Nationwide strikes and rallies against pension reform have caused major traffic disruptions and paralysed oil refineries and universities in France, after trade unions called for the country to be brought “to a halt.”

As the latest wave of protests against the government’s plan to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62 entered their sixth day, trade unions announced that “more than two million people” would take part in rallies on Tuesday. For comparison, on January 31, the biggest day of demonstrations so far, some 1.27 million took part, according to official figures.

Marches started in the early morning across the country, with crowds blocking major higher education establishments including Rennes II University and Lyon II University, according to footage on social media and local media reports.

Protesters erected barricades in front of a bus depot in La Roche-sur-Yon, a city in western France. Students also blocked a bus depot at Saint-Denis Pleyel, near Paris, before being pushed back by security forces.

At least 100 people blocked the RN 24 highway connecting Rennes and Lorient in western France, according to student organization Le Poing Leve (The Raised Fist). The group claimed the police used tear gas to disperse the gatherings.

The trade union organization CGT-Chimie said fuel shipments had been blocked at the exits of “all refineries.” The management of oil major TotalEnergies confirmed to AFP that it had been affected, but said there was “no shortage of fuel” at its stations.

Trade unions have also warned of strikes on public transport. On Monday SNCF, France’s national state-owned railway operator, and RATP, the transport operator in Paris, confirmed that the movement of trains in France would be “very severely disrupted,” while metro operations would also be disrupted.

Meanwhile, the French General Directorate of Civil Aviation has requested that airlines reduce scheduled flights by 20% and 30% at Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports in Paris, respectively.

Unrest against pension reform has been escalating for several weeks now. While French President Emmanuel Macron has described the initiative as “essential” due to projected deficits in the pension system over the next 25 years, it has proved deeply unpopular among the public, with almost 60% opposing the reform, according to an Elabe poll.

RT 7\3\23

Dave C.

Global progress on women’s rights is “vanishing before our eyes”, the secretary general of the UN, António Guterres, has warned.

The goal of gender equality will take another three centuries to achieve.

“Women’s rights are being abused, threatened and violated around the world,” he added, as he ticked off a litany of crises: maternal mortality, girls ousted from school, caregivers denied work and children forced into early marriage.

He stressed that “in many places, women’s sexual and reproductive rights are being rolled back [and] in some countries girls going to school risk kidnapping and assault”.

“Centuries of patriarchy, discrimination and harmful stereotypes have created a huge gender gap in science and technology,” Guterres said, citing as an example how women represent only 3% of Nobel prize winners in those sectors.

Gender equality still ‘300 years away’, says UN secretary general | Women’s rights and gender equality | The Guardian

The watchdog Accountable.US revealed that the biggest oil companies operating in the United States raked in a collective $290 billion in profits last year while they “consistently prioritized shareholder returns over alleviating the pressure of high energy prices.”

According to the report—which analyzed 26 oil companies doing business in the U.S.—the $290 billion in collective 2022 Big Oil profits marked a 126% increase from the previous year. Fossil Fuel giants including BP, Shell, and Chevron more than doubled their net income in 2022, while smaller players like Murphy Oil And Southwestern Energy saw respective increases of 1,410% and 7,496%.

“With $290 billion in profits, Big Oil made enough money in 2022 to end world hunger, pay off U.S. medical debt…but instead used their record profits to shower $163 billion on shareholders with plans to give even more in 2023,” Accountable.US said.

 The industry spent over $163 billion on stock buybacks and dividends. Even as Big Oil executives complain about supposedly lower-than-desired margins in 2023, oil and gas companies have already publicly announced plans to buy at least $160 billion in stock backs starting this year to enrich their wealthy shareholders further.

“Despite the industry’s bald-faced lies, Big Oil’s never-ending greed was the central force driving the industry’s obscene price gouging,” said Accountable.US director of energy and environment Jordan Schreiber.

Analysis Shows Major US Oil Companies Raked in $290 Billion in Profits Last Year (commondreams.org)

 A growing number of British pubs are closing down due to rising energy bills and inflation, data published by accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young has shown.

According to the report, 512 pub and bar companies collapsed in the UK last year amid the cost-of-living crisis, up from 280 in 2021. The firm says the number of such insolvencies jumped as much as 83% in 2022.

“The cost-of-living crisis, including interest rate rises, has impacted consumer habits, making them less likely to spend on ‘non-essentials’, including a drink or a meal at a pub. Rail strikes have also prevented many customers from travelling to pubs in town or city centres,” the report’s authors state.

Inflation is driving up costs that pubs themselves have to pay for beer and food supplies, the findings show. As many of the establishments have little to no savings or capacity to borrow following the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, more of them are being forced to close their doors.

“This is a particularly difficult period for pub and bar owners, who find they need to spend more and more while earning less and less. Following an extended period of lost revenues during the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis has been the final nail in the coffin for many,” said Peter Kubik, one of the analysts behind the report.

The news comes after the British government announced plans to slash the aid it provides to businesses and public sector organizations for the payment of energy bills.

The current Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which was introduced in September last year, has reportedly provided £18 billion ($22 billion) to businesses to help with soaring energy costs. However, the scheme comes to an end in March, and a new support package will reportedly see funding reduced to £5.5 billion ($6.7 billion).

“The spiralling cost of energy has been our members’ number one concern for close to a year now and remains so… As this data demonstrates, there is no doubt that energy costs are causing businesses to fail – people simply cannot afford to make ends meet and are left with no choice but to shut up shop, meaning a community loses its pub or brewery, and the jobs and livelihoods that go with it, for good,” Emma McClarkin, CEO of the British Beer and Pub Association, told news outlet City A.M.

Britain’s hospitality sector could lose thousands of jobs amid soaring energy costs, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has warned, as it called on the government to extend a lifeline for the industry.

According to a BBPA report on Wednesday, citing data from Oxford Economics, a further 2,000 pubs are at risk of closure, threatening 25,000 jobs. The research suggested that on-trade beer sales will decline by 9% in 2023-2024, which equates to 1 million fewer barrels of beer sold, or 288 million pints.

“The BBPA is calling on the government to use the Spring Budget to show it understands just how much pubs and breweries mean to their communities, and the pressures the sector is facing, and deliver a plan for sustainable growth with fair, modernized tax rates and a focus on skills and training needed to ensure pubs and breweries can thrive,” the association stated.

It also called on the chancellor to freeze duty rates, implement a significant increase in the discount for draft beer sold in pubs, and introduce the previously announced reduced rate for lower-strength beers from August 1.

In September 2022, the British government introduced the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which has reportedly provided £18 billion ($22 billion) to businesses to help with soaring energy costs. However, the plan is due to come to an end in March, and a new support package will reportedly see funding reduced to £5.5 billion ($6.5 billion).

“After almost three years of extremely tough trading conditions due to lockdowns, an energy crisis, supply chain disruptions and more, now is a make-or-break moment to save our locals and breweries from failure now in the years to come, we need the government to act now or risk losing something very special forever,” said the BBPA’s chief executive, Emma McClarkin.

RT Feb\Mar 23

Dave C.

 The number of children afflicted by food poverty in the UK nearly doubled in January from a year ago, The Guardian has reported, citing a survey by the think tank Food Foundation.

According to the findings, 22% of households polled reported either skipping meals or not eating for a whole day last month. In January 2022, the figure stood at only 12%. The overall number of British children suffering from a lack of food has now reached almost 4 million, data showed.

The alarming trend comes as the country suffers from record-high food inflation, spurred by soaring energy costs. The indicator now stands at 17.1%, according to the latest figures released by market researcher Kantar earlier this week, with milk, eggs, and margarine showing the fastest price growth. The cost-of-living crisis is further exacerbated by the government’s recent decision to cut back support for household energy bills.

The public is now urging the British authorities to expand free school meals across the country. A separate survey by the Food Foundation found that 80% of respondents were in favor of making all British children eligible for free meals in school. Currently, only households with an annual income under £7,400 qualify for free meals, leaving some 800,000 children living in poverty but ineligible for the benefit, according to Child Poverty Action Group.

“By extending free school meals to more children in England in the next budget, the government could deliver a policy change that is popular with voters, targeted and timely, and truly delivers on levelling up,” Anna Taylor, the CEO of Food Foundation, said, commenting on the findings.

According to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, free school meals could save families about £440 per child annually. Earlier this month, he announced that London schools would offer free meals to all primary school pupils for a year starting in September.

RT 5\3\23

Dave C.

 Millions of Yemenis require humanitarian assistance as the country continues to suffer from the fallout of a prolonged civil war.

 At a high-level UN event, global donors pledged US$1.2 billion in aid operations to Yemen in 2023.  The amount pledged remains well below the organisation’s target of US$4.3 billion. The UN missed its financing target for Yemen by US$2 billion last year.

Yemen’s inflation is up to 45 percent. Elsewhere, food prices surged by 58 percent. In 2022.

13 million people in Yemen relied on the UN’s World Food Program for basic staples. 

To date, the conflict has killed more than 375,000 people, sixty percent from indirect causes (mainly from malnutrition and disease). 

The war has also damaged the country’s civilian and physical infrastructure, including its oil sector – Yemen’s only source of foreign exchange.

Yemen continues to rely on foreign aid. “More than 21 million people, or two-thirds of the country’s population, will need humanitarian assistance in 2023,” said UN secretary-general António Guterres. He warned that aid funding would not provide a panacea for Yemen. “Humanitarian assistance is a band-aid. It saves people’s lives but cannot resolve the conflict itself.”

Among those in need, more than 17 million are understood to be living below Yemen’s poverty line. Meanwhile, an estimated 4.5 million Yemenis are internally displaced, largely due to climate-change-related events.

According to the UN, Yemen is “highly vulnerable” to the effects of rising global temperatures (notably arid weather). In recent years, severe droughts have exacerbated food shortages caused by the war.

UN Falls Short of Aid Pledge to Yemen Despite Peace Efforts | Inter Press Service (ipsnews.net)

 United Nations chief Antonio Guterres in his speech on the opening day of the UN’s Least Developed Countries (LDC) summit in Qatar on Saturday, Guterres said that wealthy nations should provide $500bn annually to help others “trapped in vicious cycles” that block their efforts to boost economies and improve health and education.

“We are perfectly aware of the inequities created by our unfair global economic and financial system…Fossil fuel giants are raking in huge profits, while millions in your countries cannot put food on the table.”

He said, “Our global financial system was designed by wealthy countries, largely to their benefit. Deprived of liquidity, many of you are locked out of capital markets by predatory interest rates”  adding, poorer states were trapped in a “perfect storm for perpetuating poverty and injustice.”

Guterres said LDCs required a “minimum” $500bn a year to help overcome their problems, build up job-creating industries and repay debts. Richer countries have also promised, but failed, to produce hundreds of billions of dollars to help poorer states battle climate change. Guterres said the UN would “keep pushing for the resources already promised”.

UN chief condemns rich countries’ ‘vicious’ tactics against poor | News | Al Jazeera

 “

The division of society into a small over-rich class and a large propertyless working-class, causes this society to suffocate in its own surplus, while the great mass of its members is scarcely, or, indeed, not at all, protected from extreme want. Such a condition of things becomes daily more absurd and unnecessary. It can be abolished; it must be abolished.” – Engels

Capitalism is a tale of misery, exploitation, oppression, barbarity, cruelty and repression. Yet a tiny minority live in luxury. Capitalism needs to be overthrown. We need a socialist world. And that is only possible by organising many millions of working people around genuine socialist ideas and fighting relentlessly for our interest as a class. The only solution is for the workers to abolish capitalism by taking control of the means of production and ending the sale of labour power. Capitalism dehumanises people and turns them into robots. Capitalism maintains its profits on the basis of lowering and worsening the standards of the workers. The problem is not a crisis of natural scarcity or shortage. The capacity of producing wealth is greater than ever.

Reformers of capitalism urge that if only the capitalists would pay higher wages to the workers, enabling them to buy more of what they produce, there would be no crisis. This is utopian nonsense, which ignores the inevitable laws of capitalism — the drive for profits, and the drive of competition. The drive of capitalism is always to increase its profits by every possible means, to increase its surplus, not to decrease it. Individual capitalists may talk of the “gospel of high wages” in the hope of securing a larger market for their goods. But the actual drive of capitalism as a whole is the opposite. The force of competition compels every capitalist to cheapen the costs of production, to extract more output per worker for less return, to cut wages. Capitalism has no solution. any attempt to organise the growing productive power to meet human needs — the question does not even enter into their heads; it cannot arise within the conditions of capitalism.

 Only socialism can end the bonds of capitalist property rights and organise production to meet human needs. Once capitalism is overthrown, then and only then can production be organised in common for all, and every increase in production brings increasing abundance and leisure for all. This is the aim of the socialist revolution.

Only the socialist revolution can cut the bonds of capitalism and break the tangle of anarchic private property rights, conflicting interests and disorganisation that fetter production.

Without political power, no change. But what do we mean by “power”? Do we mean simply a change of government?

No. What is in question is not simply a change of government on top, but a change of class power; since our purpose, is not simply to carry through one or two legislative measures, but to change the whole class-nature of existing society. The capitalists own the means of production; the mass of the nation live at their mercy, depend on them for the means of life, and are in literal fact wage-slaves. To emancipate themselves, the workers of the world must abolish capitalism and establish socialism.

 At ICE facilities like Golden State Annex and Mesa Verde, work programmes, which ICE says are voluntary, pay detained people $1 per day for tasks like sanitation, laundry duty and maintenance.

Michael Childers, a professor of labour education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, testified that the company saved about $26.7m from 2011 to 2019 by using detained immigrants as labourers instead of hiring outside workers, whom they would have had to compensate with higher wages.

Andrew Free, a former immigration lawyer, told Al Jazeera that an “atmosphere of deprivation” is common in the company’s facilities, creating conditions where detainees feel pressured to work.

He explained, “If your daily meals don’t have enough nutrition or are of very poor quality, you have to buy food from the commissary to have a full diet,” he said. “The choice to work for $1 a day or face deprivation of basic necessities is not truly voluntary.”

The use of jailed workers to perform tasks such as maintenance and sanitation is common throughout the US criminal justice system, and social justice advocates have portrayed the practice as exploitative. Law enforcement organisations argue that imprisoned labourers are an economic boon to the state.

“Until I drop.” That’s how long 22-year-old Cruz Martinez says he is committed to carrying out his hunger strike against the conditions at immigration detention centres in the United States. “GEO is a billion-dollar company, and they’re paying us $1 a day,” he said. “They’re getting rich off of us.”

‘Slavery wages’ prompt hunger strike at ICE detention facilities | Prison News | Al Jazeera

 India is projected to become the most populous country in the world. India’s population has grown by a billion in the past 70 years

India’s fertility rate has dropped from an average of six children per woman in 1964 to 2.1 children per woman in 2020, according to UN data. That’s marginally below the replacement rate of 2.2 — i.e., the required number of births per woman to maintain a population. Improvements in health care and increasing life expectancy are likely to continue the momentum of population rise for a few more decades, according to experts.

It is predicted that India’s population will slowly grow to 1.7 billion by 2064 but then fall drastically. The US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has predicted that India’s population could fall back to around 1 billion by the end of the century.

Indian developmental economist Jean Dreze told DW, “What I’m saying is that I don’t see a population crisis. India has been a large country all this time and nevertheless, the economy is growing, and it is able to improve people’s living conditions, albeit slowly. And population growth is not going to continue much longer.”

The economist pointed out that the dependency ratio of children and elderly who don’t earn on those who do, had dropped drastically over the past decades.

“Having a large population is one thing but for that to be advantageous, we need to focus on the quality of the population,” Dreze said.

However, the majority of India’s population growth comes from rural and underprivileged areas around the Ganges basin, while the rise in income comes from the urban population. Inequality is on the rise. Moreover, a significant chunk of India is malnourished, unskilled and marginalized — and hence unable to meaningfully contribute to the nation’s development. The employment rate has been steadily declining since 2005. Per capita income — while rising — is still among the lowest in all of G20 countries.

Over 70% of India’s population cannot afford a healthy diet as of 2020 despite the fact that the cost of food remains relatively low by comparison to other countries.

How healthy are India’s 1.4 billion people? – DW – 03/04/2023