https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSdorfPpySk
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Germany reopens its schools: An experiment in herd immunity
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/11/germ-a11.html
By Marianne Arens
11 August 2020
Although there are currently more than 1,000 new coronavirus infections per day in Germany, all of the country’s state governments are ruthlessly enforcing school openings after the summer break. This can only be called an experiment in “herd immunity”—a policy with potentially lethal consequences for children, teachers, teaching assistants and their families.
Last Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 1,045 new infections and on Friday 1,147 new infections. These figures refer to infections measured about 10 days ago. This means that the current rate of infection is very likely much higher. There are over 19 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide, more than 712,000 people have already died, and in Germany the number of deaths rose to 9,183 on Friday.
In this situation, all state governments are determined to send children back to school without restrictions. This is despite the fact that the increase in new infections has reached a level equivalent to that of mid-March 2020, when all schools and day-care centres were closed and the lockdown was imposed. Now, however, all of these facilities are being reopened. The goal is very clear: get the population back to work so that profit-making can resume and stock markets can soar even higher. Politicians of all stripes and business representatives leave no doubt about their intentions.
Annalena Baerbock, chairwoman of Bündnis 19/Die Grünen, stated categorically in the ARD televisions morning program on Friday, “What must be clear is the top guideline: that schools should never again be completely closed as a first measure.” With this statement, the Green Party leader echoed the demand of Siemens boss Joe Kaeser, who categorically told the newspaper Die Welt, “We certainly cannot afford a complete shutdown anymore.” The newspaper commented that Kaeser was “absolutely right: there must not be a procedure based on the motto ‘Operation successful, patient dead.’ (The patient here is clear: the German economy.) And further: “The fact that day-care centres and schools are closed first and open last must not happen a second time.”
What politicians, managers and journalist are demanding are conditions that will lead to thousands of illnesses and deaths. Just to recall, it was school closures in particular that helped to contain the pandemic initially and prevent deaths. As the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) documented in a study, in the last two weeks of March about 40,600 lives were saved thanks to the closure of schools worldwide. Without the four weeks of school closures from mid-March to mid-April, nearly 1.4 million more people would have been infected worldwide.
On Friday it was announced that there have already been cases of coronavirus at a minimum of at least two schools in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania where classes recommenced last Monday. After a high school teacher in Ludwigslust and a primary school pupil in Graal-Müritz tested positive, both schools had to be closed again.
In Hamburg, where classes restarted last Thursday, the number of COVID-19 infections is rising sharply. According to official figures, there were 80 new cases from Thursday to Friday. In addition to a number of persons returning from travel, workers at the Hamburg shipyard Blohm+Voss have tested positive. On Wednesday, 60 new infections were detected among shipyard workers and employees of contractors at the shipyard.
Despite all this, teachers and pupils in Hamburg are being forced to attend classes. While the RKI insists on its “AHA” rules for social distancing, handwashing and wearing of masks, pupils will sit together in full classes, without mouth-and-nose protection and any possibility of keeping the proscribed distance of 1.5 metres. In some schools, windows cannot be opened properly, although the aerial emissions from a sick person (as a video simulation from the TU Berlin shows) can fill an entire classroom in just two minutes.
Children, teachers and parents are protesting against the opening up policy and have expressed their anger and sarcasm on Twitter. One wrote: “What is the point of the RKI if even our Ministers of Culture don’t follow its recommendations? School opening without an AHA rule is not merely a case of negligence. It borders on intentional infection.” Others call the ministers of culture “the supreme Corona deniers” and warn: “Do not then say anybody, we could have known the consequences!”
More than 20 teachers have taken legal action against being forced to attend classes. A number of teachers had already undertaken legal complaints in April and May, but in vain. Now the Education Ministry in Schleswig-Holstein has gone so far as to appeal against a ruling. The Administrative Court in Schleswig had ruled in the case of a teacher suffering from lung disease that she should not be forced to attend classes for the time being. The Education Ministry has appealed against the judgment.
An open letter to the mayors of Hamburg, Peter Tschentscher (SPD) and Katharina Fegebank (Greens), as well as the senators for schools and social affairs, Ties Rabe and Melanie Leonhard (both SPD), was signed by more than 800 parents on the first day of reopened schools. The letter opposes the policy, arguing that “a safe and orderly start of school is not possible.” The parents write that they are naturally concerned about the welfare of children and their socio-psychological development. “But the welfare of the child is not possible without health protection.” They demand “urgent improvements to the concept presented!”
It is false, however, to expect the SPD and the Greens, who govern in the city-state of Hamburg, to take such proposals seriously. Hamburg’s school senator Ties Rabe, for example, never tires of repeating his claim that coronavirus is “safer for children and young people than flu.” Against all evidence to the contrary, Rabe declares in a school-start video that children are “not as much at risk as adults.”
The Left Party, which governs in Thuringia, Berlin and Bremen, and the teachers’ union GEW, also cannot be trusted. They are all ruthlessly pushing ahead with the opening of schools because they put the interests of the economy above the life and health of the working population. It is the same politicians who agreed to pump hundreds of billions and trillions of euros of “pandemic emergency aid” into the vaults of banks and corporations.
The World Socialist Web Site, the Socialist Equality Party and its sister parties across the world reject this dangerous experiment. We call on young people, as well as teachers, educators and parents, to take action and fight against it.
In a statement published on July 6 on the WSWS, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in the US calls for a “nationwide general strike against the reopening of schools.” In order to organize and make such a movement successful, teachers have to “build independent action committees,” “unite with other sections of the working class” and take up a struggle for the transformation of society according to socialist principles.
“All the rights of the working class, even the right to life, depend upon the expropriation of the ruling class and the reorganization of economic life on the basis of social need, not private profit” the SEP writes and continues, “The only way to halt the reopening of schools, stop the spread of the pandemic and prevent millions more infections and deaths is through the mass mobilization of the working class in a revolutionary struggle against the source of all suffering wrought by the pandemic, the capitalist system.”
Although there are currently more than 1,000 new coronavirus infections per day in Germany, all of the country’s state governments are ruthlessly enforcing school openings after the summer break. This can only be called an experiment in “herd immunity”—a policy with potentially lethal consequences for children, teachers, teaching assistants and their families.
Last Thursday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 1,045 new infections and on Friday 1,147 new infections. These figures refer to infections measured about 10 days ago. This means that the current rate of infection is very likely much higher. There are over 19 million cases of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide, more than 712,000 people have already died, and in Germany the number of deaths rose to 9,183 on Friday.
In this situation, all state governments are determined to send children back to school without restrictions. This is despite the fact that the increase in new infections has reached a level equivalent to that of mid-March 2020, when all schools and day-care centres were closed and the lockdown was imposed. Now, however, all of these facilities are being reopened. The goal is very clear: get the population back to work so that profit-making can resume and stock markets can soar even higher. Politicians of all stripes and business representatives leave no doubt about their intentions.
Annalena Baerbock, chairwoman of Bündnis 19/Die Grünen, stated categorically in the ARD televisions morning program on Friday, “What must be clear is the top guideline: that schools should never again be completely closed as a first measure.” With this statement, the Green Party leader echoed the demand of Siemens boss Joe Kaeser, who categorically told the newspaper Die Welt, “We certainly cannot afford a complete shutdown anymore.” The newspaper commented that Kaeser was “absolutely right: there must not be a procedure based on the motto ‘Operation successful, patient dead.’ (The patient here is clear: the German economy.) And further: “The fact that day-care centres and schools are closed first and open last must not happen a second time.”
What politicians, managers and journalist are demanding are conditions that will lead to thousands of illnesses and deaths. Just to recall, it was school closures in particular that helped to contain the pandemic initially and prevent deaths. As the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) documented in a study, in the last two weeks of March about 40,600 lives were saved thanks to the closure of schools worldwide. Without the four weeks of school closures from mid-March to mid-April, nearly 1.4 million more people would have been infected worldwide.
On Friday it was announced that there have already been cases of coronavirus at a minimum of at least two schools in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania where classes recommenced last Monday. After a high school teacher in Ludwigslust and a primary school pupil in Graal-Müritz tested positive, both schools had to be closed again.
In Hamburg, where classes restarted last Thursday, the number of COVID-19 infections is rising sharply. According to official figures, there were 80 new cases from Thursday to Friday. In addition to a number of persons returning from travel, workers at the Hamburg shipyard Blohm+Voss have tested positive. On Wednesday, 60 new infections were detected among shipyard workers and employees of contractors at the shipyard.
Despite all this, teachers and pupils in Hamburg are being forced to attend classes. While the RKI insists on its “AHA” rules for social distancing, handwashing and wearing of masks, pupils will sit together in full classes, without mouth-and-nose protection and any possibility of keeping the proscribed distance of 1.5 metres. In some schools, windows cannot be opened properly, although the aerial emissions from a sick person (as a video simulation from the TU Berlin shows) can fill an entire classroom in just two minutes.
Children, teachers and parents are protesting against the opening up policy and have expressed their anger and sarcasm on Twitter. One wrote: “What is the point of the RKI if even our Ministers of Culture don’t follow its recommendations? School opening without an AHA rule is not merely a case of negligence. It borders on intentional infection.” Others call the ministers of culture “the supreme Corona deniers” and warn: “Do not then say anybody, we could have known the consequences!”
More than 20 teachers have taken legal action against being forced to attend classes. A number of teachers had already undertaken legal complaints in April and May, but in vain. Now the Education Ministry in Schleswig-Holstein has gone so far as to appeal against a ruling. The Administrative Court in Schleswig had ruled in the case of a teacher suffering from lung disease that she should not be forced to attend classes for the time being. The Education Ministry has appealed against the judgment.
An open letter to the mayors of Hamburg, Peter Tschentscher (SPD) and Katharina Fegebank (Greens), as well as the senators for schools and social affairs, Ties Rabe and Melanie Leonhard (both SPD), was signed by more than 800 parents on the first day of reopened schools. The letter opposes the policy, arguing that “a safe and orderly start of school is not possible.” The parents write that they are naturally concerned about the welfare of children and their socio-psychological development. “But the welfare of the child is not possible without health protection.” They demand “urgent improvements to the concept presented!”
It is false, however, to expect the SPD and the Greens, who govern in the city-state of Hamburg, to take such proposals seriously. Hamburg’s school senator Ties Rabe, for example, never tires of repeating his claim that coronavirus is “safer for children and young people than flu.” Against all evidence to the contrary, Rabe declares in a school-start video that children are “not as much at risk as adults.”
The Left Party, which governs in Thuringia, Berlin and Bremen, and the teachers’ union GEW, also cannot be trusted. They are all ruthlessly pushing ahead with the opening of schools because they put the interests of the economy above the life and health of the working population. It is the same politicians who agreed to pump hundreds of billions and trillions of euros of “pandemic emergency aid” into the vaults of banks and corporations.
The World Socialist Web Site, the Socialist Equality Party and its sister parties across the world reject this dangerous experiment. We call on young people, as well as teachers, educators and parents, to take action and fight against it.
In a statement published on July 6 on the WSWS, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in the US calls for a “nationwide general strike against the reopening of schools.” In order to organize and make such a movement successful, teachers have to “build independent action committees,” “unite with other sections of the working class” and take up a struggle for the transformation of society according to socialist principles.
“All the rights of the working class, even the right to life, depend upon the expropriation of the ruling class and the reorganization of economic life on the basis of social need, not private profit” the SEP writes and continues, “The only way to halt the reopening of schools, stop the spread of the pandemic and prevent millions more infections and deaths is through the mass mobilization of the working class in a revolutionary struggle against the source of all suffering wrought by the pandemic, the capitalist system.”
New York educators and students denounce Governor Cuomo’s push to reopen schools
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/11/nyed-a11.html
By the World Socialist Web Site Educators Newsletter
11 August 2020
Last week, the Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced that he would allow schools to reopen for the 4.4 million public school students in the state if the statewide infection rate is under 5 percent of those tested. School districts will be allowed to choose whether or not to resume in-person instruction after a plan has been submitted to the state education department. The week before, the Democratic mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, announced that the city’s 1.1 million students would attend a hybrid learning program—which alternates in-person and remote instruction—if the infection rate is under 3 percent of those tested citywide.
Both plans are shoddy and leave so many unanswered questions about the implementation of safety measures for staff and students that educators and parents have widely rejected them as bogus.
The World Socialist Web Site has noted that Cuomo’s announcement is an endorsement of Wall Street’s back-to-work plan to reopen the economy—in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in which 1,000 Americans are dying daily—so that the working class can generate profit for the ultra-wealthy, regardless of the consequences.
The World Socialist Web Site Educators Newsletter spoke to several educators and students about Cuomo’s announcement.
One teacher in the Albany area told us: “We’re experiencing different infection rates in various parts of the state, so local plans make some sense. However, that leaves open the possibility of poorly developed plans, especially among poorly resourced districts and those dominated by right-wing politics.
“Cuomo’s approach represents an abdication of the state’s responsibility. The state is not providing enough support. Much more money and other aid is needed in order to develop adequate protection plans. These poorly developed plans will probably lead to a spike in infections.”
We noted how the infection and death rates in New York state have been reduced considerably since their peaks a few months ago and asked the teacher if he thought it was safe to conduct in-person classes under current conditions.
“No, it is not,” he answered. “The reductions were due to the use of masks, social distancing, and other protective measures. Reopening will create conditions to renew the spread of the virus. Poorly resourced schools are without proper facilities: ventilation, sanitation, PPE, testing, adequate distancing.
“Renewed shutdown after infection rates increase, as envisioned by Cuomo, will mean that there are new, unnecessary victims. This is the assumption inherent in Cuomo’s plan.”
Discussing whether parents, teachers and students have been adequately consulted in the Albany area, the teacher replied: “Parents are under enormous stress to do right by their children. Those with limited means are under especial pressure, caught between the need to keep their children safe and the need to go to work. The majority opting for keeping their children home, despite the economic pressure, indicates their extreme fear of the disease.
“Being asked to return to work in an environment that is unsafe for faculty and students is daunting. This is exposing the decades of underfunding of education and lack of adequate facilities such as affordable daycare. This will not be a normal environment, especially for special needs and English-language learners who will be in school five days a week. They will constantly be reminded that they are being singled out and put in increased danger as compared to other students.
“I expect there will be wildcat strikes as were seen a few years ago in West Virginia and elsewhere. The rhetoric of the unions is becoming more militant, but the plans proposed do not follow their statements. Andy Pallotta [New York State United Teachers president] is merely saying to follow state guidelines, while posturing as a defender of teachers. The unions will be okay with sending teachers back into unsafe conditions.
“The state does the bidding of the ruling class. It is pushing students back to school to get the economy back. What is especially telling is that Cuomo has just recently restated his opposition to raising taxes on the rich because they would leave the state. New York could continue the lockdown if resources from the rich were used to support families and keep children home until adequate testing, tracing and quarantining are in place.”
A high school teacher in Manhattan, who did not want her name used, said that her teenage son had too much difficulty with remote learning. She feels compelled to send him for in-person learning if his school reopens, adding that she is trying to get a personal medical leave so that she can stay home and do remote teaching. “I am terrified because my mother has Alzheimer’s and I am her caregiver. I bring my kids to see her, otherwise she has no visitors.
“They are throwing teachers back on the fire. All science proves it is dangerous to go back to work. Reopening is not safe. My students take city buses to school. In my neighborhood, most people are not wearing masks, or just hang them off their ears or not covering their noses. I think it is because there has not been enough education by the city government. They should have signs all over and enforce mask wearing.
“I agree with what I read from the WSWS. In my school a few teachers have formed a committee for safe reopening. We sent a letter to parents that it would not be safe, urging them to choose not to send their children for in-person teaching. One-third of the parents have chosen remote learning for their children. We spoke to the principal and called the other teachers, who generally follow the lead of the principal. Seventy-five percent of the teachers agreed to the letter and the principal agreed that we could send it but not with a school heading, just as teachers of the school. I have also been able to talk with teachers from other schools who I meet with in a Zoom meeting. The majority of teachers are uncomfortable and against going back. The government is only interested in getting people back to work, not being safe or providing them with what they need.”
Richard, an 11th grade student from Brooklyn, New York, told the WSWS, “I’m nervous because I heard that one school that reopened early had to quarantine in the same day.”
He added, “I personally don’t think schools should do in-person learning at all until there’s a vaccine, but I also worry about the impacts of being cooped up in their homes for most of the day, and what this might do for students’ mental health, since humans are naturally social beings.
“I’m ashamed and disappointed that although we’re considered one of the top countries in the world, we’re basically the country with the most COVID-19 cases, while other countries have gotten it under control. I honestly thought that hospitals were going to offer free care for those with COVID, but I found out that people still have to pay to get treated as if COVID wasn’t anything much. It just shows how much money is of importance in this society and it just saddens me.
“I think we should just keep unnecessary and nonessential businesses closed for a while, since cases are starting to rise again. Getting drinks and having a haircut or something small like that isn’t all that important and necessary. I feel like if the rich can keep their kids from going to school, why is the public supposed to send their kids to school?”
When asked about the Socialist Equality Party’s call for a nationwide general strike, Richard said, “I think the proposal for a national strike to force companies and big businesses to shut down unnecessary businesses is really important and necessary, since we all need to voice our feelings and opinions and to say that ‘this isn’t right.’ Wealth shouldn’t be prioritized over the lives of people and our lives shouldn’t be at risk just so big businesses can continue to operate.”
The WSWS Educators Newsletter urges all parents, students and educators who oppose the unsafe reopening of schools and want to form rank-and-file safety committees in their schools and communities to stop the unsafe reopening of schools, to contact us and sign up for our email newsletter today.
Sri Lankan election exposes historic crisis of capitalist rule
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/11/sril-a11.html
By K. Ratnayake
11 August 2020
The Sri Lankan media has responded to last Wednesday’s election win of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) by falsely hailing it as a “people’s victory.” The SLPP won 145 seats while the opposition parties won just 74 seats.
As a result, with the votes of six MPs from political allies, the SLPP will have a two-thirds majority in the 225-seat parliament, enabling it to change the constitution. President Rajapakse has been openly campaigning for the removal of constitutional restraints to the executive presidency which would give him sweeping autocratic powers.
The election result is not a “people’s victory” but an electoral win by a party preparing for authoritarian rule under President Rajapakse who has already appointed a host of generals to his administration. The new cabinet will be officially appointed tomorrow and the new parliament convened on August 20.
SLPP leader Mahinda Rajapakse was sworn in as prime minister by his brother President Rajapakse on Sunday. The ceremony was held at Kelaniya Viharaya in northeastern Colombo, a site mythically claimed to have been visited by Buddha. Significantly, President Rajapakse took his oath in Anuradhapura, the ancient Sinhala capital, in the north-central province. Both leaders are thus signalling the Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist character of their regime.
Sinhala-Buddhist supremacism was the main plank of the SLPP’s presidential and general election campaigns. Its purpose was to whip up hostility against the island’s Tamil and Muslims minorities, divert social tensions and divide the working class across ethnic lines.
The Sri Lankan ruling elite faces a profound economic and political crisis that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has backed the SLPP because it promised “strong and stable rule”—i.e., its willingness to suppress rising working-class resistance to Colombo’s austerity policies and attacks on jobs and wages. Like its counterparts internationally, Sri Lankan big business wants the economy restructured and their profits increased by slashing jobs, imposing lower wages and increasing productivity.
The ruling class has turned to the SLPP and its authoritarian plans under conditions of a historic collapse of the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the two traditional parties of the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie.
The UNP, the country’s oldest political party, was only able to win one seat, not in a direct contest but as a result of its national vote, which plummeted to just 250,000. The bitterly-divided party split in February when the majority of its MPs, under the leadership of Sajith Premadasa, left to form the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB).
The factional conflict centred on the electoral unpopularity of longstanding UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The issue, however, was not a question of personality but the deep-seated hostility of workers and the rural poor to this pro-imperialist party and its attacks on democratic and social rights. The SJB won just 54 seats and 24 percent of votes in last week’s election.
The SLFP, led by former President Sirisena, is all but defunct. The majority of its MPs left the party and joined the SLPP when it was formed in 2016. Sirisena and the remaining SLFP parliamentarians contested last Wednesday’s ballot in an electoral alliance with the SLPP.
Consecutive UNP and SLFP administrations have governed the country since formal independence in 1948. The UNP was established in 1946 while the SLFP was formed in 1951 by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike and other MPs who split in response to rising working class struggles against the UNP. Whether in or out of government, both parties used anti-Tamil communalism to divide the working class and defend capitalist rule. This reactionary agenda culminated in the communalist war in 1983 against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) creating untold devastation for the masses throughout the island.
Wednesday’s elections also exposed the ongoing crisis of the bourgeois Tamil National Alliance (TNA). It won just 10 seats, down from 16 in the last parliament, with its overall vote falling from 515,963 in the August 2015 election to just 327,168.
The Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK), the principal party in the alliance, was formed in 1949 in response to the anti-Tamil communalism. ITAK has a long and sordid history of attempting to secure power-sharing arrangements with the Colombo elite. These political manoeuvres have produced one disaster after another for the Tamil masses.
Formed in 2002, the TNA responded to the LTTE’s defeat in May 2009, by shifting further to the right, and appealing to the major imperialist powers, including the US, to secure their backing for a deal with Colombo.
The TNA supported Washington’s 2015 regime-change operation to oust then President Mahinda Rajapakse and to install Sirisena. It backed Sirisena’s pro-imperialist administration and its suppression of any investigation into Colombo’s war crimes, including the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in the final weeks of war, and also supported the government’s austerity measures (see: “Tamil National Alliance offers to support Sri Lankan president’s autocratic rule”).
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) contested the election in a new front called the National People’s Power (NPP) offering populist demands and calling for a “clean” uncorrupted parliament. It won three seats, down from six in the previous parliament. In 2004, the JVP had 39 MPs.
Established in the late 1960s, the JVP was a radical petty-bourgeois party based on a mixture of Castroism, Maoism and Sinhala patriotism. It is now a party of the bourgeois establishment and since 1994 has aligned itself with every regime in Colombo. This includes joining a coalition with President Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004. Having fully backed Colombo’s communalist war it is widely discredited among the youth and workers initially attracted to it.
Commenting on last Wednesday’s election, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said, “This result is not one we can be satisfied with” but added “there is a role for the Opposition outside the parliament as well,” and said the organisation would organise farmers and unemployed. As its previous history demonstrates, the JVP will work with the ruling elites to derail rural poor and youth from turning towards socialism and the working class.
The deep-going alienation of the masses from the political establishment was also revealed by the millions of Sri Lankan citizens who refused to participate in the election. While there are more than 16 million registered voters in Sri Lanka just over 11 million voted—i.e., about 4.7 million did not cast a vote. This is about one million more than the previous national election in 2015, and of those that participated in Wednesday’s election, 700,000 cancelled their votes.
The media rejoicing about the SLPP victory is an expression of their support for the future government’s social assault on all working people. As an August 6 editorial in the Island entitled “Real war ahead” declared: “A democratically elected stable government is a prerequisite for restoring investor confidence, reviving the economy, and improving the country’s credit ratings.”
It is not enough for parties to just call for “stringent measures,” the editorial continued, “The interval in hell, as it were, we have been enjoying all these months will be over soon.” In other words, massive government attacks must be unleashed on workers, the rural poor and youth as soon as possible.
In last Wednesday’s election, the Socialist Equality Party increased its total vote to 780 in the three districts that it contested—Jaffna 146, Colombo 303 and Nuwara Eliya 331. The party’s vote doubled in Colombo, the country’s major working-class centre and in Nuwara Eliya, where the majority of Sri Lanka’s plantation workers live. This increase was amid the COVID-19 pandemic, where party campaigns were limited to online meetings and Facebook sharing of SEP statements and World Socialist Web Site articles.
These conscious votes indicate a growing support for socialism in Sri Lanka. The SEP will intensify its exposure of the Sinhala chauvinist provocations against Tamil and Muslim minorities that seek to divide workers. It was the only party that opposed Colombo’s communalist war against the LTTE and demanded the withdrawal of the military from the north and east of the country.
Our party advances a socialist policy against imperialist war, the coronavirus pandemic and social inequality. We alone call for the working class to break from every faction of the ruling class and independently mobilise—rallying the rural poor and the oppressed—to fight for a workers’ and peasants’ government to implement socialist policies as part of the struggle for international socialism.
Chicago mayor locks down business district after police shooting sparks looting
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/11/chic-a11.html
By Kristina Betinis
11 August 2020
Access bridges over the Chicago River were raised again Monday night, cutting off the business district, known as the Loop, from the rest of the city, as social tensions continue to rise after the police shooting of a young black man Sunday afternoon.
The police shooting and tense confrontation with residents in the Englewood neighborhood on the city’s south side led to looting overnight at several downtown stores, including in the upscale Magnificent Mile retail area. According to media reports, two people were shot, more than 100 were arrested and 13 police officers injured. Additional police have been deployed and an indefinite lockdown of the Loop resumed Monday evening.
The incident began when police shot a 20-year-old youth in Englewood, who, they claimed, had fled after being stopped and fired on officers before they shot him. The young man, whose name has not been released because he has not yet been charged with a crime, is reported to be in stable condition at University of Chicago Hospital.
In comments to the Sun Times, Earl Allen, the victim’s brother, contradicted the police version of events. Allen said he and his brother were in Moran Park when his brother got in an altercation before both left the park with a group of people. Allen said someone in the group made a comment to officers in a police vehicle, which prompted the police pursuit.
Allen said he was walking to his home after the group dispersed when he heard 8 or 9 shots ring out but did not see shooters. Shortly after he said he saw his brother wounded and running into their home. Allen also denied the weapon that police claim was found at the scene belonged to his brother.
About 100 youth gathered at Cook County Jail Monday night to demand police body camera footage from the Sunday shooting.
Shortly after the shooting on Sunday, residents gathered to confront a growing number of police, some in helmets and armed with rifles. Tensions mounted as hundreds of cops formed a line and residents implored young people to get inside, fearing that they would be severely beaten or killed by police.
By midnight on Sunday evening, 400 police officers were deployed in response to hundreds of people reportedly entering the Magnificent Mile and near West Side shopping districts where smashing and looting went on into the early morning. The Illinois state police blocked off ramps from expressways and the bridges across the Chicago River were raised, except for the one on LaSalle Street for police and emergency vehicles.
Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded by deploying more police, threatening more aggressive prosecutions and cutting off nighttime access to the Loop. From 8 PM to 6 AM, street and train transit is cut off except at certain points until further notice.
Lightfoot also announced the deployment of “infrastructure assets,” i.e., more security forces, directed by Chicago Police Department, to protect commercial properties.
Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown held a press conference Monday morning to denounce the looting and announce a massive police crackdown. “This is not legitimate First Amendment-protected speech,” Lightfoot said. “These were not poor people engaging in petty theft to feed themselves and their families. This was straight-up felony, criminal conduct.” She said police would use camera footage to track down suspects, adding, “We are coming for you.”
Brown said the looting had been “fueled by misinformation” about the age of the police shooting victim and the conduct of the police.
Both the mayor and the police chief blamed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for not being aggressive enough in prosecuting scattered instances of looting that occurred during the massive anti-police violence protests over George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. “Criminals took to the streets with the confidence that there would be no consequences for their actions,” Brown said.
In fact, thousands of youth were arrested, beaten and teargassed from May into July. Many face trial and severe punishment this month.
The Democratic political establishment is using the looting incidents to escalate police repression against an increasingly restive population. Last month, Lightfoot announced that she had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to send a “surge” of 200 federal agents to Chicago, allegedly to fight crime.
Chicago, America’s third largest city, is a social tinderbox, the result of a four-decade-long class war overseen by the Democratic Party. Once thriving working-class neighborhoods have been reduced to poverty and destitution by the shutdown of factories and decades of budget cuts, which led to the closure of public schools, recreation centers, public housing buildings and health clinics.
As thousands of low-rent homes were demolished, Democratic mayors handed over billions in tax cuts and incentives to Boeing and other corporations to set up their headquarters downtown. As powerful financial and real estate interests made a killing, rising rents drove out working class and lower middle class residents and homelessness exploded.
Well aware that social tensions were reaching a breaking point, Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, the Obama White House’s first chief of staff who was also known as “Mayor One Percent,” beefed up the police forces. Lightfoot, who repeatedly claims there is no money for schools and teachers, has followed suit, adding $100 million to the budget line of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) last year, a seven percent increase over the previous year.
The social crisis has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic catastrophe it has triggered. Twenty-five thousand Illinoisans filed for unemployment August 1 and 33,000 filed the week before that. Along with jobless workers across the country, these laid off workers have now had their $600 a week federal supplement taken from them.
Unemployment on the South Side is estimated to be double Chicago’s official unemployment rate of 15.6 percent for June. In working class and poor neighborhoods, the devastation is similar to that seen in wartime. The suicide rate among African Americans in Chicago in 2020 has already surpassed the figure for 2019. This year, there have been 58 suicide deaths and of that total, 80 percent were men and 40 percent were under 30 years old.
At the same time, Illinois is the home to at least 18 billionaires, including the state’s Democratic governor and Hyatt hotel magnate JB Pritzker. The relentless police violence is aimed at defending the wealth and power of the corporate and financial oligarchy against an increasingly radicalized working class.
Access bridges over the Chicago River were raised again Monday night, cutting off the business district, known as the Loop, from the rest of the city, as social tensions continue to rise after the police shooting of a young black man Sunday afternoon.
The police shooting and tense confrontation with residents in the Englewood neighborhood on the city’s south side led to looting overnight at several downtown stores, including in the upscale Magnificent Mile retail area. According to media reports, two people were shot, more than 100 were arrested and 13 police officers injured. Additional police have been deployed and an indefinite lockdown of the Loop resumed Monday evening.
The incident began when police shot a 20-year-old youth in Englewood, who, they claimed, had fled after being stopped and fired on officers before they shot him. The young man, whose name has not been released because he has not yet been charged with a crime, is reported to be in stable condition at University of Chicago Hospital.
In comments to the Sun Times, Earl Allen, the victim’s brother, contradicted the police version of events. Allen said he and his brother were in Moran Park when his brother got in an altercation before both left the park with a group of people. Allen said someone in the group made a comment to officers in a police vehicle, which prompted the police pursuit.
Allen said he was walking to his home after the group dispersed when he heard 8 or 9 shots ring out but did not see shooters. Shortly after he said he saw his brother wounded and running into their home. Allen also denied the weapon that police claim was found at the scene belonged to his brother.
About 100 youth gathered at Cook County Jail Monday night to demand police body camera footage from the Sunday shooting.
Shortly after the shooting on Sunday, residents gathered to confront a growing number of police, some in helmets and armed with rifles. Tensions mounted as hundreds of cops formed a line and residents implored young people to get inside, fearing that they would be severely beaten or killed by police.
By midnight on Sunday evening, 400 police officers were deployed in response to hundreds of people reportedly entering the Magnificent Mile and near West Side shopping districts where smashing and looting went on into the early morning. The Illinois state police blocked off ramps from expressways and the bridges across the Chicago River were raised, except for the one on LaSalle Street for police and emergency vehicles.
Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded by deploying more police, threatening more aggressive prosecutions and cutting off nighttime access to the Loop. From 8 PM to 6 AM, street and train transit is cut off except at certain points until further notice.
Lightfoot also announced the deployment of “infrastructure assets,” i.e., more security forces, directed by Chicago Police Department, to protect commercial properties.
Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown held a press conference Monday morning to denounce the looting and announce a massive police crackdown. “This is not legitimate First Amendment-protected speech,” Lightfoot said. “These were not poor people engaging in petty theft to feed themselves and their families. This was straight-up felony, criminal conduct.” She said police would use camera footage to track down suspects, adding, “We are coming for you.”
Brown said the looting had been “fueled by misinformation” about the age of the police shooting victim and the conduct of the police.
Both the mayor and the police chief blamed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for not being aggressive enough in prosecuting scattered instances of looting that occurred during the massive anti-police violence protests over George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. “Criminals took to the streets with the confidence that there would be no consequences for their actions,” Brown said.
In fact, thousands of youth were arrested, beaten and teargassed from May into July. Many face trial and severe punishment this month.
The Democratic political establishment is using the looting incidents to escalate police repression against an increasingly restive population. Last month, Lightfoot announced that she had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to send a “surge” of 200 federal agents to Chicago, allegedly to fight crime.
Chicago, America’s third largest city, is a social tinderbox, the result of a four-decade-long class war overseen by the Democratic Party. Once thriving working-class neighborhoods have been reduced to poverty and destitution by the shutdown of factories and decades of budget cuts, which led to the closure of public schools, recreation centers, public housing buildings and health clinics.
As thousands of low-rent homes were demolished, Democratic mayors handed over billions in tax cuts and incentives to Boeing and other corporations to set up their headquarters downtown. As powerful financial and real estate interests made a killing, rising rents drove out working class and lower middle class residents and homelessness exploded.
Well aware that social tensions were reaching a breaking point, Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, the Obama White House’s first chief of staff who was also known as “Mayor One Percent,” beefed up the police forces. Lightfoot, who repeatedly claims there is no money for schools and teachers, has followed suit, adding $100 million to the budget line of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) last year, a seven percent increase over the previous year.
The social crisis has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic catastrophe it has triggered. Twenty-five thousand Illinoisans filed for unemployment August 1 and 33,000 filed the week before that. Along with jobless workers across the country, these laid off workers have now had their $600 a week federal supplement taken from them.
Unemployment on the South Side is estimated to be double Chicago’s official unemployment rate of 15.6 percent for June. In working class and poor neighborhoods, the devastation is similar to that seen in wartime. The suicide rate among African Americans in Chicago in 2020 has already surpassed the figure for 2019. This year, there have been 58 suicide deaths and of that total, 80 percent were men and 40 percent were under 30 years old.
At the same time, Illinois is the home to at least 18 billionaires, including the state’s Democratic governor and Hyatt hotel magnate JB Pritzker. The relentless police violence is aimed at defending the wealth and power of the corporate and financial oligarchy against an increasingly radicalized working class.
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