The US legal system has effectively allowed one of the country’s richest families to buy its way out of accountability for what a White House commission called “America’s national nightmare” of mass opioid addiction. Big money has a powerful and malign influence on many aspects of American life.

A New York bankruptcy court approved a deal for the dissolution of the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, which kicked off the opioid epidemic two decades ago with its illegal drive to sell a high-strength painkiller, OxyContin. Purdue’s owners, members of two branches of the now-notorious Sackler family, are estimated to have made more than $10bn from the drug – even as the opioid crisis claimed more than 600,000 lives, with the toll climbing higher by the year.

 The Sacklers in return for handing over only a small fraction of the money they made from OxyContin still remain one of the richest families in the country, while continuing to deny their responsibility for their role in creating the opioid crisis.

Purdue Pharma’s reputation is little better than that of a Mexican cartel. The company has twice pleaded guilty to felonies, in 2007 and last year, including lying about the risk of addiction from OxyContin, bribing doctors to prescribe it and defrauding the federal government. But that barely scratches the surface of the company’s corruption in pursuit of profit: it used its money and influence to warp the practice of medicine, compromise drug regulators and keep open the doors to mass prescribing of opioids even as evidence of an epidemic grew.

Several members of the Sackler family served on the company’s board and as senior executives, and some were directly involved in the drive to push OxyContin on unsuspecting Americans. And they happily creamed off the profits. Dr Richard Sackler, a former president and chairman of Purdue Pharma, was instrumental in persuading the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve OxyContin on the false grounds that it was less addictive than other prescription opioids. He then promised that “a blizzard of prescriptions” for the drug would bury the competition. When Sackler was asked at the bankruptcy hearing whether he, his family or his firm bore any responsibility for the opioid epidemic, he simply replied: “No”.

 Yet the bankruptcy process has granted them sweeping immunity from further civil lawsuits over the opioid crisis without acknowledgment of wrongdoing. In fact, in exchange for a payment of $4.5bn, less than half of their earnings from Purdue, the Sacklers as individuals won’t have to declare personal bankruptcy.

Georgetown university law professor, Adam Levitin, told Congress in July, the Sacklers have worked the system so that they “will actually emerge from Purdue’s bankruptcy richer than they went into it” because the payments will be spread over nearly a decade during which the family’s assets are likely to grow by more than $4.5bn.

 The agreement deprives those victimised by the Sacklers, who oversaw and profited from Purdue Pharma’s criminal behaviour, of their right to a day in court. Other critics of the decision have wondered how a bankruptcy court can grant legal immunity to people who have not declared bankruptcy.

But that is the practice that has evolved under laws, many written under the influence of corporations, that enable businesses to in effect hand-pick the judges who will handle their bankruptcy cases. The US has 375 bankruptcy judges but, as Levitin told Congress, just three oversaw the majority of cases filed by large companies last year. Purdue Pharma chose to file with one of those three, Judge Robert Drain, to decide the conditions of its bankruptcy. Although Purdue is based in Connecticut, it filed for bankruptcy in White Plains, New York, where Drain is the only bankruptcy judge. It’s unlikely to have gone unnoticed by the Sacklers’ lawyers that Drain had an unusual record of staying lawsuits against third parties who have not filed for bankruptcy.

 of Drain’s first steps was to block efforts to sue individual members of the Sackler family, even though they were separate from the Purdue bankruptcy case. Then he permitted the Sacklers to effectively hold the plaintiffs hostage by offering a stark choice between settling for a cut of the profits of misery in return for wiping the legal slate clean or facing years of court battles. States, municipalities and families desperate for money to cope with the huge social consequences of the epidemic were left with little choice but to agree, although many expressed their distaste.

Washington state’s attorney general, Bob Ferguson, called the plan “morally and legally bankrupt”. Sackler and other members of his family have spent their time smearing the victims. They have claimed that OxyContin was a legal drug used illegally and that responsibility, therefore, falls on the “criminal addicts” who overdosed. As evidence of a crisis grew and doctors witnessing the devastation sounded warnings, the din of corporate money drowned them out. The quarter of a billion dollars a year the drug industry spends on lobbying bought the complicity of politicians, influenced regulators, weakened investigations by the justice department and stalled action by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Purdue used its political muscle to head off even more serious criminal charges and to keep its executives out of prison.

 No other country has experienced the same scale of opioid addiction and death, in part because corporations in other countries do not wield the same influence over the practice and regulation of medicine. Neither did Purdue act alone in this crisis. Drug distributors and pharmacies jumped on the bandwagon. Other opioid manufacturers, such as Johnson & Johnson, raked in the profits of narcotic painkiller addiction.  The drug industry kept the doors to mass prescribing of opioids open for years not because they were an effective way to treat pain but because they were hugely profitable. Those same firms are now increasingly agreeing to payouts to head off a torrent of lawsuits – but it’s hard to conclude that they regard it as anything more than the cost of doing business. Not least because, like the members of the Sackler family behind Purdue, none of them admits to having done anything wrong.

Opioids have killed 600,000 Americans. The Sacklers just got off basically scot-free | Chris McGreal | The Guardian

 Leading European banks are booking around €20bn (£17bn) a year – equivalent to 14% of their total profits – in tax havens, with Barclays, HSBC and NatWest Group among those enjoying the lowest tax rates, according to an analysis, conducted by the EU Tax Observatory, of 36 big banks required to publicly report country-by-country data on their activities.

Banks said to enjoy a particularly low effective tax rate on their profits, of less than 15%, including Barclays, HSBC and NatWest.

The use of tax havens by banks is seen by many activists as particularly egregious since more than €1.5tn in taxpayer money was used to rescue ailing banks in Europe after the 2008 financial crisis.

Tax systems around the world have been increasingly left behind in recent years by the shifting of profits by large multinationals. Tax abuse by multinationals and avoidance by rich individuals is said by the Tax Justice Network campaign group to cost nations $427bn a year in lost revenues. The percentage of profits booked in tax havens has not changed over the last seven years despite hopes that country-by-country reporting introduced in 2014 would lead to a shift in practice.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 130 countries, representing more than 90% of global GDP, backed a global minimum tax rate on multinationals of 15% last July, after an initial attempt by US president Joe Biden to secure agreement on a 21% rate. Parallel measures to limit the shifting of profits into tax havens by the world’s 100 largest companies were proposed by Biden and are now under discussion at the OECD. The proposed treaty would give governments in the countries where multinationals have headquartered the right to apply a top-up levy to ensure the full global minimum rate is paid on all income.

However, reports suggest the list of 100 companies is likely to exclude banks after lobbying by the City of London and other international financial centres.

The research names 17 countries and territories as havens for the purposes of the study: Bahamas, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Macao, Malta, Mauritius, Panama, and Qatar. Of those territories, the highest tax rate is found in Luxembourg (15%), while Bermuda, Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands have a zero rate.

European banks storing €20bn a year in tax havens | Tax and spending | The Guardian

 Europe’s 25 largest banks are still failing to present comprehensive plans that address both the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, putting their sustainability pledges in doubt, research by investment campaign group ShareAction has found. It said none of the banks it reviewed were taking action across all key areas.

These are: biodiversity; exposure to high-carbon sectors; policies restricting services to sectors such as oil and gas; and linking executive pay to progress on climate issues.

Europe’s top 25 banks failing on green pledges, campaigners warn | Corporate governance | The Guardian

https://wigandiggersfestival.org/

Manchester Branch will have a stall at the Wigan Diggers Festival on Sat 11 September, starting at 11am

The festival takes place at The Wiend in the centre of Wigan. 

There’s music, food and beer, as well as political etc stalls.

 In the past, it’s generally been an enjoyable event, as well as a good way to spread socialist ideas

Comrades should feel free to come along any time during the day.

 The wealthy countries’ deals with vaccine manufacturers have limited the vaccines available to COVAX and led to vaccine hoarding.

Wealthy countries could potentially have a surplus of more than one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses available by the end of the year that is not designated as donations to poorer nations, according to a new analysis

Vaccine stock in Western countries has reached 500 million doses this month, with 360 million not earmarked for donations, according to new research by data analytics firm Airfinity. By the end of the year, these countries will have a potential of 1.2 billion surplus vaccine shots, with the overwhelming majority – 1.06 billion – not marked for donations, it said.

World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters he was “really disappointed” with the scope of vaccine donations worldwide as many countries struggle to provide first and second doses to more than small fractions of their populations, while wealthier nations maintain growing vaccine stockpiles. Ghebreyesus went on to say that of the 4.8 billion vaccine doses delivered globally, 75 percent have gone to only 10 countries – while vaccine coverage in Africa is at less than two percent.

John Nkengasong, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), who described the vaccine rollout on the continent as a “total disappointment“.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused rich countries of committing a “moral outrage” by stockpiling COVID-19 doses while poor countries were struggling to get supplies.

“We are in a new ‘arms’ race – to get vaccines into people as quickly as possible – but this is an arms race where the West have a stranglehold on the vaccine supplies,” Brown said.

Rich countries to have 1.2bn surplus COVID vaccine doses | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

Contrary to the entry in Wikipedia,  the World Socialist Party of New Zealand (WSPNZ) has not yet disappeared. As it is often said, the news of the demise is premature. 

Four ageing members remain and are striving to keep alive the tradition of Impossiblism which when it developed included many socialist luminaries such as Marx’s son-in-law, Paul Lafargue.

However, as things stand, with so few members, the odds are not favourable for its survival into the future. But also, as they say, while there is still breath, not all is lost and perhaps there can be a revival of a socialist organisation.

Formerly known as the Socialist Party of New Zealand and founded in 1930 although its roots go well back to the dawn of socialist ideas in these islands, the WSPNZ clings to existence in the age of the internet. A new website still at the design stage promises to be the gateway for the revival of its socialist ideas that are held to be unique and that are surprisingly modern in content despite their long history.

At one time, the WSPNZ did possess a presence and hold a certain amount of sway within New Zealand’s workers’ movement. A number of its members were significantly active within the trade unions. There were socialist stalwarts such as Ron Everson, a militant organiser in the great waterfront lockout and bitter strike of 1951.

It is perhaps true to think that politics is a young person’s game, full of idealism and hope for the future, but we witness from Noam Chomsky and Bernie Sanders that the wisdom of years should not be so easily dismissed. The WSPNZ has acquired the collective knowledge of decades of analysis. Its principles have withstood the test of time and circumstances and are held to remain valid to this day, despite all the claims to the contrary and all the efforts to refute its ideas. 

Can it rebuild?

The WSPNZ expresses a unique political position and presents interpretations of Marxism, rarely heard these days since the rise and domination of the left-wing reformist and Bolshevik parties.

Although with just four members and appealing for new people to join, not every applicant will be accepted for membership, only those who understand and wish to seek socialism and only socialism. And there is a test, albeit a rudimentary basic one, not demanding an academic’s knowledge of Marxist theory, to ensure that only committed and confirmed socialists join.

 In fact, when the WSPNZ was previously in a position to stand candidates and contest elections they insisted that they did not want the votes from those who were not in agreement with their goal of socialism and it would decline to present a platform of palliative reforms to attract voters. Now, when it could no longer offer its alternative the WSPNZ does not promote a vote for the lesser evil but advocates a spoilt ballot paper

The WSPNZ’s principled position differs, fundamentally, from every other political party, because it takes the attitude that it is necessary for the working people to understand the world they lived in. Fellow workers are faced with the problems of poverty and insecurity and can not remove these problems until it understands the cause of them. Unfortunately,  the overwhelming majority of the workers do not comprehend the capitalist system of society in which we live, and in which we are exploited. While our fellow workers continue to lack knowledge of the nature of the wages system, they will be forced to engage in never-ending struggles which merely maintain their subject status as wage-slaves.  

 But when that situation changes, they will act collectively and in unison to capture political control of Parliament. Those on the left who denounce Parliament as useless should note it controls the forces of repression, the coercive power of the armed forces and police which means any undemocratic defiance is suicidal and doomed to failure. Once in Parliament socialist delegates would be the instrument of a class conscious and informed socialist working class so there is no requirement for the role of any leadership.

As indicated by the adoption of “World” to its name the WSPNZ is a committed to the concept of world socialism being a constituent part of the World Socialist Movement (an aspiration for the time being and sadly not the reality) for the common ownership and of the means of production, opposing the various command economies of nationalisation of labour parties or the state-ownership of the former Soviet Union. The aim of the WSPNZ is the end of the private property exchange economy and all that goes with it such as buying and selling, prices and wages and money itself.

 Some New Zealanders may now recognise a similarity with the Zeitgeist Movement and the Money Free Party who are now relatively active in New Zealand although they have discarded the language of Marx to appeal to more people. The last of the WSPNZ stay true to the party’s origins. 

Wikipedia obituary of the WSPNZ may well prove right in the course of time but as long as one WSPNZ member lives,  the goal of convincing others to take up and carry the baton of world socialism has not died.

 Contact moggiegrayson@gmail.com to keep the World Socialist Party alive

The history of the SPNZ and later the WSPNZ can be read at this link

https://www.worldsocialism.org/nz/auckland/hist.htm

  4 billion people around the world lack social protection, a new International Labour Organization (ILO) report, World Social Protection Report 2020-22: Social protection at the crossroads says.

Social protection includes access to health care and income security, particularly in relation to old age, unemployment, sickness, disability, work injury, maternity or loss of a main income earner, as well as for families with children.

 There exists a  widening gap between countries with high and low-income levels and failing to afford the much-needed social protection that all human beings deserve.

ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, explained, These can cushion people from future crises and give workers and businesses the security to tackle the multiple transitions ahead with confidence and with hope. We must recognize that effective and comprehensive social protection is not just essential for social justice and decent work but for creating a sustainable and resilient future too.”

Currently, only 47 per cent of the global population are effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit, while 4.1 billion people (53 per cent) obtain no income security at all from their national social protection system. There are significant regional inequalities in social protection. Europe and Central Asia have the highest rates of coverage, with 84 per cent of people being covered by at least one benefit. The Americas are also above the global average, with 64.3 per cent. Asia and the Pacific (44 per cent), the Arab States (40 per cent) and Africa (17.4 per cent) have marked coverage gaps.

 Worldwide, the vast majority of children still have no effective social protection coverage – only one in four children (26.4 per cent) receives a social protection benefit. Only 45 per cent of women with newborns worldwide receive a cash maternity benefit. Only one in three persons with severe disabilities (33.5 per cent) worldwide receive a disability benefit. Coverage of unemployment benefits is even lower; only 18.6 per cent of unemployed workers worldwide are effectively covered. And while 77.5 per cent of people above retirement age receive some form of old-age pension, major disparities remain across regions, between rural and urban areas, and between women and men.

Government spending on social protection also varies significantly. On average, countries spend 12.8 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on social protection (excluding health), however high-income countries spend 16.4 per cent and low-income countries only 1.1 per cent of their GDP on social protection.

To guarantee at least basic social protection coverage, low-income countries would need to invest an additional US$77.9 billion per year, lower-middle-income countries an additional US$362.9 billion per year and upper-middle-income countries a further US$750.8 billion per year. That’s equivalent to 15.9, 5.1 and 3.1 per cent of their GDP, respectively.

More than 4 billion people still lack any social protection, ILO report finds – World | ReliefWeb

 On September 6,  Labor Day, around 35 million people (10% of the U.S. population) are scheduled to lose unemployment income. 9.2 million people are currently receiving benefits from either the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program or the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. According to the Census Household Pulse Survey, the average household that is receiving UI benefits has 3.8 members in it.

Around half of those on UI will see their benefits drop to $0 while the remaining half will see their benefits cut by $300 per week, which is equivalent to $15,200 per year. 

Those formerly on UI will also cut their spending by about $145 per week ($7,540 annually), which will have negative effects on the revenue and employment of the businesses they patronize.

 Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that President Joe Biden believes it is “appropriate” for the $300-per-week federal UI boost to expire as scheduled. Twenty-six states—each led by a Republican governor except Louisiana—have already ended the emergency UI aid, and the Biden administration did not try to stop them.

Republicans have insisted that the emergency UI programs are dissuading people from returning to the workforce. Contrary to the claims — ending the benefits prematurely would do little to boost hiring. A Wall Street Journal analysis found that “states that ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early have so far seen about the same job growth as states that continued offering the pandemic-related extra aid.”

 The benefit cut-off will come just days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden administration’s nationwide eviction moratorium, putting millions of people at imminent risk of losing their homes.

“It’s going to be a perfect storm for a lot of folks,” Jordan Dewbre, a staff attorney for the New York-based community organization BronxWorks.

Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, explained, “The unwillingness to extend emergency benefits—or even debate it—shows how inured we’ve become to plight of the unemployed. With eviction protections ending at the same time, long-term unemployed workers are now vulnerable to lasting economic damage. Black and Latino workers have the least in savings built up to navigate this transitional period.”

‘Catastrophe’ Feared as 35 Million People Are Set to Lose Jobless Aid in 3 Days | Common Dreams News

Desertification is a growing problem. The threat of desertification and land degradation will increase as the climate crisis progresses. A 2018 report found that land degradation already affects the well-being of at least 3.2 billion people – more than a third of humanity. Rising temperatures are already predicted to reduce yields of staple crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soya beans. According to a 2015 UN report we are on track to degrade another third of global farmland over the course of the present century.

How we treat the land – how we farm and ranch – matters too. Healthy, life-filled soils better retain the moisture that falls on farmers’ fields. How farmers treat their soil remains essentially unregulated in regard to soil health.

 Farming practices that degrade the soil reduce the resilience of crops as worsening conditions affect harvests. Drylands in particular are sensitive to degradation from both tillage and overgrazing. If it continues, soil degradation will further increase the threat to agricultural production in regions that humanity depends on for food.

It’s clear that desertification and soil degradation are not new problems. Both Marx and Engels drew attention to how the adoption of capitalist farming practices depletes soil organic matter and disrupt soil ecosystems, leaving farmers around the world increasingly reliant on huge amounts of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. 

We need to reorient agriculture around farming and grazing practices that regenerate soil health.

Desertification is turning the Earth barren – but a solution is still within reach | David R Montgomery | The Guardian

In their writings Marx and Engels understood the necessity of retaining the fecundity of the land from the studies of biologist Justus von Liebig.

 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Congress meets every four years to tackle the most pressing issues impacting people and the planet.

This year it will convene in Marseille, France from 3rd to 11th September. This important conservation event will address global deforestation and in particular, will discuss Congress motion 012 – the fight against imported deforestation.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates global forest areas declined by 129 million hectares between 1990-2015, equivalent in size to South Africa.

Data from satellite imagery released on Global Forest Watch in June 2020 recorded 3.75 million hectares of tree cover loss in humid primary forests in the tropics in 2019, an almost 3% increase from 2018 and the third-largest tropical forest loss since 2000. 

Congress motion 012 calls on countries to stop imported deforestation through several ambitious strategies, including imposing additional taxes on imported products that generate deforestation. The aim is to recommend that private companies establish concrete action plans to guarantee supplies that did not result in deforestation.

Deforestation, a significant threat to biodiversity and climate change, is accelerated by global demand for commodities. However, a considerable share of this agro-commodity production is intended for export – driving massive deforestation.

Consumption patterns of G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, and the US) drive an average loss of 3.9 trees per person per year, over 15 years from 2001-2015, says a study published this year in Nature. More than 50% of global forest loss and land conversion is attributable to the production of agricultural commodities, and forestry products are driven by consumer demand, as shown by a 2020 WWF study on Switzerland’s overseas footprint for forest-risk commodities.

The list of imported agricultural products contains, first and foremost, soy, palm oil, cacao, beef and its by-products, rubber, timber, and derived products that do not come from sustainably managed forests. Others include coffee, tea, or even cane 

“…we are now at the point where significant and permanent changes to consumption patterns and legislative regulation can no longer be delayed,” said David Williams-Mitchell, Director of Communications, European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). He cited examples of a hugely expanded meat industry leading to increases in greenhouse gases, carbon sink capacity loss, and biodiversity loss through habitat conversion.

In 2017 alone, the international trade of agricultural products was associated with 1.3 million hectares of tropical deforestation emitting some 740 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – this is equivalent to nearly a fifth of the EU28’s total greenhouse gas emissions that year.

To end deforestation, companies must eliminate 5 million hectares of conversion from supply chains each year.

“We need countries all over the world to participate in the fight against imported deforestation. We need to learn to use local resources and establish sustainable sources for exported products, especially without harming the forests,” says Jean-Pascal Guéry of Primate Conservation Trust, a co-sponsor Congress motion 012.

The world’s forests absorb 2.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, one-third of the annual CO2 released from burning fossil fuels. Forest destruction emits further carbon into the atmosphere, with 4.3–5.5 gigatons of total anthropogenic Green House Gas (GHG) emissions per year, generated annually mainly from deforestation and forest degradation, according to Cameroon-based NGO Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF). ERuDeF, also a co-sponsor of Congress motion 012, estimates that half of the tropical forests worldwide have been destroyed since the 1960s. Every second, more than one hectare of tropical forest is destroyed or drastically degraded.

WWF mentions that despite more initiatives to halt deforestation, including certification, corporate commitments, and market incentives, the rate of commodity-driven land use doesn’t appear to be declining. This means the negative impacts on local people and nature continue.

In a study earlier this year, Greenpeace said that “certification is a weak tool to address global forest and ecosystem destruction”

By certifying their products as ‘sustainable,’ some certification schemes can help guide consumption choices and have a positive impact locally, “but it is (largely) greenwashing destruction of ecosystems and violations of Indigenous and labour rights.” So, while buyers think they are making the right ethical choice, they might still buy products linked to abuse and destruction.

Ranece Jovial Ndjeudja, Greenpeace Africa’s campaign manager in Cameroon, told IPS, “the limitations to the policy effectiveness for the IUCN Congress motion on imported deforestation is increased taxation aimed at deterring forest clearing. This, however, cannot always prevent deforestation.”

“Companies would just increase production to compensate for the tax hikes,” Ndjeudja said, speaking from Yaoundé, where Cameroonians rallied in early August to demand EU stop deforestation for rubber production.

“It is industrial logging and industrial agriculture which is the problem. Are these industrial productions really bringing in a large revenue to the exporting governments? No. If it did, Cameroon and Congo would not be so poor. A small group gets rich. While Cameroon’s natives lose access to food, health, and their culture,” Tal Harris, Greenpeace Africa’s international communications coordinator, explained. “A government cannot work out of a capital city thousands of miles distant from such extensive forests,” Harris said. “Devolution of power to the local population is necessary.”

Local communities play a vital role in wildlife conservation and environment protection. Comprising less than 5 percent of the world’s population, indigenous communities protect 80 percent of global biodiversity, says ERuDeF.

Cameroon’s Ndjeaudja echoes this. To ensure trees are not cut, there is the need to work with local communities because, for generations, they have been living with forests and have the knowledge of their sustainable management.

“We have a lot to learn from them and must allow indigenous communities to share this knowledge,” he said.

IUCN Congress to Push for Stronger Regulations against ‘Imported Deforestation’ | Inter Press Service (ipsnews.net)