Capo di Tutto Capis

Two mobsters holed up, each in his own fastness,

Like Moran on the North Side and Capone

In the South. There’s the Bear who claims to own

The East, while the one who’s tame hoods address

As the Eagle, keeps the West Side firmly

In his grip through the protection racket

He runs. Each of them knows what to expect

Straying on the other’s territory,

But both harbour an insistent desire

To encroach, snatching at their rival’s patch,

Utterly careless, in the plans they hatch,

Of bloody casualties caught in their crossfire.

Each feels exalted on his lofty perch,

Loved by his people and blessed by his Church.

D. A.

The black cloud of war darkens the sky across the world. Working peoples feel the growing danger of a new world war. The threat of global war  arises inevitably out of the very nature of capitalism — the ownership of the means of production by a small capitalist class and the complete domination of government by this class. The imminent war danger is only another expression of the fundamental crisis of the capitalist system, which continues its existence only at the cost of intensification of exploitation and oppression.

The ever-sharpening conflict between the superpowers, NATO and Russia, the continuing acts of aggression and the very real possibility of a nuclear world war is a fact which cannot be ignored. A key part of both sides preparations includes an ever-increasing effort to sway public opinion. To accomplish this they are waging an ideological and political battle of ideas which takes many forms. Beyond the more obvious back and forth saber-rattling and ranting and ravings that of politicians they all talk of  intervention to protect “our” interests. It is not Putin’s imperialism or Biden/Zelensky’s fascism (or vice versa) that means war. Rather it is the continued existence of capitalism that means war. There can be no “good”, no “peace-loving” capitalist states. The interests of the working class within any country is never under any circumstances to patriotically defend “the nation” – that is, the political executive of the class enemy – but always to fight for its overthrow. 

A feature of the present war revolves around the question of “sanctions”. The United Nations provides that when a country has been deemed the aggressor against another member state, financial and trade embargo measures shall be – following an elaborate procedure – invoked by the other member states against the aggressor nation. These measures are called “sanctions”. It is a method for turning opposition to war into support of war. All that is necessary is to call the war an “application of sanctions”. Then it becomes the duty of all “friends of peace” to support it. This, indeed, is the real meaning of the doctrine of sanctions. UN sanctions are, of course, nothing else than sanctions undertaken by the leading member states of the UN which is only the instrument of its dominant members of the Security Council.

Support of  sanctions, therefore, is exactly the same as support of sanctions applied by individual nations – e.g., by USA, UK or EU. But sanctions are war measures. They include withdrawal of financial credit, a ban on trade, various forms of boycott. To enforce them genuinely would require a blockade of the country against whom the sanctions were invoked. The probable, the almost certain outcome of such a blockade, as history has so often proved, is war – since the blockaded nation cannot accept such a measure peacefully without surrendering political sovereignty. Thus it follows that sanctions must be either ineffectual – a bluff – or they must lead to war. If they are ineffectual, support of them is certainly no aid to peace . If they lead to possible more war, support of them – no matter with what verbal reservations – means nothing else than support of war undertaken by the governments applying the sanctions.

 Advocating sanctions in any form necessarily binds the working class to the state and the class enemy, necessarily weakens the class position of the workers and thus the workers’ struggle for power, and necessarily prepares for turning the workers over to the sanction-applying government when the sanctions find their natural outcome in war. If we support sanctions, and the sanctions lead to war, then we have already by supporting the sanctions supported the war. The disastrous consequences of support of sanctions are already apparent with a global cost of living crisis.

The Socialist Party is  not afraid of war but our war is against this capitalist system and all the wars and pain that it creates. The Marxist knows that we can never “use” capitalist governments for the interests of the working class, because what these governments are is instruments to be “used” for the interests of the ruling class. On the contrary, we must always fight inexorably against governments and their actions.

 18 million people – about one-third of Myanmar’s population – need humanitarian aid this year because of civil war and the post-coup economic crisis, according to the latest United Nations estimates.

The numbers needing support continue to rise from the estimated 14 million people needing aid last year. 

More than 10,000 people were displaced by fighting in southern Kayin State in early January alone, joining more than 1.5 million IDPs across the country.

Aid workers accuse the junta of further restricting aid operations and blocking urgently needed aid from reaching millions of people. The junta is seeking to impose its authority with a new law making registration compulsory for national and international non-governmental organizations and associations and introducing criminal penalties for non-registered entities with up to five years of imprisonment.

James Rodehaver, chief of the UN Human Rights Office for South-East Asia (OHCHR) Myanmar Team, said, “These new rules could greatly diminish what operational space is left for civic organisations to deliver essential goods and services to a population that is struggling to survive.”

It is able to choke access to some areas controlled by resistance groups and ethnic armed organisations that have been fighting the military for decades. The junta has extended a state of emergency for another six months.

“Heavy fighting, including airstrikes, tight security, access restrictions, and threats against aid workers have continued unabated, particularly in the Southeast, endangering lives and hampering humanitarian operations,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.

UN Hobbled by Junta and Under Pressure Over Myanmar Aid Crisis | Inter Press Service (ipsnews.net)

 “This senseless war has reverberated across the world. Higher costs of food and fuel as a result have deepened misery on a global scale, especially among those who were already the most vulnerable. This war, which is a blatant affront to the UN Charter and the whole body of international law built to protect human beings everywhere, and its vast human toll must end now. ”- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,  Volker Türk

hrmmu-civilian-casualties-24feb2022-15feb2023-ru.pdf (ohchr.org) – Report in Russian

hrmmu-civilian-casualties-24feb2022-15feb2023-ua.pdf (ohchr.org) – Report in Ukrainian

hrmmu-civilian-casualties-24feb2022-15feb2023-en.pdf (ohchr.org) – Report in English

An open letter to the prime minister, home secretary and other cabinet and shadow cabinet ministers, signed by groups including the Community Policy Forum, Refugee Council, and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, claims that the government has continually failed to “adequately address the dangers posed by Islamophobia and racism against vulnerable people seeking protection and racialised communities in the UK”.

The letter added: “With government ministers continuing to promote incendiary language labelling asylum seekers with harmful stereotypes and painting them as unworthy of sanctuary, there must be accountability for their role in normalising and tacitly endorsing the threats that asylum seekers now face.”

The letter argues that the report on the government’s counter-extremism programme Prevent by William Shawcross that the programme had focused disproportionately on the far right and not enough on Islamist extremism,  made use of “incomplete and skewed evidence to minimise the threat of the far right,” and called on the government to reject the recommendations of the Shawcross review.

The letter also referenced the far-right demonstrators who gathered in Knowsley to protest against asylum seekers who had been housed in a local hotel by the Home Office.

 “The response to the violence and intimidation directed at refugees in Knowsley has highlighted the normalised far-right hatred in the UK,” it reads.

Fizza Qureshi, the chief executive of the Migrants’ Rights Network and one of the letter’s signatories, said: “The lack of acknowledgment about the role Islamophobia and racism played in the Knowsley riot is shocking but unfortunately unsurprising. At the Migrants’ Rights Network, we have been warning about the devastating impact hostile rhetoric and ideas can have on refugees and migrants for some time, and how it has emboldened the far right…”

Government has failed to address UK’s far-right threat, says open letter | Far right | The Guardian

  The government has so far focused on addressing early retirement, with the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, urging the over-50s to get off the golf course.

The sharp rise in economic inactivity – when working-age adults are neither in work nor looking for a job – is more likely to be driven by people waiting for treatment as the health service struggles to cope, as well as by people who permanently live in poorer health, according to the consultancy LCP. 

“There is a real risk of the government barking up the wrong tree when it comes to the growth in economic inactivity,” the report says.

Sir Steve Webb, the former pensions minister who co-authored the LCP report, said rising long-term sickness was much more significant.

“We were gobsmacked by what we found. It turns out there are fewer earlier retired today than at the start of the pandemic. You wouldn’t believe that from ministers’ speeches and talk of getting people back off the golf course,”

Official figures published last week showed early retirement explains none of the increase in inactivity since the start of the pandemic. While the number of people who are economically inactive is more than half a million higher than in February 2020, the number who have quit the labour market due to retirement has fallen.

The number of “long-term sick” has risen by more than 350,000 since the start of the pandemic, accounting for more than half of the growth in inactivity over that period.

“This could reflect NHS pressures as those who would otherwise have been treated or had their chronic condition better managed and able to work now find themselves ‘long-term sick’ as they wait for treatment or live permanently in poorer health,” the report says.

UK ‘barking up wrong tree’ trying to get over-50s back to work, report finds | Staff shortages | The Guardian

 To minimise the effects of its labour shortage experts have estimated that Germany would need 400,000 foreigners per year to close the widening gap within the next decade or so. 

At the moment, only about 60,000 people are coming via the government’s skilled immigration programs.

Is Germany’s skilled-labor shortage a myth? – DW – 02/21/2023

 The United Kingdom will continue to support a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes in international sporting events, including at next year’s Olympics, the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, has said.  More than 30 nations, including the UK, the United States, France and Germany, have pledged their support for the ban to stay in place while the war continues.

 Russian athletes must suffer for the sins of their government in a way that others do not. 

The banning of Saudi athletes has never been seriously proposed, despite the terror inflicted on Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights abuses, and the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Israel has also avoided such bans, despite its persecution of Palestinians.

In response to a 2021 attempt by Malaysia to restrict Israeli athletes from participating in the world squash championships, International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued a letter that stated, “Countries that bar athletes from other countries will not be allowed to host international sports championships.” 

 The IOC has thus far stood by Russian athletes’ right to participate.

 Committee president, Thomas Bach, has responded, “It is not up to governments to decide who can take part in which sports competitions because this would be the end of international sports competitions and world championships and the Olympic Games as we know it.” 

The Committee maintains Russian participation may need to take place under a neutral flag, however. If that were the case, it would be logical to ban Saudi and Israeli flags also. Such an action would signal that all war crimes deserve condemnation.

US Is Pushing Olympics to Exclude Russia, But What About Its Own War Crimes? – Truthout

 Nearly 40% of people end the month with no money left, while 24% run out of money for essentials either most months or most days. Even among the 10 most affluent constituencies in the UK, 19% of people said they found themselves unable to pay for food or bills by the end of most months.

Overall, 6% of people told the charities’ survey they could not pay for essentials most days, rising to 11% in the most deprived areas. Sixty-seven per cent said the UK government was “not doing enough” to address the cost of living crisis. The poll questioned people in the 100 most deprived and 100 least deprived constituencies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Matthew McGregor, the chief executive of 38 Degrees, a charity that organises campaigning petitions, said: “This polling paints a bleak picture of the crisis unfolding across the country: families running out of money to put food on the table and keep kids warm is rapidly becoming our new normal.”

The Office for National Statistics released figures on Monday showing that more than half of renters would not be able to afford an unexpected £850 bill, prompting calls for ministers to unfreeze housing benefit, which is stuck at 2020 levels.

Macmillan Cancer Support separately warned that cancer patients were resorting to selling possessions and using loan sharks to make ends meet. In findings it described as “heartbreaking”, the charity said a third of patients had been buying or eating less food, and 22% had been spending more time in bed to stay warm.

 The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced on Monday free school meals to all children for all primary schools in the capital.

Quarter of UK households regularly run out of money for essentials, survey says | UK cost of living crisis | The Guardian

 Successive governments have used environmental concerns to justify ramping up their war on drugs, but the research shows that in 2018 the amount of forest cleared to cultivate coca, the base ingredient of cocaine, was only 1/60th of that used for cattle.

Cattle-ranching, not cocaine, has driven the destruction of the Colombian Amazon over the last four decades, a new study has found. As the government has engaged in a game of whack-a-mole with coca farmers, the real driver of deforestation, cattle farming, has been allowed to swallow up vast swathes of land, the authors argue.

The findings vindicate conservation experts who have long argued that Colombia’s strategy to conserve the Amazon – often centered on combating coca production – has been misplaced.

“We want to finally eradicate this narrative that coca is the driver of deforestation,” said Paulo Murillo-Sandoval at the University of Tolima.

Deforestation spiked after the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) signed a peace agreement with the government in 2016 and laid down their weapons. As the rebels came out of the jungle, land-grabbers took advantage, clearing trees with chainsaws and burning vast areas. 

Deforestation reached a record high of 219,973 hectares (543,565 acres) in 2017, up 23% from the previous year. While cattle ranches cleared more than 3m hectares (7.4m acres) of Amazon rainforest in 2018, coca’s impact was negligible. Only 45,000 hectares (111,200 acres) were cleared for coca in 2018, the latest year available in the study.

The figures show that previous governments have used the environment as a false justification to wage war on coca farmers, said Angelica Rojas, liaison officer for Guaviare state at the Foundation for Conservation and Sustainable Development, a Colombian environmental thinktank.

“They didn’t want to prevent deforestation, they just wanted to justify spending more money and resources on their real political goal: eliminating coca.”

The study also adds to evidence that despite lives being sacrificed and billions of dollars being spent, Colombia’s “war on drugs” has failed to halt coca production – and in some cases it may have even made it worse.

When farmers have their crops eradicated they simply establish new plots, often just a few kilometres deeper into the forest canopy, Murillo said. “The war on drugs started 40 years ago now, yet everyone knows where coca is: in the same place they have always been.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro is buying up millions of hectares of land to give to farmers.

Cattle, not coca, drive deforestation of the Amazon in Colombia – report | Deforestation | The Guardian