Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Indian PM Modi to lay cornerstone for Hindu temple at site of razed Ayodhya mosque
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/05/ayod-a05.html
By Deepal Jayasekera
5 August 2020
In a nationally-televised event, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to lay the foundation stone today for a temple devoted to the mythical Hindu god Ram on the site of the former Babri Masjid (mosque) in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
The razing of the 475-year-old Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 was an historic crime, perpetrated by Hindu fanatics incited and organised by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and allied Hindu supremacist groups. It precipitated weeks of communal violence across much of northern and western India that resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 people, most of them poor Muslims.
Today’s ceremony has been timed to coincide with the first anniversary of another monstrous political crime. One year ago today, Modi and his chief henchman, Home Minister Amit Shah, working in close concert with the high command of the military-security apparatus, carried out a constitutional coup, illegally rewriting India’s constitution by executive fiat to abrogate the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. They then divided Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories, effectively placing the region under permanent central government control.
To suppress mass popular opposition to these dictatorial actions, the Modi government imposed a months-long state-of-siege on the Kashmir Valley, with blanket curfews, mass detentions without charge, and the suspension of cell phone and internet service. Fearing an explosion of popular anger, many of these measures have been re-imposed in the run-up to today’s anniversary.
The building of a Ram temple on the site of the Babri Majid and the assertion of unfettered Indian central government control over the disputed Kashmir region have been central to the communalist agenda of the BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, for decades. Modi intends to use the coincidence of the official inauguration of the Ram temple’s construction and the anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir’s “full integration” into the Indian Union to trumpet a supposed new era of Indian “assertion,” and otherwise advance the BJP-RSS agenda to transform India into a Hindu state, where Muslims and other minorities live in sufferance.
The Modi government is ratcheting up communalism in response to its apprehensions that its ruinous response to the COVID-19 pandemic is fueling mass anger and opposition among India’s workers and toilers. The government’s ill-conceived, hastily imposed ten-week COVID-19 lockdown and its subsequent back-to-work drive have produced a health and socio-economic disaster. Tens of millions have lost their jobs and hundreds of millions have seen their meagre incomes slashed.
Meanwhile, the pandemic is surging across India. When Modi’s “unlockdown” officially began on June 8, India had just over 250,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 7,200 deaths. Today, less than two months later, the official cases have almost quadrupled to 1.85 million and the deaths have increased by more than five times to 38,938.
Facing popular anger over the spread of the pandemic and its attempts to “kick start” the economy by implementing a new wave of “pro-investor” measures and by forcing workers back on the job in unsafe conditions, the Modi government is doubling down on its Hindus supremacist agenda. Its aim is to confuse and split the working class, and mobilize its fascistic base to intimidate and threaten its opponents.
Today’s ceremony is the direct outcome of a ruling by India’s Supreme Court last November that validated the Babri Masjid’s destruction, rewarding those who had orchestrated it—in defiance of the Court’s own express orders—with effective sole ownership of the disputed sited. Indeed, the court, in what it provocatively proclaimed an act of “national reconciliation,” officially “ordered” the BJP to oversee the construction of a Ram temple on the ruins of the Babri Masjid.
This shameful ruling underscores the extent to which all the institutions of the still nominally secular Indian state have become infused with Hindu communalism.
No less reactionary and revealing is the response of the BJP’s ostensible establishment political opponents.
The Congress Party, the only all-India rival to the BJP and until 2014 the Indian bourgeoisie’s preferred party of national government, has furiously attacked the Ram Mandir Trust, the body officially charged with the temple’s construction, for not inviting its party leadership for the temple’s bhoomi pujan (ground-breaking) program and turning it into an “exclusive BJP-RSS ceremony.”
One Congress leader after another has accused the BJP of stealing “credit” for the Ram temple, citing their own party’s despicable record of conniving with the Hindu chauvinist campaign to raze the Babri Masjid. Most notoriously, in December 1992 the Narasimha Rao-led national Congress government stood by and allowed the historic Ayodhya mosque to be destroyed, although it was forewarned of the BJP-RSS conspiracy to raze it to the ground.
Senior Congress leader and former External Affairs Minster Salman Khurshid complained, “People from across the political spectrum should have been invited just as a courtesy to Lord Ram.” For her part, Priyanka Gandhi, a senior Congress leader in her own right and the daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter of Congress Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, declared, “By Lord Ram’s grace, let this ceremony promote national unity, brotherhood, and cultural confluence.”
Kamal Nath, the former Congress Chief Minster in Madhya Pradesh, boosted the BJP-RSS claim that the campaign to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya enjoys mass support. “People of the country were expecting and wishing for this since long,” said Kamal Nath. “The construction of the temple is being carried out with the consent of every Indian.”
Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh was eager to tout Rajiv Gandhi’s support for the Ram temple movement. He tweeted: “The centre of our faith is Lord Ram!. . . That’s why we all wish that a grand temple should be built at the birthplace of Ram in Ayodhya. Rajiv Gandhi also wanted the same.”
Continuing in this reactionary obscurantist vein, Singh went on to claim that the reason Home Minister Shah recently tested positive for COIVID-19 is because BJP leaders have defied the warnings of a Hindu fundamentalist priest that August 5 is not an “auspicious day” to inaugurate the Ram temple.
The Congress’ response to today’s vile Hindu supremacist celebration flows from its decades of conniving with the Hindu right and instrumentalization of caste and communal divisions. Renouncing its own democratic program for a united secular India, the Congress of Nehru and M.K. Gandhi implemented, in collaboration with South Asia’s departing British colonial overlords, the 1947 communal partition of the subcontinent into a Hindu-dominated India and a Muslim Pakistan.
Despite this record, the twin Stalinist parties—the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM and the Communist Party of India (CPI)—have long promoted the big business Congress Party as a “secular bulwark” against the BJP.
In response to today’s inaugural ceremony, the CPM Politburo has issued a statement reiterating its support for the Supreme Court’s reactionary verdict of last November in what it calls the “Ayodhya dispute.” It then goes on to echo the Congress’ complaint that the bhumi pujan ceremony at Ayodhya has been taken over by the BJP, thus implying that if Modi and Shah were not trying to take sole “credit” for the successful campaign to build a Ram temple, there would be nothing objectionable in consecrating and completing the communalist crime of Dec. 6, 1992.
The Stalinists bear central political responsibility for the rise of the BJP and the Hindu right. For decades, they have justified their systematic subordination of the working class to the Congress Party, various reactionary caste-based regional bourgeois parties, and the putrefied state institutions of the “democratic” Indian Republic in the name of “blocking the fascist BJP” from power. From 1989 through 2008, the Stalinists played a pivotal role in the formation of a succession of governments, most of them Congress Party led, that implemented the Indian ruling elite’s neo-liberal “reform” agenda and pursued closer ties with US imperialism. Moreover, in those states where they have formed the government the CPM and CPI have similarly pursued pro-investor polices. This opened the door for the BJP to cynically exploit growing popular anger over mass poverty, ever widening social inequality, and endemic corruption.
There is mass opposition to Modi and the BJP government and to the Indian ruling elite’s class war agenda and incendiary strategic partnership with US imperialism. But this opposition must find a new political road. This requires the mobilization of the working class as an independent political force, in opposition to all the parties of the capitalist establishment, including the Stalinist CPM and CPI, and the fight to rally the rural toilers and all sections of the oppressed behind it in the struggle for a workers and peasant’s government and international socialism.
“A lot of people really don’t think we should be working right now”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/05/fair-a05.html
GM Fairfax worker speaks out on spread of COVID-19
By James Tatsch
5 August 2020
The World Socialist Web Site recently spoke with a worker at the General Motors Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kansas, about conditions at the facility that are leading to the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease.
Last week saw the highest number of new recorded cases for the Kansas City metro area since the start of the pandemic. The ever-increasing level of confirmed cases takes place as infection levels are soaring across both Kansas and Missouri, which have been recording record-breaking highs on a near-daily basis.
The GM Fairfax Assembly Plant is a sprawling 4,900,000-square-foot facility located in the Fairfax Industrial District along the Missouri River. Beginning production in 1988, on the grounds of the former Fairfax Airport, the plant now employees 2,385 workers in the production of the Chevrolet Malibu and Cadillac XT4 models.
Following the two-month shutdown of the auto industry forced by workers through a series of wildcat strikes earlier this year, production at the Fairfax Plant officially resumed on June 1, with the reinstitution of two full-time shifts. A third shift at the plant was previously cut and roughly 1,000 laid off in 2017, with the company’s move encountering no opposition from the United Auto Workers.
Prior to restarting production this summer, GM and the UAW trumpeted safety protocols such as hand washing, sanitizing, temperature screening and physical distancing, claiming they were adequate to protect workers from infection. All of these would-be preventative measures have amounted to little more than empty talk as demonstrated by the expanding outbreaks of infections across the auto industry since its reopening.
Following the June 1 restart of the Fairfax plant, a GM spokesman was forced to release a statement acknowledging that an employee at the plant had tested positive for COVID-19 on June 11. In the statement, GM claimed that the employee was infected outside work, while providing no evidence to support this claim.
“They always say it’s outside of work,” commented Sam, a Fairfax worker, in response to the GM statement (Sam’s real name has not been used as protection against retaliation). Asked if he thought that was the only case at the plant since reopening, he said, “I have a hard time buying that. I’ve heard of a lot more than one person who had COVID.”
The worker continued, “I heard someone had the COVID who works near the main door, the main entrance. Someone who was in the cleaning room. Someone else on the Tech Team, and they’re all over, they go to several areas in the plant throughout the day.” He noted the high volume of workers calling off work every day. “What happens to those that were around that person? If they were exposed why weren’t they quarantined?”
“I think they’re trying to hide as much as they can, and the true impact on the plant. I believe the UAW and GM are in cahoots with each other. There’s no doubt in my mind. Both sides are withholding the truth.”
The cleaning and safety protocols that GM has outlined publicly have largely been ignored inside the plant. “The only thing I know of is that they’re cleaning the bathrooms more frequently. Cleaning ladies wiping down the rails. But that’s about all I see.” He added, “We’re given an additional five minutes to disinfect our work area before the line starts. They give us a spray bottle of something, we don’t know what it is. But now management is starting to complain that it’s damaging the tiles we’re walking on.”
“People are wearing masks, social distancing, but it’s getting worse because you really can’t distance, there’s a lot of jobs side-by-side where it’s impossible to control. People on the line are working two to three feet from each other, you’re right on top of each other sometimes.”
Commenting on the temperature in the plant, he recalled, “Prior to the July shutdown, they did cool some areas down. But since we returned it’s been hot. It was hot enough I was glazing in sweat.” He added, “One of the complaints for me is when you wear safety glasses and the mask, it causes the glasses to fog up, and makes it a lot harder to see. They said to rub some Joy [dish soap] on it, which helped a little bit, but not that much and you end up with soap on your face.”
Another factor he found seriously concerning was the potential for the transmission through the environmental system. “I think no matter what you do, whether manufacturing or in the schools, the heating and ventilation systems are going to spread it. If the virus gets in that system, it’s going to blow it right on you.”
Prior to the pandemic, GM laid off a number of temporary workers before they were to become full-time, Sam said. Such actions render all but meaningless the so-called “pathway” to full-time employment touted by the UAW in the 2019 national contract. “They had a lot of temp workers who were waiting to become permanent, and GM let them all go.” Since then, many of the temps hired to fill in the gaps from absenteeism have quit. “I was told there were about 170 people hired, and after a few days, there were just about 50 people left. It’s very demanding work. The turnaround is huge.”
There is an immense danger that workers may be unknowingly infected on the job and not yet showing symptoms. “A lot of people are very concerned for their families, or their children—afraid of giving it to their grandpas or grandmas, bringing the COVID home and infecting their loved ones.” He added, “We know there is no cure for it, and without a cure, that puts a lot of lives in jeopardy. That’s a lot of lives to put at risk. At what point do lives matter?”
Voicing concerns to management or the UAW or raising safety issues have time and again proved to be a dead end for workers at the plant. The UAW safety reps “don’t do anything,” he said. “They always have some kind of stupid story to help GM out.
“I see retaliation in this plant, I see the union working together with management and people are recognizing that.”
Faced with the intransigent refusal of management and the union to ensure safety, workers at Detroit-area Fiat Chrysler plants and the Ford Dearborn Truck plant have established rank-and-file safety committees independent of the UAW and management to fight for a healthy and safe workplace. These committees have demanded full disclosure of COVID-19 cases; for production to be halted for cleaning when infections occur; and regular, universal testing.
Asked what he thought about workers organizing independently, Sam responded, “We don’t feel like the UAW protects us anymore. We feel like we’re sold out. A lot of people are very angry. The world is changing, and we need to change too.
“We’re starting to break down and get tired of it. It’s just a matter of time before we organize and go after what’s right. That’s where our power is, in numbers.”
For help starting a rank-and-file safety committee at your factory, email the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter at autoworkers@wsws.org.
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Amazon violates its own health and safety rules in COVID-19 coverup
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/05/amzn-a05.html
By Nick Barrickman and Patrick Smith
5 August 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rip through Amazon warehouses around the United States. The company, which has seen an unprecedented rise in its revenues over the course of the first six months of 2020 due to increased demand, still continues to hide the real human cost of its fortunes in the untold number of illnesses and deaths.
According to Jana Jumpp, an Amazon whistleblower, the company has at least 1,779 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States as of mid-July. To date, the former Amazon employee has mounted the only systematic effort to track cases at the company in the United States. For its part, Amazon has told media outlets that reporting numbers of cases “isn’t particularly useful.”
Last month, Amazon reported its year-over-year sales profits stood at $88.9 billion, more than double its earnings from a year ago and far dwarfing its often-touted $4 billion in reported safety precautions it has spent during the pandemic. The corporation has expanded its market capitalization to over $1.5 trillion, and its CEO, Jeff Bezos has added nearly $74 billion to his wealth over the course of the pandemic due to the rising value of Amazon’s stock. Bezos’s wealth currently stands at $189 billion. It is speculated that if his wealth continues to grow at the current rate, Bezos may become the world’s first trillionaire.
Last week, a worker at Amazon’s MEM1 facility in Memphis, Tennessee wrote on social media that 35 workers “walked out of my job … because they tested positive” for COVID-19. This is just one of many locations where workers have reported serious outbreaks. On Saturday, several dozen workers in San Leandro, California protested Amazon’s lack of effective social distancing and meager sanitation measures.
With nearly 5 million confirmed coronavirus infections in the US—the highest in the world--the actual number of cases at Amazon is doubtlessly many multiples higher than even Jumpp’s estimates. The corporation regularly sends texts to its employees reporting that an undisclosed number of “individuals” in the facility have been diagnosed with the highly contagious COVID-19 virus. No further information is given, such as where the worker was stationed, who has been in contact with them, or other such useful health-related facts. Such communications invariably conclude with the company’s claim that its “top concern” is health and safety.
“There is a disconnect between what is being said in the media and what is really going on in [Amazon],” said Jonathan, who spoke to the International Amazon Workers Voice (IAWV) using a fake name out of fear the company would retaliate. “I think it’s disgusting that they make it seem like everything is rainbows and happiness when that’s not the case,” he added, referring to the series of propaganda news reports paid for by Amazon on local news channels throughout the pandemic, which lie to the public about the real situation in warehouses.
A recent investigation conducted in Las Vegas, Nevada further testifies to the company’s lies. According to ABC News, which obtained internal emails from sources inside Amazon warehouses in southern Nevada, “the company’s public relations team deemed local news reports about the situation as ‘inaccurate,’” telling employees “to disregard news stories” about cases accumulating at its locations. The email stated that “hopefully” management would report such cases directly to the workforce.
“It’s hard to say you are sanitizing the place, which is not sanitized, by using it every day, the whole time we’re there,” an anonymous Amazon worker told ABC News. They called on Amazon to “close [a warehouse] down for two days since you hired so many people or allow those who are [sic] sick not to feel threatened with their jobs if they need to take off.”
This, of course, is not acceptable to Amazon’s bottom line. “Management isn’t telling us anything,” Jonathan noted, who experienced symptoms similar to COVID-19 in June. Jonathan was nearly fired last month after complying with the company’s own rules requiring a written doctor’s permission to return to work after he went to get tested for COVID-19.
“I felt like I was having an upper respiratory issue. It’s nothing I’ve ever experienced before in my life so I decided to quarantine and get tested.” After facing the uncertainty of being tested, and thankfully coming up negative for the virus, Jonathan was required to receive a written notification approving his return to work.
The following day he received a UPT (unpaid time off) email notifying him that he was missing work without permission. “I responded to this email telling them I was waiting for my results and gave them my case number that was given to me by HR,” he said. The UPT emails continued to come for a total of three days until, on the fourth day, he got sent a “job abandonment” email.
“All along, I was responding, answering these emails with no response. After I got that email, they locked me out of the email system. It seemed like I was being punished.” Finally, after calling and emailing numerous times to HR and the “Leave Team,” he was cleared to return to work. Jonathan has since taken another leave due to fears that management is continuing to hide the total number of cases of COVID-19 from workers.
Jonathan also noted the hypocrisy of companies like Amazon which have sought to posture as defenders of “black lives” in the wake of massive social protests against police brutality following the May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. “During the funeral for George Floyd, a message came out over the intercom for everybody to stop working for eight minutes, the amount of time the cop had his knee on Floyd’s neck. I couldn’t take it. I had to walk off the job. They don’t care about him or any of their workers. All they care about is their profits,” he said.
Rather than appealing to corporations such as Amazon to defend lives of workers, it is necessary for workers in logistics to form independent rank and file safety committees to take every measure necessary to protect themselves from the coronavirus. These committees must strive to build ties with workers at United Parcel Service and the United States Postal Service, which faces threats of privatization.
“I really appreciate what you guys do. You’re pointing out the fact that it doesn’t matter where you work or what country that you work in, we’re all in the same boat. The pandemic has pulled back the curtain and revealed that the ‘essential’ workers are expendable,” Jonathan concluded in his comments to the IAWV.
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