Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Trade unionists shut down access to Foreign Office, demanding Government stops arming Israel

By Workers For a Free Palestine

JULY 24, 2024

Over 1,000 workers and trade unionists shut down access to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office headquarters in central London this Wednesday morning, demanding that the new Labour Government immediately halt all arms exports to Israel. To try to break the blockade, police dragged protesters across the floor at the Whitehall entrance and arrested six people.

The action comes as Israeli forces launched an assault on, and ordered the evacuation of, parts of a designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, killing nearly 100 people in one day, wounding several hundred more and forcing over 150,000 people to flee since Monday. It also follows one of the deadliest weeks in aerial attacks on Gaza since the onslaught started nine months ago and a damning new International Court of Justice ruling about Israel’s occupation clearly violating international law.

After Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Alicia Kearns accused the Foreign Office of hiding legal advice that Israel is breaching International Humanitarian Law in Gaza in March, David Lammy – now Foreign Secretary – demanded the UK Government publish the advice and “suspend the sale of those arms” if the advice shows there is a “clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.”

Today trade unionists are calling on the Foreign Secretary “to practice what he preached in opposition” and “meet his own demands” by immediately publishing the advice and suspending the sale of arms. They are also calling on the Foreign Secretary to withdraw the UK’s legal bid to block the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. In Opposition, David Lammy called on David Cameron to drop this, accusing the Conservatives in May 2024 of “U-turning on one of Britain’s most fundamental principles: respect for the rule of law.”

Today’s disruptive action follows parliamentary pressure on the new Labour Government to halt arms exports to Israel, including an amendment to the King’s Speech put forward by Labour MPs, and other amendments and questions from Lib Dem, SNP, Green and independent MPs. The Foreign Secretary signalled a few days ago that he has started a new process which would delay any such publication and this week he refused to answer a question from Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson about whether he will publish the legal advice in line with his own calls on David Cameron.

The ICJ has ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories – the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – is a clear violation of international law. It ruled earlier this year that Israel’s actions in Gaza plausibly amounted to genocide and ordered Israel to comply with provisional measures, which it has failed to do. Even before the latest ICJ ruling, some 600 lawyers, legal academics, and former judges, including former Supreme Court justices and the Court’s former president Lady Hale, warned that the UK government is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

Today’s blockade has been organised by Workers for a Free Palestine in support of civil servants and members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) . The Foreign Office and the Department for Business and Trade are involved in granting arms export licences, thus playing a fundamental role in the continued sale of UK weapons used by the Israeli army. Civil servants have requested to “cease work immediately” on arms export licences to Israel over fears they could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza, and their union PCS is considering bringing legal action to prevent their members from being forced to carry out unlawful acts.

Tania, a Unite member and organiser for Workers for a Free Palestine, taking part in the blockade said:

“We blocked all entrances to the Foreign Office, completely shutting down access to the building until the police started violently dragging people across the pavement on Whitehall. We disrupted the department in solidarity with the Palestinian people and with civil servants who are raising concerns about being forced to carry out unlawful acts, which no worker should ever be asked to do. By shutting down the Foreign Office, workers and trade unionists are supporting civil servants concerned with the legality of the Government’s actions, as well as standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

“Keir Starmer and David Lammy have blood on their hands and we will not rest until they meet their legal and moral duty to end British complicity in war crimes, in accordance with the will of the people they purport to represent. It is shameful that the Labour Government is choosing to crack down on its citizens for peacefully protesting the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide rather than listening to the majority of the British public – including the droves of Labour voters who defected over Gaza – who want arms exports to Israel halted immediately. Indeed, David Lammy should listen to his own words from a few months ago when he called on the then Foreign Secretary to publish the legal advice and halt arms sales to Israel based on the Foreign Affairs Committee Chair’s account of its contents.

“The invasion of the humanitarian zone in Khan Younis is a devastating reminder that each day Labour refuses to halt arms exports, more Palestinians are slaughtered with UK support, and in some cases, with British made weapons. Today’s repression will not deter us from disrupting the flow of arms to Israel from arms factories in the UK or from blocking access to the Government departments which facilitate those exports.”

Harriet, an NHS A&E doctor and BMA member taking part in the blockade, said:

“Every day that the Labour Government refuses to halt arms sales to Israel, more people are killed in our country’s name and subsidised by our taxes, and Britain’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide deepens. No worker should be forced to carry out unlawful acts. By shutting down the Foreign Office, workers and trade unionists are supporting civil servants concerned with the legality of the Government’s actions, as well as standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

“As a doctor, I can’t stand by and carry on as normal while the Government – and a Labour Government no less, which claims to stand up for human rights – arms the regime which is turning hospitals into mass graves, targeting and killing the workers who save the lives of others, who are doing the same job as me. We will keep showing up to shut down their buildings and disrupt the flow of arms to Israel. We will ensure the Labour Government knows no rest until they end their complicity in Israel’s war crimes, including the onslaught on a designated humanitarian zone happening right now.

“As our blockade today shows, if the Foreign Secretary refuses to listen to his staff and public opinion – and to his own demands from three months ago – by publishing the legal advice and suspending arms sales, workers will enforce an effective arms embargo themselves. We will keep shutting down the Departments which enable arms exports which are being used to wage a genocide in which the death toll could be as catastrophically high as 186,000 people according to medical researchers.”

Polling by You Gov shows that among all voters in the UK a majority of 56% to 17% are in favour of a ban on the export of arms and spare parts. By a majority of 59% to 12%, voters say Israel is violating human rights in Gaza. Before the general election, an overwhelming 71% to 9% of those intending to vote Labour backed an arms export ban, while Lib Dem voters support a ban by 70% to 14% and Conservative voters by 38% to 36%. Asked if Israel is violating human rights, Tory voters by two to one said Israel is doing so.

Workers For a Free Palestine is a network of workers and trade unionists organising blockades which shut down access to arms factories and key Government buildings to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel. This included shutting down all entrances to the Department of Business and Trade on May Day, as a result of which the Department closed the office and instructed all staff not to come into the office that day.

In a separate action, protestors have shut down a factory in Edinburgh in protest at the ongoing war in Gaza. The Leonardo plant was targeted due to its components being produced for Lockheed Martin, which sells jets to Israel. Rosemary, a teacher from Edinburgh, said: “I couldn’t stand by anymore and watch Israel commit a genocide with weapons made in our own city. As people who live in Scotland, whose friends and neighbours work at this factory, we have a responsibility to put pressure on arms manufacturers to comply with international law.”

Arrest of protesters blocking access to FCDO over arms sales to Israel amid attacks on Gaza humanitarian zone

24th July 2024Leave a Comment

“Today’s blockade has been organised in support of civil servants & PCS members. The FCDO and the Department for Business & Trade are involved in granting arms export licences, therefore playing a fundamental role in the continued sale of UK weapons used by the Israeli army.”

From Workers For A Free Palestine

At least six protesters arrested while blocking access to the Foreign Office on Wednesday morning at both the Whitehall entrance and the St James’ Park entrance.
Workers and trade unionists blockaded the Foreign Office to demand the new Labour Government immediately publish legal advice and halt arms exports to Israel – as the Foreign Secretary called for in opposition – amid ongoing attack on Gaza humanitarian zone in Khan Younis. They’re chanting that Keir Starmer and David Lammy have “blood on their hands”
To try to break the blockade, police dragged protesters across the floor at the Whitehall entrance and arrested six people.

Protesters shut down access to the Foreign Office as Israeli forces have ordered the evacuation of and invaded parts of a designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, killing nearly 100 people in one day and wounding several hundred more and forcing over 150,000 people to flee since Monday.

After Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Alicia Kearns accused the FCDO of hiding legal advice that Israel is breaching International Humanitarian Law in Gaza in March, now-Foreign Secretary David Lammy demanded the UK Government publish the advice and “suspend the sale of those arms” if the advice shows there is a “clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.” The ICJ’s damning new ruling further confirms that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories – the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – is a clear violation of international law, with the ICJ having ruled earlier this year that Israel’s actions in Gaza plausibly amounted to genocide.

Today workers and trade unionists have been chanting that Keir Starmer and David Lammy have “blood on their hands” and calling on the Foreign Secretary “to practice what he preached in opposition” and “meet his own demands” by immediately publishing the advice and suspending the sale of arms. They are also calling on the Foreign Secretary to withdraw the UK’s legal bid to block the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, which David Lammy called on David Cameron to drop, accusing the Conservatives in May 2024 of “u-turning on on one of Britain’s most fundamental principles: respect for the rule of law”.

This disruptive action follows Parliamentary pressure on the new Labour Government to halt arms exports to Israel, including an amendment to the King’s Speech put forward by Labour MPs, and other amendments and questions from Lib Dem, SNP, Green and independent MPs. The Foreign Secretary signalled a few days ago that he has started a new process which would delay any such publication and this week he refused to answer a question from Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson about whether he will publish the legal advice in line with his own calls on David Cameron.

Today’s blockade has been organised by Workers for a Free Palestine in support of civil servants and PCS members. The FCDO and the Department for Business and Trade are involved in granting arms export licences, therefore playing a fundamental role in the continued sale of UK weapons used by the Israeli army. Civil servants have requested to “cease work immediately” on arms export licences to Israel over fears they could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza, and their union PCS is considering bringing legal action to prevent their members from being forced to carry out unlawful acts.

Tania, a Unite member and organiser for Workers for a Free Palestine, taking part in the blockade said:

“Keir Starmer and David Lammy have blood on their hands and we will not rest until they meet their legal and moral duty to end British complicity in war crimes, in accordance with the will of the people they purport to represent. It is shameful that the Labour Government is choosing to crack down on its citizens for peacefully protesting the UK’s complicity in Israel’s genocide rather than listening to the majority of the British public – including the droves of Labour voters who defected over Gaza – who want arms exports to Israel halted immediately. Indeed, David Lammy should listen to his own words from a few months ago when he called on the then Foreign Secretary to publish the legal advice and halt arms sales to Israel based on the Foreign Affairs Committee Chair’s account of its contents.”

Harriet, an NHS A&E doctor and BMA member taking part in the blockade, said:

“As our blockade today shows, if the Foreign Secretary refuses to listen to his staff and public opinion – and to his own demands from three months ago – by publishing the legal advice and suspending arms sales, workers will enforce an effective arms embargo themselves. We will keep shutting down the Departments which enable arms exports which are being used to wage a genocide in which the death toll could be as catastrophically high as 186,000 people according to medical researchers.”

Workers For A Free Palestine is a network of trade unionists organising practical solidarity with the Palestinian people- you can follow them on Instagram and Twitter/X.

Image: Damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Source; Correspondence with Wiki Palestine (Q117834684). Author: Wafa (Q2915969) in contract with a local company (APAimages), licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Time to apply pressure on Gaza – Andy McDonald MP

22nd July 2024Leave a Comment

“I ask the Government to clarify that they support the processes that will prosecute war crimes, and that the UK accepts the ICC jurisdiction over Israel and has no truck with the nonsensical legal argument that Israel is exempt from international law.”

By Andy McDonald MP

The following is an excerpt from his contribution in the House of Commons during the debate on the King’s Speech.

On foreign affairs, it is perhaps a statement of the obvious, but our foreign policy must be based on human rights and adherence to international humanitarian law.

On Gaza, I welcome the Foreign Secretary this week calling for an immediate ceasefire, for hostages to be released and for aid to reach the people of Gaza, but the question is how we will apply pressure to achieve these goals.

I very much welcome the Foreign Secretary's decision to overturn the suspension of funding to UNRWA.

But on arms sales and compliance with international humanitarian law, we urgently need the government's legal assessment – and action.

The people of Gaza cannot wait. pic.twitter.com/InlF54NN4I
— Andy McDonald MP for Middlesbrough & Thornaby East (@AndyMcDonaldMP) July 19, 2024

We must have clarity in a number of areas.

First, I urge the Government to set out how they will use all the necessary levers to achieve the ceasefire, including the end of arms export licensing. Secondly, I trust that this Government can provide the House with early confirmation of the re-establishing of direct funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Thirdly, I ask the Government to clarify that they support the processes that will prosecute war crimes, and that the UK accepts the International Criminal Court jurisdiction over Israel and has no truck with the nonsensical legal argument that Israel is exempt from international law. We have seen that time and again.

I do not think that anybody in this House was not shaken to the core by the vision of that young man with Down’s syndrome who, having been attacked by IDF soldiers, was savaged by dogs and then bled to death. We have seen such scenes over and over, and the justification that it is okay to kill 110 people—innocent children, women and men—in the pursuit of a military target is an abomination.

Fourth, I hope the Foreign Secretary will quickly clarify the new Government’s approach to the early recognition of the state of Palestine. We need equality and fairness to resolve this crisis, and it will not be resolved without the recognition of Palestine.

Andy McDonald is the MP for Middlesbrough & Thornaby East. You can follow Andy on Twitter/X and Facebook.
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Nearly half of UK public think junior doctors are underpaid, poll finds

Basit Mahmood

22 July, 2024

Left Foot Forward

Junior doctors in England have been embroiled in a 20-month row over pay and conditions, which has led to a series of strikes.

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Almost half of the public believe that junior doctors are underpaid, according to a new survey carried out by IPSOS for King’s College London.

It comes after Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced that the government would be entering formal talks with junior doctors in a bid to resolve the long-running strikes.

Junior doctors in England have been embroiled in a 20-month row over pay and conditions, which has led to a series of strikes.

They want a pay restoration deal that will see 2008 equivalent salaries – effectively a 35% pay rise.

The findings of the latest poll show that the public have sympathy with the arguments made by junior doctors, with research also showing that more people thought NHS staff overall were badly paid than well paid.

The Guardian reports: “Dr Nick Krachler, a senior lecturer in human resource management at King’s College London (KCL), which undertook the research alongside the pollsters Ipsos, said: “Our survey shows considerable alignment between public perceptions of NHS pay levels and the claims of trade unions and professional associations that pay levels … are unsatisfactory for frontline NHS roles.”

Almost half (47%) of people surveyed said newly qualified junior doctors – whose salary is £32,398 – were paid too little, while 32% felt they were paid the right amount and 6% said it was too much.

It comes as Chancellor Rachel Reeves hinted at above inflation pay rises for public sector workers this summer.

Reeves’ comments come after it is understood independent pay review bodies recommended an increase of 5.5% for teachers and some NHS workers.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

UK

Support Outsourced and Underpaid Workers at DESNZ – PCS on Strike

22nd July 2024Leave a Comment

“(PCS members) are not only seeking an end to the long-running dispute, but also hope to see the new Labour government fulfil its promise to end outsourcing and deliver justice for workers and value for taxpayers.”

Strike Map calls for solidarity with members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) taking industrial action against outsourcing and the undermining of pay and conditions at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Show your support for outsourced and underpaid workers at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) who are preparing to strike.

PCS members at DESNZ will be striking next week over poor pay and conditions imposed by their profit-driven employer, ISS. They are not only seeking an end to the long-running dispute but also hope to see the new Labour government fulfil its promise to end outsourcing and deliver justice for workers and value for taxpayers. Here’s how you can get involved and build momentum for massive insourcing.

Join the picket lines at 3-8 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2AW:

Monday 22nd July – 7am to 10am
Tuesday 23rd July – 8am to 10am
Wednesday 24th July – 8am to noon
Thursday 25th July – 8am to 10am

You can also help the workers by signing this petition demanding an end to outsourcing at the DESNZ.

This was originally published as part of Strike Map‘s email bulletin – you can follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
You can follow the PCS Union and show your support for their members taking action on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.

Catching up and falling behind, capitalism and global development – Michael Roberts

24th July 2024Leave a Comment

“Without strong state intervention, the contradiction between a falling rate of profit and increasing the productivity of labour cannot be overcome.”

By Michael Roberts

Brazilian Marxist economists Adalmir Antonio Marquetti, Alessandro Miebach and Henrique Morrone have produced an important and insightful book on global capitalist development, with an innovative new way of measuring the progress for the majority of humanity in the so-called Global South in ‘catching up’ on living standards with the ‘Global North’.

In this book Marquetti et al argue that unequal development has been a defining characteristic of capitalism. “Throughout history, countries and regions have exhibited differences in labor productivity growth – a key determinant in poverty reduction and development – and although some nations may catch up with the productivity levels or well-being of developed economies at times, others fall behind.”

They propose a model of economic development based on technical change, profit rate and capital accumulation, on the one hand, and institutional change, on the other. Together these two factors should be combined to explain the dynamics of catching up or falling behind.

They base their development model on what Duncan Foley called the ‘Marx-bias’ and what Paul Krugman has called ‘capital bias’; namely that in capitalist accumulation there will be a rise in the organic composition of capital (rising mechanization compared to labour input) leading to an increase in the productivity of labour, but also a tendency for the profitability of accumulated capital to fall.

Surprisingly, however, the authors do not use Marx’s specific categories to analyse this development of capitalism globally. They adopt what they call is a model in the ‘classical- Marxian tradition’ (so not actually Marxist), which is composed of two variables: rising labour productivity (defined as output per worker); and falling capital productivity (which is defined as output per unit of capital or fixed assets). The problem with this model is that the Marxist categories of surplus value (s/v) and the organic composition of capital (C/v) are now obscured. Instead, we have labour productivity (v+s)/v) and ‘capital productivity’ (v+s/C)). Cancelling out v+s, we get C/v or Marx’s organic composition of capital.

In Marx’s theory of development, the key variable is the rate of profit. Put in its most general terms, if total assets grow, due to the labour-shedding nature of new technologies, employment grows less (or even falls) than the growth in total assets (C/v rises). Since only labour produces value and surplus value, less surplus value (s/v) is generated relative to total investments. The rate of profit falls and less capital is invested. Thus, the rate of change of the GDP falls.

To me, it seems unnecessary to use their particular measures over Marx’s own categories, which I think provide a clearer picture of capitalist development than this ‘classical-Marxian’ one. At one point, the authors say that “The decrease in capital productivity in the follower country reduces the profit rate and capital accumulation.” But using Marx’s categories should lead you to say the opposite: a falling profit rate will reduce capital accumulation and lower ‘capital productivity’.

Nevertheless, it is these two measures that the authors measure, using the fantastic Extended World Penn Tables that Adalmir Marquetti has perfected over the years from the Penn World Tables. “The dataset we employ is the Extended Penn World Tables version 7.0, EPWT 7.0. It is an extension of the Penn World Tables version 10.0 (Feenstra, Inklaar and Timmer, 2015), associating the variables in the data set with the growth-distribution schedule. The EPWT 7.0 allows us to investigate the relations between economic growth, capital accumulation, income distribution, and technical change in the processes of catching up and falling behind.”

Using these two measures the authors confirm that the ‘Marx-biased’ pattern of technical change of capital-using and labor-saving occurred in 80 countries. The authors then compare their two measures of ‘productivity’ and argue that economies can ‘catch up’ with the leading capitalist economies, with the US at the head, “if accumulation rates are higher in the follower country, leading to a reduction in disparities in labor and capital productivities, the capital-labor ratio, the average real wage, the profit rate, capital accumulation, and social consumption between countries.”

The authors’ model argues that capital productivity will tend to fall as labour productivity rises for all countries. Countries with lower labor productivity tend to exhibit higher capital productivity, while countries with high labor productivity tend to have lower capital productivity.

The ‘follower’ countries (the Global South) will generally have higher profit rates than the ‘leader’ countries (the imperialist Global North) because their capital-labour ratio (in Marxist terminology, the organic composition of capital) is lower. Marx too reckoned that a less developed country has lower ‘labour productivity’ and higher ‘capital productivity’ than the developed one. However, he described it as: “the profitability of capital invested in the colonies … is generally higher there on account of the lower degree of development.”

Not surprisingly, the authors find that the capital-labour ratio and labour productivity have a positive correlation. “For countries with low capital-labor ratios, there exists a concave relationship between these variables. Furthermore, the fitted lines illustrate a movement toward the northeast between 1970 and 2019, indicating that countries have been increasing their capital-labor ratios and labor productivity along the path of economic growth.”

As these countries try to industrialise, the capital-labour ratio will rise and so will the productivity of labour. If the productivity of labour grows faster than in the leader countries, then catching up will take place. However, capital productivity (and more important to me, the profitability of capital accumulation) will tend to decline and this eventually will slow the rise in labour productivity. In a joint work by Guglielmo Carchedi and me, using Marxist categories, we also found that the dominated countries’ profitability starts above that of the imperialist ones because of their lower organic composition of capital BUT also “the dominated countries’ profitability, while persistently higher than in the imperialist countries, falls more than in the imperialist bloc.”

The authors also identify the trajectory of the relative profitability of capital between the leaders and the followers in the process of development and the importance of this in ‘catching up’. “The advantages of lower mechanization in follower countries, implying in smaller labor productivity and higher capital productivity and, therefore a higher profit rate, begin to erode when capital productivity declines more rapidly than labor productivity increases. It indicates that the follower country is gradually losing its backwardness advantage as the disparities in profit rates and incentives for capital accumulation diminish relative to the leading country, potentially jeopardizing the catching-up process.”

What this tells me is that many Global South countries will never ‘bridge the gap’ on labour productivity and thus on living standards because the profitability of capital in the Global South will quickly dissipate compared to the Global North. This is what we found in our study: “Since 1974, the rate of profit of the imperialist (G7) bloc has fallen by 20%, but the higher rate of the dominated bloc has fallen by 32%. This leads to a convergence of the two blocs’ profit rates over time.”

Through their model, the authors were able to analyse the dynamics of the catching up process. They found that “there is no consistent pattern of catching up, about half of the sample fell further behind. The increasing data spread as the labor productivity gap and the distance from the leader expanded suggests that while some countries benefit from their backwardness, others in a similar situation do not take advantage of it. “

Asia was the continent with the highest number of successful countries in catching up, in contrast to Latin America which generally failed to make much progress. Many Eastern European economies also experienced ‘falling behind’ while African countries in general “still suffer from the consequences of decolonization” – or to be more accurate, I think, from previously lengthy and vicious colonization.

What this shows is the importance of institutional factors in the development process – which the authors correctly emphasise. “The interplay between institutional organization, on one side, and how technical change and income distribution affect the profit rates, which is a key determinant of capital accumulation and growth, on the other, is crucial in addressing the fundamental question of how developing countries can initiate and maintain rapid labor productivity growth over time.”

And here we come to an important conclusion in relation to the theory of imperialism in the 21st century. Marx once said that “the country that is more developed industrially only shows to the less developed the image of its own future.” The book’s economic model aligns with Marx’s view that underdeveloped countries should follow the path of technical change set by developed capitalist nations. But as the authors recognize “this trajectory often leads to a decline in the profit rate and, therefore, a decrease in the incentives for investment and capital accumulation. How to circumvent this problem is one of the central issues that a national development plan must face.”

Without strong state intervention, the contradiction between a falling rate of profit and increasing the productivity of labour cannot be overcome. As the authors put it “This issue is observed in many middle-income trap countries. In these cases, state intervention becomes essential, expanding investment even as the profit rate declines, as in China.” Exactly. China’s success in catching up, which so frightens US imperialism now, is down to state-led investment overcoming the impact of falling profitability on capital investment.

In recognizing this, the authors strangely refer to the “Keynesian proposition of socialization of investment, contrasting sharply with the policies pursued by most Latin American countries during neoliberalism, when there was a decline in investments by the state and public enterprises.” Apparently, the authors seem to suggest, if Latin American governments had adopted Keynesian policies, they would not be locked into the so-called ‘middle income trap’ but instead be catching up like China. But China is not a model of Keynesian ‘socialised investment’ (which, by the way, Keynes never promoted in his economic policy prescriptions); instead, it is a model of development based on dominant public ownership of finance and strategic sectors and a national plan for investment and growth (something Keynes vehemently opposed), with capitalist forces relegated to following not controlling.

Indeed, as the authors say: “the aspects discussed above point to the fundamental relevance of state capacities as the primary locus where strategies and conditions for industrialization are conceived and implemented. Unlike the market, which allocates resources primarily to maximize profits without guaranteeing national development, the state remains, in the XXI Century, the political and economic entity capable of intentionally driving industrialization.” And they point out that “China increased its investment rate, even in the face of declining profitability ….. China has demonstrated a capacity to adapt to developmental challenges, suggesting that the labor productivity gap between China and the US, even if at a lower velocity, will continue to decline.”

The reality is that in the 21st century, catching up is not happening for nearly all countries and populations of the ‘Global South’. Take the so-called BRICS. Only China is closing the gap on per capita GDP with the imperialist bloc. Over the last 40 years, South Africa has fallen further behind, while Brazil and India have made little progress.

The authors provide us with a startling statistic. In 2019, the average worker in the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries worldwide, produced 6.8 dollars per day when measured at 2017 purchasing power parity. In India, the average worker produces 50.4 dollars daily, while in the United States, the average worker produces 355.9 dollars. “The rapid expansion of labor productivity is a fundamental step in reducing poverty and improving the well-being of the poor population. However, it has been an enormous challenge for backward nations to achieve high growth rates in labor productivity and catch up with the developed countries.”

This article was originally published on Michael Roberts’ blog The Next Recession on 17 July 2024.
Michael Roberts is an economist and author – you can follow his work on his blog, as well as on Facebook and YouTube.

The protests in Bangladesh

LABOUR HUB EDITORS

There is more at stake than quotas for government jobs, explains Murad Qureshi

JULY 23, 2024

Many of us in the Bangladeshi diaspora have had a number of sleepless nights during the awful crackdown of student protests in Dhaka and other major cities of Bangladesh over the past week. For some of us, it brings back memories of what the people had to face in 1971 with the liberation of the country from the Pakistan army.

Firstly, it should be noted the student protests were not limited to just the public universities but also the private ones which is very rarely the case. Ironically the latter were set up to offer degree courses without the interference of student politics! They now also find themselves embroiled in student politics over the quota system which reserves a significant percentage of government posts for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 and other categories.

Before the imposition of a news, social media and telecommunications blackout on the outside world and the instruction of ‘shoot on sight’ orders to the police, l managed to phone relatives in Dhaka and got a very clear message from my nephews and nieces studying at universities in Dhaka: “We don’t want the quotas of civil servant jobs.” They said this even though they could have benefited, being the descendants of freedom fighters themselves.

These student protests are not just about these quotas for jobs in the civil service, which has been an issue for a number of years and was actually withdrawn in 2018 by the present government, only to be brought up again by freedom fighters’ families. It was taken to the Supreme Court and reimposed only for the Court on Sunday to reduce the percentage of down to 5 per cent. So that should have been the end of the matter.

But it’s not just about the quotas for jobs but a lot else, including the incredible violence launched against the students, both from the authorities like the police and their Rapid Action Battalion, an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police, as well as the student arm of the Prime Minister’s political party, the Chhatra League. This has led to over 100 deaths officially and many fear a lot more than this.

The students are demanding the resignation of both the Home Minister and Chief of the Police and for the Chhatra League, an arm of the ruling Awami League, to be closed down. Other issues the students are campaigning on include rigged election allegations, the cost of living and corruption. Other political parties are attempting to gain from the dire situation making it increasingly a movement against the Prime Minister herself, Sheikh Hasina. Along with the fatalities have come some serious infrastructural destruction to the new metro train stations, something the PM and her ruling party are very proud of as part of developing the economy of the country.

Students have been at the vanguard of political protest in Bengali politics. They have a particular place and touch a nerve in the Bangladeshi psyche. They led the protests against the Bangla language being banned in the official business of Pakistan in East Bengal from 1947 onwards and were numerous among the February 21st 1952 language martyrs. They also played an active role during the 1971 Liberation from the Pakistan army.

The attack on Bangladesh TV offices last week was very similar to the takeover of Chittagong Radio Station on March 26th 1971 for the famous historic declaration of independence. That night of March 26th also saw many killings in Dhaka as the Pakistan Army launched their Operation Searchlight to extinguish Bengali nationalists. That seems to have been exceeded last week by some who were there on both occasions.

Allegedly from some local papers in Dhaka, we hear that between July 15th and 21st last week over 800 people have been killed. This would be more than the sum total of all the people killed in popular agitations from 1972 to 2022. During the 1980s and 1990s, with the various anti-Ershad movements, and the caretaker governments in the 1990s, fewer than fifty people were killed.

The verdict is still out on whether this could be a rerun of the 1971 liberation struggle as some of my older cousins suggest, or just another rerun of political turmoil in Bangladesh that we had to endure during the 1980s and 1990s. But we will know soon enough which way things are heading for the country that desperately wants to move on developmentally and is on the front line of the global climate crisis – all this while 30,000 Bangladeshis left the country in five days last week.

Murad Qureshi was a member of the London Assembly from 2004 to 2016 and from 2020 to 2021.

Image: Earlier student protests against the quota system in 2018. Author: Rahat Chowdhury, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Bangladesh to accept cuts to job quotas after ruling

July 23, 2024

The government has met a key demand of protestors, who have paused demonstrations for 48 hours.

The unrest over the quotas has prompted some governments to evacuate their citizens from the country.

The streets of Dhaka were quiet but tense on Tuesday morning

Image: Rajib Dhar/AP/picture alliance

The government of Bangladesh is expected to officially accept a court ruling on Tuesday that would see its quota system for government jobs drastically scaled back.

Clashes between armed police and student-led protests over the quotas in recent weeks resulted in the deaths of almost 150 people and some 2,500 arrests.

The quota system stipulated that 30% of government positions must be held by the descendants of those who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. Smaller quotas were in place for women and other disadvantaged groups.

Since government positions are a driver of upward economic mobility for high-performing students in the country, the quota system has particularly angered students looking for good jobs.

The system had been scrapped in 2018 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, but was reinstated by a high court ruling on June 5.

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a new ruling that would massively curtail the quotas.

Bangladesh top court cuts controversial job quotas 01:40

Indians and Malaysians evacuated, internet down

The resulting protests and the brutal police response has led to many governments issuing travel advisories for Bangladesh, as well as major evacuations of citizens residing there.

On Tuesday, a flight full of Malaysian evacuees was on its way to Kuala Lumpur, and officials in India said they had evacuated some 4,500 students back home.

Despite a pause in the protests after their key demand was met, army chief Waker-uz-Zaman told reporters that the security situation was not entirely under control.

However, amid a curfew and ongoing internet blackout, the streets of the capital Dhaka appeared calm on Tuesday morning.

Protest leaders have given Hasina's government 48 hours to discuss meeting their other demands, which includes a public apology from the prime minister. Hasina has blamed her political rivals for fomenting the unrest.

es/rm (AFP, Reuters)

More than 500 arrested in Bangladesh capital over deadly unrest

By AFP

July 22, 2024

A curfew has been imposed and soldiers are patrolling cities across Bangladesh - Copyright AFP -

Shafiqul ALAM

More than 500 people, including some opposition leaders, have been arrested in Dhaka over violence that has wracked Bangladesh and killed 163 people since students started protesting against civil service hiring rules, police said Monday.

What began as demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs has snowballed into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

A curfew has been imposed and soldiers are patrolling cities across the South Asian country, while a nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world.

“At least 532 people have been arrested over the violence” since the unrest began, Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.

“They include some BNP leaders,” he added, referring to the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

Bangladesh’s top court on Sunday pared back the hiring quotas for specific groups for government jobs, which are seen as secure and sought-after.

But the decision failed to mollify university student leaders, whose demonstrations against the quota scheme have sparked nationwide clashes that have killed 163 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.

A spokesman for Students Against Discrimination, the main group responsible for organising the protests, told AFP: “We won’t call off our protests until the government issues an order reflecting our demands.”

Ali Riaz, a professor of politics and leading Bangladesh expert at Illinois State University, described the violence as “the worst massacre by any regime since independence”.

“The atrocities committed in the past days show that the regime is entirely dependent on brute force and has no regard for the lives of the people,” he told AFP.

“These indiscriminate killings cannot be washed by a court ruling or a government announcement.”

– Diplomatic questions –

Diplomats in Dhaka questioned Bangladeshi authorities’ deadly response to the protests following a presentation by the foreign minister that blamed demonstrators for the violence, diplomatic officials said.

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud summoned ambassadors for a briefing on Sunday and showed them a 15-minute video that sources said focused on damage caused by protesters.

But a senior diplomatic official in Dhaka, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that US ambassador Peter Haas said Mahmud was presenting a one-sided version of events.

“I am surprised you did not show the footage of police firing at unarmed protesters,” the source quoted Haas as telling the minister.

A US embassy official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the ambassador’s comments.

The diplomatic source added that Mahmud did not respond to a question from a United Nations representative about the alleged use of UN-marked armoured personnel carriers and helicopters to suppress the protests.

Bangladesh is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations around the world — earning significant revenues from its efforts — and has UN-marked equipment in its military inventories.

Government figures have repeatedly blamed the protesters and opposition for the violence.

Dhaka police spokesman Hossain said at least three policemen had been killed in the capital and about 1,000 injured, at least 60 of them critically.

The detainees included the BNP’s third-most senior leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and its spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, he said.

A former national football captain turned senior BNP figure, Aminul Huq, was also held, he added, as was Mia Golam Parwar, the general secretary of the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami.

– ‘Freedom fighter’ quota –

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the quota scheme’s reintroduction deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

The Supreme Court decision curtailed the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, most of which will still be set aside for the children and grandchildren of “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

While the decision represented a substantial reduction to the contentious “freedom fighter” category, with 93 percent of jobs to be awarded on merit, it fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap it altogether.

The “freedom fighter” quota in particular is resented by young graduates, with critics saying it is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

Opponents accuse her government of bending the judiciary to its will.

Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina inflamed tensions this month by likening protesters to the Bangladeshis who had collaborated with Pakistan during the country’s independence war.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment