Purse Strings

Kabul has fallen, Washington’s withdrawn.

It seems democracy has been undone,

But, who are the vanquished and who has won?

To find the real power look behind the throne.

Insurgent regime with rifle and tank,

Seizing power and issuing orders,

Raising their flag and closing the borders,

Then it is cap in hand to the World Bank.

It matters not what they do or declare,

Clear principles must end in confusion

Because sovereignty is a delusion

And faith unfounded ends in despair.

USA, Taliban, Islamic State,

All subjects of capital’s caliphate.

D. A. 

 Animal health experts and UN leaders have called for a significant reduction in antimicrobial drug usage in food animals, which is already causing a “silent pandemic”.

But other experts say the statement is “a real missed opportunity”, pointing to its failure to set reduction targets or even call for a ban on the use of antibiotics for animal growth promotion.

Antimicrobial drugs, which include antibiotics, antifungals and antiparasitics, are used in food production all over the world, the statement said, and are “administered to animals not only for veterinary purposes (to treat and prevent disease) but also to promote growth in healthy animals”. 

The enormous quantities of these used in animal production result in a far higher probability of drug-resistant bacteria and viruses emerging. This could lead to some of the world’s most important drugs becoming ineffective against common infectious diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and gonorrhoea, with death rates rising. Drug-resistant diseases already cause at least 700,000 human deaths globally every year.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the UN’s global leaders group on antimicrobial resistance called for “significant and urgent reduction in the amounts of antimicrobial drugs, including antibiotics, used in food systems” and said this was “critical to combating rising levels of drug resistance”.

According to the statement, “The world is rapidly heading towards a tipping point where the antimicrobials relied on to treat infections in humans, animals and plants will no longer be effective.”

Despite the statement’s strong wording, experts said it had few teeth.

Although commendable, the statement does not say “quantitatively what they mean by significant”  said Thomas Van Boeckel, an antimicrobial resistance, disease, and livestock production systems scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. “Basically what this call lacks is a clear target for reduction.”

“This statement is far too cautious and a real missed opportunity,” said Cóilín Nunan, a scientific adviser at the Alliance to Save our Antibiotics. “There is no target and not even a call for an immediate end to the use of antibiotics for livestock growth promotion.” He said, is how little the statement says about intensive farming. “Intensive farming, the root cause of so much animal disease and antibiotic use, is once again let off the hook. Where is the global leadership that is needed if we are ever to move to more sustainable farming practices and drastically cut farm antibiotic use?”

Henk Hobbelink, an agronomist and co-founder of the small-farmer focused NGO Grain, agreed and said the use of antimicrobial growth promoters in factory farming needed “to be banned, immediately and everywhere”.

UN criticised over statement on overuse of antibiotics in farming | Environment | The Guardian

The climate change crises are now becoming an almost daily occurrence.

The recent rains that flooded much of Western Europe and killed over 200 people have been found to have been exacerbated by global warming which made rainfall events like these up to nine times more likely in Western Europe.

  Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), which found the number of billionaires in the U.S. grew from 614 on March 18, 2020 to 708 as of last week. The nation’s billionaires have seen their combined wealth skyrocket by nearly 62% over the past year and a half, from just under $3 trillion to almost $4.8 trillion.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk alone has gained more than $150 billion since the pandemic struck, a wealth surge of over 600%.

The collective fortune of billionaires in the United States has ballooned by nearly two-thirds during the coronavirus pandemic, and almost none of the $1.8 trillion gained by a few hundred of the nation’s richest people over the past 17 months will be taxed unless Congress enacts progressive tax reforms.

Dr Richard Brennan, the WHO emergency director in the region, said: “While the eyes of the world now are on the people being evacuated and the planes leaving, we need to get supplies in to help those who are left behind.”

UN agencies have warned of food shortages in Afghanistan as early as September.

 It has already emerged first aid supplies, including surgical equipment and severe malnutrition kits, were stuck due to restrictions at Kabul airport. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the closure of the airport to commercial flights has held up key deliveries.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which brings in supplies by road, said it was getting food through four different supply routes for the moment, but could start running out of food by next month. Andrew Patterson, the WFP’s deputy country director in Afghanistan, said they were transporting food through humanitarian crossings, including from Uzbekistan, though 50% of supplies arrived, as well as via Pakistan and Turkmenistan.

“Winter is coming. We are going into the lean season and many Afghan roads will be covered in snow. We need to get the food into our warehouses where it needs to be distributed,” said Patterson. “We’ve got 20,000 metric tonnes of food in the country now, we’ve got 7,000 metric tonnes on the way.” He pointed out that, “We need another 54,000 metric tonnes of food to get the Afghan people through to the end of December. We could start running out of food by September.”

 The WFP needed $200m (£146m) to buy food for up to 20 million people who they predict will need it. Nearly 18.5 million people – half the population – already rely on aid, and the current drought is expected to exacerbate that.

Henrietta Fore, the executive director of Unicef, said that about 10 million children across Afghanistan need humanitarian assistance, 1 million could die without treatment and that conditions are expected to deteriorate further.

Even before the Taliban seized power, the country was in great humanitarian need following the second drought in three years. At the beginning of 2021, a third of the country’s population was facing crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity, and half of all children under five were malnourished. 40% of Afghanistan’s crops were lost to drought this year and the socioeconomic impact of Covid has left essential food out of reach for many families. Wheat prices are 24% above the five-year average.

Afghanistan could start to run out of food by September, UN warns | Global development | The Guardian

 The media’s attention is upon Afghanistan yet within capitalism there are multiple humanitarian tragedies ongoing. 

Ending Yemen’s ongoing famine is an “overarching humanitarian priority” amid a litany of crises, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s outgoing special envoy for the country told the UN Security Council.  

Roughly two-thirds of the war-ravaged country’s population – about 20 million people – rely on humanitarian aid for their day-to-day needs. Roughly five million people “are one step away from succumbing to famine and the diseases that go with it”, he warned. An additional 10 million people “are right behind them”, added Griffiths.

“Famine isn’t just a food problem. It’s a symptom of a much deeper collapse. In many ways, it is all of Yemen’s problems rolled into one, and it demands a comprehensive response,” he said. Griffith called for an end to “profiteering” 

Much of the country’s starvation is tied to the extreme depreciation of Yemen’s national currency and the collapse of the economy, with GDP plummeting 40 percent since 2015 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized control of the country. The Yemeni riyal is trading at record lows to the US dollar.

Khaled Mohamed Khiari, assistant UN secretary-general for the Middle East, raised further alarm over widespread fuel shortages that are worsening in Houthi-controlled territories. Only three ships carrying oil supplies were allowed to dock at Yemen’s strategic port city of Hodeidah since July, while four others remain in a holding area controlled by the Saudi Arabia-led, anti-Houthi coalition, Khiari said. The port of Hodeidah – which has remained largely shut over the years – is Yemen’s main port and a major lifeline for humanitarian supplies entering the country. All but one Yemen Petroleum station in Houthi-controlled territories have closed because of the shortages, and waiting times to refill gas canisters used for cooking have reached one month.

Khiari explained, “All parties must prioritise civilian needs and abstain from weaponising the economy, particularly in light of the critical humanitarian situation in the country.”

Millions ‘one step away’ from famine in Yemen, UN warns | Houthis News | Al Jazeera

 Forcibly transferring children from one group to another is an international legal definition of genocide. Taking children has been one strategy for terrorizing Native families for centuries, from the mass removal of Native children from their communities into boarding schools to their widespread adoption and fostering out to mostly white families. It’s what led to the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978, legislation that aimed to reverse more than a century of state-sponsored family separation.

Right-wing thinktanks like the Cato Institute have teamed up with non-Native families to not only dismantle the ICWA but the entire legal structure protecting Native rights. And so far, they’ve made important victories.

An appeals court upheld parts of a federal district court decision, in a case called Brackeen v Haaland, that found parts of ICWA “unconstitutional”. The non-Indian plaintiffs contend that federal protections to keep Native children with Native families constitute illegal racial discrimination, and that ICWA’s federal standards “commandeer” state courts and agencies for a federal agenda.

 Put plainly, the mostly white families wanting to foster and adopt Native children are claiming reverse racism and arguing that federal overreach is trampling states’ rights.

This is upside-down logic presenting ICWA  legislation consciously designed to undo genocidal, racist policy is itself racist because it prevents mostly non-Indians from adopting native children, condoning the “civilizing” mission of colonialism – saving brown children from brown parents.

A mountain of evidence suggests that Native families, particularly poor ones, are the real victims. In two studies from 1969 to 1974, the Association on American Indian Affairs found that 25-35% of all Native children had been separated from the families and placed in foster homes or adoptive homes or institutions. Ninety percent were placed in non-Indian homes.

ICWA aimed to reverse this trend. Today, Native children are four times more likely to be removed from their families than white children are from theirs. And according to a 2020 study, in many states Native family separation has surpassed rates prior to ICWA. This is mostly due to states ignoring or flouting ICWA requirements.

A common cause for removal is “neglect”, a form of abuse and a highly skewed claim especially when the Native families most targeted are poor. Failure to pay rent, for example, can result in eviction and homelessness and the placement of a child in state foster care system because of unstable living conditions. Some state statutes may provide up to several thousands of dollars a child per month to foster parents, depending on the number of children in their care and a child’s special needs. Why doesn’t that money go towards keeping families together by providing homes instead of tearing them apart?

Much like the boarding school system which preceded it, foster care is rife with stories of sexual and physical abuse, neglect and forced assimilation into dominant, white culture. To say nothing of the lifelong trauma of being torn from one’s family and nation during the formative years of childhood.

Why are corporate law firms like Gibson Dunn – which has represented Walmart, Amazon, Chevron and Shell showing up at custody battles against poor Native families and tribes? Are they really interested in the welfare of Native children?

Conservatives want to bring Brackeen v Haaland to the US Supreme Court not just to overturn the ICWA but to gut Native tribes’ federal protections and rights. Anti-ICWA advocates use the language of “equality” to target Native nations. The collective tyranny of the tribe, as the libertarian thinking goes, violates the rights of the individual. Tribal consciousness, the collective rights of a nation, and its sovereignty must be weakened or destroyed to gain access to its lands and resources. Without the tribe, there is no Indian. When there is no Indian, there’s no one to claim the land.

In the 1950s, the argument that the collective rights of tribes shouldn’t trump individual rights of US citizens had catastrophic results with the legal abolition of dozens of tribes that led to the privatization of their lands for the benefit of white businesses.

That is why nefarious corporate interests are attacking the most precious possession of the native American –  their children.

Why is the US right suddenly interested in Native American adoption law? | Nick Estes | The Guardian

Recent media headlines indicate that the super-rich considers New Zealand a safe haven from the catastrophes they expect to overcome our planet. For example, Google’s co-founder, Larry Page, the world’s sixth-richest person, was recently granted New Zealand residency, following the lead of PayPal founder, Peter Thiel, another ultra-wealthy individual.

Often neglected because of its geographical isolation but now gradually increasing its participation in the World Socialist Movement is the small World Socialist Party of New Zealand that presently exists of a mere handful of members.

In a country noted for its supposed progressive social reforms whereas early as 1879 men had the vote, and by 1893 women were also entitled to vote, poverty and squalor has never disappeared. Living costs in New Zealand have risen sharply as has the price of homes, however, workers’ wages have lagged a long way behind. 

History provides more proof that reformism cannot solve the problems of the working class. If there is a lesson to be learned from this, it is that we can see a greater than ever need for a socialist organisation for the overthrow of capitalism. Similar to Canada, New Zealand was a fertile breeding ground for quack remedies to cure capitalism such as with the Douglas social credit movement at one time proving popular. The World Socialist Party of New Zealand holds that socialism is the only solution for the effects of capitalism. While capitalism continues so the workers must suffer from its effects and their condition become worse.

Jacinda Ardern’s government has not succeeded in fixing poverty and it has offered many excuses for its failure. UNICEF in September 2020, compared the performances of 41 high-income countries on child welfare issues; from suicide rates to childhood obesity, education and environment. New Zealand was at the bottom third at 35.

The extent of wealth inequality in supposedly egalitarian New Zealand has been laid bare by 2020 figures showing the wealthiest individuals have over NZ$140bn in trusts – and overall have nearly 70 times more assets than the typical New Zealander.



The data show that New Zealand’s wealthiest 1% of adults – around 38,000 people – have $141bn in trusts. Another 150,000 or so people, rounding out the rest of the wealthiest 5%, have trusts worth a further $122bn.



The 1% have an average of $3.6m held in trusts, $1.6m in shares and $470,000 in cash. Their debts are on average just $80,000. The typical person in the 1% is worth $6.2m.

In contrast, the typical New Zealander is worth only $92,000 – 68 times less. 



Among those in the poorest half of the country, meanwhile, the average person owns assets worth just $46,000 and has debts of $33,000, leaving them with a net worth of $12,000. They have negligible wealth in trusts and on average just $4,000 in the bank, leaving them vulnerable to sudden financial shocks.



When it comes to those on middle income – the 40% of the country who are above the mid-point but below the wealthiest 10% – have a higher net worth, on average $352,000, most of it tied up in housing.



Overall, the wealthiest 10% have 59% of all the country’s assets and the middle income is around 39%. That leaves the poorest half of the country with just 2%.

Jacinda Ardern’s government has shown little enthusiasm for redistribution of the riches of the wealthy, much less abolish the rich which is the goal of we socialists. Ardern’s suggestion that employers consider a four-day working week and other flexible working options to help employees address persistent work and life balance issues have excited many New Zealanders.

The World Socialist Party (New Zealand), however, has a better idea. What about socialism as the answer? 

What distinguishes us from other political organisations is that we insist that it is futile to concentrate on just a part of capitalism’s problems. The only effective policy is to campaign exclusively for its abolition and replacement with socialism.

The WSPNZ is frequently chastised for advocating our fellow workers to spoil their vote by writing “world socialism” across the ballot. The media is full of messages which say, “if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain”, or “it is your duty to vote”, or “Whatever you do, just make sure you get out there and vote”. 

The members of the WSPNZ are always being lectured on the virtues of voting for the lesser evil. Don’t play the game, don’t be forced into a false and hypocritical “choice”. Between Tweedledum and Tweedledummer, our advice is to spoil the ballot paper and abstain from voting for either. If you cannot vote for what you want, it is folly to vote for what you do not want.

Our vote, like a razor, is an instrument for a purpose. If you cannot use it to shave as it was intended, it is madness to cut your throat with it. And by voting for your class enemies, full of traitors and charlatans, you are surely slashing your own throat.

Call the WSPNZ naive and idealists if you so wish but it aspires towards global revolution and world socialism. That is the message it sends and it won’t be distracted by squabbles within the capitalist class that doesn’t benefit us working people as a class.

Contact

World Socialist Party (New Zealand) P.O. Box 1929

Auckland, NI, New Zealand

E-mail: moggiegrayson@gmail.com

Website: World Socialist Party – History (worldsocialism.org)

(Details on other pages of their website have not been updated and requires to be amended but cannot any longer be accessed. A new website is in the process of being developed)

America and its NATO allies, the occupiers of Afghanistan for 20 years face the reality that no matter what their fire-power, they could not defeat the Taliban. 

Now the Taliban has inherited the poisoned chalice of a nation that is dependent upon foreign aid which is most likely to be suspended, exacerbating the conditions of an already suffering population. 

But there was a clear winner in the war. 

 $4.0 billion annually, was spent mostly on arms purchases originating from the US defense industry, plus maintenance, servicing and training of the now missing Afghanistan National Army. That figure does not include the money spent on the US military or the budgets of America’s allies in the Afghan War.

The U.S. military-industrial complex made a “killing” with sky-high profits over the last two decades. The arms industry benefited from the war and the funds that could have been used for the reconstruction of civil society was squandered on a war many declared lost long ago.

Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Full Professor with the Security Studies Program in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, explained, “US weapons manufacturers have profited from selling weapons that were used in Afghanistan. Yet these weapons suppliers are not held responsible for the use – and abuse – of the weapons they sell.”

The US armaments corporations will now seek the next new business opportunity, more Afghan-like tragedies to exploit for the lucrative returns in selling weapons of death and destruction.

In 2020, Lockheed  Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics spent $60 million on lobbying to influence defense policy.

Were US War Profiteers the Ultimate Winners in Battle-Scarred Afghanistan? | Inter Press Service (ipsnews.net)

70% of our planet is covered in water —  more than one billion trillion litres.  Just 1% is accessible fresh water usable for drinking and growing food. Much of that water is increasingly being polluted by fertilizers and factory effluent or is simply being overused — causing aquifer levels to plummet.

“For years wars were fought over oil,” said US Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this year. “In a short time they will be fought over water.”

In Africa, one in three people are already dealing with extreme water insecurity,  as the South African city of Cape Town knows too well. It was on the brink of running out of water in 2018, and had to resort to  cutting down hundreds of thousands of trees to help its water supply. 

The Paraná River on the border of Argentina and Paraguay, the second-longest river in South America, has reached its lowest level in decades. the Argentine government declared a state of “water emergency” for 180 days in the provinces that the Paraná runs through.

While some US states like Tennesee are flooding, others are in near-permanent drought — 85% of California is currently in extreme or “exceptional” drought and towns and agricultural areas are running out of water. Tens of millions of people in the Western US have recently been told they will have to reduce their water use next year due to low levels in the country’s largest artificial reservoir.

Desalination comes with its own set of problems. First up, extracting salt from water is energy-intensive, which means the process adds to the CO2 emissions that helped fuel water scarcity in the first place.  Expensive desalination plants are unevenly distributed. Of  20,000 installations globally, around half are located in oil-rich Gulf nations. And overall, the vast majority serve high-income countries. Desalinated water is very limited especially in poor, under-resourced countries  hit with variable rainfall and crippling drought. The other problem with desalination is brine. Once the fresh water has been acquired, the heavily salty leftovers are returned to the ocean, where they deplete oxygen and suffocate organisms. 

The  leaked report by UN climate scientists  predicts that 350 million more people living in cities will suffer water scarcity from severe droughts at 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming — which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently said could happen next decade. Unless we start cutting our greenhouse gas emissions now, warming and related water stress will be much worse.

One kilo of beef needs 15,000 liters of water.  Meanwhile, a kilo of vegetables like carrots and tomatoes only uses around 200 liters. Even juicy grapefruits require a relatively minor 500 liters of water per kilo. 

Water scarcity: What′s the big deal? | Environment | All topics from climate change to conservation | DW | 23.08.2021