The Gaza Strip is often described as besieged as it is blockaded by land, sea and air by Israel.

A similar tactic is now being extended to the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem which was the centre of street protests and demonstrations against the eviction of Palestinians from their houses.

Israeli NGO Ir Amim said in a Wednesday statement for about two weeks Israeli police cordoned off the Kerem Al’ajoni section, or the eastern part of Sheikh Jarrah, where hundreds of Palestinians under threat of forced expulsion live. A heavy presence of police and paramilitary forces blocks access to the area, it said. 

“The closure of the neighbourhood is seen as an intentional brazen move by the Israeli authorities to suppress Palestinian mobilisation and deprive the residents of Sheikh Jarrah of the freedom of expression and the right to protest against their forced displacement,” it said.

Palestinian families are living inside “a cordoned-off military-like zone. They are subject to ongoing arbitrary harassment and aggressive police measures, marked by forced entry into homes and the use of stun grenades, skunk water, and rubber-tipped bullets against neighbourhood residents”.

 Israeli police have been preventing non-residents from entering the neighbourhood, which has been closed off. Palestinian residents have limited their movements and are mostly staying at home, since if they leave the neighbourhood Israeli authorities sometimes will not allow them to return, claiming they have orders it is a military zone. Jewish-Israeli settlers are allowed to move freely. Restrictions are not imposed on supporters of Jewish settlers living there,

Iskafi from one of the Palestinian families facing eviction, said, “They put three to four soldiers at the door of each of our houses to keep us locked inside. Whenever we tried to get out they said to us: ‘You stay inside or we will beat you.’ ”

Palestinian writer Mohammed el-Kurd from Sheikh Jarrah posted on Twitter a video and photos on Tuesday showing Israeli police spraying streets with “skunk water … an intense, chemically manipulated liquid that sticks on your skin for a week if it came in direct contact”.

Sheikh Jarrah is ‘under a siege,’ Palestinian residents say | Al-Aqsa Mosque News | Al Jazeera

 92% of candidates standing for the Vietnam’s 500-seat National Assembly are Communist Party members.

Of the 868 candidates, 74 are independents. Independents must be vetted by the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, which the party essentially controls.

The economic reforms of Doi Moi brought the arrival of Vietnamese billionaires.

In 2018, income share held by highest 10% for Viet Nam was 27.5 %. Viet Nam income share held by lowest 10% was at level of 2.5 % in 2018. 

 Hamas and Israel agree a ceasefire.

Image thanks to

Neither Israel, Nor Palestine: No War but the Class War | Leftcom

There are 171 billionaires in the UK, 24 more than a year ago.

 The combined wealth of billionaires in Britain grew by more than one-fifth.

The richest person is Sir Len Blavatnik.  He increased his wealth by £7.2bn during 2020. The increase in Blavatnik’s £23bn over the past 12 months was mainly down to his investment in the Warner Music record label, which floated on New York’s Nasdaq stock market in June.  In the US, Blavatnik mainly gave to Democratic politicians before 2014, but his spending then shifted to the right, with donations of millions of dollars to Republican causes and a $1m donation to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee.  He owns a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens that has been valued at £200m.

Property magnates, David and Simon Reuben, were listed as Britain’s second-wealthiest, with a combined fortune of £21.5bn.

 Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Sunday Times and other media interests, was not included on the basis that he is based in the US, but his $23.5bn fortune, according to Forbes, would have placed him third.

The gains reaped by the billionaire class came in a year that the government was forced to step in to pay the wages of millions of Britons, funded by borrowing unprecedented in peacetime. At the same time governments and central banks have stepped in with huge fiscal and monetary interventions that have sustained, and in many cases added to, the fortunes of the wealthy.

 Solar, wind and tidal power are renewable but what is needed to convert those resources into electricity — minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and the rare-earth elements (REEs)  are not. Some are far scarcer than oil, and capitalist competition and conflicts over control of those vital resources may well persist.

Electric vehicles uses substantial amounts of copper, and require cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and rare earths for their engines and batteries.  According to the IEA, a typical electric car requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional oil-powered vehicle. These include the copper for electrical wiring plus the cobalt, graphite, lithium, and nickel needed to ensure battery performance, longevity, and energy density (the energy output per unit of weight). In addition, rare-earth elements will be essential for the permanent magnets installed in EV motors.

 Wind turbines need manganese, molybdenum, nickel, zinc, and rare-earth elements for their electrical generators.

For the time being with wind and solar power accounting for only about 7% of global electricity generation and electric vehicles making up less than 1% of the cars on the road, demand is being met by supply. However, the International Energy Agency (IEA), in its report, “The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions,” predicts the demand for lithium in 2040 could be 50 times greater than today and for cobalt and graphite 30 times greater if the world moves swiftly to replace oil-driven vehicles with EVs. Potential sources of them are limited.  In other words, the world could face significant shortages of  vital raw materials materials. 

“As clean energy transitions accelerate globally,” the IEA report noted ominously, “and solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars are deployed on a growing scale, these rapidly growing markets for key minerals could be subject to price volatility, geopolitical influence, and even disruptions to supply.”

“Today’s supply and investment plans for many critical minerals fall well short of what is needed to support an accelerated deployment of solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. 

The most critical minerals, lithium, cobalt, and those rare-earth elements, production is highly concentrated in just a few countries, a reality that could lead to the sort of geopolitical struggles that accompanied the world’s dependence on a few major sources of oil.  Just one country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), currently supplies more than 80% of the world’s cobalt, and another — China — 70% of its rare-earth elements.  At present, approximately 58% of the world’s lithium comes from Australia, another 20% from Chile, 11% from China, 6% from Argentina, and smaller percentages from elsewhere. A U.S. firm, Lithium Americas, is about to undertake the extraction of significant amounts of lithium from a clay deposit in northern Nevada.  Four countries — Argentina, Chile, the DRC, and Peru — provide most of the copper. In other words, such future supplies are far more concentrated in far fewer lands and hands than oil and gas. Already the Socialist Standard has drawn attention to the focus on Greenland for its resources.

Many promising ore sources lie in countries like the DRC, Myanmar, Peru, and Russia where such conditions hardly apply. For example, the current turmoil in Myanmar, a major producer of certain rare-earth elements, has already led to worries about their future availability and sparked a rise in prices.

China may not produce significant amounts of cobalt or nickel, but it does account for approximately 65% of the world’s processed cobalt and 35% of its processed nickel. And while China produces 11% of the world’s lithium, it’s responsible for nearly 60% of processed lithium. When it comes to rare-earth elements, however, China is dominant. Not only does it provide 60% of the world’s raw materials, but nearly 90% of processed REEs.

there is no way the United States and other countries can undertake a massive transition from fossil fuels to a renewables-based economy without engaging economically with China.  Efforts will be made to reduce the degree of that reliance, but there’s no realistic prospect of eliminating dependence on China for rare earths, lithium, and other key materials in the foreseeable future. If a Cold-War-like stance toward Beijing arose or if the USA were to try to “decouple” its economy from that of the China, as advocated by many “China hawks” in Congress, the United States would have to abandon its plans for a green-energy future.

Either a future in which capitalists begin fighting over the world’s supplies of important minerals or simply abandoned their plans for a Green New Deal and let the planet burn.

Adapted from here

  Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) chief Jan Egeland, said, “We are failing to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from conflict and disasters.”

A person was forced to flee their home inside their own country every single SECOND last year. The number of people living in internal displacement is at a record high.

The total number of people living in internal displacement (IDPs) around the world is a record 55 million, that is double the roughly 26 million people who have fled across borders as refugees.

The report found that three-quarters of the people who fled internally last year were victims of natural disasters, in particular ones related to extreme weather. Intense cyclones, monsoon rains and floods hit highly exposed and densely populated areas in Asia and the Pacific, while the Atlantic hurricane season “was the most active on record,” it pointed out. “Extended rainy seasons across the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa uprooted millions more.” Experts say climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.

A convergence of conflicts and natural disasters was making the problem worse, with 95 percent of last year’s new conflict displacements occurring in countries vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“Climate change and the overexploitation of natural resources may aggravate instability and conflict, which in turn may trigger displacement.”

In addition, nearly 10 million of those newly displaced last year were fleeing conflicts and violence, the report said. The majority were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and Ethiopia. Escalating violence and the expansion of armed groups in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Burkina Faso had fuelled some of the world’s fastest growing displacement crises last year.

Unlike disaster-driven displacement, which is usually short-lived as people return to rebuild damaged or destroyed homes once the storms have passed, conflict-fuelled displacement can last years. All but seven million of the 55 million people living in internal displacement at the end of last year had fled conflict.

Number of IDPs in the world reaches record high of 55m | Humanitarian Crises News | Al Jazeera

 The civil service is one of the largest employers in the country, with a workforce of about 445,000 people across the UK. The class composition of the senior ranks of the civil service has barely changed since 1967, research reveals. Within the civil service, the higher you progress, the less likely you are to find people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

 just 12% of senior Treasury staff coming from low socio-economic backgrounds. Overall, only 18% of the 6,000-strong cohort of senior civil servants come from disadvantaged backgrounds, while 25% of this group was independently educated.

 In order to be successful, the research notes, civil servants need to master this behavioural code. It involves using an RP accent (received pronunciation, the middle class accent of southern England); adopting an “emotionally detached and understated self-presentation”; and displaying “an intellectual approach to culture and politics that prizes the display of in-depth knowledge for its own sake (and not directly related to work)”. 

“Those from low socio-economic backgrounds find this code alienating and intimidating but one which they must assimilate in order to succeed,” concludes the report.

 The path to senior positions is like a labyrinth: in theory there is a route to the centre for everyone but it is largely hidden. Although formal promotion protocols are sensitive to issues of diversity and inclusion, interviewees said mastery of a series of “unwritten rules” provided the most effective map through the labyrinth.

Sam Friedman, the report’s author and incoming professor of sociology at the LSE explained, “Strikingly it is those from privileged backgrounds who hold the upper hand in unpicking these hidden rules.”

 In 1967,  analysis showed the proportion of senior civil servants from lower socio-economic backgrounds was higher than it is today (19% in 1967, compared with 18% today).

Class of senior civil servants has barely changed since 1967, report reveals | Civil service | The Guardian

 Oxfam warned today that it cannot reach around 450,000 or more people in Gaza because of fighting and aerial bombardment. The destruction and indiscriminate threat to life makes any emergency aid, at the moment, impossible to mount. 

Many water wells and pumping stations have been damaged by Israel’s bombardments. These facilities are the only way for people living in Gaza to get clean water. 40 percent of Gaza water supplies have been affected. 

People are struggling to secure food, water, and medicines. Many have been forced to spend their savings or are trying to sell assets. 

Many who have lost their homes have been forced into temporary shelters.

As much as 200,000 hectares of agricultural land has been bombed or is currently inaccessible to farmers because of the danger of attack. Transport and movement around Gaza is not only unsafe but now made highly difficult because of the bomb damage to roads and debris from destroyed buildings. Some routes are blocked entirely. Oxfam warns that it could take weeks to start meaningful repairs and organise some recovery and resumption of normality for people in Gaza, even if a ceasefire was declared today.   

Shane Stevenson, Oxfam Country Director for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, said, “The scale of suffering is immense yet we cannot respond properly. Until the security situation improves things will quickly deteriorate further. The aerial assaults have taken lives and any sense of safety, but they are also taking away people’s options to cope – to buy food and supplies, and to go about their lives.  Families are telling us that they are too scared to leave their homes for food and some have already run out of drinking water. The people of Gaza are psychologically exhausted and fearful and exposed. They need peace now in order to pick up the broken pieces of their lives.” 

Stevenson continued, “Gaza is also in the midst of coping with the Covid pandemic. People need access to water and medicines and hospitals to halt the virus spread and help nurse sufferers to recovery. Adding conflict on top of Covid feels like a recipe for disaster.”

Nearly half a million people out of reach in Gaza – Oxfam – occupied Palestinian territory | ReliefWeb

 Questions of Change

The traffic lights change from red to amber,

But does that mean go, or wait for the green?

Take care is the advice, yet what does that mean?

Most of the world’s still on halt remember.

Vaccines are driven down the western road

Where there’s vaults of cash to pay for each dose.

The logistics, though, don’t even come close

To the poor who live in far off abroad.

As if a pandemic isn’t sad enough,

While many still die fighting for breath,

Israeli planes are delivering death

Freely to Palestine. Is that bad enough?

Vaccines or munitions, which will we make?

As lights change, which road will we take?

D. A.

 Only when the working people in the world have the power in their own hands can we realise the cherished cooperative commonwealth. 

Technological progress is now reaping vast profits for the industrial and financial oligarchy and condemning millions to misery. 

Reformists put off the cooperative commonwealth and prolong the suffering of the world’s disinherited. The World Socialist Movement (WSM) points out the economic basis upon which democracy must stand in order to achieve liberty. It proclaims all liberty to rest back upon economic liberty, and all individuality to be rooted in economic unity. It affirms that there can be no liberty save through association; no true commonwealth save a cooperative commonwealth. It makes clear that democracy in the state is but a fiction, unless it be realised through economic democracy in production and distribution. 

Workers when they become socialists do not become different from the rest of the working class. Their change in thought is an evidence of gradual transformation in the working-class movement. They remain of the workers, struggling with them for emancipation. The WSM of to-day cannot bring socialism. The co-operative commonwealth will be inaugurated by the mass action of the workers. To assert the contrary is a denial of the cardinal principle of socialism – “That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves.”  If we stand for brotherhood, we must act like brothers and sisters. If we stand for the cooperative commonwealth, then let us begin to cooperate among ourselves. Let us give trust, and we shall receive trust. Let us show confidence in one another, and we shall receive confidence. Divided by strife and suspicion, we fail the world’s disinherited. United by patience, by goodwill and brave comradeship, we shall conquer the world and make it a fit place for free men and women  to live in. There is no power in capitalism that can prevent the consummation of a united and harmonious socialist movement in the cooperative commonwealth.

The socialist parties of the WSM will not rest content until it has eradicated capitalism and established the socialist cooperative commonwealth. We are well aware that socialism is a term little understood by the world at large, and that it is everywhere a target for denunciation by the media of the plutocracy. When analysed it means a more equitable distributions of the products of labour; cooperation instead of competition; common ownership of land and all the means of production and distribution. It proclaims the coming of the cooperative commonwealth to take the place of wage slavery. The present economic system is not only a failure, but a colossal crime. It robs, it degrades, it starves; it is a foul blot upon the face of our civilisation; it promises only an increase of the horrors which the world deplores. There is no hope for our fellow-workers except by the path mapped out by socialists, the advocates of the cooperative commonwealth. In socialism, private ownership, the exchange economy (and barter) being at an end, money would lose the functions which it possessed under capitalism and would be abolished as will the wages system. Humanity will then be emancipated from the horrible thraldom which a soulless moneyed oligarchy has forced upon it.

We ask our fellow-workers to organise with us to end the domination of private property— with its poverty-breeding system of unplanned production — and substitute in its place the socialist co-operative commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his or her faculties, multiplied by all the modern technological wonders of the modern world.

We are ready to conquer capitalism by making use of our political liberty and by taking possession of the public power, so that we may put an end to the present barbarous class exploitation  by the abolition of capitalism and turning all of the land, and of all the means of production, transportation, and distribution, into the property of all people as a collective body, and the substitution of the cooperative commonwealth for the present state of unplanned production, and social disorder — a commonwealth which, although it will not make every man and women equal physically or mentally, will give to every worker the free exercise and the full benefit of his and her faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilisation and ultimately inaugurate the universal brotherhood of mankind.

A class-free socialist commonwealth cannot be attained without the overthrow of the rule of capitalism. It is an illusion that it can be built up alongside and within capitalist society.  There can be very little gained by socialists trying to administer the capitalists’ political machinery; that this machinery is especially adapted to fit the necessity of the ruling class. A socialist official is powerless to do more than the machine permits, and the machine permits practically nothing. If socialism is simply going to be another system of exploitation it can easily graft on the old tree, as has its predecessors. But if it is to usher forth the triumph of a new era, the final capture, and overthrow of the master class and the establishment of an entirely new principle in production.

The Socialist Party and its companion parties aims at the entire emancipation of the workers from the mastery of the capitalist system via the ballot box, not for the enactment of palliative reforms under capitalism but for the immediate establishment of a co-operative commonwealth, that is, in fact, the emancipation of the whole wage-slave class.

We must overthrow the capitalist system, and establish in its place the Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth of the World. The social system of to-day does not assure or guarantee that the world’s inhabitants shall be amply fed, with adequate healthcare  and properly housed to suit human needs. Based on the private ownership of the means of life, capitalism exists simply for the benefit of those who live on “Rent,” “Interest” and “Profit.” So long as we continue to tolerate this system of private ownership and production for profit, so long will the needs of humanity be disregarded. Socialism will  free Mankind  from  age-long bondage of wage-slavery. Socialism, alone, being based on a splendidly firm economic basis, can assure humanity of a perfect foundation for the Socialist Cooperative Commonwealth.