“…Imperialism is not the creation of any one or any one group of states. It is the product of a particular stage of ripeness in the world development of capital, an innately international condition, an indivisible whole, that is recognizable only in its relationships, and from which no nation can voluntarily withdraw. From this point of view only is it possible to understand the question of “national defense” in the present war correctly…”

A reminder from the German Marxist in 1918, Karl Liebknecht, about the rights of a nation to self-defence from invasion. 

” ‘But, since we have been unable to prevent the war, since it has come in spite of us, and our country is facing invasion, shall we leave our country defenseless? Shall we deliver it into the hands of the enemy? Does not Socialism demand the right of nations to determine their own destinies? Does it not mean that every people is justified, nay more, in duty bound, to protect its liberties, its independence? When the house is on fire, shall we not first try to put out the blaze before stopping to ascertain the incendiary?’ “

These arguments have been repeated, again and again…But there is one thing that the fireman on the burning house has forgotten: that in the mouth of a Socialist the phrase “defending one’s fatherland” cannot mean playing the role of cannon fodder under the command of an imperialistic bourgeoisie. Is an invasion really the horror of all horrors, before which all class conflict within the country must subside as though spellbound by some supernatural witchcraft? Has not the history of modern capitalist society shown that in the eyes of capitalist society, foreign invasion is by no means the unmitigated terror as which it is generally painted…”

“…In capitalist history, invasion and class struggle are not opposites, as the official legend would have us believe, but one is the means and the expression of the other. Just as invasion is the true and tried weapon in the hands of capital against the class struggle, so on the other hand the fearless pursuit of the class struggle has always proven the most effective preventative of foreign invasions…The centuries have proved that not the state of seige, but relentless class struggle is the power that awakens the spirit of self-sacrifice, the moral strength of the masses, that the class struggle is the best protection and the best defense against a foreign enemy…”

“…It is true Socialism gives to every people the right of independence and freedom, of independent control of its own destinies. But it is a veritable perversion of Socialism to regard present day capitalist society as the expression of this self-determination of nations. Where is there a nation in which the people have had the right to determine the form and conditions of its national, political and social existence…”

“…But what action should the party have taken to give to our opposition to the war and to our war demands weight and emphasis? Should it have proclaimed a general strike? Should it have called upon the soldiers to refuse military service? Thus the question is generally asked. To answer with a simple yes or no were exactly as ridiculous as to decide ‘when war breaks out we will make a revolution.’ Revolutions are not ‘made’ and great movements of the people are not produced according to technical recipes that repose in the pockets of the party leaders…What the Social Democracy as the advance guard of the class-conscious proletariat should have been able to give was not ridiculous precepts and technical recipes, but a political slogan, clearness concerning the political problems and interests of the proletariat in times of war…The voice of our party would have acted as a wet blanket upon the chauvinistic intoxication of the masses. It would have preserved the intelligent proletariat from delirium, would have made it more difficult for Imperialism to poison and to stupefy the minds of the people…“

“…as the horror of endless massacre and bloodshed in all countries grew and grew, as its imperialistic hoof became more and more evident, as the exploitation of bloodthirsty speculators became more and more shameless…Peace sentiments would have spread like wildfire and the popular demand for peace in all countries would have hastened the end of the slaughter…”

Karl Liebknecht: Self-Determination of Nations and Self-Defense (marxists.org)

Bankers’ bonuses have doubled since the 2008 financial crash, according the TUC. It accuses the government of enriching City financiers while “holding down” the pay of key workers.

Bonuses in finance and the insurance sector have reached a record £20,000 a year on average – which it says is almost one-and-a-half times the average pay collected by teaching assistants.

Average City bonuses increased by 101% in cash terms between 2008 and 2022, prior to the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announcing plans last month to scrap the bankers’ bonus cap.

“Everyone who works for a living deserves to earn a decent living, but ministers are holding down the pay of millions of key workers, while lining the pockets of City financiers,” said Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC. “There is simply no justification for lifting the cap on bankers’ bonuses – especially when nurses and teaching assistants are having to use food banks to get by. The City is already a millionaire’s playground. It doesn’t need another helping hand from the Conservatives,” she added. “Ministers should be clamping down on this greedy bonus culture by putting workers on company pay boards and introducing maximum pay ratios.”

O’Grady said that instead of “featherbedding the 1%”, the government needed to act fast to increase wages across the economy.

 “That means boosting the minimum wage to £15 an hour as soon as possible, funding decent pay rises for all public sector workers and introducing fair pay agreements for whole industries,” she said. “But this is a government on the side of the super-rich – not working people.”

There are 3,519 bankers working in the UK making more than €1m (£880,000) a year, according to the European Banking Authority (EBA). That is more than seven times as many as in Germany, which has the second-highest number of €1m-a-year bankers. The latest EBA figures show 27 UK bankers were paid more than €10m in 2019, while two UK-based asset managers received between €38m and €39m, and one merchant banker was paid €64.8m. The merchant banker received a fixed salary of €242,000, topped up with a bonus of €64.6m.

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, said: “Some companies in banking and insurance have been profiteering on the back of inflation after already making massive profits year on year. Now this government has removed the cap on mega-bonuses for bankers that was meant to help prevent us having to pay for another crash like 2008.”

Bankers’ bonuses double since 2008 crash, TUC study finds | Executive pay and bonuses | The Guardian

 The 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI) brings us face to face with a grim reality. The toxic cocktail of conflict, climate change, and the COVID-19 pandemic had already left millions exposed to food price shocks and vulnerable to further crises. Now the conflict in Ukraine—with its knock-on effects on global supplies of and prices for food, fertilizer, and fuel—is turning a crisis into a catastrophe. But the speed and severity of the global food crisis reflect the fact that millions of people were already living on the precarious edge of hunger—a legacy of past failures to build more just, sustainable, and resilient food systems.

 Hunger is at alarming levels in 5 countries—Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, and Yemen— and is provisionally considered *alarming *in 4 additional countries— Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria. In a further 35 countries, hunger is considered serious. 

2022 Global Hunger Index: Food systems transformation and local governance [EN/DE] – World | ReliefWeb

  An analysis released today by Action Against Hunger,shows only 7% of appeals for urgent hunger-related funding through the UN humanitarian system are filled, leaving a hunger funding gap of 93%, according to “The Hunger Funding Gap: How The World Is Failing to Stop the Crisis.” The study examined 13 countries that experienced “crisis” levels of hunger or worse in 2020, and how the global community responded with funding in 2021. 

The majority (61%) of hunger-related appeals were not even funded to the halfway point.  Greater hunger levels don’t necessarily lead to greater levels of funding or media attention. In fact, countries where the hunger crisis was greatest actually received less hunger funding.

 828 million people — one in ten worldwide — are undernourished and as many as 50 million people in 45 countries are on the verge of famine. 

The climate crisis, war, and soaring inflation are impacting farmers’ ability to grow food and families’ ability to afford what little is available. These factors also are driving up the costs for humanitarian organizations to secure and transport supplies, contributing to a growing hunger crisis in many parts of the world.

The Hunger Funding Gap: How the World is Failing to Stop the Crisis – World | ReliefWeb

 United Nations experts joined people across the globe on Monday in marking the 20th World Day Against the Death Penalty by calling for an end to capital punishment. Despite more than 170 states having repealed the death penalty or adopted moratoriums, there was a reported 20% increase in the number of executions last year. At least 579 people were killed by 18 countries that used four methods: beheading, hanging, lethal injection, and shooting.

“Abolition of the death penalty is the only viable path,” asserted Alice Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

Morris Tidball-Binz, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, stated, “The death row phenomenon has long been characterized as a form of inhuman treatment, as has the near total isolation of those convicted of capital crimes and often held in unlawful solitary confinement,”

UN Experts Say Abolishing Death Penalty ‘Is the Only Viable Path’ (commondreams.org)

  Education is a fundamental right for every child according to Article 28 of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child 

The report Fixing a Broken System: Transforming Education Financing by Save the Children revealed that 1 in 3 of the world’s poorest nations spends more on paying off debt to wealthy countries and investors than on educating its own children.

It shows that 21 out of 70 low- and lower-middle-income countries with available data spent more on external debt repayment than on education in 2020.

 According to the publication, interest payments are expected to account for an average of 10% of the annual budget in this category of countries by 2024, up from 7% in 2015.

“Education systems desperately need more and better funding across low- and lower-middle-income countries. Instead, they are being gutted to service unmanageable debts,” Hollie Warren, Save the Children U.K.’s head of global education policy and advocacy, said in a statement. “It is wrong that the world’s poorest children are having to suffer because of a debt crisis that was not of their making,” she continued. 

Nearly 1 in 3 children in low-income countries still do not finish primary school.

1 in 3 of World’s Poorest Countries Spend More on Debt Repayments Than Education (commondreams.org)

 “Time is not on our side, and our climate is changing before our eyes. We need a complete transformation of the global energy system,” 

World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Prof Petteri Taalas.

2022 State of Climate Services: Energy – World | ReliefWeb

Scientists believe we are living through the sixth mass extinction – the largest loss of life on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs.

Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment, as capitalism continues to clear forests, consume beyond the limits of the planet and pollute on an industrial scale.

From the open ocean to tropical rainforests, the abundance of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles is in freefall, declining on average by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2018, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet Report. The Living Planet Index combines global analysis of 32,000 populations of 5,230 animal species to measure changes in the abundance of wildlife across continents and taxa, producing a graph akin to a stock index of life on Earth.

Latin America and the Caribbean region – including the Amazon – have seen the steepest decline in average wildlife population size, with a 94% drop in 48 years.

Robin Freeman, head of the indicators and assessments unit at ZSL, said,  “In order to see any bending of the curve of biodiversity loss … it’s not just about conservation it’s about changing production and consumption…”

 Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF-UK, said: “ This report tells us that the worst declines are in the Latin America region, home to the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon. Deforestation rates there are accelerating, stripping this unique ecosystem not just of trees but of the wildlife that depends on them and of the Amazon’s ability to act as one of our greatest allies in the fight against climate change.” Steele continued, “Despite the science, the catastrophic projections, the impassioned speeches and promises, the burning forests, submerged countries, record temperatures and displaced millions, world leaders continue to sit back and watch our world burn in front of our eyes. She added, “The climate and nature crises, their fates entwined, are not some faraway threat our grandchildren will solve with still-to-be-discovered technology.”

Africa had the second largest fall at 66%, followed by Asia and the Pacific with 55% and North America at 20%. Europe and Central Asia experienced an 18% fall. The UK has only 50% of its biodiversity richness compared with historical levels, according to the biodiversity intactness index, making it one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Land use change is still the most important driver of biodiversity loss across the planet, according to the report. Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF-UK, said: “At a global level, primarily the declines we are seeing are driven by the loss and fragmentation of habitat driven by the global agricultural system and its expansion into intact habitat converting it to produce food.” 

Researchers describe the increased difficulty animals are having moving through terrestrial landscapes as they are blocked by infrastructure and farmland. Only 37% of rivers longer than 1,000km (600 miles) remain free-flowing along their entire length, while just 10% of the world’s protected areas on land are connected.

Almost 70% of animal populations wiped out since 1970, report reveals | Wildlife | The Guardian

 Germany is one of the richest countries in the world, yet signs of increasing poverty are becoming increasingly visible across the country. Homeless people sleeping rough, mothers forgoing meals in order to feed their children, pensioners looking for discarded bottles to trade for the deposit.

As inflation skyrockets in Germany, more and more people will find themselves unable to make ends meet without assistance. It is becoming increasingly difficult for many to afford bread, milk, fruit, and vegetables, which are over 12% more expensive than they were a year ago. In 2020, around 1.1 million people made use of food banks. That number is now closer to 2 million.

According to the Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband, Germany’s umbrella organization for welfare organizations, 13.8 million Germans either live in poverty or are at risk of slipping below the poverty line. 

The term poverty in this context does not mean that millions of people in Germany are at risk of starving or freezing to death. Instead, it refers to relative poverty, which is measured by the average living conditions of the society in question.

In 2021, Germany was ranked the 20th richest country in the world, measured by GDP per capita. This means that if you add up the value of all the goods and commodities produced in a country and divide the figure by the number of inhabitants, you get $50,700 (€52,200) per person per year in Germany on average. By comparison, that number is $136,700 in Luxembourg, the world’s richest country, and $270 in the poorest, Burundi.

In Europe, although relatively few people live in absolute poverty, millions are affected by poverty relative to the national average. This means they live with severe material restrictions, and can only make ends meet by restricting their lifestyles in a way that the majority of the population takes for granted. In the EU, a person is considered to be at risk of poverty or poor if their income is less than 60% of the median in their respective country. If it is less than 50%, it is considered extreme poverty. For Germany, this means that single people who make less than €1,148 in net income a month are considered below the poverty line. For single parents with one child, that figure is €1,492, and for a household of two parents and two children, €2,410.

Anyone in Germany who cannot find a job, or is unable to work, receives basic social security — a system still known colloquially as Hartz IV. This money is meant to cover basic living expenses such as rent, heating, and water, and well as health insurance. Under this system, individuals and single parents have only €449 a month for food, clothing, household goods, personal hygiene products, and bills such as the internet, telephone, and electricity. For each child, a parent or a couple receive between €285 and €376, depending on age. Hartz IV and other public welfare programs have been repeatedly criticized in Germany for covering only the barest of necessities. In response to this, the federal government has proposed raising the standard rate to €503 per month, beginning in 2023, and changing the name to Bürgergeld, or “citizens’ money.”

However, according to social scientist and poverty researcher Christoph Butterwege, even that will be far from enough. Butterwege told DW that at least €650 is necessary for people to live “with dignity” and, for example, to eat healthy food for every meal. Under the current system, only €5 per person per day is earmarked for food, leaving poorer households to either buy less food or food of lesser quality.

Poverty is also on the rise amongst the elderly. Even after decades of work, a monthly pension is often not enough to cover all expenses. Women in particular are feeling the strain, as they are more likely to have worked part-time and been paid less. According to a new study from the Bertelsmann Foundation, old-age poverty is expected to affect 20% of Germans by 2036. People with pension payments below a certain threshold are allowed to claim government assistance. However, many shy away from doing so out of a reluctance to be seen as needy. Studies show that two-thirds of those entitled to claim benefits are ashamed to do so. Older people often prefer to try to work longer, or collect cans and bottles with a refundable deposit from rubbish bins, in order to put a few more euros in their wallets.

 The number of people who cannot live on their income despite having a full-time job is also rising — even with a recent increase in the minimum wage. At €12 per hour, a single person with no children who works 40 hours a week would receive a net income of around €1,480 per month. Although this is nominally above the poverty line, the excess has been eaten up by inflation.

Students are also greatly affected by the situation, especially recipients of federal funding. These students receive a maximum of €934 a month, which includes money for housing and health insurance. This amount puts students well below the poverty line.

Life in Germany will remain expensive for the foreseeable future, and this will be felt above all by those who have no financial buffers and little savings.

Germany: What poverty looks like in a rich country | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 10.10.2022