UN and Human Rights Watch accuse UK of grave attacks on democratic rights

Thomas Scripps

Activists from the group Just Stop Oil are arrested by police officers as they slow the traffic, marching on a road, in London, Monday, Oct. 30, 2023. [AP Photo/Kin Cheung]

The UK government has launched a systematic assault on democratic rights, banning demonstrations, making major inroads on freedom of speech, and flagrantly disregarding human rights laws. The turn to authoritarian rule by the British ruling class is so pronounced that it is drawing criticisms from human rights monitors.

A statement by Human Rights Watch published last week notes, “The right to protest peacefully is under threat, as pro-Palestine protesters and climate activists have experienced recently, and the country has joined the global race to the bottom regarding migration and refugees.”

Speaking to the Guardian, Human Rights Watch’s UK Director Yasmine Ahmed was blunt. “With previous governments there was always an attempt to at least try to appear as if they were complying with domestic or international human rights law and to respect the courts and human rights institutions. Now there is no attempt to do this—in fact, it’s quite the opposite.”

Describing the government’s actions as starting “to look very much like authoritarianism,” Ahmed went on, “Not only is the government talking about ripping up domestic human rights law and ignoring its international obligations, it has launched an open attack on the right to peacefully demonstrate, is locking up climate protesters, criminalizing refugees and has given the police unprecedented powers over citizens.”

Ahmed condemned a proposal by the UK government to “disapply” the Human Rights Act to a bill that would send asylum seekers to Rwanda, in violation of a UK Supreme Court ruling.

Some of the most egregious actions have been taken against protests over Israel’s genocide. Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak threatened demonstrators, “I’d just remind everyone that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization. People should not be supporting Hamas and we will make sure that we hold people to account if they are.” The UK police have arrested hundreds of people for demonstrating in opposition to the genocide in Gaza—often for merely displaying signs.

Despite government threats, millions of people have protested in the UK against the genocide, with up to one million marching in London on November 11.

The UK government’s efforts to criminalize opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza is part of a global assault on democratic rights. In France, Germany and other European countries, authorities have attempted to ban protests. In the United States, the Senate passed a resolution accusing demonstrators of “expressing solidarity with terrorists,” and several universities have moved to ban Students for Justice in Palestine.

Human Rights Watch generally keeps a close step with imperialist foreign policy. For it to make such stark comments about the UK is a sign of how rapidly the British ruling class is junking democratic forms of rule in its lurch to the right. Significantly, Ahmed warns, “This approach not only discredits and undermines our ability to hold other human rights violators to account on the international stage.”

Criticisms of the British government’s draconian sentences for climate protestors and broader attacks on democratic rights have also been made by the United Nations.

In April, two protesters associated with Just Stop Oil, Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, were sentenced to three and two year sentences respectively for causing a “public nuisance” the previous October. The pair scaled the Dartford Crossing bridge east of London to unfurl a banner, causing traffic to be stopped for over 24 hours while they were removed.

Appealing against their sentences, Daniel Friedman KC noted they were “the longest ever handed down in a case of non-violent protest in this country in modern times” and warned that they were “likely to have a ‘chilling effect’ on all protest rather than this type of protest.”

The appeal was rejected in July. Lady Chief Justice, Sue Carr acknowledged the jail terms were “well beyond previous sentences imposed for this type of offending,” but countered that the judges were following “Parliament’s will” as expressed in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which includes a “public nuisance offence for what obviously will include non-violent protest behaviour, with a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.”

The ruling prompted a letter of concern from the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, Ian Fry, sent to the UK government on August 15.

Reported by BBC news last week, the letter references the jailed protestors and expresses concern about “the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association.” Fry adds that he is “gravely concerned about the potential flow-on effect that the severity of the sentences could have on civil society and the work of activists.”

The letter argues that the Public Order Act “appears to be a direct attack on the right to the freedom of peaceful assembly.” It asks, “why… it was necessary to introduce and pass the Public Order Act and how both the Public Order Act and the sentencing of Mr Decker and Mr Trowland are compatible with international norms and standards.”

He notes that a previous, December 22, 2022, letter asking how the Public Order Act could be said to comply with international human rights law, signed by himself and four other UN special rapporteurs, remains unanswered.

His own letter suffered the same fate, despite specifically requesting a response within 60 days. He told the BBC this was “troubling” and reflected “a general disregard for human rights concerns by the current government.”

After the BBC published its article, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivered his bellicose reply to the UN official, posting on X: “Those who break the law should feel the full force of it. It’s entirely right that selfish protestors intent on causing misery to the hard-working majority face tough sentences.”

Only a few years ago, the UN and organisations like Human Rights Watch felt able to give a free pass to the imperialist government’s claims to be the guardians of an “international rules-based order.” This only ever meant a regime of imperialist interests dressed up in the language of humanitarianism and human rights.

But the violence and authoritarianism with which governments are increasingly forced to rule over deeply hostile populations is such that the fiction is falling apart. The wholesale support among the imperialist governments and major opposition parties for Israel’s genocide in Gaza has rapidly accelerated this process.

Although relatively small numbers of climate activists using peaceful disruption tactics have served as a pretext for dictatorial new laws, their intended application is far wider. That fact has been made clear by the ferocious denunciations of the hundreds of thousands attending national demonstrations against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and by the passing of laws directly targeting striking workers. The ruling class is gearing up for a massive confrontation with the working class.

While Human Rights Watch and the UN specifically reference “this current government,” there is no difference between the incumbent Tories and the Labour Party opposition.

Labour has supported the crackdown on climate protestors, fully aware that it was being used as the spearhead of a campaign aimed at and now mounted against opposition to imperialism and war. Last April, Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed told the government to “stop standing idly by” and “get on with their jobs” acting against Just Stop Oil protestors. That October, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer declared his support for longer sentences, saying he had pushed for the same while Director of Public Prosecutions (2008—2013).

When it comes to the Palestinian protests, Labour spearheaded the “left anti-Semitism” witch-hunt and has since advanced itself as the most dedicated supporters of the Metropolitan Police, which has already arrested hundreds of protestors and is asking for the tools to go further.

Nor is the turn to police-state rule a uniquely British phenomenon. Germany has carried out a ferocious anti-democratic crackdown on climate protestors over the last years, serving as a trial run for the suppression of pro-Palestinian demonstrators today. This is mirrored in France. The frontal assault on democratic rights is the universal response of a ruling class that feels itself isolated in the face of mass opposition and has no answer other than state repression.

Surge of respiratory illness in northern China part of global outbreak of pneumonia among children

Benjamin Mateus

Last Thursday, on the growing concern over rising rates of “undiagnosed pneumonia” and hospitalization among children in northern China over the last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) held a teleconference with the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) requesting more information on the pathogens leading to this sudden spike in clinical cases. 

Given the ongoing COVID pandemic and abandonment of the Zero-COVID policy that had checked infections from nearly all respiratory pathogens, the initial response in the media was a sense of panic that another novel infection may be underway again. Beijing, however, quickly assured the international health agency and the world that the source for these illnesses were previously known “germs” like rhinovirus, mycoplasma pneumoniae, and respiratory syncytial virus that were circulating in their communities.

In their discussions, Chinese health authorities told the WHO that they had been seeing a rise in pediatric cases of mycoplasma pneumonias since May. Mycoplasma pnemonia is a bacterial infection transmitted via aerosol that usually causes upper respiratory tract infections, mostly among school-aged children in winter. Incubation periods vary from one to four weeks and symptoms develop slowly over several days.

However, since October, other seasonal viral respiratory infections were beginning to contribute to the overall influenza-like illnesses Chinese children were experiencing. Although the levels of COVID-19 infections in the community are not readily available, it is known that co-infections with SARS-CoV-2 can exacerbate the severity of other viral illnesses.

This raises the question whether the infection of virtually the entire Chinese population after the ending of Zero-COVID has weakened children’s immune responses to other pathogens. This would apply, of course, not only to China, but all other countries in the world where the ruling class policy of allowing COVID-19 free rein has rendered the population more vulnerable.

On Friday, China’s State Council issued a notice stating, “The overall situation of COVID-19 is generally stable currently, but there is a risk of rebound in the winter. Also, influenza and mycoplasma pneumoniae infections have become worse since October 2023. Influenza infection may reach its peak during the winter and spring seasons nationwide, and mycoplasma pneumoniae infections will continue to be high in some areas for some time.” 

Health administrators at a Beijing children’s hospital told state media CCTV that at least 7,000 patients were being admitted each day, overwhelming their capacity. At the largest pediatric hospital in Tianjin, about 70 miles southeast of the capital, more than 13,000 children had flooded outpatient clinics and emergency rooms. Also, health authorities in Liaoning province, located 400 miles northeast of Beijing, were facing a similar predicament.

In a recent STAT News interview on Friday, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, now acting director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, told senior science writer Helen Branswell that the peak in respiratory illnesses in China is still not as high as experienced in 2018-19. 

A man carries a child, walking out from a crowded holding room of a children's hospital in Beijing, on October 30, 2023. A surge in respiratory illnesses across China that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus, the country's health ministry said Sunday, November 26, 2023. [AP Photo/Andy Wong]

She added, “We asked if anything new was detected, any new variants, any new subtypes? And the answer was no. We asked if [they] have seen any unusual disease presentations for these pathogens. And they said no. And then they gave us an overview of the burden in the health care facilities, and their hospitals are not overwhelmed. There’s a lot of fever clinic visits, a lot of outpatient visits, but in terms of hospital beds, ICU, they’re not at capacity.”

China is not the only country experiencing a surge in mycoplasma pneumoniae infections. French health authorities have recently noted that emergency rooms are filling with large number of cases of atypical pneumonias among those under 15, levels not seen in more than a decade. High levels of mycoplasma were seen in late 2019 and early 2020 just prior to the COVID pandemic. 

An infectious disease expert at Pitié-Salpêtrière, a hospital in Paris, Dr. Alexandre Bleibtreu, told the local media that “there are now many more pulmonary bacterial infections with mycoplasma pneumoniae than usual.” He added, “[Symptoms include] fever, febrile state, sometimes without coughing, and when the infection reached the lung, after five days, then the patient starts coughing. This is quite a classical intracellular lung disease.” Apparently, cases are being identified in Nancy, Versailles, and in the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, a French possession. Switzerland, England, and South Korea are reporting such cases as well.

In South Korea, cases have doubled since last month according to the country’s Disease and Control Prevention agency. In their summary they noted that in the second week of November, 226 of 236 patients hospitalized for acute bacterial respiratory infection had mycoplasma pneumonia, of which 80 percent were under the age five.

Although cases of mycoplasma across these countries had plummeted during the first year of the COVID pandemic when lockdowns and mitigations measures were put into effect, the natural course of mycoplasma shows cyclic epidemics that recur on average every three to seven years. With the lifting of all pandemic response measures, it should come with little surprise that respiratory infections have suddenly multiplied across the globe. As to mycoplasma pneumoniae, causes of these multi-year fluctuations could include decline in population immunity over time or changes in the various strains circulating.

Extrapulmonary complications, although rare, can involve multiple organs that include the cardiovascular system, kidneys, gut and nervous system, such as encephalitis. The presence of these bacteria in these organs has been confirmed by PCR and culture testing. However, immune-mediated mechanisms, especially in neurological manifestations, are suspected, with the development of cross-reactive antibodies directed at the brain and nervous system.

The emergence of macrolide-resistant mycoplasma pneumoniae (bacteria resistant to an important class of antibiotics known as macrolides, like zithromax) since 2000 has raised concerns over the broader issue of the threat posed by antimicrobial-drug resistant organisms to the health of the world’s population.

For China, in particular, the rates of macrolide-resistant mycoplasma are exceptionally high. In Beijing they reached 97 percent in 2012. In a 2019 report on 55 students who contracted mycoplasma pneumonia, of whom 25 were hospitalized for complications, the authors said, “The infections by macrolide-resistant mycoplasma pneumonias are not always mild and pneumonia was common, and mycoplasma pneumonias could cause serious complications which require long-term hospitalizations.” Yet, other studies from Japan have not seen this borne out, meaning antibiotic resistance may not increase extrapulmonary manifestations.

Nonetheless, the immediate global implication of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains of considerable concern and cannot be overlooked. In 2019, close to five million people died of drug-resistant infections, exceeding the combined number of deaths from tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. The WHO estimates that by 2050, drug-resistant infections can claim twice that figure and cost the global economy $100 trillion. 

At the current pace, humanity is essentially burning through all our defenses using antibiotics—and this being just one facet—and unless an international preventative/elimination strategy is developed toward addressing the current array of pathogens and those that are yet undiscovered, the global population faces far-reaching threats.

The recent experience with reducing influenza, RSV and other respiratory pathogens to near zero during the years of anti-COVID mitigation means that the present policy of allowing these infectious agents free rein is in contradiction to basic public health principles. It also demonstrates that the fundamental issue is not scientific capability, but the political disinterest of a ruling class that prioritizes private profit over the safety and health of the population.

And the role of the mainstream press, as exemplified by the Wall Street Journal, is to inure the public when they write in their post-Thanksgiving article on the forthcoming winter surge of infections, “Get ready for more sickness.”

US invests in Colombo Port, deepening tensions with China

Rohantha De Silva & Vilani Peiris

Washington has decided to make a large investment in the construction of the deep-water Colombo West International Terminal (CWIT) at Colombo Port in Sri Lanka.

US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung and US International Development Finance Corporation CEO Scott Nathan (centre) tour Colombo West International Terminal site in the Port of Colombo. [Photo: US Embassy in Sri Lanka]

The CWIT will be built by the Adani Group of India at an estimated cost of $US700 million. The US government-run International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will provide $553 million or 79 percent of the cost, lending funds to the Adani Group, which will have a 51 percent share of the terminal under a 35-year agreement. John Keels Holdings, a local conglomerate, will have a 34 percent share and the state-owned Sri Lanka Ports Authority 15 percent.

Washington established the DFC five years ago in response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a major international infrastructure project. Beijing is spending tens of billions of dollars annually to construct ports, airports, rail lines and roads, primarily in underdeveloped nations to boost its global economic influence and to counter US strategic encirclement.

The CWIT is located next to a $500 million Chinese-run container terminal in Colombo Port. When completed, CWIT will be 1.4 kilometres long and 20 metres deep, with an annual capacity of 3.2 million containers.

Addressing the official signing investment agreement with its partners on November 9, DFC CEO Scott Nathan said, “The DFC works to drive private-sector investments that advance development and economic growth while strengthening the strategic positions of our partners… It’s a high priority for the United States to be active in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Washington’s “high priority” activity in the Indo-Pacific is aimed against Beijing and in line with its preparation for military confrontation against China. Its principal strategic partner is New Delhi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-chauvinist regime.

The US and India want Sri Lanka—situated astride key sea-lanes from the Middle East and East Africa to Southeast Asia and Australia—locked into their geo-strategic plans.

The Adani Group and its chairman Gautam Adani have close relations with Modi and have been critical to his government’s success. The giant corporation has benefitted from New Delhi’s privatisation of public infrastructure, such as airports, coal mines, energy generation and transmission, and seaports. It has acquired Israel’s Haifa port and previously, the rights to construct Australia’s controversial Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.

India has also boosted its economic interests in Sri Lanka in recent years. Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe visited New Delhi in July signing various “Joint Vision” agreements. These included the construction of a pipeline from southern India to Sri Lanka; a solar power project; Liquefied Natural Gas infrastructure; and a high-capacity power grid link. Trincomalee, in Sri Lanka’s east, will also be developed as an industrial hub with port and logistical facilities, along with port facilities to be constructed at Kankasanthurai in the north.

The US and India supported Sri Lanka’s efforts to secure a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout loan. New Delhi also provided a $4 billion long-term loan during the island’s unprecedented economic and political crisis, and the subsequent mass uprising in April–July last year that brought down the Rajapakse government.

Constantino Xavier, from the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, a New Delhi-based think tank, told the Financial Times on November 8 that the US investment “reflects growing strategic trust between India and the United States to cooperate to offer alternatives to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.” It is “part of a larger Indian regional connectivity strategy that ropes in the private sector and strategic partners like the US, Japan and European Union,” he said.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) chief Samantha Power made a three-day official visit to Sri Lanka in early September, indicating the significance of Sri Lanka to Washington’s regional strategy. Power’s visit followed trips by other senior US officials, including Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Jedidiah Royal.

The US and India have been particularly aggressive in pressuring Sri Lanka to cut its ties with China. In August 2022, Washington and New Delhi vehemently opposed the Yuan Wang 5, a Chinese research ship, from docking at the China-controlled Hambantota Port, labelling the vessel a “spy ship.” The Sri Lankan government, after delaying for some days, allowed the ship to dock.

India and the US raised similar concerns last month when another Chinese naval vessel, the Shi Yan 6, wanted to dock at Colombo. The ship was conducting joint research with Sri Lanka’s National Aquatic Research Agency. Colombo after a few days’ hesitation, allowed the ship to dock, informing Washington and New Delhi that the vessel was only doing research.

Beijing has intervened to counter the aggressive actions of India and the US.

On November 18, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent Shen Yiqin, a state councillor, on a three-day visit to Sri Lanka. She held discussions with President Wickremesinghe, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry and several other senior government officials. Since 2000, China has been involved in 300 projects in Sri Lanka, committing $20 billion over this period, in a bid for economic influence in the island.

China State Councilor Shen Yiqin and Sri Lankan President Rani Wickremesinghe shaking hands in Colombo. [Photo: Sri Lankan President’s Media Division]

A press release issued by the Sri Lankan Presidential Media Division noted that Colombo had agreed to participate in the second phase of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

State councilor Shen reiterated that the BRI was likely to provide a larger economic contribution to Sri Lanka, adding: “China is also prioritizing the extension of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) to Sri Lanka.” The CMEC is the newest of the six land corridors being developed through the BRI.

Last Thursday, Wickremesinghe told the India-based First Post that Sri Lanka would join this initiative. He also discussed his readiness to conclude a Free Trade Agreement with China and further develop tourism between two countries.

Shen’s Colombo visit followed her participation in the inauguration of the newly-elected Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu. The pro-China Muizzu came to power in September after ousting Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who was close to the US and India.

At the inauguration ceremony, Muizzu reiterated his call for Indian troops stationed on the archipelago to leave. Although India has not yet responded to Muizzu’s demand, it is another indication of the intensifying geopolitical power struggle in the region.

Wickremesinghe insists that Sri Lanka wants to keep away from these conflicts. He admitted, however, in his First Post interview that the Indian Ocean region and Sri Lanka, “may become battleground in the geopolitical power struggle between India and China.” Sri Lanka, he added, “will not do anything to hurt India’s security.”

While Wickremesinghe, a veteran pro-US stooge, is desperately trying to maintain this political balancing act to secure assistance for the crisis-ridden economy, Sri Lanka is caught up in a geopolitical maelstrom.

Home ownership the “preserve of the rich” in Australia

Vicki Mylonas

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) increase earlier this month of the cash interest rate to 4.35 percent, the 13th since May 2022, is pushing home ownership even further out of reach for working-class Australians.

Building workers walk past Reserve Bank of Australia in Sydney, Nov. 1, 2022. [AP Photo/Rick Rycroft]

ANZ Bank CEO Shayne Elliott stated in the light of this increase that home ownership “has become the preserve for the rich.” Elliott was pointing to the social consequences of a housing affordability crisis from which his company has reaped vast rewards. ANZ, one of Australia’s “big four” banks, recently reported a profit of $7.4 billion, a 14 percent increase over the previous year.

There is a stark contrast between the two outcomes of the RBA’s repeated interest rate rises: bumper results for the banks, and deepening financial struggle for the working class.

According to research from Finder, the minimum income required to qualify for a mortgage, based on the national average house price of $926,899, with the cash rate at 4.35 percent, is $182,000 per year, almost three times the median individual income of around $65,000.

In Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, households need to earn a staggering $261,733 annually for a mortgage on an average-priced home.

Across the country, the median house price to income ratio, also known as the “median multiple,” is now greater than 7:1. Under this metric, a ratio of less than 3:1 is considered affordable, while anything over 5:1 is “severely unaffordable.”

Since 2000, house prices have increased 6 percent per year, while wages have increased just 3 percent annually. Household debt has accordingly increased from 40 percent to 120 percent of GDP. As a result, interest rate rises have a much larger impact on working-class lives than in previous decades, when workers were not saddled with such massive debts.

Mortgage affordability in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne is now the worst since 1990, with more households experiencing mortgage stress. A household that spends 30 percent or more of its gross income on home loan repayments is classified as being in mortgage stress.

According to the Housing Affordability Index from funds management company Betashares, a couple earning two average full-time salaries would have to put 76.1 percent of household income into mortgage repayments on the average house in Sydney, or 50.5 percent in Melbourne.

By the end of the year, 48.5 percent of home loan borrowers will be in mortgage stress, according to analytics firm Roy Morgan.

First home buyers and households in working-class suburbs are the most vulnerable. While Sydney’s home loan delinquency rate is at 0.71 percent, up slightly from 0.63 percent in February, households in Western Sydney are more likely to be falling behind in their repayments.

This rate is highest for borrowers from suburbs including Blackett, Narellan and Shalvey, with 2.5 percent falling behind on their mortgages. Western Sydney also has a much higher proportion of mortgage holders than the rest of the city.

This has seen households cut back on insurance, miss medical appointments, eat fewer meals, fall behind on car loan repayments, and increasingly rely on credit cards or “buy now pay later” schemes for everyday expenses.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data has also shown that more people are having to take on a second job. In June, a record high of 958,600 people, around 1 in 15, worked a second job, up from a steady level of around 1 in 18 between 1994 and 2019.

Recent research from the charity organisation Foodbank showed that 48 percent of Australian households experienced “moderate to severe” food insecurity in the past year. Of these, 77 percent listed the cost-of-living crisis as the biggest driver of food insecurity.

Opinion polling has shown time and again that the cost-of-living crisis is a key issue for voters. A recent survey by research company Resolve Strategic reveals that, as the social crisis in Australia deepens, the federal Labor government faces an increasing level of disaffection. Core support for Labor has fallen from 37 to 35 per cent over the past month, but this has not resulted in increasing support for the Coalition, which has fallen from 31 to 30 per cent. This reflects growing distrust towards the whole of the political establishment.

Despite the Labor government’s pledge to deal with the cost-of-living crisis, only 8 percent of those surveyed expected the economy to improve over the next three months, with 50 percent expecting it to get worse. 52 per cent stated that the cost-of-living crisis is the main issue, up from 32 percent the previous year.

Only 27 percent of those surveyed named Labor as the best party to manage the economy, with 46 percent stating that Prime Minister Albanese was doing a poor job, a sharp turn from his net positive rating after the May budget.

Labor has claimed that its “number one priority is addressing inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.” But more and more people are being squeezed out of the housing market, which is increasingly becoming a luxury for the rich.

Labor fully supports the RBA’s interest rate hikes, which have nothing to do with “fighting” inflation. They are aimed at slowing the economy, driving up unemployment and keeping wages down. This will only intensify the housing crisis for the working class.

Dublin riots highlight far-right threat in Europe amid deep social crisis

Thomas Scripps

Riots in Dublin Thursday night highlighted the growing threat of the far-right in Ireland and internationally.

These forces are gaining confidence under conditions in which the ruling class is increasingly using migrants as a scapegoat for their own savaging of workers’ living standards.

Roughly 500 people were involved, setting fire to a tram and two buses, and looting 13 shops, leading to the largest deployment of riot police in the country’s history. Eleven police vehicles were damaged, close to 50 officers injured and 48 people arrested.

The violence was whipped up by far-right agitators over the stabbing of a woman and three children earlier that day, reportedly by a foreign national. Sources have told the BBC the man under suspicion is an Irish citizen in his late 40s who has lived in the country for 20 years. There are indications he was suffering a psychotic episode after being recently diagnosed with a brain tumour. A Brazilian delivery driver, Caio Benicio, helped to disarm him.

At 5.22 p.m., a voice message was sent by user “Kill All Immigrants” to the Telegram channel Enough is Enough urging, “Bally [balaclava] up, tool up. And any … fucking foreigner… just kill them. Just fucking kill them. Let’s get this on the news.”

The same day, Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor had tweeted to his 10 million followers, in response to the stabbing, “We are not backing down, we are only warming up. There will be no backing down until real change is implemented for the safety of our nation. We are not losing any more of our woman [sic] and children to sick and twisted people who should not even be in Ireland in the first place.”

He had tweeted the day before after a series of posts denouncing Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar for encouraging migrants to register to vote, “Ireland, we are at war.”

British fascist leaders Paul Golding, head of Britain First, and Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League, were quick to congratulate McGregor. Robinson posted that he was “so happy Conor is standing up for the people of Ireland.” Golding called on him to organise “a ‘Freedom March’ in Dublin.”

Events like this in Ireland, where the far-right has had a negligible political presence in recent decades, underscore the global scope of the far-right movement being incubated and actively promoted by the bourgeoisie. They follow a period of rising, low-level agitation, intimidation and violence by far-right organisations, most prominently the Irish National Party and Irish Freedom Party.

Groups of extreme nationalists, white supremacists, religious fundamentalists, anti-vaccine campaigners and COVID denialists come together around opposition to immigration and to a “weak” and “woke” establishment—in fact only magnifying the anti-migrant rhetoric of that same establishment. Over 300 anti-immigration protests were held in Ireland in 2022, and another 169 in the first six months of 2023.

The picture of migration to Ireland has changed substantially in the last 20 years, from a minor phenomenon to the point where 20 percent of the current population was born abroad. The number of asylum seekers has climbed from 7,500 in 2021 to 74,000 this year—most of them Ukrainians.

As the social crisis has worsened, far-right forces have taken advantage by scapegoating migrants, with the government legitimising many of its claims.

On the Sunday before the riot, Varadkar told the RTÉ’s The Week in Politics that although “migration is a good thing for Ireland,” the country “needs to slow the flow” and be “realistic” about the support offered.

“When it comes to irregular migration, that’s people coming from Ukraine or people seeking international protection, I think one of the things we have to do when we have to be honest with each other about this, is to make sure that what we offer—in terms of accommodation, in terms of work, in terms of money—is similar to what’s offered in other EU countries.”

The social crisis for which migrants are blamed, including those seeking asylum due to the predatory wars provoked the imperialist powers, grows more severe by the day, courtesy of a ruling class concerned only with its own enrichment.

Speaking about the popular discontent being exploited by the far-right, CEO of the Immigrant Council Brian Killoran referred to “several crises gripping Ireland, including a housing emergency and crumbling health services, traced back to the 2008 recession and the period of austerity that followed,” reported Euronews.

This January, the Irish Medical Association warned, “Our public health services are in an endless cycle of crisis. Too few doctors, too few beds and too few healthcare professionals. We are simply not investing enough in recruiting staff and increasing capacity to meet the needs of patients. This is leading to dangerous waiting times for treatment and unprecedented levels of burnout amongst doctors.”

In August, figures were reported by the Irish Examiner showing over 127,000 hospital procedures had been cancelled or postponed in the first six months of the year, 24,000 of them in relation to child patients.

In March, Varadkar admitted a housing deficit of 250,000 homes. There are 12,000 people homeless—among them 1,400 asylum seekers made homeless since January, says the Irish Refugee Council.

According to the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), average rents increased 82 percent in the 12 years 2010-2022, versus a European Union average of 18 percent; house prices increased 55 percent. The BPFI’s report notes that, in the same period, Ireland’s population increased by over half a million people while housing output grew by just 130,000 units.

Ann-Marie O’Reilly, representing tenants’ aid organization Threshold, told Le Monde this July how “successive governments abandoned backing for social housing..

With asylum seekers disproportionately housed in the most deprived and under-service areas—frequently in hotels, old office blocks and sports halls—the far-right twists and manipulates legitimate social grievances.

While they remain a fringe force in Irish politics, examples from Europe—where parties like the Alternative for Germany, Brothers of Italy, the French National Rally, the Dutch Party for Freedom and the Sweden Democrats have built a steady constituency of 10-20 percent of voters and exercise an outsized influence on national politics—is a warning.

Thousands strike once again in Germany against assault on educational and social programmes

Gregor Link

Around 10,000 public sector employees took strike action once again Wednesday in Berlin for better working conditions and higher wages. These included teachers and educators from daycare centres and schools, as well as employees of the Senate and district administrations, firefighters and university employees.

The trade unions Verdi, GEW, IG Bau and GdP (police) called for a strike demonstration in front of the Brandenburg Gate. A further 6,000 people from all areas of the public service run by Germany’s states took part in a rally in Hamburg on the same day. Even after two rounds of negotiations, there is still no offer from the employer.

The trade unions are calling for a 10.5 percent wage increase or at least 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months, as well as a “city-state allowance” of 300 euros for employees in Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, to counteract the particularly high rents and cost of living.

In fact, from the point of view of the trade union bureaucracy, the strikes are mainly aimed at keeping the mass opposition under control, which is developing against years of austerity across public institutions. While trade union officials are imposing real wage cuts for employees—as they recently did for the railways, postal service, and municipalities—tens of billions of euros are being made available for corporations and the military.

This cooperation against the employees finds its clearest expression in “Concerted Action,” a corporatist framework involving trade union leaders, government and employers’ associations to agree on cuts and social attacks behind closed doors. These are then enforced with the help of the trade union bureaucracy.

In order to break through this policy, the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) advocates the establishment of independent rank-and-file committees that unite internationally and lead a real struggle. The demonstration in Berlin also made it clear that countless employees are no longer prepared to accept the incessant attacks. 

Strike demonstration by public workers in Berlin

Maria has been a teacher at a Berlin support centre for four-and-a-half years. She said, “Even if we get 500 euros more, it does not compensate for the working conditions. We are in a class with too many students and have constantly growing workloads. There are fewer and fewer new colleagues and an increasing number who are untrained, which we then try to offset through mentoring and other measures. That’s the main reason why we’re striking. But nothing is shifting.

“We will have an increase to 16 students. These are our students who either have a high potential for violence, who are refugees, are traumatised, who have major personal difficulties and whose parents often do not speak the language. We do not have our own interpreters, which of course leads to problems in communication. The students no longer have any childcare facilities. In Berlin’s all-day schools, students should be allowed to try out sports and music, but that does not happen. They are only kept in custody, and even that is done badly.

“The shortage of staff and the workload are compounded by sick leave, also due to the coronavirus pandemic. The duty of supervision can no longer be guaranteed. This also leads to repeated incidents of violence. We have the police with us all the time. Under these conditions, we will no longer live up to our educational mandate.

“We see pupils leaving school without being able to read and therefore having few future prospects. The fact that this country does not invest in the future of children, but rather spends even more money on tanks, is simply pathetic and sad.”

Maria supports the demand to invest the Bundeswehr (German army) Special Fund in education and social work. 

“What our students have experienced and are telling us are things that are hard to imagine,” she said. “Many come from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey and other countries in the region. Some have already attended five schools by their seventh or eighth school year. Some children have been in the home for seven years—since they have been here—and have no prospect of an apartment. They do not have a sense of self-sufficiency and are not provided with therapeutic care.

“We also cover these things because no one else does it and no one feels responsible. No money is set aside for inclusion and integration. Instead, it’s always about letting the refugees work earlier.”

Maria said of the massacre in Gaza, “It’s not just about two nations. America is currently deploying the largest ship to the Mediterranean and Germany is also deploying troops to the Mediterranean. One wonders what is currently being done here. You want to make a statement but feel intimidated. But people all over the world are looking for networking.”

“We need a lot more money, and above all more staff,” said Paula, who runs a daycare centre and came to the demonstration with her employees Samira and Laura. “Calculating sick days is completely unrealistic. We are never staffed to meet the expected ratio. Actually, there is always a need for manpower.

“Some of the staff are already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The educators are constantly understaffed but do everything in their power to somehow save everything. People are the sufferers of this situation. The exploitation of the proletarians increases.”

Many students and university employees also took part in the demonstration. A student worker commented, “Wages must be increased by significantly more than 10.5 percent. Dependencies are created in the departments, which make it impossible for us to criticise. Many of us work overtime that is not remunerated. These power structures must be dismantled.”

She continued, “All over the world, rents and food prices need to change. The healthcare system needs to be strengthened. The Bundeswehr should not get so much money. It’s a social struggle, it’s all connected.”

Felix confirmed this, stating, “Administration and teaching cannot be thought of independently of each other. We need more wages and better-equipped administration at universities. The vacancies that exist will not be filled because there are currently no applications due to the low salary level. Participation in academic activities therefore becomes a luxury.”

“We need more money, better expert advice and more recognition. The state of education is symbolic of the fact that reproductive work is not valid under capitalism,” said Sarah. “We need to think of all these struggles together. We have to stop the machines, strike and stop work.”

Regina, who has been working in parenting and family counselling in Tempelhof-Schöneberg since 2017, noted, “Employers say there is no money, but that’s not true. On the one hand, people are opposed to taxing millionaires and, on the other hand, hundreds of billions of euros are spent on armaments. We are now to become ‘war-ready’ again, say the politicians! We need money for social welfare and work, not for weapons and war.

“Then they claim that too much money is being spent on the refugees. This is a disgrace and an impudence. In doing so, they divide us and create scapegoats—and that plays into the hands of the AfD (Alternative for Germany). There is enough money, it just needs to be distributed differently. We must not allow ourselves to be divided. Together we are more and stronger.

“My colleague who is a single parent has now accepted another job because her salary is not enough to support her two children. It can’t be right to work full-time and then be at risk of poverty. Politicians say: If you earn too little, apply for housing allowance. It’s inhuman. We have already swallowed far too much, and the end of the story is that a few have used the consequences for themselves and make huge profits.

“My friend works in England, there is currently also a broad strike movement in the hospitals, because there are also cuts taking place there. We can learn from this, stop working and make it clear that nothing works without us. This is the tradition of the workers’ movement. Even colleagues in the industrial sector have no interest in spending money on weapons.”

Regina sharply criticised the German government’s rearmament and war policy, saying, “The ‘new epoch’ is an absolute disaster. We have fought against rearmament and militarisation for decades. Now 100 billion euros are approved for weapons overnight and the peoples are to be turned against each other again. Germany is to be made fit again by the government in order to enforce its economic interests worldwide.

“My solidarity is with the Palestinian people. What is happening in Gaza is a disaster. The conflict did not only take place on October 7. For many decades previously, there had been arrests, destruction, and displacement of the Palestinian population. Illegal settlement construction must stop immediately, and the occupied territories must be evacuated. That’s very important.”

China suspends publishing youth unemployment data

Jack Wang & Lily Zhou

Unemployment, ever increasing difficulties in job search and economic downturn in China have occupied the minds of hundreds of millions of young people and the broader working population. The announcement this summer that official youth unemployment data will no longer be published only added fuel to the already very sharp social tensions built up over the past few decades.

At a press conference on August 15, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, Fu Linghui, announced that the publication of the urban unemployment rate for youths (between the age of 16 and 24) will be paused, without specifying a resumption date. Justifying this decision, Fu explained that the authority would need time to adjust and improve its metrics because increasing numbers of young people in this age range are enrolled in schools and are not out there on the job market.

Hardly anyone believes that this suspension came out of technical considerations. The Beijing regime is terrified that the rapidly growing youth unemployment figure will foster social opposition and undermine its rule.

The rate of youth unemployment has remained at a high level for more than a year. As early as July 15, 2022, the figure had soared to a record 19.9 percent. There might have been illusions that the criminal lifting of Zero COVID policy last December—which led to the deaths of more than a million people—would halt the rise in the jobless rate. Those have been quickly shattered. As of July this year, the last data point released by the government stood at 21.3 percent.

By this May, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that among 96 million young people in China, 33 million of them had entered the labour market, and more than 6 million were unemployed. But even this is a gross underestimation.

Contrary to bogus justification provided by Fu Linghui, this figure never included any students in school or young people from the countryside. Under the current metric, the large number of people who did not actively register for unemployment would not be counted. And for gig economy workers like delivery drivers—whose incomes are far below what is needed for subsistence—they are not part of this statistic either.

Among college students, their job prospects are bleak. At the same press conference, Fu commented that “most new graduates have secured a job offer.” This is another fabrication. College students complain on social media that they are compelled to sign documents upon graduation declaring that they have found a job.

Facing an ever tightening job market, college graduates flocked to graduate schools, attempting to delay their entry into the workforce and hoping that a higher degree might boost their job prospects. In 2021, 3.77 million students participated in the entrance exams for graduate schools. This number went up to 4.57 million in 2022 and 4.74 million, or more than a third of college graduates, in 2023.

A career path that all of a sudden has become very popular recently is the civil service, which is viewed by many as a far more secure and stable job option amid recent waves of layoffs. This year, 2.6 million people registered for the recruitment exam, an increase of a million when compared to five years ago. A significant number of young people spend sometimes years to study for the exam full time, hoping to secure a position that can have hundreds, even thousands, of applicants.

One college graduate commented on social media, “[I’m] 23 years old and graduated with a degree in engineering more than a year ago. I was not able to get into grad school. I was not able to pass the civil servant exam. I could not find a teaching position at public school. I could not find a job. My life seems to be suspended the moment I graduated… On the job market, I feel like a rotten cabbage that no one wants. I’m cheap and never look good.”

The youth unemployment rate does not include millions of young people in the countryside, who have an even bleaker chance of finding a job. Incomes from farming are minimal and they are compelled to become “peasant workers” who migrate to work in the cities. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there are more than 295 million internal migrant workers in China, most of whom cannot benefit from basic social services in the cities. And if they cannot find a job, the young migrant workers are not included in the urban unemployment statistics.

Wang, an unemployed young worker from the countryside, described his experience in an interview. He attempted to find work in Guangzhou after finishing school, but the salary was lower than promised and was never paid to him. He had to go back home to make a living.

Income from farming his family’s half-an-acre of land was just 2,600 RMB a year ($US364). If he rented the land out, he would only get 900 RMB a year. These amounts are barely above starvation levels. If he wants anything more, he has to find a job. Most available jobs require him to work for more than ten hours a day for a monthly salary of around 2,000 RMB.

The Chinese government has no solution to the climbing unemployment rate and is simply trying to cover it up by not publishing the figures. This cynical manoeuvre cannot conceal the serious economic crisis of Chinese capitalism. Over the past few years, tens of millions of people went bankrupt and more than 700 million people are in debt.

The unemployment crisis is just one consequence of the economic stagnation more broadly throughout China since 2019, which is radicalizing layers of workers and young people at the same time and is creating a huge political crisis for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime.

The CCP justified the restoration of capitalism and the dismantling of the social gains of the 1949 Chinese Revolution on the basis of the economic growth produced by China’s integration into global capitalism as a cheap labour platform. The resultant social ills, the regime claimed, were just the price or “birth pangs” necessary for the overall improvement in the material conditions of large sections of the population. This illusion is now being shattered.

This year, China has already witnessed a sharp increase in working class protests and strike actions across all industries and around the country, mostly over wage arrears, low pay and denied compensation. Significantly, the government no longer publishes any statistics related to social unrest. China Labour Bulletin’s strike map gives a small indication of what is taking place: 1,494 cases of industrial action have been documented so far in 2023, almost double the figure for 2022 and one-and-a-half times more than in 2021.