The Socialist Standard once carried an article on the anti-humanitarian nature of imposing sanctions upon ones perceived enemies and describes such policies as akin to medieval siege tactics that hurt the civilian population rather than those who hold political politics.

Such strategies still persist despite a record of santions failing to achieve their aims. The government of Bashar Al-Assad has endured a decade-long civil war that has created its worst food and economic crisis. Yet the Assad regime still stands. The imposition of international sanctions has failed to bring any resolution.

Joshua Landis is a US-based Syria expert who heads the Center for Middle East Studies at Oklahoma University said it was naive to think that sanctions will merely affect al-Assad and his cronies.

 The lives of ordinary Syrians in regime-controlled territory has worsened immeasurably. The Syrian economy is in tatters. Syrians are grappling with hyperinflation, food shortages and joblessness with no end in sight. Queues outside bakeries and fuel stations have become the new normal while a shortage of electricity has adversely affected local businesses and exacerbated unemployment. When Lebanon went bankrupt last year, many Syrians who put their money in Lebanon’s banks lost their savings, too.

Until 2008, Syria exported wheat to neighbouring nations. But a drought in 2008 and a decade-long civil war turned Syria into a wheat importer. As production fell by half.  Syria needs to import 1.1 million tons (one million tonnes) of wheat a year to meet its requirements, and most of it used to come from Russia. But in 2020, Russia reduced its supplies. The price of bread shot up. Syria’s northeast, the breadbasket of the country that produced 60 percent of the total requirement, is under the control of the Kurdish.  US sanctions may permit limited  types of trade but often deters banks, insurers and shipping companies. NGOs estimate that prices of most daily products have gone up 30 percent due to sanctions

“Syria is a small market and it is simply not worth risking a US government lawsuit,” said Aron Lund, a researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency. “By restricting Syria’s fuel supply through oil trade sanctions and by backing Kurdish control over the eastern oil fields, the United States hurts the Syrian economy as a whole,” Lund said. “Tanks need gasoline to wage war, but farmers also need it to run their tractors, factories need the electricity, and civilians on all sides of the war depend on cars, buses and trucks being able to deliver people and goods.” 

US sanctions are intended to obstruct Syria’s reconstruction. Europe Union, too, has banned aid for Syria’s reconstruction. But reconstruction is a matter of the welfare of Syrian citizens. Authoritarian autocrats have never relinquished power for the well-being of their people.

As Lund explains,  pretending like you can wreck the regime’s economic base without simultaneously hurting ordinary Syrians – that’s dumb and dishonest.”

From here

Finally, justice is being served concerning the 2014 lead contaminated water and cases of legionnaires disease that caused deaths and irreparable damage to many in the Michigan city of Flint. The former governor of the state,Rick Snyder, and key members of his administration have been charged…with misdemeanor crimes, not felonies.

 In 2019, a special prosecutor who spent three years leading a criminal investigation of the Flint water scandal, was fired then the state’s prosecutors drop all criminal charges against eight people in the Flint water scandal and pledge to start the investigation from scratch. The state’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, assumes responsibility. Whereas unofficial sources claim that the original investigators were seeking that the ex-governor should be charged with more serious crimes, such as involuntarily manslaughter. 

Worker protections enshrined in EU law — including the 48-hour week — would be ripped up under plans being drawn up by the government as part of a post-Brexit overhaul of UK labour markets.  The package of deregulatory measures is being put together by the UK’s business department with the approval of Downing Street. It has not yet been agreed by ministers— or put to the cabinet — but select business leaders have been sounded out on the plan.

The proposed shake-up of regulations from the “working time directive” will likely to spark outrage among Britain’s trade union leaders. The main areas of focus are on ending the 48-hour working week, tweaking the rules around rest breaks at work and not including overtime pay when calculating some holiday pay entitlements, said people familiar with the plans. The government also wants to remove the requirement of businesses to log the detailed, daily reporting of working hours, saving an estimated £1bn.

The move would potentially mark a clear divergence from EU labour market standards but the UK would only face retaliation from Brussels under the terms of its new post-Brexit trade treaty if the EU could demonstrate the changes had a material impact on competition.

“Workers in the UK are the primary beneficiaries of the very positive judgments of the European courts,” said an official at the Trades Union Congress, adding that any attempt to “whittle down and narrow” the interpretation of European law “is a concern because it amounts to a diminution of rights”. A change in the calculation of holiday pay could be “a significant monetary loss” for a low-paid worker often forced into overtime to make ends meet, the TUC official said.

In a call with 250 leading business figures earlier this month, prime minister Boris Johnson urged industry to get behind plans for future regulatory liberalisation after Brexit — to the delight of many free marketeers in his cabinet.

 Matt Kilcoyne, deputy head of the free market Adam Smith Institute, welcomed the proposals — saying the current “one size fits all” 48-hour rule was a “straitjacket on the economy”.

Colin Leckey, partner in employment law at Lewis Silkin, said employers would welcome the UK rejecting new European case law requiring the detailed, daily reporting of working hours. However, any move to overturn recent European case law on holiday pay — which stipulates that sales commissions and overtime must be taken into account in its calculation — would be more contentious. 

UK workers’ rights at risk in plans to rip up EU labour market rules | Financial Times (ft.com)

Biden is Trump with better table-manners, so say some. 

Biden is a proud authoritarian who supports draconian laws.

As he shamelessly boasts himself, “Every major crime bill since 1976 that’s come out of this Congress, every minor crime bill, has had the name of the Democratic senator from the State of Delaware: Joe Biden.”

Biden even claims the credit for the Patriot Act. 

And now after the Capitol riots, he is going to be permitted to draft new laws on protests and access to social media. 

 The Lancet said in a report toxic air killed 1.67 million Indians, the deaths accounting for 18% of all fatalities.

Air pollution led to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, respiratory infections, lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neonatal disorders and cataracts.

New Delhi is the world’s most polluted capital. Kolkata and Mumbai are also on the list of the world’s 20 worst polluted cities. 

Pollution deaths in India rose to 1.67 million in 2019 -Lancet | Reuters

 The United Kingdom is set to likely have the largest population decline since WWII, according to a new study.

As many as 1.3 million migrants born abroad left the UK in just over a year – from July 2019 to September 2020 and the UK’s Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) think-tank said it was an “unprecedented exodus” driven by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. London had lost nearly eight percent (700,000) of its population in a little more than 14 months.

The study noted a high number of job losses in sectors that rely heavily on workers from abroad, such as hospitality.

“It seems that much of the burden of job losses during the pandemic has fallen on non-UK workers and that has manifested itself in return migration, rather than unemployment,” the study’s authors said. But a number of people who left the UK last year explained the pandemic was not the biggest factor in their decision to relocate. Instead, they said, it was mainly the country’s exit from the European Union.

The ESCoE study’s authors said the exodus may be temporary, suggesting some could return when the pandemic eases.

“But it may not,” they cautioned, noting a permanent drop in London especially would have “profound” implications.

“Big shifts in population trends in London, driven by economic changes and events, are by no means historically unprecedented,” they wrote. “Inner London’s population shrank by fully 20 percent in the 1970s, so the recent picture of sustained growth driven by international migration is relatively recent.”

‘Unprecedented exodus’: Why are migrant workers leaving the UK? | Migration News | Al Jazeera

The Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, added more than $70bn to his net worth during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, which is now nearly $185bn. Amazon’s sales have soared. Profits and stockholder shares have risen through 2020 by billions of dollars, but Amazon has only provided a fraction of those extra earnings in hazard pay and bonuses to workers. Amazon ended hazard pay in June 2020, and instead have provided sporadic one-time bonuses to workers during the pandemic. On average, Amazon workers have seen a $0.99-an-hour pay bump during the pandemic, compared with Bezos’s hourly wealth increase of $11.7m.

Workers at Amazon and Amazon-owned grocery chain Whole Foods have protested against unsafe working conditions and the pressures to keep up with demand. Several workers who participated in or led protests at Amazon over working conditions have alleged they were fired in retaliation and Amazon is fighting federal complaints alleging at least two of the firings violated US labor laws.

“What they considered hazard pay was just for show,” said an Amazon warehouse employee in Baltimore, Maryland who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “We couldn’t see a difference unless we were willing to work almost 60 hours a week. Several of us had no choice because we’re the breadwinners of our family. It’s infuriating that we live in fear every day because of minimal efforts to protect us, while executives take in tons of money while sitting safely at home.”

Jessica Oneto, a Whole Foods employee for four years in Redwood City, California, said, “They gave us hazard pay for maybe a couple months. It was only $2 and they literally took it away as the pandemic got worse. One of the biggest companies couldn’t afford to keep it up?”

Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla Motors, saw his wealth surge by more than $140bn during the coronavirus pandemic and surpassed Bezos as the wealthiest person in the world with a total net worth of $195bn. Tesla’s share prices have soared during the coronavirus pandemic, but workers for the company have been subjected to a Covid-19 outbreak at the Fremont, California, plant earlier this year when Musk defied local shutdown orders to reopen the plant and restart production. Musk sent out an internal email to all employees implying they would lose unemployment benefits if they didn’t show up to work in defiance of the order, and at least two workers who took unpaid leave due to coronavirus fears for themselves and at-risk family members received termination notices for not showing up to work. Salaried employees at Tesla had their pay reduced by 10% to 30% from mid-April to the end of June 2020.

“While people in cubicles stay home to work, we can’t do that and we don’t get any hazard pay,” said a Tesla employee at the Fremont plant. “Nothing has changed. Musk can afford to do so much more and he doesn’t. I find it sickening to see how much Elon Musk’s wealth has grown while we take all the risks. All we get is a ‘thank you so much’ email.”

Another Tesla employee in Fremont cited ongoing mistreatment toward Black workers at Tesla amid several lawsuits alleging discrimination at Tesla.

“Musk has not once addressed this issue in his workplace or supported Black Lives Matter,” said the worker. “No hazard pay or bonus. They gave all regular workers their regular raise, but being that I’m maxed out at my position I didn’t get anything.”

Bill Gates has seen his wealth increase by nearly $18bn through 2020, to $131bn. Though his initial fortune stems from co-founding Microsoft, Gates’s net worth has continued to climb through investments; his trust owns significant holdings in companies such as Amazon and his investment company Cascade Investments holds a more than 34% stake in the waste management company Republic Services. During the pandemic, Republic Services approved $2bn in stock buybacks and paid out $387.1m in dividends to shareholders, but the company’s sanitation workers have not received any hazard pay or bonuses.

“They gave us a couple $25 gift cards early in April or May but that was it,” said Yogi Miller, a sanitation worker for Republic Services in the Akron, Ohio, area. “During this time, workers would like to see a little bump in their pay as many people have spouses who have been laid off during this and now they’re a one income family. If we stopped picking up trash for a week or two, people would realize how essential it is the work we do.”

Billionaires add $1tn to net worth during pandemic as their workers struggle | Coronavirus | The Guardian

 Profits Going Viral

Capital’s driven to make capital,

It must pursue profit unerringly;

Whatever the need, nothing’s for free

As profit views need as a very poor pal

Unless there’s a balance to settle the bill.

Then comes a pandemic, when society

Takes preference over economy:

There’s no profit if the workforce is ill.

Big pharma has to take a deep, deep breath,

Produce a vaccine before all is lost

And allow it to be given at cost,

Or the bottom line’s not-for-profit death.

But time will come for accumulation,

With year on year of virus mutation.

D. A.

 Despite all the friendly PR and promotion of fair trade there is little evidence efforts by the world’s top coffee roasters and traders to prevent human rights and environmental abuses are having any impact, with most farmers operating at a loss and unable to produce sustainably, a major coffee report said.

The coffee sector is valued at $200-250 billion a year at the retail level, according to the report, but producing countries receive less than 10% of that value when exporting beans, and farmers even less than that.

Coffee is grown on roughly 12.5 million farms globally, about 95% of which are labour intensive smallholdings that usually employ an entire farming family as well as seasonal workers. Coffee, in other words, provides a livelihood for tens of millions of people worldwide.

“Smallholder farmers are under constant pressure to cut costs, especially those related to labour and the environment,” said the report.

Peru estimates 25% of deforestation in the country is linked to coffee production.

Little evidence coffee companies’ sustainability efforts have impact: report | Reuters

The UN has warned that millions of people around the world are facing disaster from flood, droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather, as governments fail to take the measures needed to adapt to the impacts of climate breakdown. 

Nearly three-quarters of countries around the world have recognised the need to plan for the effects of global heating, but few of those plans are adequate to the rising threat, and little funding has been made available to put them into force, according to the UN environment programme’s Adaptation report 2020.

Spending on measures to adapt to extreme weather has failed to keep pace with the rising need, according to UNEP. Only about $30bn (£22bn) is provided each year in development aid, to help poor countries cope with the effects of the climate crisis, which is less than half of the $70bn currently estimated to be needed. Those costs are set to increase further, to between $140bn and $300bn by the end of the decade.

About half of global climate finance should be devoted to adaptation, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has said, with the rest going to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, while private companies are often willing to provide funding for some projects to reduce emissions, such as profitable renewable energy generation schemes in rapidly emerging economies, projects that help people adapt to the impact of climate change, such as early warning systems, flood barriers or storm drains, are often more difficult to finance.

Many countries will also struggle to find the resources for climate adaptation because of the coronavirus pandemic, the UN warned. The economic impacts of Covid-19 have pushed adaptation further down the political agenda across the world, while in the longer term the consequences of the pandemic are likely to put additional pressures on public finances, and “might change national and donor priorities in support of climate action”. 

Yet if countries were to prioritise a “green recovery” in their Covid-19 economic stimulus packages, they could help to solve many of these problems, UNEP noted. Economic studies have shown that measures to increase resilience to the impacts of the climate crisis – including planting trees, building flood barriers, restoring natural landscapes and protecting and updating infrastructure such as transport and communications networks – can all provide “shovel-ready” jobs of the kind needed to lift economies out of recession. That opportunity will be missed if countries stick to the economic rescue packages announced to date, which so far have failed to focus on a green recovery.

Countries adapting too slowly to climate breakdown, UN warns | Climate change | The Guardian