The Savagery of the War Against the Palestinian People

Vijay Prashad | 11 Oct 2023

Israel’s brutal and punctual violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza over the last decade, is in violation of all international conventions on war and human rights.

Residents move away for safer spots amid destroyed buildings and debris around the Palestinian Telecommunications Company, which was targeted, after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza Strip on October 10, 2023. Photo: Anadolu Agency

Who knows how many Palestinian civilians will be killed by the time this report is published? Among the bodies that cannot be taken to a hospital or a morgue, because there will be no petrol or electricity, will be large numbers of children. They will have hidden in their homes, listening to the sound of the Israeli F-16 bombers coming closer and closer, the explosions advancing toward them like a swarm of red ants on the chase. They will have covered their ears with their hands, crouched with their parents in their darkened living rooms, waiting, waiting for the inevitable bomb to strike their home. By the time the rescue workers get to them under the mountains of rubble, their bodies would have become unrecognizable, their families weeping as familiar clothing or household goods are excavated. Such is the torment of the Palestinians who live in Gaza.

A friend of mine in Gaza who has a 17-year-old child told me on the first night of this recent spell of Israeli bombing that his child has lived through at least ten major Israeli assaults on the Palestinians in Gaza. As we spoke, we made a list of some of the wars we could remember (because these are Israel’s wars, we are using the Israeli army names for their attacks on Gaza):

• Operation Summer Rains (June 2006)
• Operation Autumn Clouds (October-November 2006)
• Operation Hot Winter (February-March 2008)
• Operation Cast Lead (December 2008-January 2009)
• Operation Running Echo (March 2012)
• Operation Pillar of Cloud (November 2012)
• Operation Protective Edge (July-August 2014)
• Operation Black Belt (November 2019)
• Operation Breaking Dawn (August 2022)
• Operation Shield and Arrow (May 2023)

 

Each of these attacks pulverizes the minimal infrastructure that remains intact in Gaza and hits the Palestinian civilians very hard. Civilian deaths and casualties are recorded by the Health Ministry in Gaza but disregarded by the Israelis and their Western enablers. As the current bombing intensified, journalist Muhammad Smiry said, “We might not survive this time.” Smiry’s worry is not isolated. Each time Israel sends in its fighter jets and missiles, the death and destruction are of an unimaginable proportion. This time, with a full-scale invasion, the destruction will be at a scale not previously witnessed.

The Ruin of Gaza

Gaza is a ruin populated by nearly two million people. After Israel’s horrific 2014 bombardment of Gaza, the United Nations reported that “people are literally sleeping amongst the rubble; children have died of hypothermia.” A variation of this sentence has been written after each of these bombings and will be written when this one finally comes to an end.

In 2004, Israel’s National Security Director Giora Eiland said that Gaza is a “huge concentration camp.” This “huge concentration camp” was erected in 1948 when the newly created Israeli state’s ethnic cleansing policy removed Palestinians into refugee camps, including in Gaza. Two years later, Israeli intelligence reported that the refugees in Gaza had been “condemned to utter extinction.” That judgment has not altered in the intervening 73 years. Despite the formal withdrawal of Israeli settlers and troops in 2005, Israel remains the occupying power over the region by sealing off the land and sea borders of the Gaza Strip. Israel decides what enters Gaza and uses that power to throttle the people periodically.

Politicide

When the Palestinians in Gaza tried to elect their own leadership in January 2006, Hamas—formed in the first Intifada (Uprising) of 1987 in Gaza—won the election. The victory of Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) was condemned by the Israelis and the West, who decided to use armed force to overthrow the election results. Operation Summer Rains and Operation Autumn Clouds introduced the Palestinians to a new dynamic: punctual bombardment as collective punishment for electing Hamas in the legislative elections. Gaza was never allowed a political process, in fact, never allowed to shape any kind of political authority to speak for the people. Israel has tried with force to eradicate Gaza’s political life and to force the people into a situation where the armed conflict becomes permanent. When the Palestinians conducted a non-violent Great March of Return in 2019, the Israeli army responded with brute force that killed two hundred people. When a non-violent protest is met with force, it becomes difficult to convince people to remain on that path and not take up arms.

As this conflict takes on the air of permanency, the frustration of Palestinian politics moves away from the impossibility of negotiations to the necessity of armed violence. No other avenue is left open. Palestine’s political leadership has been either tethered by the European Union and the United States and so been removed from popular aspirations or—if it continues to mirror those aspirations—it has been sent to one of Israel’s many, harsh prisons (four of 10 Palestinian men are in or have been in prison, while the leaders of most of the left parties spend long periods there under “administrative detention” orders). Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling has argued that the Israeli policy toward the Palestinians has resulted in “politicide,” the deliberate destruction of Palestinian political processes. The only road left open is armed struggle.

Indeed, by international law, armed struggle against an occupying power is not illegal. There are many international conventions and United Nations resolutions that affirm the right of self-determination: these include, Additional Protocol 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, UN General Assembly Resolution 3314 (1974), and UN General Assembly Resolution 37/43 (1982). The 1982 resolution “reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” You could not have a stronger statement that provides legal sanction for armed struggle against an illegal occupation.

Why does Hamas attack Israel? Because a political grammar has been imposed on the relationship between the Palestinians and the Israelis by the nature of the Israeli occupation. Indeed, any time there is a modest development for talks—often brokered by Qatar—between Hamas and the Israeli government, those talks are silenced by the sound of Israeli fighter jets.

War crimes

Each time these Israeli fighter jets hammer Gaza, leaders of Western countries line up metronomically to announce that they “stand with Israel” and that “Israel has a right to defend itself.” This last statement—about Israel having the right to defend itself—is legally erroneous. In 1967, Israeli forces crossed the 1948 Israeli “green lines” and seized East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank. United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 sought the “withdrawal of [Israeli] armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” The use of the term “occupied” is not innocent. Article 42 of the Hague Regulations (1907) states that a “territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.” The Fourth Geneva Convention obliges the occupying power to be responsible for the welfare of those who have been occupied, most of the obligations violated by the Israeli government.

In fact, as far as Gaza has been concerned since 2005, Israeli high officials have not used the language of self-defense. They have spoken in the language of collective punishment. In the lead-up to the ongoing bombing, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We have decided to halt electricity, fuel, and goods transfer to Gaza.” His Defense Minister Yoav Gallant followed up, saying, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” Then, Israel’s Energy Minister Israel Katz said, “I instructed that the water supply from Israel to Gaza be cut off immediately.” Having followed up on these threats, they have sealed Gaza—including by bombing the Rafah crossing to Egypt—and closed down the lives of two million people. In the language of the Geneva Conventions, this is “collective punishment,” which constitutes a war crime. The International Criminal Court opened an investigation into Israeli war crimes in 2021 but was not able to move forward even to collect information.

The children huddle in their rooms waiting for the bombs sit in the dark because there is no electricity and wait—with parched throats and hungry bellies—for the end. After the 2014 Israeli bombardment, Umm Amjad Shalah spoke of her 10-year-old son Salman. The boy would not let his mother go, being in terror of the noise of the explosions and the death around him. “Sometimes he screams so loudly,” she says. “It almost sounds like he’s laughing loudly.”

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He has written more than 20 books, including The Darker Nations and The Poorer Nations. His latest books are Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and (with Noam Chomsky) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US Power.

This article was produced by Globetrotter.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

INDIA

Mechanisation, Shutting Down of Stone Quarries Push Pakur's Workers to the Brink

Rahul Singh | 12 Oct 2023

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People get work only once in two days, but the mining officer claims scientific mining and the use of automatic stone crushers as the reasons for it.

Pakur, Jharkhand: These days, Gayna Murmu (28) gets work every second day only. He levels the stones loaded on trucks and tractors to earn Rs 200 to 300. Gayna Murmu and his wife Lukhi Tudu have seven children, and they find it difficult to survive due to the low availability of work in the stone industry. They do not have agricultural lands to cultivate, which adds to the uncertainty.

"Our ration card was in the name of my father, Som Murmu. He died six months ago, after which we did not get ration supplies. The card is yet to be transferred to my name. It involves spending some money," said Gayna, who lives in Pipaljori village in Nabinagar panchayat in the Malpahari area of Pakur district.

Located in the northeast region of Jharkhand, Pakur has a tribal population of 42.1%. The state government controls the mining activities here as the stone excavation comes in the category of minor minerals. 

Both Pakur and its neighbouring Sahibganj are important centres of stone mining and its business in eastern India. Most part of the Rajmahal hills, which are among the oldest mountain ranges of the country, fall under the Sahibganj district, and some areas fall under Pakur.

The black stones quarried from Pakur are famous for their export quality. Large-scale stone quarrying happens in all its six blocks, but Malpahari has been one of the overexploited areas.

Excessive mining has left huge pits similar to those seen in coal mines in some villages. Vector-borne diseases are common here. "People die suddenly. We were 12 brothers and sisters, now only four are alive," said a stone worker from Pipaljori village on condition of anonymity.

"When a brother fell ill this year, we took him to Rampurhat in West Bengal. The doctor there told us to take him to Bardhaman, but by then, he died," the villager said.

Machines Take Away Workdays

According to information received from the District Mining Department, Pakur received a revenue of Rs 117 crore from stone quarrying in 2022-23 and Rs 78 crore in 2021-22. District Mining Officer Pradeep Kumar Sah told 101Reporters that Pakur has around 80 active stone mining leases. There are about 100 to 125 crushers in operation against the earlier 400 to 500.

Nabinagar panchayat head Manoj Kisku (26) told 101Reporters that the mines have been closing down over the last seven years. 

"People were staying here because of the mines. Ever since the COVID-19 lockdown, the loss of employment in stone mines and crushers has increased. That apart, the Enforcement Directorate is investigating a stone mining scam, which has impacted the workdays."

Kisku claimed that 40% of the people, mostly tribals, have migrated from his panchayat. Talking about his village, he said 65-70% of the people in Pipaljori have been affected, and 75% of the young boys have gone out to earn. 

"People have left for Kolkata, Bardhaman and Hyderabad. Also, contractors take labourers from this area for three months to do farming in other parts of West Bengal," he added.

Pakur Labour Superintendent Ramesh Prasad Singh told 101Reporters that 50,000 unorganised sector workers were registered with the labour department in the district. Asked about women workers, he said the registration was not based on gender, so it was difficult to tell their percentage.

"It may also be a little difficult to assess how many people work in the stone industry at present because it is not necessarily the same as its labour capacity. Even if a crusher has a licence with a labour capacity of 50 workers, it is possible that only 10 people work there," he explained, while not divulging the exact number of workers who migrated from here.

As of October 2, the e-shram portal has 2,85,696 registered workers in Pakur. A maximum number of 1,84,622 work in the agricultural sector, followed by 32,079 in domestic and household work, 24,809 in the tobacco industry, 10,902 in the construction sector and 6,015 in capital goods and manufacturing. There is no separate category for stone mining, which shows its workers are counted along with other sectors.

The Pachhwara North Coal Mine in Pakur district supplies coal to the power plants of West Bengal. Coal mining provides less employment because it is centralised and mechanised, whereas stone mining takes place throughout the district and involves small and medium units.

Asked about the decreasing employment prospects in stone mining units, Pakur District Mining Officer Pradeep Kumar Sah told 101Reporters that mining was done with automatic machines. "Now, even five to seven labourers can run a crusher, for which earlier 20 to 25 people were required."

Migration of workers from Jharkhand is high, so the state government records their details. According to the labour department data, there are 12,482 registered migrant workers in the Pakur district.

As of October 3, Pakur district has 1,15,036 active workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, including 52,229 women. As many as 41,153 workers are from the Scheduled Tribes category and 3,080 from the Scheduled Castes category. However, the definition of active worker in MGNREGA has a very broad context, including any worker or his family member who has worked for a single day in the last three years.

Pakur Deputy Development Commissioner Shahid Akhtar told 101Reporters that MGNREGA created employment in the district. "During rainy days, construction-related schemes are operated, while pond/well works and similar activities are run at other times. However, this district is still heavily dependent on mining for revenue and employment," he said.

Pakur's MGNREGA ombudsman Vinod Kumar Pramanik said there was a possibility of MGNERGA labourers going for work in stone crushers as the scheme guaranteed only 100 days of employment in a year.

Mining Laws Bypassed

A 2017 order from the state government banned mining on government land. Now, it is done only on rayati lands, and the district magistrate or deputy commissioner has the authority to auction land measuring up to three hectares (7.41 acres) for stone mining.

Asked about excessive mining in Malpahari, District Mining Officer Sah said, "Earlier, there was no pre-decided mining volume; maybe that is why you feel there has been excessive mining. However, after the Jharkhand Minor Mineral Concession (Amendment) Rules, 2014, scientific mining has been promoted. Now, only a fixed quantity can be mined from a particular place," he said.

After 2010, the Jharkhand government has made rules from time to time and has tried to organise them. A forest department official related to this process in Pakur district said excessive and unscientific mining has taken place in Malpahari. "Rules and guidelines are not followed, and no concrete action has been taken to enforce them. We have only limited rights in this process. The Jharkhand Pollution Control Board should actively intervene," he said on condition of anonymity.

On the question of compensation for the loss caused to the district due to excessive mining, Pakur Divisional Forest Officer Rajneesh Kumar told 101Reporters that a plantation of 7.5 m width has to be done in the perimeter around the stone mining as per the rule. "Five to 10 times the number of trees cut for mining has to be planted or transplanted as per the requirement. A high power committee of Jharkhand High Court meets in this regard from time to time, and its recommendations keep coming," he said.

"The stone mines in Pakur district are not on any forest land. Hence, we do not directly intervene there. However, there is a coal mine on the forest land, and we intervene there and get the plantation done," Kumar said.

The forest department's data suggest that 1,50,718 saplings were planted on roadsides in Pakur district in the 2022-23 fiscal, while a target has been set at 2,90,350 saplings in the present one. However, due to insufficient rainfall, the work has been affected. Kisku, however, alleged that the plantation was just an eyewash as the mining companies do not check on the condition of the saplings once they are planted. 

(Rahul Singh is a Jharkhand-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.) 

Bengal: Handloom Weavers of Nadia, Hooghly on Verge of Extinction

Sandip Chakraborty | 13 Oct 2023

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Dwindling product demand, online sales and a lack of meaningful government support is pushing weavers to migrate as labour.

Image Courtesy: Flickr

Kolkata: The first leg of the Autumn Festival Season in West Bengal is underway, starting with Durga Puja and Bijoya Dashami. According to industry estimates, this festival, one of the world's biggest street celebrations, reportedly contributes 10% to the state's gross domestic product, at Rs 13.16 lakh crore.

However, a country-wide economic slowdown has cast a shadow over this annual festive event.

As per industry body Assocham's 2023 report, West Bengal's festival economy was projected to surpass Rs 1.5 lakh crore. This year, the state has is struggling to reach the Rs 1 lakh crore mark during the season, per initial estimates.

The weavers of Dhania Khali, Begumpur, Guptipara, Aatpur in Hooghly district and Shantipur and Fulia in Nadia district are on the verge of extinction due to dwindling product demands and a lack of meaningful government support. As more women in the state opt for western clothing over traditional handwoven sarees, both districts, each with a more than 1,000-year-old weaving tradition, are grappling with reduced product demand, say industry watchers.

In Begumpur, Newsclick spoke with many elderly weavers who are still in the profession but are reluctant to have the next generation follow in their footsteps. They mentioned that weaving a 12-hand saree takes two days, and they earn only about Rs 150 to 200 for their labour. On average, they receive about Rs 80 to 90 a day for their hard work. Begumpur had around 35,000 handlooms in operation in the past, but that number has now dwindled to 500. The labour cost per saree has decreased from Rs 230 before COVID-19 to Rs 180.

Somen Mahata, a leader of the Nadia District Weavers Association, told NewsClick that subsidies were provided to weavers during the Left Front era (before 2011), and a pension scheme was in place. Both the state and Central governments shared these subsidies. However, the Mahatma Gandhi Bunkar Yojna has now been discontinued, increasing the hardships faced by handloom weavers.

As a result, the Autumn Festival this yeart has been barely remunerative for the 1.5 million textile workers in the state, according to 2018 estimates from the Department of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises and Textiles, Government of West Bengal. The three largest wholesale markets in the state - Harisha Haat in North Kolkata, Mangla Haat in Howrah, and Metiburuz - have all seen a third of their usual sales, especially following demonetisation.

According to Asadulla Gayen of the West Bengal Tailors Association, the effects of demonetisation, digitisation, and direct sales on online platforms have significantly impacted the traditional supply chain in the state. The Autumn Festival and Pongal are two crucial events contributing to the state's textile revenue.

Even weavers in Shantipur and Fulia of Nadia District, who work on a contract basis for retailers, have seen a decrease in sales. Their profit margins have shrunk instead of the nearly 15% yearly growth witnessed in the past three decades. Thread prices have soared, and both handloom and powerloom workers are operating below their maximum capacity.

The traditional "khat-khat-khat" sound emanating from handloom weavers' huts in Shantipur, located approximately 100 kilometres from the state capital of Kolkata, is fading. Shantipur is renowned for its weaving skills, and its traditional weavers produce Shantipur sarees, highly sought after for their unique weaving patterns and quality.

Nadia dis home to about two lakh weavers, with approximately 40% of them belonging to Scheduled Castes. The traditional weaving community is now on the brink of extinction, as weavers are dismantling their looms en masse and turning to migrant work in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, and Karnataka, according to Soumen Mahato of Nadia District's Tant Shramik Union.

In the past 10 years, wages have seen an increment in nearly every profession except the weaving industry. Daily wage rates have plummeted from Rs 160 to Rs 60-70 in the last decade. A handloom worker who works more than 12 to 14 hours straight can produce only one saree daily, resulting in prevailing wages of Rs 60- 70.

 

Bengal: Tea Garden Workers Launch Stir to Demand 20% Puja Season Bonus

Sandip Chakraborty | 10 Oct 2023

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Struggling to make ends meet due to rising prices of essentials, the Joint Forum of tea workers said they would intensify their agitation.

Kolkata:  Lakhs of tea garden workers have started an agitation in the Darjeeling Hills and the Terai and Dooars regions demanding a 20% bonus before the onset of the puja season in the state. Traditionally, in the state’s tea estates, bonus issues of the Terai and Dooars are discussed every year before the onset of the season, following which the bonus issues of the hill estates are settled.

On October 5, the first round of discussions on bonus payments with tea garden unions began in Kolkata. After three rounds of talks, tea garden owners were reportedly adamant on paying a bonus @15% of basic wages. Even tea gardens that are financially stable and have the ability to pay 20% bonus are thinking of paying only 15% bonus at a time when inflation is biting hard, said some union leaders.

Saman Pathak, former Rajya Sabha MP from Darjeeling, and leader of the Joint Forum of Tea Workers told NewsClick that the tea garden owners had shown “high-handedness” while discussing the bonus issue and their “exploitative outlook” was hurting tea workers before the festival season. “It is a question of the human dignity of the tea workers”, he added.

Meanwhile, unrest has begun in various tea gardens of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts. In Alipurduar, the management of Dalgaon tea estate took a unilateral decision and has decided to pay 20% bonus to its employees.

More than one million people in North Bengal, who are directly or indirectly dependent on the tea garden economy of the region, have been struggling with their livelihoods. Since the regime change in the state in 2011 (from the earlier Left Front to the Trinamool Congress now), the constant refusal of the West Bengal government to comply with the Minimum Wages Act and statutory labour regulations, even in the recent Tripartite Meets, has worsened the workers’ plight. 

While the price of everything is rising, tea garden workers are struggling to make ends meet. Even starvation-related deaths have reportedly occurred due to the withdrawal of assistance to workers of closed tea gardens. Many recall that it was the erstwhile Left Front government that had started the assistance scheme in the state. 

However, hunger and poverty-related deaths of tea garden workers are not new and have been reported for close to a decade. But the situation seems to have reached a tipping point now, say union leaders. 

Tea plantations in the region are spread over 97,280 hectares (240,400 acres). The region produces 226 million kilogrammes of tea, accounting for about a quarter of India's total tea crop. There are 154 gardens in the Dooars alone, out of 283 tea gardens in North Bengal that employ 3.5 lakh workers.

Tea cultivation in the Dooars was primarily pioneered and promoted by the British Colonial rulers, but a significant contribution was made by Indian entrepreneurs. While Goodricke and Duncan operate a majority of tea gardens in the Dooars. 

Prafulla Lakra from the Jalpaiguri Sadar Tea Workers Union, who is also the regional secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), told NewsClick that the region's tea workers were being exploited.  “We depend on festival bonus payments for our sustenance. If the management thinks they can get away by paying us less bonus, then we will protest more intensely,” he added. 

"The tea industry is suffering from absenteeism. In Darjeeling district, where there is scope for 11 million kg of tea production, there is now production of 6.5 million kg of tea, because most male workers have gone out of the state to work as migrant workers in other states. Women now comprise over 80% of the tea workers," Lakra said.

RS

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Why Europe’s Political Leadership is Marinated in Globalised Capital

Prabhat Patnaik | 07 Oct 2023

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A large number of European politicians have been on the payrolls of giant corporates of US origin.

Stack of pipes/tubes for natural gas pipeline North Stream 2 at Mukran port, September 2020. Image Courtesy:  Wikimedia Commons

One of the most intriguing questions at present is why Europe’s political leadership has become complicit in what appear to be US efforts at undermining European economies. The well-known American investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, having already provided evidence that the United States was responsible for the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, has now revealed that this blowing up was not even linked to the war in Ukraine. It was a deliberate move on the part of the Biden administration to ensure that Europe remained dependent on US gas despite its being far more expensive, rather than become dependent on the much cheaper Russian gas.

The blowing up of the pipeline, therefore, was not just an assault on EU economies, especially Germany, whose costs of production would go up across the board because of it; it was also a direct subversion of a policy which the German government itself had launched. And yet there is not an iota of criticism, or even of disapproval couched in polite diplomatic language, by any German political leader of this act of economic sabotage directed against Germany.

What is more, in anticipation of the time when higher energy costs would really begin to bite (when the current subsidies being given by the German government to compensate for the higher energy price are ended), and in view of the generally uncertain energy outlook, there is a relocation of production that is taking place, away from Germany to the United States. And yet there is not a squeak from any German political leader on this brazen assault on the German economy. The question is: why?

While a proper answer must await further research, one element of the answer seems clear, namely, a large number of European politicians have been on the payroll of giant corporates of US origin. They are integrated into an international financial oligarchy associated with globalised capital, and they have little concern for national interests.

Rudolf Hilferding, in his classic work Das Finanzkapital, had talked of a personal union between the magnates of banks and those of industry, constituting the financial oligarchy. The financial oligarchy also had personal union with the personnel of the State, whereby the same individuals migrated with ease from one establishment to the other. This was one of the mechanisms that ensured that State policy was always framed so as to promote the interests of the financial oligarchy.

Hilferding, however, was writing in the context of national finance capitals. In the era of globalisation, when finance capital has become globalised while the State remains a nation-state, the personal union between State personnel and international finance capital for promoting the interests of the latter must necessarily mean a degree of unconcern on the part of State personnel for the condition of the nation itself, which basically means for the condition of the working people within the nation. And this is what we actually find.

The examples of personal union between current leading European politicians and global corporates, many of them originating from America, are quite striking. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democrats in Germany, and in that capacity the leader of the opposition in Germany, has extensive business interests, is a billionaire, and has served on several boards, including the American Black Rock investment company.

France’s current president Emmanuel Macron was an investment banker at the Rothschild financial group where he had brokered a deal between Nestle’ and Pfizer leading to the former’s acquisition of the latter’s baby food division.

The latest and most brazen instance is to be found in Greece, where Stefanos Kasselakis, an executive of Goldman Sachs, the American investment company, has just been elected the leader of Syriza, a supposedly Left-wing party which had been in power earlier and is currently the biggest party of the opposition.

Kasselakis has not been in politics before, knows next to nothing of the problems of Greece, has absolutely no familiarity with or ideological affinity towards the Left, and has generally avoided raising any major issues during his election campaign. His election was made possible by changing Syriza’s Party Constitution so that anybody could become a member of Syriza at short notice and, therefore, eligible to vote in the leadership contest. There is every likelihood of Kasselakis being elected the next prime minister of Greece. Indeed, this was his main selling point during the election campaign for Syriza leadership.

The point of this new crop of European leaders having been executives of corporates of American origin is not that they promote American interests at the expense of their own country’s interests, but that they are not bound by any considerations of national interests at all. Instead, they defend and promote the interests of globalised capital. Their position as corporate executives makes them committed to the interests of globalised capital, and hence committed to the political defence of globalised capital, which they believe can be provided only by unity among imperialist states. Trans-Atlantic unity, therefore, occupies a far more important place in their minds than it did in the minds of an earlier generation of European politicians.

We are seeing the emergence of a new kind of politician, outside of the fascist fold, in the imperialist countries; and this is most evident in Europe, of which Britain’s Tony Blair was an early example. These politicians are often drawn from the corporate world, and often move back and forth between the corporate and political worlds. They have no ideology other than a commitment to neo-liberalism and a deep hostility towards the working class, even when they nominally belong to the Left or to Left-of-Centre parties: Tony Blair was a Labour prime minister, Emmanuel Macron was the finance minister in a “socialist” government, and Kasselakis has been elected to lead a “Left” party. And, of course, they have little concern for the interests of the nations they lead.

They are, in short, completely different from the De Gaulles and the Willy Brandts of yesteryear, who had ideologies, though different from one another, who worked in their national interests as they perceived it, and who were willing to stand up to the Americans. Apart from their political, as opposed to corporate, backgrounds, they also had attitudes more in tune with a period predating the hegemony of globalised finance capital.

The unity of imperialist states appears particularly urgent to this new crop of corporate-bred politicians in a period of crisis for (neo-liberal) capitalism. What is often seen as a threat to metropolitan capitalism arising from the tendency towards “multipolarity” misses this context of capitalist crisis; closing ranks among imperialist states is seen to be essential as a means of surviving the challenge that is likely to arise, as much from the domestic working class as from the Third World, in the face of this crisis.

This quest for unity among imperialist states, even at the expense of “national interests”, however, opens the way for the ascendancy of fascism in metropolitan countries, since the fascist elements still talk of “national interests” and hence still strike a chord with the working class. It is another matter that if they come to power, they line up behind their domestic big business and hence pursue the same economic and foreign policies as the preceding liberal bourgeois governments had been doing. The case of Meloni in Italy only confirms this proposition. But when in opposition they invoke the nation and project themselves as its defenders.

This is the globalised capital’s “heads I win, tails you lose” strategy in the metropolis in the face of the crisis. The idea is to cordon off politics in the metropolis within the binary of a “fascism-versus-liberal bourgeois” choice. The liberal bourgeois governments, whose leaders are corporate executives themselves, rally to the defence of globalised capital through promoting a unity among imperialist states. If they get rejected by the people, then the only alternative that is presented before the people is the fascist alternative that invokes the nation but does the bidding of globalised capital. Its invoking of the nation takes the form not of opposing globalised capital but of opposing the immigrants, against whom, in typical fascist fashion, it arouses popular anger, holding them responsible for the travails faced by the majority of workers, owing to the capitalist crisis.

It is for the authentic Left, not the one led by corporate executives, to expose and defeat this “heads I win, tails you lose” strategy of globalised capital.