SA Pubic Hospital Electricians and Plumbers Strike Against Downer Group, A Profiteer Raiding the Public Purse.

(Photo source:  CEPU  SA  Facebook page)

 Written by: Ned K. on 17 February 2023

 On Friday 17 February Electricians and Plumbers, members of the CEPU, took 24-hour strike action against their employer, Downer Group. 

The strike followed Downer Group's enterprise agreement pay offer of 4% in the first year and 3% for each of the next three years in a four-year Agreement. With inflation running at 7-8% and rising interest rates, workers saw the pay offer as an insult. The small pay offer came after Downer delayed progress in negotiations for months and after the Downer Corporation made $152 million after tax profit last year. 

To add insult to injury, Downer Group, after delaying negotiations, refused to back pay their wage offer to when the existing Agreement nominally expired in October 2022. Workers have not received a wage increase since November 2021.

These CEPU members provide maintenance services not only to the Royal Adelaide Hospital but also to the nearby Adelaide metropolitan railway service and the University of Adelaide.

All three of these public services - hospital, railways and the university - outsourced or privatized their maintenance service crews to Downer Group which sometimes trades under the more widely known name of Spotless Services.

Over a number of years, both Liberal and Labor Governments privatized maintenance and other services in various guises. Sometimes they called it outsourcing, sometimes privatization and then the more deceptive method of Public Private Partnership.

The current strike is by CEPU members employed by the Downer Group at the Royal Adelaide Hospital to provide services to that hospital.

The Royal Adelaide Hospital non-medical services are operated by a company called Celsus. 

Celsus is a private consortium whose major shareholders include Spotless Services which is now wholly owned by the Downer Group! Other major shareholders of Celsus include Hansen Yuncken, AMP Capital, Infrared Capital and DXT Technologies (formerly Hewlett Packard).

Celsus operate the hospital until 2046 under a Public Private Partnership with the SA Government. Under this deal, the SA Government have to pay back Celsus $1 million a day until 1946 when the hospital is meant to become fully public again,

By 2046, the hospital will be in need of major upgrade and suffer from the hospital being run for profit by Celsus since 2016.

In 2018 the Spotless Service arm of the Celsus said that the Royal Adelaide Hospital part of the broader Downer Group (of which Spotless was a part) was " a cash negative underperforming contract"!

In plain English Downer Group were saying that they wanted profits out of operating the hospital and if no profits, why stay in the contract!

So it is clear that Downer's measly wage offer to CEPU members on strike is about the class struggle in the economic arena of profits vs wages.

The fact that Downer Group made $152 million profit last year is not mentioned by them now.

There is good reason though to question Downer Group's claim that they make no profit from the hospital contract. The Group, through Spotless Services, also provides catering, cleaning and security services at the hospital under their contract with Celsus. Over the last few years, Spotless have reduced staffing levels, increased workloads and subcontracted out security services to reduce labour costs (to increase profits). They have also employed more casuals and labour hire casuals.

Another reason to question Downer's claims about not making a profit from the hospital services contract is the past practices of Spotless Services in SA Government contracts.

Under the SA Labor Governments of Rann and Weatherill from 2002 to 2018, Spotless had an Across Government Facilities Management Contract to manage the facilities at a range of government sectors including CBD buildings, schools and TAFEs to name a few.

The contract was worth $400 million per year for 9 years and probably indexed each year.

In 2015 a government audit found that Spotless had breached its contract in a number of areas including "overcharging estimated at greater than $500,000 a year"!

Despite this the government proceeded with the Spotless/Downer being part of the Celsus Consortium that won the Public Private Partnership for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and still maintains Spotless as a major government preferred facilities management company.

Premier Malinauskas says that the fundamentals of the Public Private Partnership at the major public hospital in Adalaide are rock solid!

With the Downer Group complaining about not making enough profit from the hospital, the public of South Australia are left wondering what lies ahead. Will the whole Consortium come tumbling down or is the hard line on wages by the Downer Group in the current enterprise agreement negotiations with the CEPU an indication it is about to get out of the hospital services contract and sell it off to another profiteer!

Given the precarious situation, the CEPU members and all the workers in the hospital deserve widespread support for the hard work they do.

The rallying cry should be Make Downer and Celsus Pay! Return The Hospital To Public Hands!

 

US planes likely bringing nuclear weapons into Australia.

(Above: USAF B-52 bomber   Photo credit Przemyslaw Burdzinski  on Creative Commons Flickr)anti

 Written by: Nick G. on 15 February 2023

 Yesterday a Senate Estimates committee was told that Australia allows US Air Force planes to enter Australia even though they may be carrying nuclear weapons.

In a contradictory statement, Defence Department Secretary Greg Moriarty said that while the stationing of nuclear weapons in Australia was prohibited under the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, Australia does not require the US to confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons on its “platforms” – planes, ships and submarines.

In the case of the USAF, its aircraft have been rotated through Australia since at least 2005. Irrespective of whether there is a Liberal or Labor federal government, our politicians dare not ask their overlords whether they are bringing nuclear weapons into our waters or over our land mass.

In neighbouring  New Zealand, the Labor government of David Lange made the entire country a nuclear-free zone in 1984, which effectively barred American warships from docking in their ports. The US tried to bully New Zealand into dropping the ban by freezing it out of ANZUS and downgrading their diplomatic status. It did not work and it is still NZ policy not to allow nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered vessels into its ports. Because the US will neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons, its ships remain banned from NZ.

In 2017, New Zealand signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This treaty forbids the production, storage, and use of nuclear weapons, and New Zealand’s signature showcases that today their anti-nuclear stance is as strong, if not stronger, than ever. Australia has not yet signed the Treaty.
Back on this side of the ditch, Australian collaborators with US imperialism not only dare not ask about the weapons status of US ships and aircraft, they are busy building at Australian expense expanded facilities for the US war machine.

The RAAF Tindal air base near Katherine in the NT is being expanded at a cost of $1bn to accommodate B-52 Stratofortress bombers and B-52 Spirit stealth bombers, both of which routinely carry nuclear weapons.

Plans are also underway to expand facilities in WA, and create new one on the eastern coast, for the docking of US and British nuclear-armed submarines.
It is no wonder that former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, having carried out US dictates during his term in office, became so worried about our loss of sovereignty and inability to have an independent capacity for decision-making in foreign affairs, wrote, in his declining years, a warning about this in a book he titled Dangerous Allies, his belated description of the US.

Next week, on Friday February 24, there will be rallies in cities around Australia outside Labor MPs electorate offices hosted by the Australian Anti-AUKUS Coalition.

See here for details.

Indian women in the fight against Modi fascism

 

Above: Anganwadi – rural childcare centre - women workers on indefinite strike, January 2023. Photo credit Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star.

Written by: All-India Revolutionary Women's Organisation on 15 February 2023

This is the first of several report we will publish from a recently-held seminar on the United Front Against Imperialism and Fascism. The reports focus on women's issues in prepartion for the world-wide International Women's Day commemorations. This not just an overseas report - Indians corpise a growing section of the Australian population. Keeping abreast of issues in India will assist us to develop unity between Australian-Indians and other workers in this country - eds. 

Contribution to the United Front webinar on 12.2.2023 from Selvi Mano/AIRWO India.

 

Dear comrades,

 

Greetings to one and all. It is a great pleasure for All India Revolutionary Women organisation to participate in this discussion.

 

We are the women’s organisation working in around India. 

 

International discussion is very important for women's liberation. Because discrimination against women is not just here and there or in this country and other country. It is a global scenario. From poor countries to developed countries women are being oppressed. Even though the ratio of suppression varies, the treatment of women as second-class citizens is happening globally and these practices are interrelated.

 

Since time immemorial, India has been an extremely patriarchal society. The patriarchal setup in Indian society contributed to the fundamental inequality between women and men.

 

Especially in the second phase of the BJP government, oppression and discrimination against women is increasing. (1)

 

India is a growing country in the world. But India ranks 135 among a total of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2022 and is the worst performer in the world in the “health and survival” sub-index where it is ranked 146.

 

BJP has been feeding on culture, they derive their support from the traditional patriarchal families and pander to them by mirroring their beliefs and incorporating it into the Government policy. They formulate a customary public opinion of right and wrong, and determine the direction the country has to steer in. These are culture bound, not constitutionally bound and thus a clear violation of the liberalism, freedom and democracy. It is also true that the cultural conditioning has eroded one’s personal judgements. 

 

Savitri Bhai Phule, India's first female teacher, started the first school for girls in 1848 along with her husband Jyotibhai Phule after a long struggle. Female education continued to grow little by little. But with this BJP government privatizing education, education for women is becoming questionable.

 

And more-over India is a caste-based society. The oppression of Dalit women (2) is incalculable. They make them naked in public places. Gang violence and gang rape are also happening in public places. We also see the actions of such criminals being celebrated.

 

In the southern parts of India, such oppressions are lesser than in the northern parts of India. Especially in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where the progress of women is comparatively noticeable. Great leaders like Thanthai (Father) Periyar, women leaders like Meenambal and many progressive movements fought for social justice and against these caste and gender oppressions from British India period itself . As a result of the struggle and massive propaganda many changes took place in the society. The government also brought various reform laws.

 

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar framed many laws in the constitution of India to generate equality for women. But the current corporate fascist government is trying to completely change the constitution. The previous Congress government also discriminated against women. Both the governments have not come forward to implement the 33% reservation for women in Parliament. In addition now the present BJP government is trying to legislate Manusmiruti (3) instead of the constitution. They are spreading hate politics all over India, even the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers are spreading ideas against religious minorities, Dalits and all women. BJP leaders are talking about bringing back the cruelly regressive practice of sati. (Sati or suttee is an ancient practice in which a widow belongs to upper caste gets herself burnt to ashes during her late husband’s funeral pyre. This, the widow would do by setting herself on fire while his corpse is being burnt.) It is said to be a practice to preserve the chastity of women. As the society grew civilized, laws were introduced to prohibit such reactionary practices.

 

Now such views of them against women drag the society back centuries.

 

The BJP government is making labor laws on behalf of corporates. We know it will definitely be against the workers. Female workers are already paid less than male workers. The revised Labor Act has drastically reduced the wages of women workers and stripped them of their hard-earned labor rights.

 

Oxfam India’s latest ‘India Discrimination Report 2022’ finds women in India despite their same educational qualification and work experience as men will be discriminated in the labour market due to societal and employers’ prejudices.

 

In today's environment of corporate interests, women and women workers are suffering tremendously all over the world. In countries with fascist regimes like India, women face even more oppressions.

 

Let's unite women around and across the world to get women's rights and a world of equality. Thank you for starting and continuing our journey as an effort for that.

 

(1)  The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), or Indian People’s Party, was elected in 2014 and continues to this day.  It is a right-wing party, and under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has taken on an increasingly fascist character. Modi is feted by Australian politicians, but he had banned, in February, 2022, a documentary by BBC named, “Modi: The Man, The Myth, The Legend” for its focussing on Modi’s fierce way of handling the Kashmir conflict. This year he has banned a second BBC documentary “India: the Modi Question”. University students have been arrested and beaten for holding clandestine showings of the documentary.

(2) The Dalits, or “untouchables” form the lowest rung of the Indian caste system.

(3) Manusmiruti – Hindu religious law

Australia is a crime scene. What about Mparntwe Alice Springs?

(Above: Mparntwe Girls  Photo by Dominic Cicere   Creative Commons Flickr)

 Written by: Lindy Nolan on 14 February 2023

The NT Intervention imposed on First Peoples ended last year. Fifteen years of brutality, disempowerment and dispossession striking First Peoples, suddenly all better? Why aren’t we celebrating?

The ability to drown sorrows in drink-after-drink is capitalism’s gift of equality, via Dan Murphy and Co’s bottomless pockets. Few do it more than Alice Springs’ population.(1)

 

Elders and community leaders across the Territory asked for collective empowerment, including that communities remain dry (alcohol free) unless they chose to opt out. The opposite was inflicted. 

 

A higher percentage of NT Aboriginal People are non-drinkers than whitefellas. That’s true countrywide. But on average, both NT non-Indigenous and Indigenous people consume significantly more alcohol than the rest of the country. Despite bans, alcohol did not disappear. 

 

In Alice, the Guardian reports “property offences are up 60%, assaults by 35% and domestic violence over 50%”. 

 

According to four Mparntwe co-authors in The Conversation, in 2022 the Northern Territory received a lousy 1.8% of federal funding in national partnership funding to address domestic, family and sexual violence. 

 

They write of “chronically underfunded, understaffed and under-resourced” shelters and men and women’s specialist services, with little left for prevention. 

 

The biggest crime is not just grog. It’s ongoing suppression, theft of land, systemic disempowerment, catastrophic policing, poverty, overcrowded and dilapidated housing. 

 

In 2021 new mandatory refusal of bail laws forced 94% more young people,  overwhelmingly Aboriginal, into detention. By then the recommendations – to stop imprisoning children under 14; close Don Dale and Alice Springs youth prison; and much more – were five years old. So-called youth “crime rates” had already sharply risen in 2021. That rise continued last year, even before the Intervention ended. 

 

A child abuse “Emergency”?

On Monday 6 February, ABC’s Media Watch bought into the crime wave commentary. 

 

Paul Barry rightly called on Divide and Conquer Corp, AKA Sky, and other media companies, to “dial down the hype” of inflammatory claims which “smear all Indigenous people and can easily fan racism”, after “an outback nurse” alleged young people involved in pub fights, causing property damage and endangering themselves and others “were being raped at home” in Alice Springs. Her horrific “eye witness” descriptions were given blanket coverage, including by Barry.

 

He revealed the “nurse” had never lived in Alice Springs, and hadn’t been a nurse in Darwin for seven years, since she opened a cosmetic clinic.

 

But he didn’t end there. “We’re not suggesting she made it up. Nor are we saying sexual abuse of Aboriginal children is not a massive problem in the NT.”

 

Massive problem? Where’s the evidence? 

 

Child abuse, especially sexual abuse, is a terrible thing, no matter where it occurs. It’s not just statistics. It’s children’s lives, and sometimes deaths. But statistics still carry the weight of those lives.

 

The word ‘Land’ appears 579 times in the hundreds of pages of Intervention legislation. 

 

Yet, the words 'child' or 'children' don’t appear once. Wasn’t a child abuse “Emergency” the reason it was imposed? 

 

Lies and theft

Let’s go back 17 years.

 

In mid-2006, an ABC’s Lateline report alleged sexual slavery of children. John Howard’s minister, Mal Brough, alleged paedophile rings were being run by male Elders, specifically at Uluru’s Mutijulu community. The Lateline informant, a “long-time Territory youth worker”, was quickly exposed instead as a high public servant working in Brough’s department. 

 

Lies about NT First Peoples are not new. Their consequences are horrific.

 

Alyawarre woman Pat Anderson and Rex Wild QC were immediately commissioned to investigate abuse claims. 

 

In October 2006, Mal Brough called for comment on an already written Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs report ‘Access to Aboriginal Land Under the Northern Territory Aboriginal Land Rights Act – Time for Change'. It outlined the land seizures implemented the next year by the Intervention. 

 

It was aimed at the heart of NT’s much amended but still stronger 1976 land rights legislation. All opposing submissions were ignored.  

 

Anderson and Wild’s report, The Little Children Are Sacred, was released on June 15, 2007.

 

Howard falsely accused the Territory government of “sitting on” it. Miraculously, however, 500 pages of Intervention legislation was ready for parliament on June 23! Its barely read pages were passed with Labor support in a rushed late night sitting. 

 

While expressing concern about child abuse, both Anderson and Wild vigorously opposed the Intervention.

 

Elders were crushed. No televised apology. The lies were ignored. The Intervention rolled on.

 

After the Intervention began, then NT Co-ordinator-General of Remote Services Olga Havnen reported that rates of child sexual abuse were lower in NT Aboriginal communities than in the wider Australian population.

 

Fifteen years later there’s another lying “eye witness”. And Paul Barry, a journalist, unmasks her and then disseminates her lies across Australia.

 

Undeclared and ongoing war for land

 

As the military roared into unarmed communities in June 2007, high profile Arrente Gurdanji woman Pat Turner called the Intervention a Trojan horse disguising a land grab.

 

Now the NT is open to giant gas and mining corporations. They are the reason for the ongoing humanitarian disaster of the Intervention. They directly benefit as they industrialise First Peoples’ lands against their will. 

 

That’s the hidden crime wave.

 

The worst crime is against young Aboriginal kids. It robs them of their homelands, their laws, culture, languages. It incarcerates their future, their hope.

 

In 2008 Gunnai man Robbie Thorpe declared, “Australia is a crime scene.” 

 

He said it is a war, undeclared, ongoing. Truth is again a casualty.

 

Right now, Mparntwe is its genocidal epicentre. Its Peoples must not be left to fight alone. Listen to their voices.

 

 

(1) Both articles in The Conversation, one by Chay Brown, Connie Shaw and Kayla Glynn, Here’s some context missing from the Mparntwe Alice Springs ‘crime wave’ reporting and the other by Thalia Anthony and Vanessa Napaltjari Davis, Alcohol bans and law and order responses to crime in Alice Springs haven’t worked in the past, and won’t work now are strong anti-venom to media poison on Mparntwe. They’re must reads.

 

US panics into balloon warfare mentality

 

Written by: (Contributed) on 13 February 2023

 Controversy surrounding a large Chinese balloon over US airspace have revealed classic Cold War positions and escalating diplomatic hostilities. Elsewhere, inside the elite US-led Five Eyes defence and security organisation, allegations about China using social media and spy-cameras for intelligence-gathering have included displays of Cold War paranoia.

In early February controversy emerged over the identification of a large Chinese balloon over Montana in what was regarded by the US as an intelligence-gathering system near sensitive military facilities. The fact the balloon was only discovered by civilians on a commercial jet flight has revealed serious flaws inside the US defence and security facilities. (1) It was noted, diplomatically, that 'concerns about the robustness of the US and Canadian network of ground-based radars to identify aerial threats … which oversees the NORAD organisation', had not identified the balloon. (2)

The balloon, however, had a canopy about 60 metres tall with 'equipment underneath … about the size of a regional jet'. (3) 

Since the spy/weather balloon downing, US jets have “downed’ two more smaller UFOs over Canada. Let’s hope no helium balloons escape from kids’ birthday parties as the Us sinks deeper into a “War of the Worlds”-type panic!

There are at least sixty current and former US military facilities in Montana, which are regarded as sensitive. (4)

Later, a Pentagon briefing revealed the first balloon had first been sighted on 28 January flying over the Aleutian Islands near Alaska before crossing into Canadian territory and then re-entering the US three days later. (5) It then spent several days hovering over the US. (6)

The balloon was also flying at about 18,600 metres over the US, well above military and civilian flight paths. (7) Commercial aircraft operate at no more than 12,000 metres.

The official response from Beijing was that the balloon was studying weather conditions and had blown off course. The Biden administration, however, appear to have used the event to stir Cold War controversies to a new, higher level of diplomatic hostilities. It was subsequently noted, for example, the balloon took a 'leisurely path across the entire country, passing directly over ultra-sensitive military bases'. (8)

Later, as the controversy continued to mount, it was eventually acknowledged that there had been previous balloons entering US air-space, including three during the Trump presidential period and a fourth at the beginning of the Biden administration. (10) Publicity about the flights, however, was extremely limited and the matter not considered particularly controversial.

The Biden administration appear to have not initially considered shooting the balloon down. Later, however, approval was given by Biden personally for the air force to shoot it down.

The US Air Force then appear to have tracked the balloon to coastal waters off South Carolina. Following a missile being fired at the balloon, an official statement issued by the Pentagon stated the debris had fallen into shallow waters about fourteen metres deep. (11) An order would then appear to have been given to the US Coast Guard to retrieve the debris, from an area equivalent to about 225 football fields, stretching over a distance of eleven kms. It will be interesting to note the time allocation for the recovery of the balloon's equipment.

Pentagon fears

While the drama was taking place, a statement issued by the Pentagon revealed their panic station mentality: an intelligence report noted China now had access to more land-based intercontinental-range missile launchers than the US, and by 2035 would possess about 1,500 nuclear warheads, from previous estimates of about four hundred in 2021. (12) China's economic development has, likewise, threatened traditional US hegemonic positions, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.   

Elsewhere, the US-led Cold War sabre-rattling has continued unabated: a report issued by the head of a parliamentary committee in Westminster 'advised people to not use the Chinese social media app TikTok because of data security concerns. (13)

Similar almost hysterical media releases have included the outcome of a study of Chinese manufactured spy-cameras being used in government institutions across Australia: it was accompanied with a statement 'the Commonwealth was riddled with CCP spy-ware', following a high-level diplomatic meeting of the Five Eyes and AUKUS partners in London last November. (14)

Despite the fact, 'a large number of the devices would have been installed during the nine years of the coalition government', and none were connected to the Internet, calls were made for the present Albanese government to replace the spy-cameras immediately. (15)

Throughout the period no reference was made to the US-led drone program which has been used globally for intelligence-gathering and assassinations. Pine Gap, likewise, was given no publicity; its surveillance range has made it one of the most important US intelligence facilities. There is little doubt China is regarded as the main adversary.

Reference was, however, reluctantly given to the fact that US reconnaissance planes have flown eight hundred times near China's territory and 'repeatedly violated its airspace'. (16)

Just what is the US really doing, what are they planning, and what do they hope to achieve?

Unfortunately for the US even the best made of duplicitous Pentagon military planning can go astray, and questions, from the most unlikely of quarters, can cast aspersions upon ethical considerations and Washington's diplomatic positions.

Imperialists use spy satellites, not balloons

A short feature spread in the Australian from a leading member of the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, for example, questioned whether the Chinese balloon was conducting espionage over the US. (17) The centre has not, historically, been noted for advocacy of an independent foreign policy. In fact, to the contrary, it has remained highly supportive of the 'alliance'. It noted, however, China already possessed spy satellites for intelligence-gathering, surveillance and remote sensing, as part of their space program; they would, 'be far more likely to use satellites than a very large, in-your-face balloon'. (18)

The article concluded with a calm warning that, 'it would be prudent for Australia to remain neutral over the balloon issue, at least for the time being ... on the basis that … the US claim was politically motivated to stir up anti-China sentiment or justify increased military spending … and the balloon … could have been brought down just as easily over an unpopulated land area, allowing for full recovery of the payload'. (19)

The present US position, however, would appear marked by swashbuckling Pentagon military bravado, conducted in the name of present-day US diplomacy!   

And those involved at the ANU are well aware of the potential problem arising within the so-called 'alliance' with binding US-led military agreements, which can draw Australia into real-war scenarios, at any time, to defence and secure regional 'US interests':

                                        We need an independent foreign policy!

1.     White House fury at China spy balloon, The Weekend Australian, 4-5 February 2023.  
2.     US military admits to 'defence lapses', Australian, 8 February 2023.
3.     Ibid.
4.     Wikipedia: US military bases – Montana.
5.     Trump attacks Pentagon over spy balloon, Australian, 7 February 2023.
6.     Ibid.
7.     Spy balloon was an ominous sign. Editorial,  Australian, 6 February 2023.
8.     China balloon and polls scramble script for Biden's speech to congress, Australian, 8 February 2023.
9.     See: Trump attacks, Australian, op.cit., 7 February 2023.
10.   Ibid.
11.   US fighter shoots down spy balloon, drawing Beijing's ire, Australian, 6 February 2023.
12.   China now has more land ICBM launchers, Australian, 9 February 2023.
13.   Tory MP warns users off 'tech-totalitarian' TikTok., Australian, 7 February 2023.
14.   Red eyes in our power corridors, Australian, 9 February 2023; and, We must pop China's spy balloon, Editorial, Australian, 9 February 2023.
15.   Ibid.
16.   White House fury at China spy balloon, The Weekend Australian, 4-5 February 2023.
17.   Maintain an air of caution over US balloon claims, Australian, 10 February 2023.
18.   Ibid.
19.   Ibid.

Taiwan and Warmongering by the US

 

Written by: (Contributed) on 9 February 2023

 At the end of January, a memo written by US General Mike Minihan, was obtained by media outlet, NBC News. The contents were a non-classified military intelligence assessment that US and China would be at war within two years: the reasoning was clearly wide of the mark and highly speculative, identifying Taiwan's presidential elections scheduled for 2024 which coincide with similar elections in the US. Problems would arise. The memo then 'told operational commanders to make ready for combat'. (1)

The US has had concerns about 'the growing imbalance of power across the Taiwan Straits', for many years. (2) They fear China may attempt to invade the small island, which is regarded by Beijing as a renegade province. The US, however, is bound to defend Taiwan and is closely linked to the defence and security of the island, although in practical terms has difficulty due to geographical distances and logistics. It has, therefore, increasingly relied on regional allies nearer to Taiwan to make decisive defence and security measures.

The US has also increasingly relied upon regional allies for military intelligence about the rise of China, which has been assessed as a major threat to traditional US hegemonic positions.

Over a decade ago a statement from the US Congressional Research Service noted the Pentagon was 'laying the foundations for a region-wide missile-defence system … relying on … Japan, South Korea and Australia'. (3) The announcement coincided with an official media release from the Pentagon that they were beginning to transform their Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) with 1,600 new 'collectors' in sensitive positions around the world; as the Indo-Pacific has become a major preoccupation for the US, it would not be difficult to establish where many of the assessors reside and are employed. (4)

Later, upgraded US military intelligence facilities included the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) and their General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) elevated Japan to become a major hub for 'US interests'. (5) It has been noted the new US-Japan alliance has already become the 'linchpin of Japan's foreign policy'. (6)

The IPS subsequently created a network on lower-level partners, linked to the Quad, which have included Taiwan. (7) A substantial proportion of the nearly five hundred staff based in the American Institute in Taipei, who remain on temporary leave from the US State Department in Washington, are thought to be involved with the GSOMIA. (8)

It is also interesting to note Taipei exists on an arc which includes Guam and Japan, revealing the significance of including Taiwan with the GSOMIA. (9)

And Guam remains a centre for major US regional operations; it is regarded as 'a more preferable lily-pad for US interests', and hub, 'in the event of an invasion', in unspecified locations. (10)

The Minihan intelligence assessment was also timed to coincide with a number of other significant developments.

Last month the US military formally opened Camp Blaz on Guam, with facilities for 5,000 marines transferred from Okinawa to 'disperse and strengthen its forces around the Pacific'. (11) The military base, jointly funded by the US and Japan as part of their new alliance, had a budget allocation of $11.5 billion. (12) The transfer of US marines to Guam is scheduled for next year, coinciding with the presidential elections in both Taiwan and the US. (13)

At the end of January, the US announced it was planning 'increased access to important bases in the Philippines ... utilising Philippine military bases … as they were a more … favourable location to carry out operations … in … Taiwan and the South China Seas'. (14)

A major upgrade for US facilities on the northern Mariana Islands chain at Tinian has included those associated with the use of heavy military aircraft; situated at about 120 kms north-east of Guam, the new facilities were designed for use in a secondary capacity in conjunction with those on Guam. (15)

The US military-industrial complex has clearly been preparing for real-war scenarios in the Indo-Pacific for years, to bolster their declining domestic economic problems and counter the threat China has posed to their traditional hegemonic presence in the region.

Two further important diplomatic factors, however, reveal how deeply flawed the Minihan assessment has been.

China responded immediately with accusations General Minihan was behaving 'recklessly' and was warned about providing a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'. (16) An earlier statement issued by China about the Taiwan Straits included reference to the recent failure by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to retain electoral support in local elections at the end of last year. Much of the increased diplomatic hostilities between China and Taiwan date to the election of President Tsai Ing-wen and members of her administration who have openly called for moves toward independence; Tsai Ing-wen's administration is also closely linked to right-wing forces in the US and their allies, particularly those associated with the former Trump administration in the White House.

The DPP, however, has been plagued with numerous scandals including corruption, bribery and nepotism; the ruling party lost large numbers of municipal seats in recent local elections and experienced declining popularity. (17) President Tsai Ing-wen immediately stepped down from the chair of the DPP to distance herself from the ensuing controversy.

Political developments have not gone as the US planned; all signs appear to point to the opposition KMT possibly winning presidential elections next year, if they can maintain the political momentum and transmit support for local issues into national agendas.

The KMT are regarded by China as more favourable to mutually beneficial diplomatic and trade relations and the restoration of the Taipei-Shanghai Forum. (18) If so, the US will be faced with a difficult situation whereby a presidential administration in Taipei will not want US interference with its Cold War diplomatic and trade relations with China.

And the Pentagon, which would appear bitterly politically divided like every other government department in the US, announced officially to world media outlets that, 'General Minihan's analysis was not representative of the department's view on China'. (19)
No reference, however, was provided to whose interests Minihan was thought to serve, although as a former deputy commander of the Indo-Pacific Command during the final part of the former Trump administration he was obviously politically acceptable to those concerned which also included the corporate sector of the military-industrial complex.

1.     China says general's call on war in 2025 'reckless', Australian, 31 January 2023.
2.     See: US seeks new Asia defences,  The Wall Street Journal, 24-26 August 2012.
3.     Ibid.
4.     Pentagon plays the spy game, The Guardian Weekly (U.K.), 7 December 2012.
5.     The reasons behind Washington's push for GSOMIA., Hankyoreh, 12 November 2019.
6.     US Marines, CNN., 27 January 2023.
7.     Hankyoreh, op.cit., 12 November 2019.
8.     Beijing keeps a wary eye on new US Taipei outpost, Australian, 18 June 2018.
9.     See: Peter Projection, World Map, Actual Size.
10.   Guam won't give up more land, Prism, 4 June 2021; and, New US base on Guam, The Wall Street Journal, 26 January 2023.
11.   US Marines, CNN., 27 January 2023.
12.   2024 transfer of Okinawa marines, The Kyodo News, 9 December 2022.
13.   Ibid.
14.   US is planning, The Republicworld.com, 31 January 2023.
15.   The US Air Force, The National Interest, 12 February 2021.  
16.   Australian, op.cit., 31 January 2023.
17.   See: Taiwan local elections say no to DPP rule, call for peace, The Global Times, 28 November 2022.
18.   Ibid.
19.   China warns: stop meddling in Taiwan, Australian, 1 February 2023.

Global inequality grows under capitalism.

(Above: Photo: Osvaldo_Zoom  Creative Commons  Flickr)

 Written by: John S on 7 February 2023

Wealth inequality has increased dramatically around the world during the pandemic.

The already rich have taken the opportunities provided by the misfortune of COVID to take their wealth to even more obscene levels.  

According to Oxfam’s “Survival of the Richest” report:

In 2020, the richest 1% of the world’s population grabbed ⅔ of the U$42 trillion in new wealth. The remaining 99% acquired the remainder. (In the previous 10 years, the richest 1% and the remaining 99% each acquired about half of new wealth, so inequality and the rate of inequality are both increasing.)

Billionaires’ fortunes are increasing by some U$2.7 billion per day. Meanwhile, 1.7 billion workers live in countries where the inflation rate is outpacing wage growth.

Half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax. They are on track to pass on U$5 trillion to their heirs - more than the Gross National Product of all of Africa.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index reports:

131 billionaires more than doubled their wealth during the pandemic.

Bernard Arnault went from U$60b in early 2020 to U$159b in December, 2022.

Elon Musk, from U$50b to U$139b.

Gautam Adani, from U$10b to U$110 (before his dodgy, highly leveraged house of cards started collapsing last week)

Meanwhile 97 million people were pushed into extreme poverty, earning less than U$1.90 per day. Global poverty, by the World Bank’s reckoning, increased from 7.8% to 9.1% by late 2021. And inflation has since skyrocketed.

Whenever capitalism lurches into one of its ever-more frequent deeper crises, central banks pump out money, with the idea of encouraging growth and “saving the economy”. They have pumped out more than U$11 trillion since 2020. Capitalist governments also provide even greater tax breaks and other financial incentives.

The capitalist class regularly, increasingly, uses this money for speculation on financial markets and dividends for shareholders, rather than investing in increased production. Through tax havens and tax avoidance, they deprive the people of funds for essential services such as health and housing.

A year into the pandemic, world capital markets had inflated by more the U$14 trillion, but there had been no increase in economic production. 25 major corporations pocketed 40% of that money.

The increasing investment of capital into capital markets, dutifully serviced by governments and central banks, not only widens already obscene wealth disparity. It is also an indicator of the paralysis of the capitalist system, which can no longer invest in productive enterprise, as money has to chase the highest returns.