The rich are now nearly 40% richer than before the coronavirus crisis. Meanwhile, food prices rise, and more and more people go hungry.

Food prices are climbing globally, driving millions into hunger. 

In Nigeria, food inflation rose to 22.95% in March. 

In Indonesia, tofu is now 30% more expensive than it was last year. 

In Lebanon, where nearly half the population lives in poverty, food is about five times as expensive as it was in 2019. 

In Russia, food prices rose 7.7% over the last year. 

In the UK, the pandemic has increased food insecurity; as many as 10% of people now use food banks.

 In 2012, Goldman Sachs made about $400m (£251m) from food speculation; around the same time, tens of millions of people were pushed into poverty because of food prices. 

 Billionaires collectively gained $1.1tn in 2020. Yet large numbers of the world don’t know how they are going to put food on the table while the don’t seem to know what to do with all their cash.  Jeff Bezos is reported to be buying a $500m superyacht. 

While food prices continue to rocket billionaires are building rockets.

Bank balances or food banks?

 A survey of 800 cities around the world, carried out by the Carbon Disclosure Project, found that last year about 43% of them, representing a combined population of 400 million people, did not have a plan to adapt to the climate crisis.

One in four, a quarter, of the cities explained budgetary restraints, a lack the money, was the reason they were unable to prepare to protect themselves against the ravages of climate breakdown.

The planet cannot withstand the onslaught of capitalist culture for very many more years. We are already close to some irreversible tipping points (if we haven’t already reached them). Only a few more years of production for profit, using cheap energy such as coal, will usher in catastrophic global changes. We will have annihilated beyond comprehension vast areas of arable land needed for growing vegetables, despoiled and polluted the supply of fresh water. We are on a march towards planetary suicide. libertarian communism/socialism is where everybody has an equal say in making decisions that affect them and where everybody is assured of equal access to the benefits of society. It’s summed up in the old phrase “from each according to ability, to each according to needs.” There isn’t any reason to keep the wage system after a revolution. As every product is a social product – nobody produces anything in isolation any more – the products themselves ought to be socialised. It’s simply not possible to ascertain the true social value of anyone’s labour, and in truth not worth the effort of finding out. Everybody’s contribution matters. It wouldn’t matter how many surgeons we had, if we didn’t have cleaners ensuring a hygienic workplace. Both contribute to society. Why discriminate in favour of one in the future society? It’ll only preserve the class nature of society. We should move immediately to a system of “to each according to need”. We envisage that autonomous cities and industries will federate together and co-ordinate their activities. With socialism there won’t be any competitive reason not to. With voluntary co-operation there won’t be any need for a centralised authority.

The climate crises are  not just caused by “technology”, and a return to the “simple life” is no answer (though less worship of “progress” might help). Our environment is the world in which we live, and technology offers us means for it to be a good world. But no technique of production is indispensable. There is a substitute for anything, or there soon can be if research resources are channelled in the appropriate direction. Something can be done about global warming, and of course something is to some extent being done, and the reasons for its slowness and indecisiveness are economic, not technical. We will concede it would be incorrect  to suppose that capitalism is doing nothing about the ecological  problem. It is true that the picture has now become more confused with corporations which formerly flaunted their disdain for nature  now  treat the environment as an opportunity for positive  public relations claims. Short-sighted lobbyists often talk as though the choice for capitalism was concern for the environment or economic growth, but the truth is that in the long run a lack of concern for the environment will cut growth. Though government climate-control laws raise the costs of production, corporation do not necessarily mind their costs rising—so long as their competitors are in the exact same boat. Anything which raises costs all round help to eliminate  small businesses to the benefit of the large concerns. 

But to suggest that most big capitalists might welcome carbon-emission restrictions, does not prevent their still having an incentive to bend or break these laws.

 The federal budget unveiled last month by Biden, would give $1.3 billion more to the Israeli military than to the global climate response.

$2.5 billion for international climate programs.

$3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel.

Informal collaboration between countries has prevented thousands of women, men and children from seeking protection in Europe this year, according to a report released by nine human rights organisations. The Protecting Rights at Borders (Prab) initiative has recorded 2,162 cases of “pushbacks” at different borders in Italy, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Hungary carried out on the basis of bilateral agreements between countries, which resulted in them circumventing their responsibilities and pushing unwanted groups back outside the EU.

Prab, which includes the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Italy’s Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and Diaconia Valdese (DV), the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and others, said that “over a third of pushbacks were accompanied by rights violations (denial of access to asylum procedure, physical abuse and assault, theft, extortion and destruction of property), at the hands of national border police and law enforcement officials”.

Prab said that “chain pushbacks through different EU member states are occurring entirely outside of formally established mechanisms and aim to circumvent their obligations under European and international human rights law”.

Prab said its report was “the tip of the iceberg”, as many rights violations were likely to go unreported.

Charlotte Slente, the DRC secretary general. “It goes without saying that states must stop the violence and these illegal practices, and perpetrators must be held accountable.

The report comes as Greece was also singled out for criticism on Wednesday with Europe’s top human rights watchdog urging a halt to the practice of pushing back migrants at the land and sea borders it shares with Turkey. The Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatović, said it was incumbent on Athens’ centre-right government to properly investigate the pushbacks. 

“I am deeply concerned that, two and a half years later, allegations of pushbacks persist,” she wrote, referring to an initial visit in which the issue had been raised. The way in which these operations are reportedly carried out would clearly be incompatible with Greece’s human rights obligations.” The commissioner said that, all too often, the official reaction of Greek authorities was to simply dismiss the charges, despite what she described as “the overwhelming body of evidence that has been presented in recent years”.

The World Socialist Movement’s position has always been what happens to the workers anywhere is the business of socialists everywhere. We are not afraid of the charge that we are “poking our noses” into matters that do not concern us.

Once more, we see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict flare up and once again we noticed the skewed use of language by the media in its reporting of it.

The terms ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem and the apartheid inequality before Israeli law of Palestinian residents is never used by the news outlets. Albeit not legal under international law, Israel has fully annexed East Jerusalem as part of the Israeli state. Yet, it refuses to grant and guarantee the Palestinian residents full citizenship which it gives to Jewish residents of that city.

Media likes to explain Israeli air attacks are in “retaliation” and a “response” to Palestinian rockets. Not that the Palestinians were reacting to the initial Israel aggression of police violence in Jerusalem with their feeble rockets.

But this is typical of the media dis-information.

One thing that the media so frequently asserts is that it is the Palestinians who are being the stubborn obstacle to the peace process. They are totally silent on the 2001 Taba talks:

“We made progress, substantial progress. We are closer than ever to the possibility of striking a final deal,” said Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel’s negotiator.

Saeb Erekat, Palestinian chief negotiator, said, “My heart aches because I know we were so close. We need six more weeks to conclude the drafting of the agreement.”

It was a new Israeli government which walked away from the negotiating table, refusing to continue the peace talks because they were leading to a fruitful agreement.

But yet the Israeli propaganda message continues to prevail, blaming the Palestinians for a refusal to negotiate.

Hamas has offered Israel a peace deal which while not formally recognising Israel it does so in practice, agreeing to accept the 1967 borders and they stated so in their 2017 Charter. Hamas has advocated a Islamic form of a long-term and renewable armistice, the hudna.

Israel has rebuffed Hamas and will not enter into any direct discussions with them.

It is Israel who put up the hurdles to meaningful peace talks but not if you believe the media news outlets.

Israel is winning the propaganda media war by depicting Palestinians as “extremists”.

We see the same diplomacy tactic playing out against Iran. Who possesses the nuclear weapons – certainly not Iran but they are considered the nuclear threat and America and Europe make no demand for Israel to disarm its nukes, not even seeking access to inspect and monitor them by the IAEA which Iran was fully cooperative in doing.

Unlike the USA which offers the state of Israel unconditional support, refusing to use its substantial aid packages to the country as leverage to pressure it into concessions so to help reach a permanent peace, the World Socialist Movement does not give unconditional solidarity to Hamas despite our sympathy for oppressed fellow-workers resisting repression.

 Hamas (unlike Hezbollah) possesses no military answer to match Israel’s power and the result of their inept rockets merely invites far deadlier counter-attacks from the IDF. Hamas is being counter-productive.

Perhaps that might be the real reason, the creation of innocent victims – martyrs or sacrificial lambs – so to boost Hamas politically as does Netanyahu’s unproportionate use of force, a war crime in itself, to bolster his attempts to form a government coalition.

 What can we can expect for the future? Recurring and intermittent protests by Palestinians for equal treatment and continual Israeli oppression to protect  Jewish Israeli supremacy.

It is not a promising prospect for our fellow-workers in the region. 

 A study of the economics of biodiversity loss sets out how the current model by which money flows from rich, developed nations into schemes to enhance and protect nature in poorer nations can exacerbate the problem. Rich countries “throwing money” at schemes designed to enhance biodiversity is ineffective.

 Well worth a watch for a summary of Murray Bookchin

 Twenty-four American states are raising objections to a bankruptcy proposal for Sacklers to settle lawsuits by paying $4.3bn but family would keep about $7bn.

 The Sacklers, owners of Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin, seek to surrender part of their immense fortune in return for immunity from further litigation over their part in a drug epidemic that has claimed more than 500,000 lives. The unusual proposition shields the wealth of individual Sacklers family members, seeking bankruptcy only for their company and not for themselves.

Under the proposals, the Sackler family that own Purdue Pharma would settle more than 3,000 lawsuits against the company by paying $4.3bn. But the Sacklers would keep about $7bn which would be personally protected from legal action over the part played by some family members in the illegal drive to mass market OxyContin for which Purdue has been twice convicted of criminal charges, in 2007 and last year.

Critics have accused the family of seeking to buy its way out of accountability while failing to admit the part played by Purdue Pharma in creating the opioid epidemic with an unprecedented marketing drive to sell OxyContin built on manipulated data and false claims that the drug federal agents called “heroin in a pill” had a low risk of causing addiction. Purdue used its wealth to influence politicians and regulators to keep trading even as the evidence grew of an epidemic in the making.

 Critics say that the billions of dollars retained by the Sacklers under the plan would go a long way to provide social services for children left orphaned or forced into foster homes by their parents opioid addiction, and to offset the financial burden caused by the epidemic on health care and policing.

Documents show that the family is worth about $11bn. The Sacklers assets include nearly $1bn in cash with billions more held in trusts. Their vast holdings also include art and property.

The family’s lawyers say the $4.3bn payment is fair because it is less than the Sacklers made from OxyContin after tax. 

Regret but no remorse. Kathe Sackler, a former member of Purdue’s board, she said that while “my “heart breaks for the parents who have lost their children”, the company was not at fault.

“There’s nothing that I can find that I would have done differently,” she said.

US states oppose ‘unjust’ plan to shield Sackler wealth in opioid settlement | Opioids crisis | The Guardian

 After some early speculation, the China’s government has finally released their official population figures. The overall population of China average annual rise was of 0.53% to a 2020,  1.41178 billion. China  missed its growth target set in 2016, to reach 1.42 billion people by 2020.  The annual growth rate of 0.53% is the lowest since the early 1960s when China was dealing with the aftermath of tens of millions killed by famine

The proportion of citizens aged over 65 increased from 8.9% in 2010 to 13.5%, while the proportion of children grew by just 1.35% and the working population stayed steady, highlighting China’s rapidly ageing population. As a consequence the country would phase in a raising of the retirement age, which has remained unchanged for four decades at 60 for men and 55 for women.

“The number of women of childbearing age … was declining, and there is a postponement of childbearing and the rising cost of child raising,” said Ning. “All of these are reasons behind the decline on newborns.” Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the census leading group, acknowledged.

China’s central bank, which in April called for an end to all birth limits, to “fully liberalise and encourage childbirth”, and remove difficulties for women.

China’s population growing at slowest rate in generations | China | The Guardian

Millionaire CEOs in American companies saw an average pay raise of 29% in 2020 while their workers saw a 2% decrease.

The Institute for Policy Studies calculated that the average CEO compensation in 2020 was $15.3m when looking at the 100 companies  with the lowest-paid median wage for workers.

The median worker pay was $28,187. 

This means that CEOs saw a 29% pay raise compared to 2019, while workers saw a 2% decrease. 

Hilton’s CEO, Christopher Nassetta, had a compensation package worth $55.9m in 2020, the highest of the CEOs analyzed in the report, while median pay at the company was $28,608, down from $43,695 in 2019. Since the pandemic affected the company’s expected performance, and thus Nassetta’s expected compensation, the company’s board restructured its stock awards to give its CEO ample pay in 2020.

Chipotle’s board removed the company’s poor financial results from the peak of the shutdown and excluded Covid-related costs when calculating CEO Brian Niccol’s compensation. Niccol received $38m last year, which is 2,898 times more than the company’s median worker pay of $13,127.

David Gibbs, the CEO of Yum Brands, parent company to KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, ended up with a $1.4m cash bonus and stock grant valued at more than $880,000 after the company changed his performance metrics. The bonus was over twice the $900,000 of his salary Gibbs announced he would forgo to fund one-time $1,000 bonuses to the general managers of his company’s restaurants last March. Gibbs’ 2020 compensation was $14.6m while the company’s median pay was $11,377, according to the report.

US millionaire CEOs saw 29% pay raise while workers’ pay decreased – report | Executive pay and bonuses | The Guardian