Like some naughty child always being told not to continue to do some dangerous thing- how many times do I have to tell you not to put your finger in that electrical socket!- those responsible for continuing to throw petrol onto the blaze that is the Russian Ukrainian conflict, keep on ignoring the exasperated warnings being issued.

In a reverse of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, the insouciance shown by supposedly “responsible leaders” is staggering. Do they imagine some real life “Dr Strangelove, or how I stopped worrying and leaned to love the bomb?” scenario? Is the equivalent of Islam’s seventy-two virgins,  ten women to every man in the underground bunkers affecting their judgment?

Donovan’s nineteen sixties anti-war song. “Universal Soldier,” supposed that the soldiers orders didn’t come from ‘near and far’ any more. Instead, he sang, his orders come from, ‘you and me.’ Well up to a point, Lord Copper. The fact that no sane person wants to be obliterated in a nuclear war counts for nought. No amount of marches, demonstrations and letters to an M.P. will alter the fact that the ruling class, and their minions, don’t care what the working class think. They will pursue whatever they think is in their best interests, even if it means your obliteration. Seriously? Are you going to let them get away with this?

A “global tragedy” could be in store for humanity if the West keeps supplying weapons to Ukraine, a senior Russian lawmaker has warned. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, also suggested that Moscow could retaliate with more powerful arms, should its territory be threatened.

Volodin’s remarks came days after a meeting at US Ramstein air base in Germany at which Western powers pledged to continue supporting Kiev.

On Sunday, Volodin took to Telegram to point out that should the weapons provided by the US and fellow NATO member states be used to “strike civilian cities and to attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten [to do],” Moscow would respond with “more powerful weapons.”

The Russian lawmaker went on to argue that Western officials should be aware of their responsibility to avert such a scenario.

“Taking into consideration the technological superiority of Russian weapons, foreign politicians making such decisions need to understand: this could end up being a global tragedy that would destroy their countries,” Volodin warned.

The Ukrainian leadership insists on regaining control of all the territories that were within the country’s borders established following the collapse of the Soviet Union back in 1991. Kiev says it is prepared to retake those regions by force if Moscow refuses to relinquish them. Crimea became part of Russia following a referendum back in 2014, while four other regions followed suit last year.

On Wednesday, the New York Times, citing several anonymous US officials, reported that the Biden administration is now more likely to consider providing Ukraine with striking capabilities needed to hit targets in Crimea.

Right before the Ramstein meeting on January 20, the US announced a new defense aid package for Ukraine to the tune of $2.5 billion. It includes, among other things, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, Stryker armoured personnel carriers, mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, Humvees, as well as 20,000 rounds of regular artillery rounds and 600 precision-guided 155 mm shells. On top of that, Washington pledged to supply Kiev with more missiles for the HIMARS M142 and MLRS M270 multiple launch rocket systems.

Earlier this month the UK confirmed plans to provide Ukraine with a number of Challenger 2 main battle tanks. However, the Western allies failed to secure an agreement from Germany to send its Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev.

Apart from the American Bradleys and Strykers, Ukraine is set to receive French AMX-10 RC armoured fighting vehicles, which some experts describe as ‘light tanks.’ President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to deliver the hardware earlier this month.

Sweden has also promised to make a contribution that will include CB-90 infantry fighting vehicles and Archer self-propelled howitzers.”

22\1\23

Dave C.

https://www.rt.com/trends/russia-news-moscow-eurasia/

 “Food and drink prices in the United Kingdom hit another 45-year high in December, jumping by 16.8% in annual terms, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported on Wednesday.

The increase in prices was led by basic essentials such as bread, milk and cheese, putting the most pressure on lower-income households. The ONS data showed that the price of milk jumped by almost 50%, bread was up by a fifth, while store-cupboard staples such as sugar and pasta increased by more than a quarter.

Prices have reportedly also skyrocketed across restaurants and hotels as hospitality firms were forced to pass on their own soaring costs, with inflation across this sector jumping to 11.3% in December, the highest for more than 31 years.

Overall, inflation in the UK fell for a second month in December but remained at one of the highest levels in 40 years. The annual rate, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI) edged lower to 10.5%, continuing a fall from 10.7% in November and its recent peak of 11.1% in October.

“Inflation eased slightly in December, although still at a very high level, with overall prices rising strongly during the last year as a whole,” said Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS. “Food costs continue to spike, with prices also rising in shops, cafes and restaurants,” he added.

The Bank of England (BoE) has been hiking interest rates aggressively in order to rein in double-digit inflation. The regulator has said that the country was entering its longest recession on record.

Meanwhile, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said following the ONS data release that the government planned to cut inflation further this year.

“High inflation is a nightmare for family budgets, destroys business investment and leads to strike action, so however tough, we need to stick to our plan to bring it down,” Hunt said.”

19\1\23

Dave C.

  Around 2 million people in Lebanon, including 1.29 million Lebanese residents and 700,000 Syrian refugees, are currently facing food insecurity. The situation is expected to worsen in the coming months.

An analysis predicts that the situation will deteriorate between January and April of 2023, with 2.26 million people – 1.46 million Lebanese residents and around 800,000 refugees – expected to be in the “crisis” phase or worse and requiring urgent assistance.

“More people than ever before in Lebanon are now dependent on assistance,” says Abdallah Alwardat, WFP Representative and Country Director in Lebanon.

Beirut has turned into a city of contrasts. Expensive cars park before popular restaurants and bars, while people of all ages rummage through bins for something edible. For those, who work for international companies or have other means of accessing dollars, life has become relatively cheap, which also explains the thriving cocktail bars and fully booked restaurants.

“The taxation system in Lebanon is highly regressive, which means that there is no wealth tax code, and corporate taxes are amongst the lowest in the world compared to all OECD averages,” Hussein Cheaito, a development economist at The Policy Initiative, told DW. The beneficiaries of the taxation system are those of the “political class and their business connections, because this 1% owns more than 70% of the national income”.

 A report on food insecurity in the Middle East by the independent research network Arab Barometer found that nearly half of all citizens in Lebanon stated that they ran out of food before they had money to buy more.

Lebanon ranks “among the most severe crises globally since the mid-19th century,” according to the World Bank.

In a recent report on rising hunger and poverty in Lebanonby Human Rights Watch (HRW), Lena Simet stated that “millions of people in Lebanon have been pushed into poverty and have cut back on food.” 

“A person that is earning 1,500,000 Lebanese pounds used to have an equivalent of $1,000 before the crisis, and now it is equivalent to less than $200,” Hussein Cheaito explained.

For the past 20 years, Lebanese banks have kept the pegged exchange rate of $1 to 1,500 Lebanese pounds. This, however, will be updated to $1 to 15,000 pounds on February 1. Even though this is 10 times more than before, it is still far from the actually used exchange rate on the black market. The current rate ist 50,000 pounds to the dollar. 

Lebanon’s middle class vanishes as economy collapses – DW – 01/19/2023

 What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

 — Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

 Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty prisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; 

 Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

Wilfred Owen

In his Anthem to Doomed Youth, Wilfred Owen was writing about the Western Front in World War One. Except for the bugles, however, he might have been describing the war of attrition in the Donbas, where youth are again doomed, to futile sacrifice on the altars of Russian and Ukrainian nationalism. 

Each Ukrainian brigade of 3—4,000 men that is sent to the front gets withdrawn and replaced after losing about two thirds of its men killed or wounded. It is mainly those fortunate enough to get withdrawn before they are maimed or killed who have a chance to survive. Some run away, but are hunted down as ‘deserters’ by the Ukrainian Security Service.  

Official Ukrainian sources issue no figures for losses – they are regarded as secret – but the figure of 100,000 already killed has been widely floated.  

As on the Western Front in World War One, if you are fighting in the Donbass your chance of survival depends on two main factors – how well dug in you are and whether you climb ‘over the top’ for a suicidal assault on enemy defenses. It is reported that some Ukrainian units have defied orders to undertake such assaults. 

Ukrainian troops are less well dug in than their Russian adversaries. They have less access to earth-moving equipment. In one video the commander of a Ukrainian frontline unit talks about begging his superiors to lend him such equipment. Fifteen men in his unit, he tells them, have been killed because they were not well dug in. His superiors reply that they don’t want to risk damage to the equipment! 

Clearly, soldiers are inadequately fed and poorly protected against the winter cold. Many suffer from sinusitis and respiratory ailments. A special danger is frostbite. Perhaps as many are now being lost to frostbite as to artillery strikes. In southern Ukraine, where most of the fighting so far has taken place, the weather in late fall and early winter is wet and cold but not freezing. The rain and mud make it extremely difficult if not impossible to keep feet dry. When in January temperatures fall below freezing point the moisture inside footwear turns into ice and the result is frostbite. According to Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Marochko of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic, 40% of the men hospitalized with frostbite have to have one or both legs amputated (https://lug-info.com/en/news/some-100-ukrainian-servicemen-hospitalized-with-frostbite-marochko).   

Another scourge rapidly spreading among both soldiers and civilians is tuberculosis, much of it multidrug-resistant. According to retired colonel Douglas Macgregor, one reason why tuberculosis has assumed epidemic proportions is that troops are moved around from one battleground to another with no account taken of their medical condition (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jkBtKkN3Pg).  

The situation in Ukrainian military hospitals must be horrific. Medical staff overwhelmed by masses of the sick and wounded; electricity available only intermittently due to Russian attacks on infrastructure; shortages of practically everything, exacerbated by corruption, with 60—70% of Western medical as well as military aid stolen and sold on the market (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-military-aid-weapons-front-lines/). How many seriously wounded men can possibly survive under those conditions?   

In one respect at least, the war in Ukraine is even worse than World War One. In that war, relatives were informed when a son, brother, husband, or father was killed or went missing in action. In the current war, by contrast, there is no reliable system of notification, especially on the Ukrainian side. When relatives lose contact with a soldier, they have no idea whether it is because he is dead, in hospital, or in captivity or  because he no longer has a functioning cell phone. 

We can expect that in the course of time much, more information will reach us concerning the human costs of the war in Ukraine, ruthlessly prolonged for the sake of the strategic goals of great power rivalry.  

Those Who Die as Cattle – World Socialist Party US (wspus.org)

 On Friday January 13 a rally was held on the plaza outside the Rahat Community Center in the Negev to show solidarity with local Bedouins facing eviction from their campsites as part of the campaign to “Judaize” the southern semi-desert region. 

During the rabble-rousing campaign that catapulted him to control of the Israel police, Itamar Ben Gvir of the ‘Jewish Power’ party asked: Whose home is this? He meant that the country belongs to Jews only. The demonstrators responded: This is the home of us all! This country belongs to all who live in it!

On the same day, as every Friday, a protest was held in solidarity with another community resisting eviction from their homes -– the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.

Also facing imminent “Judaization” is the district of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills on the West Bank, comprising 13 Palestinian villages and about 1,000 residents. The Israeli army is taking their land for a new firing range. It was not feasible to hold a protest in an area so remote and under direct military occupation. 

So the Nakba — the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the indigenous population of Palestine by the Zionist movement and then by its state — continues. 

The main march against the new government and in defense of civil rights and democracy took place in Tel Aviv this evening (Saturday January 14), starting with a rally on Habima Square. There have also been marches in Jerusalem and Haifa. 

Here is the appeal issued by veteran peace activist Adam Keller to his fellow citizens:

“This government is bad for everyone. It appears to be headed towards an open dictatorship that will continue the oppression of the Palestinians, increase settlement construction, expose Palestinian residents to settler terrorism, and seek to expel them from their homes.

Some say this is not the time to talk about the occupation, because the government is also threatening the basic rights of Jewish Israelis. We say every time is a right time to talk about the occupation and now is the best time for it. For decades there was an attempt to ignore the occupation and exclude it from public debate. discussion. Now the oppression is seeping from the West Bank and threatens also the residents of Tel Aviv who thought themselves immune and averted their gaze from the oppression of the Palestinians! …

Knesset Member Zvika Fogel, also of ‘Jewish Power’, has called for opposition leaders to be arrested and charged with High Treason, which in Israeli law is subject to the death penalty (although as yet no one has been executed for the offense). These are the dark days in the history of Israel.



The hallmarks of Fascism are already visible: the attempt to take over the judiciary, calls to imprison opposition leaders and use police violence against pro-democracy demonstrators. 

We call on citizens to take to the streets, to fight for democracy before it is too late!



We call on the police to remember they are supposed to serve the public, not Ben Gvir’s racist agenda. But whatever happens, whether there is police violence or not, we are coming! We are taking to the streets, we do not hesitate, we are not intimidated!

The program of this government amounts to a coup d’état – the crushing of the judiciary, making all officials totally subservient, suppression of the media. In face of this, it the right and duty of the people to revolt!

Citizens, don’t be intimidated by Netanyahu and Ben Gvir. This is the time to come out and be counted. This is no time to stay home, no time to say: ‘I have other plans for this evening, I will come next time.’ There might not be any next time.”

Latest Reports:

Mass anti-government rallies held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa despite pouring rain (Times of Israel).

80,000 Israelis protest in Tel Aviv, police turn protestors away (Jerusalem Post). 

Who is behind the new far-right government?

According to Ha’aretz (Jan 15), the think tank that drafts laws for Israel’s far-right parties is the Kohelet Policy Forum, which is ‘active in promoting legislation to abolish [such welfare policies as] the minimum wage, public housing, and rent control as well as labor rights. The main funders of this ‘forum’ are two Jewish-American (not Israeli) multibillionaires, Jeffrey S. Yass and Arthur Dantchik, closely associated with the securities trading firm Susquehanna International Group. The same men fund American far-right think tanks like the Club for Growth, which opposes all corporate taxes and regulation. Such socioeconomic policies lack wide popular appeal — an ingredient supplied by alliances with racism and religious bigotry (which religion — Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist — depends on local circumstances).

In Defense of Democracy: Protests in Israel/Palestine – World Socialist Party US (wspus.org)

 One-third of the Arab population lives under the poverty line.

A report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said that poverty increased in the Arab countries to affect 130 million people.

Unemployment in the Arab region registered the highest rate in the world in 2022 at 12%.

One-third of Arab population lives in poverty: ESCWA (aa.com.tr)

 When the SOYMB blog comes across an insightful analysis by a non-member or another organisation it will re-post, to widen its audience. This 2015 article by Neil Faulkner is worth quoting excerpts from.

Climate change, poverty, and war are tearing our world apart. These are not separate issues; they are not ‘single issues’. They are connected. They are part of a system of rival states and corporations. The driver of the system is competition for profit.

The world is now more class-divided than ever before in history.

The fast growing gap between rich and poor is driven by a profit machine. Corporate power, privatisation, and austerity are tearing societies apart to enrich a tiny minority. Everything from housing to health to urban space is being commodified – turned into new sources of profit.

Today’s wars – all fed by the same global arms conglomerates – are of two kinds. Some are imperialist wars waged by great powers for control of resources, especially oil and gas. Others are sectarian wars waged by right-wing militias filling the vacuum when societies are torn apart by poverty and violence. Both types of war are rooted in the same system: the war machine – like the carbon machine and the profit machine – is hard-wired to the engine of capital accumulation.

Capitalism is a system of self-expansion. No bank or corporation invests without expecting to make a profit. Capital investment is always about making money: getting more out than you put in. It is therefore about uncontrolled, unlimited, unending growth.

There is no such thing as ‘steady-state’ capitalism. The idea of ‘green capitalism’ is therefore a pipedream.

What drives the engine of growth is competition. The world is divided into competing banks, corporations, nation-states, and armies. The struggle between them is a struggle for energy, minerals, markets, and contracts. It is therefore a struggle for power.

Competition drives the engine of growth. And that engine powers the carbon, profit, and war machines. We live in a joined-up world: one system, one crisis.

The system cannot concede either social justice or climate justice without imperilling its own existence. The profiteers and warmongers who run the system will not allow change which threatens their wealth and power.

Time has now run out. Catastrophic climate change is imminent. The rulers of the world are rearming to fight new wars. And they and their system are plunging the mass of humanity ever deeper into poverty.

We need to build a united mass movement against war, poverty, and global warming; a movement for total system change; one big movement fighting for equality, democracy, and sustainability.

Neil Faulkner: How War and Climate Change Are Wired To the Same Engine Destroying the Planet (November 2015) (marxists.org)

  Manchester City topped Deloitte’s Football Money League for a second consecutive year. The Premier League accounted for more than half of the top 20 clubs. The top 20 clubs’ revenues rose to near pre-pandemic levels of 9.2 billion euros (£8.1 billion).

A 13 percent rise in City’s revenue to 731 million euros saw them retain top spot from European champions Real Madrid on 714 million euros.

Liverpool rose to third, their highest position in Money League history and above Manchester United for the first time, thanks to a run to the Champions League final, on 702 million euros.

United (689 million euros) were fourth ahead of Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich (both 654 million euros). Barcelona, who topped the Money League two years ago, dropped to seventh (638 million euros) after crashing out of the Champions League at the group stage and suffering slower commercial growth than their competitors.

Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal make up the top 10.

“The Premier League’s financial superiority is unlikely to be challenged in the coming seasons,” said Sam Boor, director of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. “It’s now likely a case of not if, but when, all 20 Premier League clubs will appear in the Money League top 30.”

Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal make up the top 10.

Man City top Premier League dominated Football Money League (france24.com)

 In the early 2000s, the UK government was warned that the country risked becoming the continent’s “dumping ground” for dangerous cladding and insulation products. At the time, civil servants were working on plans to harmonise fire standards with the rest of the European Union – but this harmonisation never happened. Corporate lobbyists had argued against it, claiming there would be “economic consequences” if their members were unable to sell their combustible building products freely. As standards were tightened in much of Europe, the UK would not update its outdated guidance for the next 17 years.

The result was gaps in the regulation, which the free market was more than efficient enough to find and exploit. “The evolution of fire regulation will put [highly combustible cladding] out of the market in the coming months,” wrote a senior figure at cladding firm Arconic in 2009. “For the moment, even if we know that [the material] has a bad behaviour exposed to fire, we can still work with national regulations who are not as restrictive.”

One such market was the UK, which Arconic targeted with its violently combustible panels, knowing that their marginally lower cost would make them attractive. The panels were fitted on hundreds of tall buildings around the country. One was Grenfell Tower.  Make no mistake: the lines between economic deregulation and the Grenfell Tower fire are clear.

The government is now preparing to sweep away thousands of EU rules of the statue book in a single stroke. Former business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg gleefully tweeted his approval this month of “igniting the deregulatory bonfire”.

Margaret Thatcher’s government stripped away hundreds of prescriptive rules for the construction sector in the 1980s, in the name of freeing industry to innovate and experts have warned of disaster. This included the end of London-specific rules which had prevented the use of combustible materials on the walls of tall buildings. Such red tape was for a prior era: now the market would be able to make its own decisions about what was and wasn’t safe.

The priority given to deregulation continued throughout the New Labour era and was turbocharged in 2012, with Conservative prime minister David Cameron pledging to “kill health and safety culture”. He introduced a “one in, one out” rule to reduce the regulatory “burden” on the private sector. This was described as an “effective moratorium” on new fire safety rules by a former civil servant at the Grenfell inquiry.

 In 2013, when an inquest into six deaths in a 2009 fire at Lakanal House in south London revealed that combustible external panels had helped the blaze spread, the necessary steps to prevent a repeat did not happen. The coroner had told the government to review the relevant rules “with particular regard” to the risk of external fire spread. But this was not done. Asked why, civil servants repeatedly cited deregulatory pressures and a lack of interest in new regulations from the ministers they reported to.

The government had also contracted a fire research body to monitor real-world fires of “special interest” – those which suggested there may be a need to reform the building regulations. Except, they weren’t allowed to conclude this. In October 2012, the government inserted a clause into the BRE’s contract which said the reports should “not contain any policy recommendations” or recommend changes to official guidance.

“This came after the general move towards deregulation, so regulation was not welcome,” said the scientist who led this work when asked why. 

Deregulation continues to be one of the government’s driving ambitions. The consequences will be seen and felt in the years to come.

Grenfell showed exactly why we need red tape, yet the Tories are desperate to bin thousands of laws | Peter Apps | The Guardian