About 9.6 million children in Afghanistan have been unable to secure food on a daily basis  Save the Children has said.

“Every single day our front-line health workers are treating children who are wasting away in front of our eyes because they’re only eating bread once a day – and those are the lucky ones,” said Save the Children’s director of advocacy, communications and media, Athena Rayburn. “Children in Afghanistan have never known a life without conflict and if action is not taken soon, they will not know a world without gnawing hunger and empty stomachs,” 

The international NGO called for “immediate food assistance” to save lives in the short-term, adding however that aid alone was “not enough to tackle the country’s worst hunger crisis on record”.

 “Despite a significant amount of food aid reaching families in recent months, 19.7 million children and adults, almost 50 percent of the population, are still going hungry and need urgent support to survive,” said the report.

According to the report, about 20,000 people were pushed into famine during the past two to three months alone.

Millions of dollars in international aid have dried up due to the sanctions and Biden’s decision to repurpose $3.5bn in Afghan assets as compensation to the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Although 18.9 million children and adults were expected to need food aid for the latter half of this year, available funding for food aid could only provide support for 3.2 million people.

“Each day that passes without the funds needed sees more children lose their lives to preventable causes.” Rayburn added.

Nearly 10 million children going hungry in Afghanistan, says NGO | News | Al Jazeera

 More than 90% of neighborhoods in America’s major cities were unaffordable to the majority of local Black residents at the start of the pandemic, according to a new study by the National Equity Atlas on the worsening housing crisis in urban regions across the US. It compared rents and wages in the 100 most populous American metropolitan regions in 2019 and examined whether the majority of households of different racial groups made enough income to afford median market rents in their neighborhoods.

The findings paint a bleak picture of both severe racial inequality and a growing shortage of affordable housing in cities across the US. The authors found that:

Only 7% of zip codes in the top 100 metro areas had rents that were affordable to Black residents of those cities in 2019, while 69% of zip codes were affordable to white households.

Forty-eight metro areas in the list had no zip codes at all that were affordable to Black residents.

Only 16% of zip codes in the list had rents that were affordable to Latinx households.

Twelve metro areas had zero zip codes with affordable rents for Latinx households, including Los Angeles, Orlando and Miami, cities with large Latinx populations.

The majority of zip codes that were affordable for Black, Latinx and low-income households were classified as “low opportunity” neighborhoods, meaning they have long suffered from disinvestment and lack high-quality schools, clean air, parks, safe streets and good jobs, the researchers said.

“Longstanding patterns of racial segregation are deepening,” said Rasheedah Phillips, co-author of the report and director of housing at PolicyLink, “Low-income Black and brown households are being pushed out of their neighborhoods … and confined to the outskirts of what are otherwise prosperous cities.”

Ten California metro areas had no zip codes that were affordable to low-income renters or Black renters in 2019. The Riverside area, east of Los Angeles, was the only major metro region in California that had any neighborhoods affordable to low-income people. That region is one of the most polluted in the nation, and even there, only 14 zip codes were affordable in 2019, a sharp decrease from 2013.

Research in LA has repeatedly found that families are living in overcrowded homes in immigrant and Latinx neighborhoods.

“In California, incomes are not keeping up with rents, and we’re not building housing for people with low-incomes,” said Sarah Treuhaft, PolicyLink’s vice-president of research. Experts expect the crisis will only continue to grow. There are signs that the crisis has escalated since 2019, the authors noted; rents increased at sharp rates in cities across the US in 2021, and estimates show that as of April 2022, nearly 6m households were behind on rent in the US, roughly double the pre-pandemic figure.

Revealed: 93% of districts in major US cities unaffordable to Black residents | Race | The Guardian

 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has built a massive surveillance system that gives it access to the personal details of almost every person in America, a two-year investigation by Georgetown University law center in  their report, American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century has found. The Center on Privacy & Technology released one of the most comprehensive reviews of ICE activities, concluding that the federal organisation has strayed well beyond its duties as an immigration body to become what is in effect a domestic surveillance agency. 

Operating in secret and with minimal public oversight, ICE has amassed a formidable armory of digital capabilities that allows its agents to “pull detailed dossiers on nearly anyone, seemingly at any time”. The agency operates enormous banks of information stored by state and local government, utility companies, social media platforms and private data brokers. The end result is that Ice enjoys almost universal reach, with its intelligence weaponised through the use of powerful algorithmic tools for searching and analysing data. Almost all of that activity, the report points out, is done in the absence of warrants and in secret, beyond the purview of federal and state authorities.

The vast data to which Ice now has access includes:

Driver’s license data for three of every four adults living in the US

Data drawn from the utility records of 75% of adults, covering more than 218m unique utility consumers in all 50 states

Information on the movements of drivers in cities that contain 75% of the US population

Facial recognition technology drawn from the driver’s license photos of at least a third of all adults

ICE now had an unfettered ability to trace the movement of your vehicle on the roads, look up your address from your water or electricity bills, and conduct face recognition searches on your ID photos, all without needing a search warrant.

“These tactics open massive side doors around existing privacy protections, and many lawmakers still have no idea.”

Nina Wang, a policy associate at the Center on Privacy & Technology and a report author, said: “In its attempts to target an ever-growing number of people for detention and deportation, Ice has reached into the private homes and lives of almost every person in America.”

The Georgetown researchers suggest the motivation was partly to increase the number of deportations of undocumented people and partly as part of the US government’s “larger push to amass as much information as possible about all of our lives”. One of the most disturbing aspects of the Ice surveillance system is how it has been used to skirt controls introduced by cities and states and designed to protect communities from precisely these kind of intrusive searches. After many legislatures introduced so-called “sanctuary” policies that prevented police forces working with Ice agents to facilitate deportations, Ice simply sidestepped the restrictions by finding other channels through which it could acquire intelligence, including through DMVs, private data brokers and utility companies.

US immigration agency operates vast surveillance dragnet, study finds | Surveillance | The Guardian

 A warm welcome has been given to most people fleeing Ukraine for a safe haven but Roma women and children are struggling to find a similar reception. Romany refugees have hit a wall in finding a home. Romany refugees face not only a lack of support but outright discrimination, both from relief providers and fellow Ukrainian refugees. 

“They face discrimination,” says Mariam Masudi a coordinator at a refugee hostel, working for Salam Lab, an NGO. “Roma are not admitted to other reception points. No one wants to rent to them. I don’t know anyone who has managed to settle in Poland. Those who have been able to move out of the hostel have moved abroad.” 

Institutional help has not been forthcoming. Most of the relief has been coordinated by self-organised individuals and NGOs, says Joanna Talewicz-Kwiatkowska an anthropologist at the University of Warsaw, who organised the Facebook group, Poland-Roma-Ukraine at the start of the war. “We wanted to gather information about people in need of help, communicate with central organs and find people ready to host Romany refugees,” she says. “We didn’t think that all responsibility for the situation would be shifted on to us.”

“Without governmental support, we will not manage. There is no way,”  says Karol Wilczyński, director of Salam Lab.

“In the first days of the war, we saw Poles make beautiful gestures of solidarity towards refugees from Ukraine,” says Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, who is a member of Poland’s Roma. “I would have never imagined we would be here talking about discrimination or dehumanisation, but that is what we are seeing.”

According to Talewicz-Kwiatkowska, Roma have been refused access to transport and resources offered by the volunteers welcoming refugees at the border. “Roma were chased away from reception points, where it was said they were stealing clothes to later sell. We also received information that Romany families and groups were turned away from cars and buses offering transport,” she says. “Finding accommodation was another challenge, because when someone does not want to have Roma in their car, you can imagine they will not want to invite them under their own roof.”

Roma fleeing Ukraine often face discrimination from other refugees. “When they see Roma at the reception point, the other refugees loudly tell each other to hide their belongings. Roma in Ukraine are used to facing discrimination, and what they experience in Poland is the continuation of this,” Masudi says.

Nadia arrived in Lviv, she says train station staff would not allow her and her family into the boarding area reserved for women and children hoping to travel to Poland. “Ukrainian women were let in with their pets,” she says. “But they didn’t want to let me on. They didn’t believe I was a refugee from Donetsk.” Only after she showed her papers, proving she had come from the east, was she allowed to board the train. “But still, they wouldn’t give me any of the food they were giving out to refugees,” she says.

‘Meet us before you reject us’: Ukraine’s Roma refugees face closed doors in Poland | Global development | The Guardian

1.5 million households across the UK will struggle to pay food and energy bills over the next year, as rising prices and higher taxes squeeze budgets, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).

It predicts the UK will fall into recession this year.

 NIESR warned that the decision not to scrap a planned rise in National Insurance tax – are hitting the poorest households hardest.

The think tank predicted that inflation would average 7.8% in 2022 and will remain above 3% until 2024. Meanwhile, government policies are set to lower the real incomes of households in the UK, according to NIESR. It forecast a real income decline of 2.4% in 2022, accompanied by a rise in unemployment next year.

Cost of living: 1.5m UK households will struggle to pay bills – report – BBC News

Democracy can seem abstract when your ability to make changes to your community feels limited to choosing between a small number of political parties every few years. And how can any winning party really represent the needs of all 119,000 residents in Tunbridge Wells borough?

Party politics will always get in the way of local residents being able to make changes that help build a better community for all. The main parties are limited by decisions and views made centrally, and conflict between them distracts from the need to work for improvements that benefit the greatest number of people. Two councillors this year alone have resigned from their parties for failures in both local administrations and at the very top of government. Whether Liberal Democrat or Tory, it is not the party but the political system they wish to maintain which causes these issues. We must strive to create a political system that ensures all members of society are listened to and can contribute. And this must start at the very grass roots of politics, not the top.

In Tunbridge Wells, there has been a disturbing number of cases of women’s drinks being spiked in bars and clubs. This problem won’t be resolved until every woman is safe and secure while out at night. We should ask what leads some people to violent and antisocial behaviour, and aim for a culture which treats everyone with respect.

Community projects which work to safeguard and support our community never have enough funding, part of a wider problem of neglected public services which has led to problems such as the lack of NHS dental care. Capitalist society is shaped by money, with most wealth ending up with the elite and the majority left to cope with dwindling resources and high prices.

The Green Party would have you believe capitalism can be managed to mitigate the effects of industry on the environment. Locally, efforts to maintain and protect our green spaces, stop developments outside of brownfield sites, reduce traffic, and efficiently renovate properties are constrained by the economic system. The main parties merely attempt treatment of the symptoms; we propose treating the cause by advocating for a socialist society built to satisfy everyone’s needs, and those of the planet.

Shannon Kennedy, the Socialist Party candidate, Pantiles & St. Marks Ward.

 WORLD SOCIALIST MOVEMENT ONLINE MEETINGS

Sundays at 19.30 (IST) Discord

WEEKLY WSP (INDIA) MEETING

Sunday 8 May 11.00 GMT + 1 Zoom

CENTRAL BRANCH MEETING

Anyone wishing to join in should contact: spgb.cbs@worldsocialism.org to arrange an invite

Friday 13 May 19.30 GMT +1 Discord

TBA

Sunday 29 May 11.00 GMT + 1 Discord

ASIA LIVE MONTHLY DISCUSSION MEETING

SOCIALIST PARTY IN-PERSON MEETINGS

Saturday 7 May 3pm to 9pm

RED & BLACK CLYDESIDE

The Clubroom, Centre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G2 3JD

The Socialist Party will have a stall at this bookfair

Saturday 21 May 11am to 5pm

LEVELLERS DAY

Warwick Hall, Burford (Oxfordshire)

The Socialist Party will have a stall at this event

Glasgow Discussion Meeting

Second Saturday of each month at The Atholl Arms Pub, 134 Renfrew St, G2 3AU. Let’s get together for a beer and a blether. 2pm onwards. 2 minutes’ walk from Buchanan Street Bus Station. For further information call Paul Edwards on 07484 717893.

Yorkshire Discussion Group

If you live in the Yorkshire area and are interested in the Socialist Party case you are very welcome to attend our forums which currently alternate on a monthly basis either on Zoom or physical meetings in Leeds. For further information contact: fredi.edwards@hotmail.co.uk

Cardiff Street Stall

Every Saturday 1 – 3pm

Capitol Shopping Centre

Queen Street (Newport Road end)

Weather permitting

 The consulting firm McKinsey & Company has denied deliberately hiding the fact that it worked for Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the powerful and addictive painkiller OxyContin, while at the same time advising the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). OxyContin started an epidemic that has claimed over a million lives over the past 20 years.

A congressional committee released a report revealing how McKinsey’s work for Purdue was hidden from the FDA. McKinsey told the company how to ‘turbocharge’ opioid sales even after Purdue was convicted for illegally pushing OxyContin. Over a period of 15 years 

at least 22 McKinsey consultants, including senior partners, worked for both FDA and opioid manufacturers on related topics, including at the same time.

Congressional Committee Report

The FDA says that until last year it did not know that McKinsey was working for Purdue. The consulting firm was paid $86m by Purdue and $140m by the FDA.

Bob Sternfels, McKinsey’s global managing partner, apologized for the company’s work with Purdue but said his firm was merely protecting client confidentiality anddenied there was a conflict of interest. 

The chair of the House oversight committee, Carolyn Maloney, explained:

At the same time the FDA was relying on McKinsey’s advice to ensure drug safety and protect American lives, the firm was also being paid by the very companies fueling the deadly opioid epidemic to help them avoid tougher regulation of these dangerous drugs… McKinsey was advising both the fox and the henhouse — and getting paid by both.

McKinsey, she said, designed strategies for Purdue and other companies to drive up opioid painkiller sales, paving the way for the explosion of addiction and overdoses.

One McKinsey consultant even advised the opioid maker to head off tighter regulation of its drug with a legal claim ‘alleging FDA impropriety.’ The same consultant was later assigned to work with the FDA office responsible for overseeing that regulation. Another senior McKinsey consultant ‘worked on three FDA projects from 2014 to 2018 to assess the safety of dangerous drugs through the FDA Sentinel Initiative while simultaneously advising Purdue.’

A McKinsey partner who frequently consulted for the FDA also worked with Purdue to prepare for an FDA meeting about one of its opioids and

encouraged other consultants to share information with Purdue about ongoing drug safety work McKinsey was doing for FDA, saying they should ‘talk about our work with the FDA Sentinel Initiative, which I think would be very useful for them in opioids.

Congressional Committee Report

Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey told the hearing:

We learned that McKinsey consultants worked directly with the Sackler billionaires who controlled Purdue. We found that McKinsey told the Sacklers to target the most dangerous prescribers who put the patients on opioids at the most highest levels and at the highest doses for the longest periods of time. We found that McKinsey did not want the world to know what it was doing. But when I sued the Sacklers, McKinsey consultants read about my investigation and lawsuit and actually planned to delete their documents and emails. They wrote that they were going to destroy the evidence because ‘someone might turn to us.’

Representative Rashida Tlaib said she regarded McKinsey’s consultants as ‘drug pushers in suits.’

If anyone could explain to me the difference between McKinsey, Big Pharma, opioid cartel and the organizations of people like Pablo Escobar, I’m all ears.

Representative Rashida Tlaib

Pablo Escobar (1949—93), known as ‘the king of cocaine,’ was the Columbian ‘drug lord’ who headed the Medellin Cartel. His estimated net worth at the time of his death was $30 billion. 

Both ‘respectable’ drug lords like the Sacklers and ‘criminal’ drug lords like Escobar are capitalists. Both make use of the profit system to amass huge fortunes. Both are ruthless and unscrupulous in their business dealings. Neither are subject to genuine government regulation or control. 

There is one small difference and it does not favor the ‘drug pushers in suits.’ In his native Columbia Escobar was revered as a Robin Hood-like figure. Over 25,000 people were at his funeral. How many attend Sackler funerals? 

Drug pushers in suits | World Socialist Party US (wspus.org)

 You thought that slavery had been abolished in the United States?

Earlier this year federal prosecutors completed Operation Blooming Onion. They uncovered a conspiracy to bring in workers from Mexico and Central America to harvest onions at a forced labor camp in South Georgia. Kidnapped or lured by false promises of high wages, some 500 of these workers entered the US over several years under the H-2A program, which enables agricultural employers to import foreign workers on a temporary or seasonal basis. 

[Workers were] required to dig onions with their bare hands, paid 20 cents for each bucket harvested, and threatened with guns and violence to keep them in line. The workers were held in cramped, unsanitary quarters and fenced work camps with little or no food … and without safe water. The conspirators are accused of raping, kidnapping and threatening or attempting to kill some of the workers or their families, and in many cases sold or traded the workers to other conspirators. At least two workers died as a result of workplace conditions.

US Department of Justice

The profit made by exploiting the workers is estimated at $200 million. Dividing by 500 gives $400,000 for each worker. Not that they will ever receive that sort of money.

A remarkable feature of the case is that several conspirators were officials at the Georgia Department of Labor responsible for oversight of the H-2A program, or close relatives of such officials. Did they seek employment there for this very purpose? The perfect cover, you must admit. The fox guarding the chicken coop!  

And so activists are demanding closer federal oversight of the program. If you want to sign a petition in support of this demand, here’s the link. But think. Even supposing that oversight is transferred to a federal agency, what is to prevent would-be enslavers from bribing its officials or themselves seeking positions there? 

Reforming capitalism is like a wild goose chase. You never quite catch the goose! Or like trying to fit a garment onto someone who is a bit too big for it. A tear opens up in one place, but when you sew it up another tear opens up somewhere else. That is why we put our efforts not into trying to reform capitalism but into organizing to abolish it.  

   Slavery in the US today: Operation Blooming Onion | World Socialist Party US (wspus.org)

 There are at least 1.4 million migrants living in the UK without access to public funds – that means no social security, no temporary accommodation and no access to domestic violence refuges.