CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

How the US Government Steals from Other Countries

by Eric Zuesse / May 30th, 2022

The American Government explains its thefts from other countries as being justifiable because the U.S. Government has slapped sanctions upon those countries, and because these sanctions authorize the U.S. Government to steal whatever it wants to steal, from them, that it can grab. Here are just a few such examples:

On May 26, Reuters headlined “U.S. seizes Iranian oil cargo near Greek island,” and reported:

The United States has confiscated an Iranian oil cargo held on a Russian-operated ship near Greece and will send the cargo to the United States. …
“The cargo has been transferred to another ship that was hired by the U.S.,” the source added, without providing further details.
The development comes after the United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on what it described as a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money laundering network for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. …
U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic, said the Pegas had loaded around 700,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran’s Sirri Island on Aug. 19, 2021.
Prior to this load, the Pegas transported over 3 million barrels of Iranian oil in 2021, with over 2.6 million of those barrels ending up in China, according to UANI analysis.
In 2020, Washington confiscated four cargoes of Iranian fuel that were bound for Venezuela and transferred them with the help of undisclosed foreign partners onto two other ships which then sailed to the United States. …

On 24 October 2019, USA Today bannered “Pentagon planning to send tanks, armored vehicles to Syrian oil fields” and pretended that if (Syria’s actual invader) America wouldn’t be stealing Syria’s oil, then (Syria’s actual defender, invited into the country in order to help defeat the U.S.-led invasion of it) Russia would be stealing it. Their article closed by saying that: “Nicholas Heras, an expert on Syria with the Center for a New American Security [CNAS], … said, ‘the Pentagon is making contingencies for a big fight with Russia for Syria’s oil.’” Perhaps the intention of that article was to help build Americans’ support for stealing Syria’s oil. (The CNAS is a Democratic Party think tank, and was there endorsing the Republican President Trump’s operation to steal Syria’s oil — it’s a bipartisan goal of the U.S. Government.) By contrast, two days later, Russia’s Sputnik News headlined about America’s thefts of oil from Syria, “The Russian military described the US scheme as nothing less than ‘international state banditism.’” (Russia had no need to deceive anyone about that.)

On 14 December 2019, Syria Times headlined “A huge convoy for US occupation forces enters Syria’s Qameshli city,” and reported that:

In a new breach of international laws, the US occupation forces sent today to Qameshli city in Hasaka province a new convoy composed of tanks, ambulances and dozens of vehicles and cars loading military and logistic materials. According to local sources, the convoy illegally entered this morning from Iraq in order to fortify the US occupation forces’ positions in the Syrian Jazeera.
This convoy is the biggest one that entered the Syrian territories since several months.
Over the few past months, the US occupation forces sent through illegal crossing points thousands of vehicles loaded with weapons, military equipment and logistic materials to reinforce their existence in the Syrian Jazeera region and to steal Syrian oil and wealth.

On 2 August 2020, Reuters bannered “Syria says U.S. oil firm signed deal with Kurdish-led rebels” and reported that,

Damascus “condemns in the strongest terms the agreement signed between al-Qasd militia (SDF) and an American oil company to steal Syria’s oil under the sponsorship and support of the American administration”, the Syrian statement said. “This agreement is null and void and has no legal basis.”

Furthermore: “There was no immediate response from SDF officials to a Reuters’ request for comment. There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials.”

The U.S. Government has done this also to Venezuela and other countries that it likewise wants to take over.

On 13 March 2022, Reuters headlined “Sanctions have frozen around $300 bln of Russian reserves, FinMin says,” and reported that “Foreign sanctions have frozen around $300 billion out of $640 billion that Russia had in its gold and forex reserves, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in an interview with state TV.”

The lawyer and geostrategic analyst Alexander Mercouris explains how and why America’s blocking Russia’s international payments of Russia’s sovereign debt, and Germany’s seizure of some of Gazprom’s German assets, “violate the [international-law] principle of sovereign immunity; both the central bank and Gazprom are, after all, owned by the Russian Government. … These were the sort of acts that, once upon a time, governments could legally make only in time of war. But of course Germany and the United States are not formally at war with Russia. So we see how another extraordinary step has been taken, towards … ever-greater illegality.” He wonders “what damage” will be done “to the international legal system and to the international financial system.”

Many of these actions, by America and its allies, are alleged to be done not in order to reinforce existing international laws (which, of course, they instead violate), but the opposite: to advance “the international rules-based order,” which “rules,” that will be made by the U.S. Government, will be introduced as constituting new legal precedents in order to replace the current source of international laws, which is the U.N. and its authorized agencies. The U.S. Government would gradually replace the U.N., except as the U.N.’s being a sump for unprofitable expeditions that the ‘humanitarian’ and ‘democratic’ U.S. Government can endorse. There would be a further weakening of the U.N., which is already so weak so that, even now, anything which is done by the U.S. and its allies is, practically speaking, not possible to be prosecuted in international courts such as the International Criminal Court, which body is allowed to prosecute alleged crimes only by leaders of “third world” nations. America’s “rules-based international order” would replace that toothless U.N.-based system, and would be backed up by America’s over-800 military bases around the world. Unlike the existing U.N., which has no military, this “rules-based international order” would be enforced at gunpoint, everywhere.

However, even America’s allied nations are getting fleeced, though in different ways, by the U.S. Government. This is being done via international corruption. For example: America’s F-35 warplanes from Lockheed Martin Corporation and its sub-contractors (Northrop-Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, and BAE Systems), are so bad and so very expensive that the U.S. Government wants to cut its losses on the plane without cutting the profits by Lockheed Martin and other ‘defense’-contractors’ on it, and therefore needs to increase its allies’ purchases of these warplanes. NATO is the main marketing organization for U.S. ‘defense’ contractors; and, so, on 15 April 2022, Russia’s RT news headlined “US nuclear bombs ‘shared’ with European allies will be deployed on Lockheed Martin jets, NATO explains,”and reported that,

Jessica Cox, director of the NATO nuclear policy directorate in Brussels, said … that “By the end of the decade, most if not all of our allies will have transitioned” to the F-35. …
Germany would replace its aging Tornado jets with F-35s, committing to buy up to three dozen and specifically citing the nuclear sharing mission as factoring in the decision. …
Finland and Sweden have recently voiced a desire to join NATO, and Helsinki already announced it would buy some 60 F-35s in early February [notably, BEFORE Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th]. …
The F-35 was originally proposed as a cost-effective modular design that could replace multiple older models in service with the US Air Force, Navy, and the Marines. In reality, it turned into three distinct designs with a lifetime project cost of over $1.7 trillion, the most expensive weapons program in US [and in all of global] history.
In addition to the price tag, the fifth-generation stealth fighter has also been plagued with performance issues, to the point where the new USAF chief of staff requested a study into a different aircraft in February 2021.
General Charles Q. Brown Jr. compared the F-35 to a “high end” sports car, a Ferrari one drives on Sundays only, and sought proposals for a “clean sheet design” of a “5th-gen minus” workhorse jet instead. Multiple US outlets characterized his proposal as a “tacit admission” that the F-35 program had failed.

That word “characterized” was there linked through to a number of informative articles, such as these, about the F-35:

Forbes: “The U.S. Air Force Just Admitted The F-35 Stealth Fighter Has Failed”
Defense News: “The Hidden Troubles of the F-35: The Pentagon will have to live with limits on F-35’s supersonic flights”

That Defense News report said that the basic design-requirements for the F-35 prohibit any speed higher than the speed of sound (Mach 1), because the air-friction above that speed would instantly melt the stealth coating, and,

The potential damage from sustained high speeds would influence not only the F-35’s airframe and the low-observable coating that keeps it stealthy, but also the myriad antennas located on the back of the plane that are currently vulnerable to damage, according to documents exclusively obtained by Defense News.

Though that publication — which could not exist apart from the funding that is provided directly or indirectly from America’s ‘defense’ contractors — used euphemisms to describe this problem, such as “potential damage” and that there would need to be imposed “a time limit on high-speed flight” and that “the F-35 jet can only fly at supersonic speeds for short bursts of time before there is a risk of structural damage and loss of stealth capability,” the actual facts are: those “short bursts” would, in the practical world, be virtually instantaneous, approximating zero seconds, and the phrase “a risk” would be referring to 100% — a certainty. That’s virtually the opposite of the ‘news’-report’s allegation that the F-35 would need to avoid “sustained high speeds,” because the plane would instead need to avoid ANY supersonic speed. In other words: the plane’s stealth capability would need to be virtually 100% effective and at speeds only below the speed of sound, in order for the plane to be, at all, effective, and deserving to be called a “stealth” warplane. The only exception to that would be the F-35A, for the Air Force (not usable by the Navy — from aircraft carriers — nor by the Army).

As regards the F-35A (Air Force F-35 version), Wikipedia says about the F-35 that its maximum speed is Mach 1.6 (1.6 times the speed of sound). By contrast, Russia’s Su-57 (which is less expensive), has a maximum speed of Mach 2.0. The reason why Russia’s is both a better plane and far less costly is that Russia’s military-industrial complex is controlled ONLY by the Government, whereas America’s Government is instead controlled mainly by its ‘defense’-contractors, and is, therefore, overwhelmingly corrupt, which is also the reason why America is the permanent and unceasing warfare-state, ever since 25 July 1945, when its “Cold War” started, and has never ceased.

One of the few honest statements that the world-champion liar and the world’s most respected living person, U.S. President Barack Obama, made about his goals as President, was his 28 May 2014 statement to the graduating class at the West Point Military Academy, that,

The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation. That has been true for the century passed and it will be true for the century to come. … Russia’s aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China’s economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle classes compete with us, and governments seek a greater say in global forums. … It will be your generation’s task to respond to this new world.

He was saying there that all other nations — including U.S. ‘allies’ — are “dispensable.” Consequently, of course, in that view: stealing by the U.S. Government, from any other Government, is acceptable. It’s the U.S. Government’s viewpoint, and is politically bipartisan in America. At least until now, it is an acceptable viewpoint, to most people. Perhaps truths have been hidden from them. Who has been doing this, and why, would then be the natural question on any intelligent individuals’ minds. But certainly there can be no reasonable doubt that the U.S. Government does — and rather routinely — steal from other countries. That’s a fact, if anything is.FacebookTwitteReddit

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s next book (soon to be published) will be America’s Empire of Evil: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change. It’s about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social "sciences" — duping the public. Read other articles by Eric.

This article was posted on Monday, May 30th, 2022 at 7:51am and is filed under Cities, Crime, International Criminal Court, Opinion, Sanctions, United Nations, Weaponry.

Around 100 killed in clashes between Chad gold miners, 40 wounded: defence ministry

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
30 May, 2022

Violence broke out on May 23 at Kouri Bougoudi near the Libyan border, sparked by a "mundane dispute between two people which degenerated," said Chad's Defence Minister General, adding that the toll was "around 100 dead and at least 40 wounded"

Chad's Defence Minister General Daoud Yaya Brahim announced the death toll to the press on Monday [Getty]

Around 100 people have died in clashes between gold miners in northern Chad, Defence Minister General Daoud Yaya Brahim said on Monday.

Violence broke out on May 23 at Kouri Bougoudi near the Libyan border, sparked by a "mundane dispute between two people which degenerated," he said, adding that the toll was "around 100 dead and at least 40 wounded".

The clashes occurred in the Tibesti Mountains, a rugged and lawless region in the central Sahara some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) from the capital N'Djamena.

The discovery of gold there 10 years ago sparked a rush of miners from across Chad and neighbouring countries, and tensions often run high.

The latest clashes were between Mauritanians and Libyans, Yaya Brahim said.

He spoke to AFP by phone from the area, where he said he was with a large military contingent sent to help restore order.

"This isn't the first time that there's been violence among gold miners in the region, and we have decided to suspend all gold mining at Kouri until further notice," he said, adding that "the great majority (of mines in the area) are illegal".

The incident was first announced last Wednesday, when Communications Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said in a statement there had been "loss of human life and several wounded," but gave no further details.

The same day, the head of Chad's National Human Rights Commission, Mahamat Nour Ibedou, told AFP that after the fighting broke out, "the government sent in a force to intervene, which fired on people".

"According to our information, there are at least 200 dead," he said, adding that he had no evidence to support this figure.

Succes Masra, who heads an opposition party called The Transformers, and Chad's main armed rebel movement, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), also gave a toll of some 200 dead.

But Yaya Brahim denied this figure and said the authorities were not to blame.

"The defence and security forces absolutely did not open fire, and there were not 200 deaths," he said.

On Monday, another rebel group in the region, the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (CCMSR), said in a statement there had been "carnage," which had unfolded "under the complicit gaze of the security forces".

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Troubled region

The Tibesti region is notorious for ethnic troubles and for fostering revolts that have marked Chad's history since the vast central West African country gained independence from France in 1960.

In January 2019, several dozen people died in Kouri when fighting erupted between Libyan Arabs and people from the eastern Chadian region of Ouaddai.

Koulamallah, in comments to AFP last Wednesday, described the gold-mining area as a "hostile zone, almost lawless, it's the Far West. They all go there because there's gold, so there's conflict".

The impoverished Sahel state last year lost its 30-year ruler, Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed during an operation against rebels.

His place was taken by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, at the head of a 15-member military junta.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Destructive Gold Mining Plagues Suriname, French Guiana Border

30 MAY 2022 BY SCOTT MISTLER-FERGUSONEN

Large-scale illegal gold mining continues to operate in plain sight on the Lawa River, a natural border between French Guiana and Suriname, despite public efforts from both governments to end the environmentally destructive practice.

Photographs obtained by InSight Crime show at least six gold dredgers, or skalians, as they're known in Suriname, operating on the river earlier in May.

Illegal mining operations have garnered widespread condemnation for the environmental degradation they cause in both Suriname and French Guiana.


SEE ALSO: Dirty Business - The Smuggling Pipeline Carrying Mercury Across the Amazon

The use of the heavy metal, mercury, which binds to gold, is especially detrimental. Runoff mercury pollutes the river and its populations of fish, damaging an important source of food for local indigenous communities, local media have reported

.

Mining dredgers on the Lawa River. Credit: ProBios

According to Starnieuws, a local news website, the Surinamese government has acknowledged the presence of these dredgers on the river and pledged to take action to get rid of them.

 
InSight Crime Analysis

The presence of dredgers in the area is nothing new, but their continued operation despite the clear detrimental impact on the local environment raises questions about the political will from either side of the river to curb illegal gold mining.

Dredgers are commonly used in South America for river gold mining, particularly in illegal zones, because of the relative ease for operators to move quickly and relocate should authorities crack down on them.

Erlan Sleur, an environmental expert and founder of the nongovernmental organization ProBios, which is dedicated to protecting Suriname’s biodiversity, told InSight Crime that this is exactly what the miners photographed in May have been doing.

“From the photographs, it seems they have been working for a long time already. If you see the destruction in the forest on the riverside, it’s clear that this isn’t a recent activity,” Sleur said.

Mining dredges on the Lawa River. Credit: ProBios

Despite the presence of French and Surinamese military on the river, miners have not been captured nor had their dredgers and equipment seized.

According to Sleur, the security forces’ inaction is due to a lack of political will and a tense relationship between the two governments when it comes to the border.

“There have been some tensions especially when the French police and the army seized some [dredgers] about five years ago,” stated Sleur, in reference to military operations conducted by the French government to seize and destroy gold mining dredgers on territory claimed by Suriname.

Border delineation issues on the Lawa Rivers, as well as Maroni River, were officially resolved last year. This should have paved the way for a tougher stance on illegal mining by both governments. Yet Sleur contends that the Surinamese government remains an obstacle to completely erasing illegal mining on the river.

“I know my government is corrupt. They are part of the problem, as many people within the government are stakeholders within these activities,” claimed Sleur.

SEE ALSO: Corruption, Cocaine and Gold - The Trials Facing Suriname's New President

The Surinamese government, headed by President Chan Santokhi certainly inherited a challenging situation. It is a coalition government whose vice president, Ronnie Brunswijk, is a convicted drug trafficker and fugitive from Interpol. Before being elected, Brunswijk had at least six gold concessions, though these have now been handed over to a foundation. One Dutch reporter claimed these concessions had been illegally acquired.

Thus the ties between the government and gold mining in the country, rife under former president and convicted murderer, Dési Bouterse, remain today. During Bouterse’s reign, even the mint house was connected to illegal gold mining activity, according to a report by IBI Consultants.

New Somalia president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud calls for reconciliation as US troops return

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden authorised the redeployment of US troops who will help train, equip and support the Somali military's elite Danab special forces, who are fighting the Al-Shabaab.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
30 May, 2022

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected earlier this month as Somalia's new president [Getty]

Somalia's new president has applauded the return of US troops to help fight a deadly insurgency and says delivering security depends on reconciliation with other Somali leaders, after a power battle splintered the security forces into rival factions.

US President Joe Biden this month authorised the redeployment of hundreds of US soldiers who will help train, equip and support the military's elite Danab special forces fighting the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab militants.

President Donald Trump withdrew them in December 2020, leaving them flying in and out for missions from neighbouring Kenya, a move experts described as costly and dangerous.

"We are very much grateful for President Biden to send back some of the forces, they always have been playing a role in war against Al-Shabaab," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told Reuters, adding that he wanted US support to continue.

Al-Shabaab has killed tens of thousands of Somalis in bombings in Mogadishu and elsewhere as it seeks to topple the government, as well as civilians in neighbouring countries in attacks on a shopping mall, hotel, university and restaurants.

Somali legislators selected Mohamud as president this month - the country has not held one-person-one-vote elections since civil war erupted in 1991.

Legislators foiled attempts by the previous president to extend his term, but the issue deeply divided security forces, who battled each other in the capital's streets.

The protracted crisis drained attention from a growing humanitarian emergency forcing more than 6 million Somalis to depend on food aid.

James Swan, the top UN official in Somalia, praised Mohamud's appointment of a prominent politician to handle the emergency, triggered by the worst drought in 40 years.

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Since Mohamud's win on May 15, official government social media accounts have pumped out images of him welcoming former political rivals and beaming Somali regional leaders, many of whom fought armed clashes with his predecessor.

"The people have to reconcile," former educator Mohamud said from a gilt chair in Villa Somalia, a government complex painted in the national colours of white and sky blue.

Mohamud's words have encouraged allies frustrated by slow progress under his predecessor, which allowed the insurgency to amass a huge warchest.

Lieutenant General Diomede Ndegeya, commander of African Union forces in Somalia, said he hoped local forces and administrations could help secure roads for AU and Somali forces to make progress against Al-Shabaab.

"It's important for us to all work together," he said.

The last major offensive against Al-Shabaab was in 2019. The insurgents still control swathes of the country but African Union peacekeeping forces are due to leave in three years.

This month, Al-Shabaab overran an AU peacekeeping base, killing dozens of soldiers. Burundi put the death toll at 10.

"Our top priority is the security," said Mohamud, although he listed other urgent matters, including building institutions and codifying election laws and government powers.

When Mohamud previously served as president, from 2012-2017, rampant corruption packed the military with ghost soldiers. Those that did exist often sold their guns when their wages were stolen.

Since then, the United Nations has set up a long-planned biometric database. Soldiers and civil servants now receive their salaries directly to their bank accounts.

Mohamud acknowledged the repeated complaints of corruption, but hailed digitalisation and said he planned to continue a financial reform package he had previously helped negotiate with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"We are all for the economic reforms," he said.

Campaigners say the proof will be whether backers receive plum procurement contracts or top posts they use for kickbacks.

"We need an audit for all the taxes raised in Mogadishu, we need to pay salaries on time and we need avoid cronyism," said Mohamed Mubarak, founder of anti-corruption group Marqaati.

(Reuters)

Palestinian flag to be banned in Israeli universities and public buildings

Far-right Israelis want to ban the display of the Palestinian flag in public buildings

The New Arab Staff
30 May, 2022

The flag is an important part of Palestinian identity [Getty]

Israel is close to banning the display of Palestinian flags at universities and public buildings in the country, according to reports.

The government's legislative committee approved a draft law on Sunday that could make it illegal to wave "enemy flags" in Israeli government-funded institutions - a bill that appears aimed at effectively banning the Palestinian flag.

The bill, sponsored by Likud MK Eli Cohen, will go to the Knesset where lawmakers will vote on the bill.

The government has said it will allow coalition members - which includes left-wing, centrist, and far-right parties - to "vote with the conscious".

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It follows the display of the flag by 1948 Palestinians at recent Nakba commemorations in schools and universities in Israel, leading to an angry response by right-wing Israelis.

The display of Palestinian flags is not technically illegal in Israel and the occupied territories, but Israeli forces routinely confiscate them from protesters.

Palestinian banners were violently snatched by Israeli police from mourners at Sherine Abu Akleh's funeral and her family home earlier this month. The Palestinian journalist was shot dead by Israeli forces on 11 May.

Activists have pointed out that the Palestinian flag is not technically banned in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, and so Israeli forces acted illegally by confiscating the banners.

Israeli police have also violently seized the flag from protesters in Sheikh Jarrah and other areas of the occupied Palestinian territories.

It remains a symbol of pride, defiance, and identity for Palestinians in all parts of historic Palestine.

Sri Lanka’s crisis forces garment workers to prostitution

 

Sri Lanka’s crisis forces garment workers to prostitution

 30 May 2022

Women in Sri Lanka who were formerly employed in the textiles and garment industry are being forced to turn to prostitution and sex work, as an economic crisis on the island continues to impact on livelihoods reports The Telegraph.

“Poor politics has shattered my life and this is my only hope to put food on the table for my children,” on sex worker told The Telegraph.

According to the Stand Up Movement Lanka (SUML), there has been a 30 per cent increase in women joining the sex industry in Colombo since January alone.

“The whole garment industry is at risk,” said Padmini Weerasuriya, director of the Women’s Centre. “The cost of production has also gone up and factories have begun trimming down their personnel.”

The apparel industry has been particularly hard hit in Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. Sri Lanka’s Joint Apparel Association Forum warned last week that the country is losing 10 - 20% of its orders to India and Bangladesh as the ongoing crisis has shaken the faith of buyers.

“Some of the buyers have said that there is a high risk, so they have shifted 10 - 20% of their orders to India and Bangladesh,” JAAF Deputy Chairman Felix Fernando told interviewers at Derana.

“We could see up to one million people, mainly women, facing unemployment over the next six months if the economic crisis worsens as expected,” added Weerasuriya.

The rise in sex work has particularly been seen in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, where workers reports a wide range of clientele.

“Recently we had a famous member of the mafia in Colombo and I could see all his bullet wounds. I’ve had doctors, lawyers and even reverends,” said one woman. “There is this one, old professor and he can barely walk, but every time he comes he pays to spend time with all the girls at once.”

Read more from The Telegraph here.

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24 May 2022 : Sri Lanka’s apparel industry loses up to 20%

What’s good for investors isn’t good for Africans

How Africa’s pension funds risk becoming instruments of Africa’s neoliberal takeover.

Photo by Oren Elbaz on Unsplash

BY Alex Park

African pension funds have been getting a lot of attention in the financial press lately. An October 2021 article in The Economist plays matchmaker for some very eligible asset pools: the African Development Bank, it notes, has estimated an annual bill of $130 billion to $170 billion dollars for infrastructure improvements across the continent. Perhaps African pension funds—which, the magazine notes, “have grown impressively” in the last few years and have a tendency to stay close to home, unlike those more fickle foreign capital flows—could be a good fit. Also last year, RMI, a US clean energy think tank, suggested that African pension funds invest in clean energy projects across the continent to “trigger a positive economic-growth feedback loop.”

African pension funds have been shifting their assets to African development projects for some time, but the pace has recently sped up. In February, a consortium of Kenyan pension funds announced they would be working with Chinese firms on a plan to invest in local infrastructure, and just weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund, the largest in Africa, planned to invest $1.6 billion across the continent.

It’s easy to see why editors at The Economist would get excited about the new trend. But for those of us more wary of finance capitalism, it’s worth considering the experience of Brazil, where pension funds were instrumental to bolstering a neoliberal takeover of the country at the turn of the century.

In the early years of his presidency, Lula Inácio da Silva took steps to make it easier for workers to invest in pension funds. Simultaneously, he gave unions more freedom to administer the nation’s pension funds and encouraged them to invest in the Brazilian economy. All of these moves were part of a plan to, in the words of Uruguayan journalist Raúl Zibechi, “moralize, humanize, and domesticate capitalism.” But like so much else from the Lula era, what was on its face a way to help Brazil’s working class by playing to the rules of the rich and powerful became, instead, a neoliberal ploy: a way to uplift the rich and strengthen the market forces through which the rich derived their power in the first place.

Within a few years, the pensions grew precipitously, but with the pension’s capital now powering it, the finance sector grew even more. Rather than shaping the Brazilian finance sector to suit their ends, the unions—long the Brazilian Left’s institutional power base—internalized the ambitions of the exclusively white, male clique of São Paulo financiers with which they now collaborated. Instead of seeking out ways to use the enormous weight of their assets to uplift Brazilians, union leaders sought out ways to protect and expand the capital they managed.

The financiers encouraging African pension funds’ entrance into development finance have skipped the talk about moralizing capitalism which characterized the Brazilian experience. But like their Brazilian peers a generation ago, African pension funds now risk putting their assets in the hands of financiers intent on carrying out a developmental vision that, at best, equates the needs of African people with the needs of capital. To see how, one only needs to look at the investment vehicle of choice for any investors looking to bank on African business: private equity (PE).

Since stock markets outside South Africa are generally weak and underdeveloped, African pension funds—like other institutional investors around the world—are funneling their capital through private equity funds. (The aforementioned $1.6 billion South African windfall, for instance, will pass entirely through “unlisted” companies, which almost certainly means it’ll be going through PE.)

To even be considered for admission into a PE fund, pension funds, like all potential investors, have to demonstrate they share the values (and the vision) of the fund managers. One reason is that it’s a long-term relationship: joining a fund means pooling assets and interests with the fund managers and other investors (a group that typically includes European development agencies, multilateral development banks, and American pension funds) for a decade or more. Thereafter, what projects and companies the PE funds back with investors’ money are, generally, up to their managers. But even when those managers claim to be uplifting Africa with their investments, one can expect them to be uplifting capital even more.

Take, for instance, the Rise Fund, a PE fund cofounded by Bono and Jeff Skoll. With a declared intent of transforming African economies and a long list of American pensions as investors, the San Francisco-based PE fund is exactly the kind of partner African pension funds might consider backing in the near future. In 2019, the fund invested in Uganda’s Pearl Dairy, which by then already had operations in nine countries in Africa and Japan. Money in hand, Pearl scaled up its operations even more. The Rise Fund’s parent company, TPG, now says that Pearl sources milk from more than 10,000 small farmers. But in March, one farmers’ union in Uganda accused it of collaborating with other milk producers to drive milk prices down to the point that many farmers could no longer support themselves.

It’s common for investors looking to capitalize on Africa’s growing economies to say, in so many words, and in spite of evidence to the contrary, that what’s good for them is good for everyone. African pension funds—which, like pensions in most countries, have a reputation for caution and prudence—would do better than throwing their clients’ assets behind their agenda.

Empty table laid for 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire

Empty table with 72 seats laid out for Jubilee street party nobody will attend

Harrison Jones

Monday 30 May 2022

Empty places were set around the table (Picture: PA/Jeff Moore)

Grenfell campaigners have held an emotional Jubilee street party attended by nobody.

Poignant images show a table set with 72 empty seats, for each of the victims in the 2017 fire.

Special plates were also laid out alongside name cards at the event in west London today, overlooked by the remains of the tower.

They read: ’72 dead. And still no arrests? How come?’


Justice 4 Grenfell put on the gathering as Brits prepare to attend street parties in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this week.

The community activism group, which campaigns for justice for the victims of the tragedy, put out bunting, paper plates, cups and Grenfell flags, with a green theme associated with the disaster.

Following the tragedy on June 14, 2017, the Queen visited the area to meet locals affected by the blaze in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Campaigners are calling for arrests over the disaster (Picture: PA)

The tower overlooks the ‘party’ (Picture: Jeff Moore)

Nabil Choucair, who lost six family members, to the fire, sits at the otherwise empty table (Picture: PA)

Located in foot of the tower on Grenfell Road, organisers say the table will never be sat upon ‘as a chilling reminder that the 72 dead are still without justice, despite a public inquiry’.

Nabil Choucair, who lost six family members, said: ‘I miss my family so much; we enjoyed many good times together, but they were taken from us in the worst of circumstances.

‘I can almost picture them seated at the table today, joining in the celebration.

‘But they are not with us today.

Grenfell flags with a heart also adorned the party (Picture: Jeff Moore)

The tragedy happened in 2017 in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (Picture: PA)

Campaigners branded the public inquiry ‘toothless’ (Picture: Jeff Moore)

‘The pain is indescribable, but they are always with us in our hearts.’

Justice 4 Grenfell group organiser Yvette Williams added: ‘Five years on, a toothless public inquiry and millions still trapped in their homes by flammable cladding – and still no justice.

‘There have been no lessons learned and little action taken.

‘As people up and down the country enjoy street parties – as they quite rightly should, we want to let the powers that be know that our community will always remember the 72 who died needlessly here that night.’

  

 

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Haiti has suffered hugely over centuries but its revolution was stunningly innovative

THE CONVERSATION
Published: May 30, 2022 

Since the New York Times published its recent series of bombshell articles about the crippling reparations that France imposed on Haiti after it won independence in 1804, much has been written about how this 150 million franc “indemnity” had virtually doomed the fledgling country before it had a chance to establish itself. The New York Times pieces outlined the huge long-term impact of these enforced payments and demonstrate that they cost the Haitian economy billions of dollars in lost economic growth, affecting the island well into the 21st century.

Historians of Haiti have remarked that the New York Times’ core claims are hardly groundbreaking. The long-term effects of the debt on the Haitian economy have long been acknowledged, researched and taught. Nevertheless the newspaper’s detailed account, with its additional evidence and fresh calculations, has allowed the story to achieve the kind of public visibility most professional historians can only dream of. This is undoubtedly positive.

But this account, for all its moral force and political relevance, also reinforces a longstanding public perception of Haitian history as a story of unremitting failure. Of course this is justified in many ways. To this day, Haiti remains one of the poorest countries in the world, for which France (along with the United States and others) bears undeniable responsibility. But Haitian independence deserves to be remembered for more than its long, tragic aftermath. It was, in fact, a stunningly innovative event which dramatically changed the course of world history.

Freedom fighters

Before the Haitian revolution, Saint-Domingue (as Haiti was then known) was France’s largest and richest colony. Its population primarily consisted of enslaved black people, who lived and worked under a small elite of white plantation owners. When the French revolution broke out in 1789, it triggered a series of revolts and conflicts on the island. These involved white colonists, black enslaved people, free black and mixed-race people, as well as the French, British and Spanish states.

By 1804, the black and mixed-race insurgents had joined forces and claimed victory. White colonists were driven out or killed. On January 1 1804 a former slave, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, proclaimed the independence of the island in the name of the Haitian people.

It was a complex, lengthy, shockingly violent process. For a long time, it was treated as a bloody footnote in Atlantic history, and left out of the triumphant accounts that narrated “the age of democratic revolutions”. But it is now increasingly being viewed by historians as a major turning point in world history. There are several reasons for this.
Emancipation in the New World

The first, and most immediately evident reason, relates to the history of colonial slavery. The Haitian revolution was a multifaceted conflict – but from 1791 its driving force was the great antislavery uprising spearheaded by the charismatic leader Toussaint Louverture. To this day it remains the only truly successful slave revolt in history.

Military genius: Haitian general Toussaint Louverture. 

Coastal Elite from Halifax, Canada/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

It would be difficult to overstate the impact of the Haitian example on the history of emancipation in the New World. It raised the old spectre of slave rebellion and shocked slave owners across the Americas, but it also informed the British emancipation debate. In the 1810s the support Haiti provided to Simón Bolívar’s liberation movement played a major part in ending slavery in northern South America. Haitian emancipation also encouraged uprisings and rebellions in the US, Cuba and Barbados. It continued to inspire black people across the New World until the final abolition of slavery by Brazil in 1888.

The Haitian revolutionaries also durably transformed the international landscape. Emerging from an 18th-century world ruled by monarchies and colonial empires, Haiti became the first black republic in the world. It was only the second state to claim independence from a European empire, after the US.

Notably, it was the first to be ruled by formerly enslaved people. Independent Haiti was, in many ways, ahead of its time – it would take another century and a half for another significant decolonisation movement to emerge and finally topple the great European empires, in the second half of the 20th century.

Universal human rights

Amid all the tumult and upheavals of revolution, the Haitian people’s claim to independence was also philosophically groundbreaking. The Declaration of Independence of 1804 ended the Haitian revolution with a powerful assertion of national sovereignty:


We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth … we must live independent or die.

By justifying independence in terms of the universal rights of mankind, Haitian leaders were deploying the same novel philosophical principles that underpinned the American and French revolutions. But, unlike the American and French republics, the new Haitian nation was to be rooted in its radical commitment to universal emancipation.

For all the above reasons, the Haitian revolution deserves to be remembered on its own terms – not only as the origin of a historical injustice, but also as one of the great revolutions of the Enlightenment, and a forerunner of modern decolonisation movements.

Author

Anna Plassart
Senior Lecturer in History, The Open University

New York Times admits truth of Haitian coup

by Yves Engler / May 30th, 2022

“A Haitian president demands reparations and ends up in exile”, declared the front-page of Wednesday’s New York Times. Eighteen years later those who opposed the US, French and Canadian coup have largely won the battle over the historical record.

French ambassador Thierry Burkard admits that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s call for the restitution of Haiti’s debt (ransom) of independence partly explains why he was ousted in 2004. Burkard told the Times the elected president’s removal was “a coup” that was “probably a bit about” Aristide’s campaign for France to repay Haiti.

Other major outlets have also investigated the coup recently. In 2020 Radio-Canada’s flagship news program “Enquête” interviewed Denis Paradis, the Liberal minister responsible for organizing the 2003 Ottawa Initiative on Haiti where US, French and Canadian officials discussed ousting the elected president and putting the country under UN trusteeship. Paradis admitted to Radio-Canada that no Haitian officials were invited to discuss their own country’s future and the imperial triumvirate broached whether “the principle of sovereignty is unassailable?” Enquête also interviewed long time Haitian Canadian activist and author Jean Saint-Vil who offered a critical perspective on the discussion to oust Aristide.

Radio-Canada and the Times’ coverage was influenced by hundreds of articles published by solidarity campaigners in left wing outlets. Damming the Flood: Haiti and the Politics of Containment: Repression and Resistance in Haiti, 2004–2006, Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority, Haiti’s New Dictatorship: The Coup, the Earthquake and the UN Occupation, An Unbroken Agony Haiti, from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President provide richer documentation about the coup, as do documentaries Haiti: We Must Kill the Bandits, Haiti Betrayed and Aristide and the Endless Revolution.

The Times article on Aristide’s ouster was part of a series on imperialism in Haiti the paper published on its front page over four days. “The Ransom” detailed the cost to Haiti — calculated at between $21 billion and $115 billion — of paying France to recognize its independence. “A bank created for Haiti funneled wealth to France” showed how Crédit Industriel et Commercial further impoverished the nation in the late 1800s while “Invade Haiti, Wall Street urged, And American military obliged” covered the brutal 1915–34 US occupation, which greatly reshaped its economy to suit foreign capitalists.

The Times decision to spend tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of dollars on the series was no doubt influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement and the paper’s 1619 project on slavery. Additionally, Saint-Vil and other Haitian-North American activists have been calling for France to repay the ransom for more than two decades. In 2010 a group of mostly Canadian activists published a fake announcement indicating that France would repay the debt. Tied to France’s Bastille Day and the devastating 2010 earthquake, the stunt by the Committee for the Reimbursement of the Indemnity Money Extorted from Haiti (CRIME) forced Paris to deny it, which the Times reported. The group also published a public letter that garnered significant international attention.

While these campaigns likely spurred the series, a number of academics made it about themselves. White Harvard professor Mary Lewis bemoaned that her research assistant was cited in “The Ransom” but she wasn’t. Another academic even apologized for sharing the important story. “I regret sharing the NYT article on Haiti yesterday. So many scholars are noting their egregious editorial practices. The writers of the article did not properly credit their sources.” Unfortunately, the academics’ tweets received thousands of likes.

Leaving aside the pettiness of academia, the series is not without questions and criticisms. First, will the Times apply the historical logic of the series to its future coverage of Haiti or continue acting as a stenographer for the State Department? More directly, why didn’t the series mention the “Core Group” that largely rules Haiti today? The series is supposed to show how foreign intervention has contributed to Haitian impoverishment and political dysfunction, but the Times ignores a direct line between the 2004 coup and foreign alliance that dominates the country today.

Last week Haitians protested in front of the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince. They chanted against the Core Group, which consists of representatives from the US, Canada, EU, OAS, UN, Spain, Brazil and France. A protester banged a rock on the gates. Previously, protesters have hurled rocks and molotov cocktails, as well as burned tires, in front of the Canadian Embassy.

The Times series has solidified the historical narrative regarding the 2004 coup and popularized the history of imperialism in Haiti. The series is a boon to North Americans campaigning for a radical shift in policy towards a country born of maybe the greatest victory ever for equality and human dignity.

But the point of activism is not simply to describe the world, but to change it.

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Yves Engler is the author of 12 books. His latest is Stand on Guard For Whom? — A People’s History of the Canadian Military.  Read other articles by Yves.

This article was posted on Monday, May 30th, 2022 at 9:38am and is filed under Activism, Canada, Coup, France, Haiti, Imperialism, United States.