was a 'well-organized, violent assault' by organised crime groups, and thanked Spanish and Moroccan security forces for their actions.

Podemos remained silent. Two days after the killings, at a press conference, Irene Montero, minister for equality and leading member of Podemos, refused to take a position on the massacre despite being asked by journalists five times. It later emerged that her silence had been agreed upon between the PSOE and Podemos.

The question of to what extent the PSOE-Podemos government instigated the massacre remains open. On the eve of the June NATO Summit held in Madrid, Moroccan police stepped up repression of makeshift refugee camps near Melilla, destroying their tents and stealing food and belongings. It took place as Spain lobbied to include migration as a “hybrid threat” targeted by NATO. As the WSWS noted, this amounted to an attempt of the Spanish bourgeoisie to justify stepped-up repression of refugees from North and sub-Saharan Africa.

Successive investigations have revealed the criminality of the PSOE-Podemos government. Last month, the BBC released a documentary, 'Death on the Border,' showing how the actions of police in both Spain and Morocco triggered a stampede.

After the revelations that deaths likely occurred on Spanish soil, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska insisted “there were no deaths in Spanish territory,” adding that Guardia Civil officers acted “totally within the law and with the necessary proportionality required by events.”

Fifteen days ago, Podemos had called for a commission of enquiry into the massacre. This was just the latest request, after similar petitions in September and November were rejected by the PSOE, PP and Vox. Podemos no doubt hoped that a commission would whitewash those responsible—above all, Podemos itself and the PSOE in the Spanish government—for deadly anti-migrant policy.

Marlaska defended border police actions as “appropriate,” adding: “We did not have to lament any loss of human life in our national territory. The tragic events occurred outside our country.” He defended the fascistic actions of the Spanish police, stating: “The insinuation that I have heard and read that our security forces would have permitted that these tragic events occur in our country is a grave irresponsibility.”

Since the revelations in El País, moreover, Podemos has backed down from its call for a commission of enquiry. Last week in parliament, Podemos spokesperson and general secretary of the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain, Enrique Santiago, criticized Marlaska but refrained from calling for a commission and Marlaska’s resignation.

Enrique Santiago, (left) secretary-general of the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain (PCE) since April 2018. [Photo by Fernando Jiménez Briz / CC BY 2.0]

De Santiago cynically requested Marlaska, who has repeatedly lied about the massacre, to be 'clear about what happened', and demanded 'corrections for the future', such as the possibility that migrants could request asylum at the border in Ceuta and Melilla.

El País noted, “Podemos has promoted similar requests for a commission twice in the past … and now, in this context of noise and controversy on various fronts and ministries of the coalition [government], it is clear that ‘they are part of the of a Government’ and, therefore, they do not want to ask for resignations or disapprovals of ministers.”

The cover-up of this crime and the unconditional defence of the border guards is a further devastating exposure of the imperialist militarism of the pseudo-left Podemos party. Founded in 2014 by the Pabloite Anticapitalistas party and Stalinist professors—supposedly to “democratize” political life, dismantle anti-migrant policies and attack the “political establishment” for using immigrants as scapegoats—Podemos is now implementing the policies of Vox.

The PSOE-Podemos government’s commitment to EU’s fascistic “Fortress Europe” policy targeting migrants has claimed thousands of lives. With the Spanish ruling elite effectively shutting off any legal migration route into Spain, the Canary Islands crossing is now the deadliest route into Europe, surpassing Mediterranean crossings to Italy and Greece. Since Podemos joined the government, at least 2,100 migrants have drowned trying to reach the Canary Islands.

Those who reach the islands are interned in concentration camps built by the PSOE and Podemos, in which migrants are imprisoned in unsanitary, inhumane conditions pending deportation. This also included a policy of separating children and their parents before protests forced it to change policy.

Last year, in May 2021, over a year before the Melilla Massacre, the PSOE-Podemos government, backed by EU, reacted to desperate migrants crossing from Morocco into Spain by deploying the army and special forces. This was the first time the army was deployed, signaling the government’s readiness to use mass violence to stop refugees. Spain's then sent hundreds of unaccompanied child migrants back to Morocco, in flagrant violation of international law.

Indian government doubles down on support for US war drive against China

Rohantha De Silva

India is doubling down on its participation in US imperialism’s all-rounded economic, diplomatic and military-strategic offensive against China throughout the Indo-Pacific. And it is doing so, even as Washington has demonstrated by inciting and waging war with Russia over Ukraine that it is ready to risk a nuclear conflagration to achieve its predatory objectives.

In recent weeks, New Delhi has participated in two provocative military exercises with US forces aimed at preparing for war with China. The first, a major naval exercise, was within the framework of the “Quad”—the Washington-led, quasi formal military-security alliance between India, the US, and its principal Pacific allies, Japan and Australia. The second saw Indian and US troops train for “high altitude warfare” in the Himalayas a hundred kilometres (just over 60 miles) from the disputed and increasingly heavily-armed Indo-China border.

Although not officially a Quad initiative, this year’s edition of the Malabar naval exercise brought together significant naval forces from the four countries. It was held from November 8 to 15 off the coast of Japan.  

US aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN76) and an Indian Kamorta-Class anti-submarine corvette participate in exercise Malabar 2022 [Photo: US Navy]

The annual Malabar exercise began in 1992 as a bilateral Indo-US initiative. In 2015 Japan became a permanent member. Australia has participated since 2020.

While Washington is recklessly escalating NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine, American imperialism is simultaneously preparing for war with nuclear-armed China. Continuing in the vein of the Trump administration, the Democratic-led Biden White House is employing a series of pretexts to ratchet up military, diplomatic, and economic pressure on Beijing. Chief among them in recent months has been the incitement of tensions with Beijing over Taiwan. But the US has also stepped up its bogus “human rights” campaign against China, including with lurid allegations Beijing is committing genocide against its Uighur minority and denunciations of its Zero COVID policy as inhumane.

In addition to overthrowing in all but name its “One-China” policy, Washington is stoking a series of regional border disputes, any one of which could trigger a war between the US and China. These include disputes over territorial claims in the South China Sea, as well as the Indo-China border dispute, which Washington has repeatedly trumpeted along with the conflicts in the South China Sea as examples of Chinese “aggression.”

Under these conditions, the participation of the four major Indo-Pacific powers in the Malabar exercises near Japan was a deliberate provocation aimed at China.

India enthusiastically participated in the exercise with its multi-role stealth frigate INS Shivalik, anti-submarine corvette INS Kamorta and a P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft. According to the US Navy website, a variety of high-end tactical training events, submarine integration, anti-submarine warfare training, air defense exercises, and joint war fighting planning scenarios were included in the exercise.

The Malabar exercise took place as India’s ongoing border dispute with China enters its third winter, with Delhi and Beijing once again arraying vast military forces against each other under some of the world’s most inhospitable conditions in the Himalayas. The current dispute—far and away the most serious since the two countries fought a brief border war in 1962—began in May 2020 and erupted into violent conflict in June 2020, leading to the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. In August of 2020, with US intelligence support, thousands of Indian troops captured several mountain tops unopposed, in a high-risk operation that Indian officials later admitted could well have resulted in major casualties on both sides and an all-out war.  

Throughout the coming winter, both India and China intend to keep more than 50,000 troops “forward deployed” near their disputed border, along with war planes and heavy artillery. In the past two-and-a-half years, both New Delhi and Beijing have rushed to build military infrastructure along their disputed border. India has repeatedly said that the relationship between the two countries cannot be normalized until the current border conflict is resolved on its terms.

On November 15, shortly after the conclusion of the Malabar exercises, India hosted its annual bilateral military exercise with the US, known as “Yudh Abhyas.” In what was a first—one that Beijing was quick to denounce when it was first revealed last August—the war game took place in close proximity to the disputed Indo-China border and was designed to prepare troops to fight in the high altitude conditions they would encounter in the Himalayas, that is to say in virtually no other place in the world. According to official releases, the exercise was aimed at enhancing interoperability and operational readiness between US and Indian forces.

The Modi government has seized on the border standoff to ratchet up tensions with Beijing and justify New Delhi’s ever-closer military and economic cooperation with Washington.

By assuming the role of a frontline state in Washington’s military-strategic confrontation with China, the Indian ruling class hopes to further its own reactionary great-power ambitions, including asserting itself as the regional hegemon in South Asia. It is also gambling that it can benefit from the economic “decoupling” of the US and its allies from China, exploiting its role as the overlord of a vast, super-exploited cheap-labor workforce to make India an alternate global production chain-hub.  

U.S. President Joe Biden, right, meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Quad leaders summit at Kantei Palace, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Tokyo. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci]

Modi and US president Joe Biden had a bilateral meeting on November 15 on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit held in Bali in Indonesia. There they “reviewed the continuing deepening of the India-US Strategic partnership including cooperation in future oriented sectors like critical and emerging technologies, advanced computing, artificial intelligence etc.,” according to a statement issued by the Indian External Affairs Ministry. Pointing to the expanding cooperation between New Delhi and Washington in the entire Indo-Pacific region, including Africa and the Middle East, the statement added that the “Leaders appreciated the continuing deepening of the India-US Strategic Partnership and close cooperation in groups like Quad, I2U2 (a quadrilateral alliance involving India, Israel, the US and United Arab Emirates) etc.”

India is strategically located between the eastern and western parts of the Asian continent and is a “resident Indian Ocean power.” This advantageous maritime geography, which makes India an ideal vantage point for controlling the Indian Ocean, has played a major role in Washington’s efforts to harness India to its diplomatic, military, and economic offensive against China. Over the last two decades, Washington has concluded a series of military and strategic agreements with India to provide it access to advanced nuclear technology, US-made high-tech weapons, and assist it in the development of its “blue water” navy—i.e., one capable of functioning on the high seas.

The 2022 National Defense strategy released by Washington in October committed to enhancing America’s military-strategic alliance with the specific aim of increasing India’s capacity to resist China on land and at sea. The strategy noted: “The [Defense] Department will advance our Major Defense Partnership with India to enhance its ability to deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression and ensure free and open access to the Indian Ocean region.” 

The report stressed that China will be the most significant strategic competitor to the US in the coming decades. This underscores that Washington’s preparations for war with China are at an advanced stage. The eruption of a war between the two nuclear-armed powers would pose a grave threat to the survival of humanity under conditions in which the ongoing war against Russia already threatens to produce a catastrophic nuclear exchange.

The US-India relationship is not without its frictions. India has refused to condemn Russia over the war in Ukraine despite US pressure to do so. Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar travelled to Russia for a two-day visit on November 8, contrary to the expectations of Washington. This visit was mainly focused on commerce and investment deals and using the rupee and ruble for trading purposes so as to bypass US sanctions on Russia. Jaishankar, who also discussed future projects in the energy sector, held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and other Russian leaders. During the visit, he reiterated India’s intentions to continue its close ties with Russia despite US pressure to break them. Jaishankar said: “As the third-largest consumer of oil and gas and where incomes are not very high, we need to look for affordable sources, so the India-Russia relationship works to our advantage. We will keep it going.”

After an initial public outburst of anger last March over India’s refusal to toe the US line on Russia, Washington has to some extent chosen to look the other way. This is in large measure due to the Indian ruling elite’s efforts to placate US imperialism by intensifying still further its support for Washington’s offensive against China.

New Delhi relies on Russia at present not only for military hardware but also for oil, under conditions of international economic turmoil and a mounting domestic social crisis. Though Iraq and Saudi Arabia used to be India’s main oil suppliers, Russian energy imports have surged since the Ukraine war. Having lowered oil and gas prices for countries prepared to buy its petroleum products in defiance of western sanctions, Moscow recently surpassed Iraq and Saudi Arabia as India’s largest supplier of oil.

Nonetheless, the war in Ukraine is making India’s precarious balancing act between its strategic partnership with the US and its long-standing relationship with Russia as a major supplier of defense equipment going back to the Soviet era ever more precarious.

Quoting Modi’s remarks during his talks with Russian President Putin in Uzbekistan in September that “this is not an era of war,” Jaishankar stated during his Russia visit that India strongly advises a return to dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. He also offered to mediate between the two countries.

Washington, which has armed its Ukrainian proxy to the teeth with the support of its NATO allies, has no intention of countenancing a “diplomatic settlement” to the conflict that does not include Moscow’s complete capitulation to the its drive to subjugate the country and seize control of its natural resources. Moreover, US imperialism views the conflict with Russia as an initial stage in its preparation for war with its more serious rival, China.

Resistance in Germany is growing to insolvencies, redundancies and wage dumping

Marianne Arens

Outrage is growing in the working class. Across Germany and Europe, the costs of the pandemic, economic crisis and war are being passed on to working people. More and more workers are ready to take up the struggle against exploitation, spinoffs and job cuts.

In the third quarter of this year, there was an unusually high number of insolvencies among medium-sized companies. In just three months between July and September, 33 companies whose annual turnover was at least 20 million euros filed for bankruptcy. By the end of the year, 130 such large insolvencies are expected, 71 percent more than last year.

Above all, automotive suppliers are badly affected. For example, the ZF site in Eitorf, which belongs to the automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen, is to be closed by the end of 2025 and production relocated, destroying the jobs of 690 employees. Other auto suppliers that have filed for insolvency include the North Rhine-Westphalian Borgers Group (1,900 employees at five sites), the Upper Franconian plant of Dr. Schneider (2,000 employees), the Palatine foundry Heger (130 employees) and the Rüster plant (630 employees) in Deggingen.

In Göbbingen, Elektro Speidel, an electrical and communications technology company with 360 employees, is also insolvent. The IT company Atos in Essen wants to cut 1,400 jobs in Germany in the course of a “split-up.” In Essen, 1,100 Atos workers are fighting for their jobs.

The biggest auto companies have made record profits in the same period. According to a study by Ernst&Young on the world’s 16 largest carmakers, the third quarter of 2022 was “a dream quarter for them despite the slowing economy and a very difficult geopolitical situation...”

Both total profits and total sales were “at the highest level ever recorded in a third quarter,” writes Manager Magazin. Worldwide, the companies were able to increase sales and profits by an average of 28 percent; for the German corporations, the profit increase was 58 percent. Mercedes Benz posted the highest profit, with 5.2 billion euros, ahead of Volkswagen, with 4.7 billion euros, and BMW, with 3.7 billion euros.

Metalworkers at the vacuum smelter in Hanau on strike [Photo: WSWS]

Among auto workers, on the other hand, there is anger and concern. The new contract recently negotiated by the IG Metall union means a significant cut in real wages in view of the inflationary consequences of the Ukraine war. In addition, IG Metall completely ignores the temporary workers, although they make up an increasingly large part of the workforce—also at Mercedes. They do the same work as the permanent employees, but at considerably lower wages and without any job security.

Above all, many workers are critical of the fact that the great willingness to fight, which was demonstrated in warning strikes involving almost 900,000 workers, was not used to achieve a better result. Instead of extending the strike, initiating a ballot, and preparing for a full strike, IG Metall stifled and suppressed the strike movement at the crucial moment.

At electric auto manufacturer Tesla in Grünheide, owned by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, workers confront conditions that acutely endanger their health. A team from the Brandenburg State Office for Occupational Safety, Consumer Protection and Health (LAVG) discovered that the factory is operating without the necessary and prescribed dust protection measures. Mineral dust with different quartz contents is released, which can lead to silico-tuberculosis or lung cancer. There is also no tested and reliable fire alarm system at Tesla, only a provisional fire alarm plan.

The Tesla plant, with 5,000 employees, was trimmed back for maximum exploitation in the summer, so as to maintain production at “hell’s pace” (in the words of Musk himself). But even now, when the authorities have identified acute deficiencies, the state of Brandenburg is not intervening. Nor does IG Metall intend to take up a principled fight for the rights of the largely international workforce. Instead, the union has been submissively assisting Tesla for months as an advisor and “partner” on the way “into the culture of co-determination,” and is trying to be accepted by Elon Musk as a proven force for labour discipline.

Numerous workforces in other sectors are in a similarly difficult situation as the Tesla workers and are ready to fight. In eastern Saxony, workers at Waggonbau Niesky (WBN) are protesting against the fact that they have been forced onto short-time working since April this year, while the workforce is constantly shrinking. The company, which belongs to the Slovakian freight car manufacturer Tatravagonka, has already cut 100 of the original 360 jobs.

Also in Saxony, the strike by 150 workers at Teigwaren Riesa ended in victory last week. For seven weeks, workers struck against outright dumping of wages. They finally won their demand for two euros more per hour. The wages of the workers, who until now have only earned just over the legal minimum wage of 12 euros, are to be raised in three steps by the end of next year, although even an hourly wage of 14 euros gross will not solve their financial problems.

At Frankfurt’s Rhine-Main airport, Air France/KLM ground workers went on strike all day on 25 November. Some 150 employees work in the cargo area at several airports for very low wages but have not received a wage increase for almost 10 years. Verdi, the service union, is pursuing a divisive strategy of seeking its own in-house pay scales for each company and calling on each workforce to fight separately.

As a result, the protest actions organised by Verdi are completely toothless from the outset, as the case of the KLM ground staff proves once again. The already poorly paid workers, who work hard in wind and weather, have been working without a pay scale for seven years and 21 rounds of negotiations. Even before the current hike in inflation, the ground workers had to accept a loss in real wages of about 12 percent, while the airline’s cargo business is booming.

Struggles at airports are taking place around the world. In the US, American Airlines flight attendants went on strike simultaneously at eleven major airports on 16 November for their wage demands. The conflicts are not only increasing among private service providers and in production, resistance is also growing in the public sector, in nursing, in local and long-distance public transport and at universities.

At the beginning of October, about 1,000 doctors at the Berlin Charité Hospital held a warning strike—for the first time in 15 years! Another such strike was only averted at the last minute when on 29 November the Marburger Bund (doctors’ union) agreed with the Charité board on a “further development” of the in-house pay scales.

This will not solve any of the problems, neither the chronic understaffing nor the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and rampant inflation. In addition to a one-time bonus of 3,800 euros, doctors are to receive an increase of 3.5 percent from January 2023 and a further 2.2 percent from July 2023 on their salary scales. This means that they too will have to accept a cut in real wages in the face of 10 percent inflation.

Nurses everywhere are working at their limit, fighting against deteriorating conditions, staff shortages and the pandemic. Meanwhile, the situation in the intensive care units at children’s hospitals is getting out of control as a strong wave of influenza meets an unusually violent spread of respiratory diseases. More and more paediatricians rightly see the cause in the fact that paediatric clinics, like hospitals, are supposed to make a profit instead of curing the sick.

This week there were warning strikes at four university hospitals in Baden-Württemberg, and Verdi’s actions show how great is the willingness to fight. The union was forced to extend the warning strikes to four days. Meanwhile, it refuses to initiate a ballot and an indefinite strike.

About 2,000 nurses went on strike this week in Tübingen, Ulm, Heidelberg and Freiburg. In the previous week, there were strikes at the university hospitals in Giessen and Marburg in the state of Hesse.

The strikes in the nursing sector are part of a European-wide and international movement. In France, for example, doctors in private practice have been on strike from Thursday until Saturday, mainly for higher fees. The initiative came from a free association of young doctors, the “Médecins pour demain” (Doctors for Tomorrow).

In long-distance transport, train drivers, train attendants and railway workers are unhappy because their wages are not keeping pace with inflation. Their struggles are part of railway workers’ wage struggles in France, Britain, Belgium, Austria and the United States. In Baden-Württemberg, train drivers at Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs GmbH (SWEG) and SWEG-Bahn Stuttgart GmbH are ready to strike after five weeks of inconclusive negotiations. Both companies are owned by the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The energy crisis is also affecting universities, where staff and students now must work in room temperatures of 19 degrees Celsius (instead of 21 degrees). Other institutions, such as Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, have switched to distance learning for five weeks, until 8 January, to save energy. During this time, all lectures will be held online, and laboratories, libraries and the refectory will remain closed.

The Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) has imposed a six-month hiring freeze in non-scientific departments in order to cut up to 250 jobs and save seven million euros. The RUB is thus copying the University of Vienna, which is not hiring any new staff until February 2023. There, the hiring freeze also affects employees in temporary positions whose contracts are now no longer being renewed.

This by no means exhaustive list makes it clear that the social catastrophe facing the working class is directly linked to the enrichment of corporate and financial elites. The general trend that is clear is the widening of the gulf between rich and poor, between the ruling elite and the working class. At the same time, there is a growing resistance, which is increasingly international and anti-capitalist in character, and directed against the sabotage of the trade union bureaucracies. The war policy of the ruling class is increasingly perceived as the cause and aggravation of the hardship confronting working people.

South Africa: Corruption scandal threatens Ramaphosa’s presidency and the ANC’s grip on power

Jean Shaoul

A damning parliamentary report into the theft of a vast sum of cash at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s game farm recommended an investigation by parliament. It could lead to his impeachment, if two-thirds of the legislators vote against him, making him the first South African president to face impeachment.

Ramaphosa with American President Joe Biden, September 2022. [Photo: The White House]

It threatens both his grip on power, just two weeks before he is due to be re-elected as ANC leader, and that of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) which faces elections in 2024. Last year’s local elections saw the ANC lose its majority amid increasing anger over its corrupt rule.  

The report published on Wednesday concluded that Ramaphosa may have broken the law over a scandal that has been simmering since June. It involves the circumstances surrounding the theft in 2020 of at least $500,000 stashed away, supposedly in a sofa, at his Phala Phala game reserve.

It raised questions about why he was keeping such a large sum of money—variously estimated at between $500,000 and $5 million—at his farm; whether he was holding undeclared foreign currency and evading taxation; why he had failed to inform the police about the robbery and whether he had misused official resources by asking a senior bodyguard to track down the culprits, who then appeared to have been paid off. Ramaphosa faces two other investigations, one by the national prosecutor’s office and another by the public protector, a corruption watchdog.

It has prompted calls from the main opposition parties as well as the faction within the ANC supporting the former President Jacob Zuma for him to step down. The National Assembly is due to meet Thursday to discuss the report and decide whether to move an impeachment hearing. This would require at least 30 ANC members to vote with the 170 opposition members from 13 different parties. That is not inconceivable, given the opposition to Ramaphosa from the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction, which is close to Zuma, who was forced to step down in 2018 over allegations of corruption and nepotism.

Zuma faces corruption charges relating to a 1999 arms deal in a trial scheduled for next year. Last year he served two months of a 15-month prison term for contempt of court for a separate legal matter before being released on medical parole, since rescinded by the high court.

Ramaphosa, a former leader of the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa (NUM), the country’s largest and most powerful trade union, had played a key role in tying black South African workers behind the ANC’s cynical slogan of “black empowerment” which is aimed at creating a thin layer of black capitalists. In 1991, he was elected General Secretary of the ANC and together with the South African Communist Party worked to suppress workers’ struggles and prevent them taking a revolutionary approach to ending the hated apartheid regime, thereby ensuring the survival of South African capitalism.

Ramaphosa was one of the chief beneficiaries of black empowerment, becoming one of South Africa’s richest men and a director in a major mining corporation. It was in this capacity that he demanded a police clampdown on striking miners, precipitating the Marikana massacre of 34 striking miners, shot dead in 2012 at a mine owned by the Lonmin group. It was in the aftermath of this murderous action, carried out with the full backing of the Congress of South African Trade Unions-(COASTU) affiliated NUM, that “the butcher of Marikana” was elected as the ANC’s general secretary in 2017. He was elected amid widespread disgust with the ANC that had presided over one of the most socially polarised countries in the world, with a then unemployment rate of 28 percent.

Mine workers sing as they wait for the start of commemoration ceremonies near Marikana in Rustenburg, South Africa, Tuesday, August 16, 2022. South Africa marks on Tuesday 10 years since the Marikana massacre, where 44 people were killed during a mine strike at a platinum mine near Rustenburg, North West province in August 2012. [AP Photo/Themba Hadebe]

His election promises to root out corruption were a feeble attempt to restore the flagging fortunes of the ANC that has now been blown apart. The South African economy had tanked after years of looting by the corrupt Zuma regime. With the selection of Ramaphosa, a former union leader, the ruling class cynically expected that the working class would welcome him with enthusiasm.

Since then, Ramaphosa has done everything he could to prop up South African capitalism, cutting corporate taxation as he drove down workers’ pay, reneging on public sector wage deals and slashing living standards. Inflation is at its highest rate since the rise in global food prices in 2008-09, running at an annual rate of 7.7 percent in October with basic foods prices increasing by 12 percent over the last year. A loaf of white bread now costs 16.18 rand compared with 13.55 a year ago and the price of fuel has risen by 56.2 percent from last year.

The rand has fallen from 15 to the US dollar in December 2021 to 17 this week as the South African central bank, along with its counterparts across the world, discussed further interest rate hikesa move that will exacerbate the economic crisis engulfing the already heavily indebted country.

South Africa is the most unequal society on the planet. A staggering 33 percent of workers have no jobs, the third highest unemployment rate in the world, while 30.3 million of the country’s 59 million population live in poverty and 13.8 million face food scarcity. The government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that saw more than 102,000 people lose their lives—if official figures are to be believed—served to exacerbate social and economic suffering.

All this has earned Ramaphosa the undying hatred of South African workers, to the extent that hewas booed off the stage by striking gold miners at Sibanye-Stillwater at this year’s May Day’s rally in Rustenburg, the centre of the country’s mining region where he was COSATU’s guest of honour. There have been strikes and protests over the skyrocketing cost of living, power outages for up to 10 hours a day and widespread unemployment that have made living conditions intolerable, forcing COSATU and the South African Federation of Trade Unions, two of the largest trade union federations, to call a “mass stay away” of non-essential workers in August demanding the ANC take action.

Ramaphosa was initially set on resigning following the scathing outcomes of the report but made a U-turn, apparently after discussions with his legal team and close allies, who fear both asocial explosion and the loss of their own privileged positions if he is ousted.

Even if he survives a parliamentary vote, his position is widely seen as untenable, precipitating elections for a new leader at the ANC meeting later this month and for the presidency by the National Assembly. The South African rand has fallen sharply amid fears of the instability that could hold back the “reforms” demanded by the international financial institutions and markets as the country debt rises to 84 percent of GDP.

Without Russian gas imports, France prepares winter power cuts

Samuel Tissot

On Thursday, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne distributed instructions to regional political leaders to prepare the country for regular electricity outages in coming weeks and months. This includes contingency planning for a total blackout of the French power grid.

The government’s circulation of the document is a tacit admission that the energy “sobriety” campaign called for by President Emmanuel Macron on July 14 has failed, and that large parts of France face significant electricity and heating cut-offs this winter.

The coal power plant of Saint Avold will reopen this winter after having been closed earlier, in Saint-Avold, eastern France, Thursday, September 8, 2022. French President Emmanuel Macron had previously called for a sharp 10% reduction in the country's energy use to avoid the risk of rationing and cuts this winter, amid tensions with supplier Russia over the war in Ukraine. [AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias]

High energy prices in Europe are primarily a consequence of NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine. While EU governments attempt to shift the blame to Putin for Europe’s energy shortage this winter, it was their own decision to cease Russian gas and oil imports in the spring, bowing to US and NATO demands.

The instructions were distributed while Macron was in the United States on a state visit. Despite complaining about the ruinous impact of the US’s nationalist economic policy on French energy prices, Macron reiterated his government’s continued commitment to fight NATO’s war in Ukraine against Russia. This includes continuing ongoing sanctions against Russia, even if this means the French population goes cold this winter.

The energy rationing measures circulated in the French government’s plan have not been known in France since the aftermath of the Second World War.

Sixty percent of the population live in areas that will be subject to alternating power cuts where electricity will be shut off during peak hours. The regions impacted by this will alternate day-by-day, but it is estimated that each outage will affect four million people. The outages will be announced to the impacted population at 5 p.m. the day before.

While French government spokesperson Olivier Véran stated that, “We are not in a disaster movie,” he went on to explain that there will be likely be periods this winter where people “cannot withdraw cash” and traffic lights will stop working.

On Wednesday, Christel Heydemann, general manager of Orange, France’s largest telecommunications provider, warned that during periods of electricity cuts all phone and internet signal would be lost, preventing even emergency calls.

The government is instructing local authorities to supply critical infrastructure such as hospitals, fire stations and prisons with emergency generators in order to continue functioning during down periods.

Schools in regions impacted by power cuts will also be shut. This exposes the hypocrisy of the Macron government’s support for imperialist war on Russia in Ukraine. The same government that forced children and teachers back into packed classrooms amid the free spread of COVID-19 in the name of protecting children’s educational continuity and mental health, is forcing children to stay home and freeze to support the war effort in Ukraine.

The inter-ministerial crisis unit is also preparing contingency plans for a total blackout, which is possible if average energy consumption cannot be further cut down, or if demand spikes due to prolonged cold weather.

Given the density and interconnectivity of energy lines in Paris, government officials have said it is likely the capital will not be subject to rolling power cuts. As one official explained, “You can’t cut off Le Bon Marché [department store] without cutting off the Necker hospital.” This means smaller cities, towns, and rural areas would shoulder the brunt of the cuts.

Although the government’s measures are being prepared for peak energy consumption in January and February, the energy crisis is already having an impact on the French economy. Compared to November last year, 7 percent less energy was consumed in France. This is mostly due to cuts in industrial production as electricity costs increase, according to the Network of Electricity Transport.

In the new year, French consumers will also see their bills increase by fifteen percent. This is due largely to energy companies’ price-gouging expensive US liquefied natural gas exports to Europe and France, which replace Russian gas.

While the primary cause of the energy shortage in France is the cessation of Russian gas and oil imports, the crisis has been exacerbated by the flagrantly inadequate maintenance of France’s nuclear power plants. In early November, only 30 of France’s 56 reactors were connected to the electricity grid. Repairs and safety checks on the remaining reactors are not expected to be totally completed until 2025.

While the German Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance stated that it is “considered unlikely that targeted power cuts will occur regionally,” large surges in demand during cold periods could lead to similar measures being put in place in Germany and other parts of Europe previously dependent on Russian energy imports.

The energy crisis in France and Europe is ultimately a product of class rule. Chasing its share of the spoils of victory over Russia in Ukraine, and using the war as an excuse to kickstart its own re-militarization, the European bourgeoisie decided to subordinate the health and well-being of the working population to its geo-strategic aims.

In September, the EU’s voluntary policy became irreversible following the bombing of the NordStream pipeline, which strategically benefited US imperialism by ensuring continued European reliance on its gas supply. The bombing was blamed on the UK, the principal US ally in Europe, by the Russian government.

Nonetheless, as energy companies in France and across Europe continue to achieve record profits in 2022 through price hikes, no significant action has been taken to protect energy supplies for the mass of the population this coming winter.

Just as it handed trillions to the banks and corporations and sacrificed nearly 2 million lives to COVID-19 to appease the markets, the EU is handing billions to the Ukrainian government while forcing its population to freeze this winter.

High excess mortality as coronavirus death rates rise in Germany

Tamino Dreisam

Excess mortality has reached record levels in Germany and coronavirus deaths are higher than in any previous year. Nevertheless, governments of all parties at federal and state level have declared the pandemic over and lifted the last remaining protective measures.

According to a press release from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), average excess mortality so far in 2022 is 9 percent, meaning deaths this year are 9 percent higher than the median of the last four years, 2018-2021.

Throughout most of the summer, excess mortality was in double digits: 9 percent in June, 12 percent in July, 11 percent in August and 10 percent in September. In October, excess mortality reached a record 19 percent. Calculations by the EuroMOMO network show that there is a similar trend in other European countries.

A total of 92,000 people died in Germany in October, 14,560 more than the average per month for the last four years. The high number of additional deaths can be attributed in significant part to those dying as a result of infection with the coronavirus. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 4,334 people succumbed to the virus in October, significantly more than in the same period in pandemic years 2021 (2,493 deaths) and 2020 (1,482 deaths).

Hospital Diakovere Henriettenstift in Hannover, Germany [Photo by Michał Beim / CC BY 4.0]

Compared to previous pandemic years, excess mortality this year can no longer be readily attributed to deaths resulting directly from infection with the virus. In 2020, excess mortality was almost entirely consistent with the number of reported coronavirus deaths. In 2021, this was still largely the case. By 2022, these accounted for just under half of the excess mortality.

However, several scientists believe that a crucial proportion of the higher excess mortality is due to indirect consequences of the pandemic, such as hospitals and hospital staff being overloaded.

For example, Jonas Schöley of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany, notes that in the autumn of 2022, “only about half [of excess mortality] can be explained by registered COVID mortality.” For the remainder, “it is still open what the reason is.” However, he believes, “it is plausible that we will see more indirect effects in 2022.”

Schöley points to the example of England and Wales. There, excess mortality is also caused by ambulances being delayed for more than 10 minutes. This is a consequence of the overloading of the health care system and thus indirectly of the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to Der Spiegel magazine, Carsten Tschöpe, a cardiologist and head of the cardiomyopathy unit at Berlin’s Charité hospital, pointed out the potentially serious long-term consequences of a COVID infection. With the blood vessels, SARS-CoV-2 attacks “a very central structure of the body.” There is no organ in the human body that was not dependent on blood vessels, he said. “The organs lose parts of their function when they are no longer sufficiently supplied with blood. This causes global damage throughout the body.” According to the magazine, Tschöpe was convinced “that COVID late effects also contributed to the 19 percent excess mortality in October.”

Other scientists also cite the earlier-than-usual onset of the flu epidemic and the circulation of other respiratory illnesses as possible contributors to the high excess mortality. The flu epidemic had been absent in recent years due to existing pandemic measures around the world. Once these were lifted, the flu wave returned particularly aggressively, creating a “twindemic” in which dangerous dual infections from COVID-19 and influenza are also possible.

Regardless of the exact different direct triggers for high excess mortality, the deeper cause lies in the subordination of public health to private profit, which found its sharpest expression in the response to the pandemic by all governments. Worldwide, life expectancy fell because of the pandemic—by nearly half a year in Germany, where more than 158,000 people officially succumbed to the virus.

And the situation is worsening with each passing day. About 1,000 people in Germany are dying from the virus every week, while even more infectious variants are spreading. On Bavarian Radio, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (Social Democratic Party, SPD) warned of a winter wave—but is doing nothing to avert it.

On the contrary, federal and state governments are ending the last remaining measures. A week ago, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig-Holstein lifted the quarantine requirement, and other states have already announced their intention to follow suit. Because of this decision, the Kieler Nachrichten already reported that teachers who are coronavirus-positive but have no symptoms of the disease will have to continue teaching.

Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein also plan to lift the requirement to wear a mask on public transport in a few weeks. In March, Bremen senator (state minister) and chairwoman of the state transport ministers, Maike Schaefer (Greens), also advocates a nationwide abolition of the requirement to wear a mask on public transport. She told the dpa news agency, “My goal is for the federal states to agree on a uniform approach here.” For the upcoming special conference of department heads, Bremen had therefore submitted a motion to abolish the mask-wearing requirement for public transportation nationwide when the “Deutschlandticket” (enabling local and regional travel over the summer for just €9 a month) was introduced at the beginning of March.

The reckless approach of governments at all levels in lifting the remaining coronavirus protections despite the enormous excess mortality illustrates the indifference of the ruling class to human life. It deliberately pursues policies that place profits above human lives and aim to reduce life expectancy. If the ruling elites get their way, health and welfare spending will be reduced not only through direct budget cuts, but also by perpetuating the pandemic and thus mass death.

Sri Lankan president hints at dangers of conflict in Indian Ocean

Pani Wijesiriwardena

Sri Lanka is coming under intensifying pressure to line up more fully with the US-led confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific along with allies such as Japan and Australia, and its chief strategic partner in the region, India.

Top US and Indian officials have held talks with leaders of the Sri Lankan government during recent months to further the campaign. Samantha Power, the chief of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) visited Colombo in mid-September, offering a pittance in aid, while seeking stronger strategic ties with Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe arrives at the parliamentary complex in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Aug. 3, 2022. [AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena]

As reported by the Sunday Times, India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) head Samant Kumar Goel, landed in Colombo on November 27, met with President Ranil Wickremesinghe and engaged in “wide-ranging talks.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry arrived in the US on November 29 where he has held talks with USAID chief Power and will meet US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and members of Congress. China will undoubtedly be a central topic.

President Wickremesinghe highlighted the geopolitical dilemmas confronting Sri Lanka in a speech on November 11 to officers graduating at the Kothalawala Defence University. “You are living in a different world than what we were born earlier. When we were born, there was no tussle for the Indian Ocean. At one stage no one wanted it. Today it is not so…

“In the 70s, when I became a minister all these were not required. Most people were not focusing on the Indian Ocean, but on the Pacific and the Atlantic. Today it is not so. Today the total competition in the world has gone from US and Russia to US and China. So, what happens in Russia is only a side show. What happens in this area is far more important. So, we have to be ready for it.”

Wickremesinghe reiterated the government’s stance, saying: “Sri Lanka’s position is we are not involved in big power rivalry. We don’t want big power rivalry. Whether the US is in the Indian Ocean we have no objections. We have no objections to Japanese or Chinese or others being in the Indian Ocean as long as there is no rivalry.”

Regardless of Wickremesinghe’s comments, the Indian Ocean and broader Indo-Pacific region are at the centre of the mounting US-led provocations and conflict with China. Even as it wages war against Russia in Ukraine, the US is consolidating alliances throughout Asia, building up military forces throughout the region and vilifying China across a range of issues that could provide the pretext for war.

The US has forged a close strategic partnership with India transforming it into a frontline state of US war drive against China. India’s regular naval war games with US, known as the “Malabar exercises,” which started in 1992, have been expanded and now involve all members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, a quasi-military alliance of the US, India, Japan and Australia.

In a particularly provocative step, the latest Malabar exercises were conducted in the East China Sea, from November 8 to 15. After the naval exercises ended, the US and India held their annual bilateral military games known as “Yudh Abhyas” from November 15 to December 2. This year’s military drill involved high-altitude exercises, just 100 kilometers from the Line of Actual Control, the border between India and China, where a military stand-off continues after clashes in May 2020.

Sri Lanka is attempting to maintain an increasingly difficult balancing act. Amid a profound economic and social crisis, the Wickremesinghe government cannot afford to alienate China, which is the country’s main creditor. As a part of talks with the International Monetary Fund for debt restructuring, the government needs to negotiate relief in relation to Chinese loans.

At the same time, while Sri Lanka officially remains non-aligned, the government is seeking to avoid a confrontation with US imperialism. Following the end of the island’s protracted communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse came under relentless pressure from Washington to end its ties with China. The US used the threat of prosecutions over war crimes and when that was ignored, engineered the ouster of Rajapakse in the 2015 election and the installation of a pro-US government of President Maithripala Sirisena and with Wickremesinghe as prime minister.

Wickremesinghe, who is well known for his pro-American orientation, has formally maintained a “neutral” stance even while leaning towards Washington. During his November 11 speech, Wickremesinghe said that Sri Lanka’s “future depends on its ability to maintain freedom of navigation” in the Indian Ocean. The US repeatedly uses the banner of “freedom of navigation” to mount naval provocations against China.

At the same time, Sri Lanka has significant military ties with the US, including an Acquisition and Cross-servicing Agreement that allows the American navy access to Sri Lankan ports for refueling and other supplies. The Pentagon is assisting the Sri Lankan military to establish a Marine Corps and donated former US Coast Guard cutters to the Sri Lankan navy. The US and Sri Lankan militaries conduct limited joint exercises but this year some 50 Sri Lankan military personnel took part in the US RIMPAC exercises—the world’s largest naval drills.

As it accelerates its preparations for war against China, the US cannot tolerate the “neutrality” of the Wickremesinghe regime. Sri Lanka is strategically placed across the major Indian Ocean sea lanes connecting Europe, the Middle East and Africa with East Asia, including China. US-backed UN Human Rights Council resolutions passed recently are aimed at intensifying pressure on Colombo. While Washington is not concerned about Wickremesinghe’s loyalty, he is heavily dependent on the party of the Rajapakses which has in the past built ties with China.

Fascism: Israeli Style

Melvin A. Goodman

Photograph Source: eddiedangerous – CC BY 2.0

Israelis dismiss charges of “apartheid against Palestinians” as anti-Semitic propaganda, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government will confirm the apartheid nature of the regime, and will provide hints of fascism, Israeli-style.  Netanyahu is not a fascist, but he is a racist and he is considering appointing to his government people who are dangerous racists.  No government in Israel over the past seven decades has had government appointees so alien to the ideals that accompanied the creation of Israel.

The new minister for national security (formerly internal security) will be Itamar Ben Gvir, who will control the Border Patrol units in the West Bank that have participated in numerous violent acts against innocent Palestinians.  Ben Gvir is an acolyte of Meir Kahane, a fascist who committed numerous crimes against Israelis before he was assassinated.  Ben Gvir’s party, Jewish Power, will control the Ministry for Development of the Negev and the Galilee.  His party’s new Ministry of Heritage will be responsible for historical and archeological sites in the West Bank.

The new minister for finance will be Bezalel Smotrich, who will try to control the West Bank Civil Administration that is currently directed by the Defense Ministry.  Smotrich and Ben Gvir will do their best to limit the powers of the Defense Ministry, particularly on the West Bank.  Their policies will undermine Israeli relations with those Arab states that recognize Israel, particularly the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.  According to Yossi Alpher, a distinguished Israeli security analyst, they may even try to annex the West Bank while the global community is concentrating on Ukraine, Russia, and Iran.

The mainstream media have downplayed the arrest records of both Ben Gvir and Smotrich, which reflects their fascist actions over the past decades.  Netanyahu himself is currently on trial on multiple charges of corruption, and he is expected to weaken Israel’s judicial branch in order to escape conviction for corruption.  Alpher believes that the Netanyahu government will try to reduce the power of the High Court of Justice.  Netanyahu’s highest priority, like that of his good friend Donald Trump, is staying out of jail.

A new deputy minister in the office of the President, Avi Maoz, is dedicated to bolstering Jewish identity among Israelis and is a strong opponent of Israeli Jews who are not Orthodox.  He is anti-LGBTQ, and against women serving in the military.  References to “Jewish identity” and “heritage” point to fascist policies, according to Alpher.

What does this mean?  Well, at a minimum the new coalition government will try to legalize at least 70 illegal settlements or “outposts,” which are currently a violation of Israeli law and have at least 25,000 occupants.  Palestinians in East Jerusalem will be policed in a more militant and violent fashion.  Law enforcement generally will be politicized, and fascists will be in greater control of the day-to-day workings of the government.  It can be expected that Area C of the West Bank, which represents more than 60% of the West Bank and is under some Palestinian control, will face de facto annexation.  There are more than 200,000 Palestinian residents in Area C; they will presumably face greater pressures to emigrate.

Israeli policy toward Gaza is worse, but rarely gets discussed in the international press.  In addition to using overwhelming military force against the Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has limited their use of electricity; forces sewage to be dropped into the sea; makes sure that water remains undrinkable; and ensures fuel shortages that cause sanitation plants to be shut down.  Gaza is essentially an outdoor prison, and Netanyahu will continue the policies of enforced desperation among the innocent civilians who must try to live in these conditions.  If there is another Intifada, Israel has only itself to blame.

It is long past time for the U.S. government and the Jewish diaspora in the United States and Europe to press the Israelis for a more humane policy toward its Palestinian community as well as the need for a more centralist representation in their new coalition government.  No Israeli government in recent years has been prepared to stop the violence against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.  No U.S. government in recent years has done anything to put pressure on the Israelis.  Meanwhile, Israelis receives more military aid from the United States than any government other than Ukraine.  Israelis play tough; it’s time for the United States to do so as well.