https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2vLuL4RYvk
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Protests continue in Los Angeles after police kill unarmed 29-year-old man
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/03/dijo-s03.html
By Dan Conway
3 September 2020
Protests continued in Los Angeles for a third day in a row Wednesday over the killing of 29-year-old Dijon Kizzee.
On Monday, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department stopped Kizzee, an African-American man, over an alleged vehicle code violation while riding a bicycle. According to police accounts, Kizzee then fled on foot with a jacket in his arms. Kizzee dropped the jacket during the pursuit, with deputies alleging that it contained a hidden firearm prompting them to fire at Kizzee and kill him.
The lawyer representing Kizzee’s family alleges that he was shot more than 20 times in the back while the sheriff’s department alleges fewer than 20 shots were fired.
The sheriff’s department also alleges that the young man punched one of the deputies during the course of the pursuit, however, they also claim that neither of the two officers suffered any injuries as a result of the incident. The department claims that Kizzee tried to reach for the gun before being shot, however, no evidence has been provided to substantiate the claim either. Neither deputy has been named by the department thus far with both put on leave.
Several witnesses to the incident interviewed by the Los Angeles Times indicated they did not see any sign of a threat from Kizzee towards the officers. Latiera Kirby, who had stopped by her mother’s house, was sitting in her car when Kizzee ran by pleading for help. “He said, ‘They’re coming to get me, they’re coming to get me,’” Kirby noted. Kizzee then offered Kirby money to drive him away. Kirby refused him, not knowing who he was and why he was running, and related that she then saw the deputies pursuing Kizzee and shooting him after he fell to the ground. “He had nothing in his hands,” Kirby said.
The shooting horrified nearby residents who, by all indications, witnessed the summary execution of an innocent man by Los Angeles police officers. Neighbors cried out that he did not need to be shot. “You don’t have to shoot him that many times! You could have tased him,” they said.
Another community resident who witnessed the shooting, 52-year-old Alida Trejo, says she heard between 8 and 11 shots fired after witnessing Kizzee run past her home. She saw a deputy struggling to arrest Kizzee while neighbors were telling him not to resist and for the deputy not to shoot. According to Trejo however, “They say the man punched the deputy, but I never saw that happen.”
The sheriff’s department has claimed that they do not know what specific violation the young man committed while riding his bicycle or why officers would engage him in a foot chase and then shoot him over such a minor infraction.
It is likely that Kizzee was in fact the subject of what is known as a pretextual traffic stop. Having no probable cause for arrest, police will follow a subject driving a car, pedaling a bicycle, or otherwise operating a vehicle until the suspect commits a traffic violation. At that point, the minor infraction can be used as a pretext for more invasive searching and interrogation.
The killing of Kizzee, coming on the heels of the shooting of Jakob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, George Floyd in Minnesota, and numerous others, has prompted continuous protests throughout the past three days including outside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s station. Sheriff Alex Villanueva used the occasion of the protests to claim sympathy with Kizzee’s family while absurdly drawing moral equivalence between random street violence and targeted killings by police officers noting that protests seem to care about the latter case only.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is also under fire for the June killing of 18-year-old Andres Guardado in the West Compton area. Guardado worked as a security guard at an auto body shop. The sheriff’s department alleges the young man pulled a gun on officers after they had been “observing” him. Like the killing of Kizzee, no police calls had been made in relation to the incident with the police shooting Guardado in the back five times. The incident sparked protests numbering in the thousands prompting the Sheriff’s department to destroy footage of in the incident kept by a local store owner.
A whistleblower has since given sworn testimony that Guardado was murdered as part of an initiation into a violent police gang known as the “Executioners.” The whistleblower, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy Austreberto Gonzalez, testified that “Members become inked as ‘Executioners’ after executing members of the public, or otherwise commit acts of violence in furtherance of the gang.” The “inking” Gonzalez referred to are tattoos Executioners members wear including AK-47s and Nazi imagery. Gonzalez testified that the gangs oftentimes throw “998 parties” named after the police code for an officer-involved shooting after a deputy shoots someone.
Gonzalez’s lawyer, Alan Romero, told the Los Angeles Times, “We have a gang here that has grown to the point where it dominates every aspect of life at the Compton station. It essentially controls scheduling, the distribution of informant tips, and assignments to deputies in the station with preference to members of the gang as well as prospects.”
County Sherriff Villanueva later said, “There is no gang of any deputies running any station.” Referring to Gonzalez’s testimony, Villanueva remarked, “I take these allegations very seriously and recently enacted a policy specifically addressing illicit groups, deputy cliques and subgroups.” Inspector General Max Huntsman, however, remarked that he was “aware of no implementation whatsoever” of any such policies.
Researchers have uncovered the existence of multiple gangs among Los Angeles law enforcement, some going back as far back as 1971. These include the “Banditos” patrolling East LA, the “Lynwood Vikings” and the “3000 boys” based out of the Men’s Central Jail who would earn their tattoos each time they broke an inmate’s bones.
The Most Incredible Things the Hubble Telescope Has Ever Captured
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnEwZpy-G1E
GE Appliances workers in Louisville, Kentucky vote overwhelmingly to strike
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/03/geky-s03.html
By Zac Thorton
3 September 2020
Demonstrating their readiness for a struggle, workers at the General Electric (GE) Appliances factory in Louisville, Kentucky have voted by 99.2 percent to authorize a strike. The vote comes as the four-year contract covering almost 4,000 workers is set to expire on September 6 with management demanding draconian concessions, including the elimination of employer-paid pensions.
The International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) has made it clear that the strike vote is not binding on the union. Instead IUE-CWA officials hope to retain some level of credibility among workers while they conduct behind-the-scenes talks over yet another concessionary contract. As Julie Wood, senior corporate director of communications for GE Appliances, put it: “Discussions remain productive. This vote is procedural for the union.”
In March, with workers conducting a job action over the outbreak of COVID-19 in the giant facility, Local 83761 President Dino Driskell said the union was “exploring the possibility of taking a park wide strike.” The union, however, quickly dropped any talk of a work stoppage.
The current contract was set to expire in June, however, due to the pandemic, the union and the company agreed to a three-month extension. Workers are demanding better wages and benefits, including better health care benefits, as premiums have outpaced cost-of-living adjustments.
While IUE-CWA officials have not revealed the details of either the union’s or the company’s contract proposals it has been reported that management wants to maintain the two-tier system, albeit with a starting raise for new hires from $12 to $14 an hour. The company also wants to replace employer-paid pensions with a 401(k) fund, largely financed by workers themselves.
GE Appliances was sold by General Electric in 2016 to China-based Haier for $5.6 billion. The company’s Louisville facility, its largest, produces washing machines, dryers, dishwashers and bottom-freezer refrigerators. Louisville itself is a significant manufacturing and logistics hub, with tens of thousands of GE, Ford and UPS workers. GE Appliances is the second largest manufacturing employer in Kentucky, with approximately 6,000 workers. In addition to its plant in Louisville, GE Appliances also has manufacturing plants in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina.
The company has remained highly profitable throughout the pandemic. In comments published in the Bucks County Courier Times on August 25, GE Appliances spokeswoman Wendy Treinen said, “GEA has seen record demand on certain product categories since COVID-19 began … Freezer sales outpaced supply starting in March as consumers stockpiled goods and demand remains at an unprecedented level. Usage of appliances is higher than ever before.” In addition, she said, “Interest in remodeling and home improvements has sparked orders as well.”
Haier Smart Home, the Haier subsidiary which oversees GE Appliances, published its half-year report on August 31, titled “Revenue and profit recovery following COVID-19 impacts.” The report states: “In H1 2020, the Haier Smart Home achieved a revenue of [almost $14 billion] and net profit attributable to owners [$395 million]. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s performance in H1 2020, the growth rate swiftly revived in Q2, ushering a turning point with increases in both revenue and net income attributable to shareholders in June by 20.6% [year-over-year] and 21.4% [year-over-year], respectively.”
During the 2016 contract negotiations, workers at the Louisville plant rejected by a wide margin a proposed contract that imposed significant concessions, including a two-tier pay scale and higher health care costs. Ignoring workers’ demands, the IUE-CWA accepted an agreement which kept, with only slight alteration, many of the provisions workers adamantly opposed.
In a statement after the strike vote, local union president Driskell admitted that the 2016 contract had severely eroded workers’ living standards, with rising out-of-pocket health care costs for workers far outpacing the minimal wage increases in the contract.
The current contract negotiations are taking place amidst an unprecedented social and political crisis in the US, which is being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers are being forced into unsafe factories, schools and other workplaces, with little to no personal protective equipment or safety protocols. This has led to major outpourings of working class anger and opposition, including among workers at the Louisville plant.
On March 31, after management informed workers of a “probable” COVID-19 case at the facility, workers protested outside the factory complex and demanded that it be shut down, and that necessary safety precautions be implemented.
Prior to this, the company had only halted production for one week in response to the virus. When production resumed on March 30, management assured workers that it had sanitized the plant and reconfigured it to allow for social distancing. Despite management’s rosy assurances, workers returned to find a factory that remained filthy, while lacking such basic necessities as soap and hand sanitizer.
IUE-CWA officials only reluctantly agreed to the March protest because workers were threatening to take matters into their own hands. After his comments about exploring the possibility of a strike, IUE-CWA Local 83761 President Dino Driskell announced the union would abide by the decision of Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, to designate the appliance maker as an “essential business” that had to remain open.
The Socialist Equality Party urges workers to take matters into their own hands by forming a rank-and-file committee, independent of the union, to prepare for strike action. At the same time, this committee should appeal to Louisville teachers, Ford and UPS workers for joint struggle against unsafe conditions and the corporate drive to pump even more profits out of the working class.
3 September 2020
Demonstrating their readiness for a struggle, workers at the General Electric (GE) Appliances factory in Louisville, Kentucky have voted by 99.2 percent to authorize a strike. The vote comes as the four-year contract covering almost 4,000 workers is set to expire on September 6 with management demanding draconian concessions, including the elimination of employer-paid pensions.
The International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) has made it clear that the strike vote is not binding on the union. Instead IUE-CWA officials hope to retain some level of credibility among workers while they conduct behind-the-scenes talks over yet another concessionary contract. As Julie Wood, senior corporate director of communications for GE Appliances, put it: “Discussions remain productive. This vote is procedural for the union.”
In March, with workers conducting a job action over the outbreak of COVID-19 in the giant facility, Local 83761 President Dino Driskell said the union was “exploring the possibility of taking a park wide strike.” The union, however, quickly dropped any talk of a work stoppage.
The current contract was set to expire in June, however, due to the pandemic, the union and the company agreed to a three-month extension. Workers are demanding better wages and benefits, including better health care benefits, as premiums have outpaced cost-of-living adjustments.
While IUE-CWA officials have not revealed the details of either the union’s or the company’s contract proposals it has been reported that management wants to maintain the two-tier system, albeit with a starting raise for new hires from $12 to $14 an hour. The company also wants to replace employer-paid pensions with a 401(k) fund, largely financed by workers themselves.
GE Appliances was sold by General Electric in 2016 to China-based Haier for $5.6 billion. The company’s Louisville facility, its largest, produces washing machines, dryers, dishwashers and bottom-freezer refrigerators. Louisville itself is a significant manufacturing and logistics hub, with tens of thousands of GE, Ford and UPS workers. GE Appliances is the second largest manufacturing employer in Kentucky, with approximately 6,000 workers. In addition to its plant in Louisville, GE Appliances also has manufacturing plants in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina.
The company has remained highly profitable throughout the pandemic. In comments published in the Bucks County Courier Times on August 25, GE Appliances spokeswoman Wendy Treinen said, “GEA has seen record demand on certain product categories since COVID-19 began … Freezer sales outpaced supply starting in March as consumers stockpiled goods and demand remains at an unprecedented level. Usage of appliances is higher than ever before.” In addition, she said, “Interest in remodeling and home improvements has sparked orders as well.”
Haier Smart Home, the Haier subsidiary which oversees GE Appliances, published its half-year report on August 31, titled “Revenue and profit recovery following COVID-19 impacts.” The report states: “In H1 2020, the Haier Smart Home achieved a revenue of [almost $14 billion] and net profit attributable to owners [$395 million]. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s performance in H1 2020, the growth rate swiftly revived in Q2, ushering a turning point with increases in both revenue and net income attributable to shareholders in June by 20.6% [year-over-year] and 21.4% [year-over-year], respectively.”
During the 2016 contract negotiations, workers at the Louisville plant rejected by a wide margin a proposed contract that imposed significant concessions, including a two-tier pay scale and higher health care costs. Ignoring workers’ demands, the IUE-CWA accepted an agreement which kept, with only slight alteration, many of the provisions workers adamantly opposed.
In a statement after the strike vote, local union president Driskell admitted that the 2016 contract had severely eroded workers’ living standards, with rising out-of-pocket health care costs for workers far outpacing the minimal wage increases in the contract.
The current contract negotiations are taking place amidst an unprecedented social and political crisis in the US, which is being exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers are being forced into unsafe factories, schools and other workplaces, with little to no personal protective equipment or safety protocols. This has led to major outpourings of working class anger and opposition, including among workers at the Louisville plant.
On March 31, after management informed workers of a “probable” COVID-19 case at the facility, workers protested outside the factory complex and demanded that it be shut down, and that necessary safety precautions be implemented.
Prior to this, the company had only halted production for one week in response to the virus. When production resumed on March 30, management assured workers that it had sanitized the plant and reconfigured it to allow for social distancing. Despite management’s rosy assurances, workers returned to find a factory that remained filthy, while lacking such basic necessities as soap and hand sanitizer.
IUE-CWA officials only reluctantly agreed to the March protest because workers were threatening to take matters into their own hands. After his comments about exploring the possibility of a strike, IUE-CWA Local 83761 President Dino Driskell announced the union would abide by the decision of Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, to designate the appliance maker as an “essential business” that had to remain open.
The Socialist Equality Party urges workers to take matters into their own hands by forming a rank-and-file committee, independent of the union, to prepare for strike action. At the same time, this committee should appeal to Louisville teachers, Ford and UPS workers for joint struggle against unsafe conditions and the corporate drive to pump even more profits out of the working class.
French President Macron lays down the law in Lebanon
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/03/macr-s03.html
By Jean Shaoul
3 September 2020
French President Emmanuel Macron paid a second visit to Beirut in the aftermath of the devastating port blaze on August 4 that killed around 190 people.
This representative of Lebanon’s former colonial master timed his visit to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Lebanese state under French rule as part of the post-World War I imperialist carve-up of the defeated Ottoman Empire, over the heads of the people of the region.
Macron’s aim was to create the conditions for the return to power of French puppet and a member of one of Lebanon’s billionaire corporate and banking families, Sa’ad Hariri, and to eliminate the power of the Iranian-backed Islamist party Hezbollah.
He made it clear that any international financial loans and aid to prevent the pending bankruptcy of the Lebanese state—looted for decades by the country’s plutocrats—would be dependent upon “reforms,” a euphemism for eradicating the influence of Hezbollah and isolating Syria and Iran.
His visit to one of the world’s smallest countries—with a population of six million in the Eastern Mediterranean—is part of a broader French and European Union (EU) attempt to reassert their influence and interests in the Middle East and Africa, in the wake of their failure to effect regime change in Syria via a proxy war.
They are seeking to secure Europe’s energy supply amid the newly discovered gas fields and proposed pipelines in the Levant Basin, as Turkey carries out its own exploration drilling and Turkey, Iran, Russia and China build up their positions in the Eastern Mediterranean via Syria. No small factor in their calculations is the continued undermining of the once dominant position of US imperialism.
France in particular is taking a very aggressive stance, allying itself with the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in backing warlord Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya against the UN recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli that is backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy.
France has long meddled in Lebanon’s domestic politics, providing a sanctuary when their leaders fall from grace. Most recently, in 2017 Paris orchestrated Sa’ad Hariri’s return to power after his then chief backer, the House of Saud, summoned him to Riyadh, detained him and forced him to announce his resignation as prime minister on television, because of his inability to distance his shaky government from Hezbollah.
Just hours before Macron arrived on Monday, Lebanon’s political parties agreed to put forward diplomat Mustapha Adib, who was selected by the country’s billionaire ex-premiers, as the new prime minister following the resignation of Hassan Diab’s short-lived government. Diab resigned six days after the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port. It had become clear to him that he was being made the scapegoat for the years of criminal neglect and callous indifference by successive governments that had ignored repeated warnings about the dangers of storing ammonium nitrate without proper safety controls so near to residential areas.
Adib, a lawyer and Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany since 2013, is a largely unknown figure. A close associate of Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s richest man, who was prime minister 2011-13, serving as his cabinet chief, Adib has called for the rapid formation of a government and promised to implement reforms swiftly to secure a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In essence, he is being asked to clear the way for a Hariri-led government under conditions where Hariri himself is far too discredited to assume power immediately—having ruled the country for four of the six years when the ammonium nitrate was stored at the port.
Macron kicked off his trip with a publicity stunt, visiting 85-year-old Fairuz, Lebanon’s internationally acclaimed singer and national icon, at her home, where he awarded her France’s Légion d’Honneur. He then made his political preferences clear, inviting Hariri to meet him at the Pine Residence, the French Ambassador’s official residence in Beirut. One hundred years earlier, on September 1, 1920, French General Henri Gouraud had declared the creation of the state of Greater Lebanon from its balcony under the terms of a League of Nations mandate that gave French imperialism authority over Syria and Lebanon. The stately home served as France’s base for running the country until independence in 1943.
The following day, Macron attended a series of events to mark the occasion, planting a cedar sapling—Lebanon’s national symbol—at a forest reserve in the mountains northeast of Beirut as French air force jets flew overhead, leaving trails of red, white and green smoke, the colours of the Lebanese flag.
Later on Tuesday, at a meeting with representatives of all the main political parties at the imperial Pine Residence, Macron issued his demands: a new government within two weeks, “credible commitments” to reform, and transparency within two months, thereby paving the way for an IMF loan to rescue the economy, and parliamentary elections within 12 months.
Macron, speaking at a press conference Tuesday evening, said, “They all, without exception, committed to a goals-oriented government to be formed in coming days,” and that the new government would be formally composed of “competent” unaligned people. He cautioned, “There is no blank cheque,” adding, “If your political class fails, then we will not come to Lebanon’s aid.”
Lebanon’s economic crisis is rooted in decades of corruption and looting by the ruling elite that has created one of the world’s most heavily indebted countries, with a sovereign debt equal to 170 percent of GDP, owed in the main to Lebanese banks that are owned by leading Sunni and Christian politicians. The currency has collapsed, and the banks have prevented small depositors from accessing their savings, even as their value has plummeted. Poverty and unemployment, already high, have soared in the wake of the pandemic and the port blast in a country that hosts the world’s largest number of refugees per capita.
Macron insisted that there would be no international aid if they failed to follow their own “road map” for sweeping changes to the state and financial system. He gave them till the end of October to make the necessary changes. Should they fail to do so, this arrogant imperialist, aping Donald Trump, kept open the threat of sanctions as a stick with which to beat politicians such as President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, the leader of the mainly Christian Free Democratic Party, and Hezbollah, which has the largest bloc in parliament.
Macron announced that he would return to Lebanon in December after a visit by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in November and that France would organize two Lebanon-related conferences in mid-October. One would focus on reconstruction aid, and the other to be held in Paris on “building international support” for Lebanon’s reform agenda and “shielding Lebanon from regional power plays.”
For all Macron’s talk of curbing corruption, what he really meant was curbing the power of Hezbollah. He said that the next round of “reform” talks would focus on the group’s arsenal of weapons that rivals that of the Lebanese army.
As Macron left Beirut, protesters took to the streets with clashes with security forces taking place near the parliament building. Some chanted “Down with [President] Michel Aoun” and “Revolution,” while others said they were protesting foreign interference and Macron’s visit.
As part of Macron’s broader aim of taking a more prominent role in pursuing France’s geo-strategic interests in the region, he flew on to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Macron was the first international leader to visit the country—and this was the third visit by French officials—since Mustafa al-Kadhimi was elected prime minister in May.
His purpose was “to launch an initiative alongside the United Nations to support a process of sovereignty,” an indirect warning to Turkey, whose military incursion into the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in June—aimed at disrupting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants—angered Baghdad and Erbil.
3 September 2020
French President Emmanuel Macron paid a second visit to Beirut in the aftermath of the devastating port blaze on August 4 that killed around 190 people.
This representative of Lebanon’s former colonial master timed his visit to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Lebanese state under French rule as part of the post-World War I imperialist carve-up of the defeated Ottoman Empire, over the heads of the people of the region.
Macron’s aim was to create the conditions for the return to power of French puppet and a member of one of Lebanon’s billionaire corporate and banking families, Sa’ad Hariri, and to eliminate the power of the Iranian-backed Islamist party Hezbollah.
He made it clear that any international financial loans and aid to prevent the pending bankruptcy of the Lebanese state—looted for decades by the country’s plutocrats—would be dependent upon “reforms,” a euphemism for eradicating the influence of Hezbollah and isolating Syria and Iran.
His visit to one of the world’s smallest countries—with a population of six million in the Eastern Mediterranean—is part of a broader French and European Union (EU) attempt to reassert their influence and interests in the Middle East and Africa, in the wake of their failure to effect regime change in Syria via a proxy war.
They are seeking to secure Europe’s energy supply amid the newly discovered gas fields and proposed pipelines in the Levant Basin, as Turkey carries out its own exploration drilling and Turkey, Iran, Russia and China build up their positions in the Eastern Mediterranean via Syria. No small factor in their calculations is the continued undermining of the once dominant position of US imperialism.
France in particular is taking a very aggressive stance, allying itself with the United Arab Emirates and Egypt in backing warlord Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya against the UN recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli that is backed by Turkey, Qatar and Italy.
France has long meddled in Lebanon’s domestic politics, providing a sanctuary when their leaders fall from grace. Most recently, in 2017 Paris orchestrated Sa’ad Hariri’s return to power after his then chief backer, the House of Saud, summoned him to Riyadh, detained him and forced him to announce his resignation as prime minister on television, because of his inability to distance his shaky government from Hezbollah.
Just hours before Macron arrived on Monday, Lebanon’s political parties agreed to put forward diplomat Mustapha Adib, who was selected by the country’s billionaire ex-premiers, as the new prime minister following the resignation of Hassan Diab’s short-lived government. Diab resigned six days after the devastating explosion at Beirut’s port. It had become clear to him that he was being made the scapegoat for the years of criminal neglect and callous indifference by successive governments that had ignored repeated warnings about the dangers of storing ammonium nitrate without proper safety controls so near to residential areas.
Adib, a lawyer and Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany since 2013, is a largely unknown figure. A close associate of Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s richest man, who was prime minister 2011-13, serving as his cabinet chief, Adib has called for the rapid formation of a government and promised to implement reforms swiftly to secure a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In essence, he is being asked to clear the way for a Hariri-led government under conditions where Hariri himself is far too discredited to assume power immediately—having ruled the country for four of the six years when the ammonium nitrate was stored at the port.
Macron kicked off his trip with a publicity stunt, visiting 85-year-old Fairuz, Lebanon’s internationally acclaimed singer and national icon, at her home, where he awarded her France’s Légion d’Honneur. He then made his political preferences clear, inviting Hariri to meet him at the Pine Residence, the French Ambassador’s official residence in Beirut. One hundred years earlier, on September 1, 1920, French General Henri Gouraud had declared the creation of the state of Greater Lebanon from its balcony under the terms of a League of Nations mandate that gave French imperialism authority over Syria and Lebanon. The stately home served as France’s base for running the country until independence in 1943.
The following day, Macron attended a series of events to mark the occasion, planting a cedar sapling—Lebanon’s national symbol—at a forest reserve in the mountains northeast of Beirut as French air force jets flew overhead, leaving trails of red, white and green smoke, the colours of the Lebanese flag.
Later on Tuesday, at a meeting with representatives of all the main political parties at the imperial Pine Residence, Macron issued his demands: a new government within two weeks, “credible commitments” to reform, and transparency within two months, thereby paving the way for an IMF loan to rescue the economy, and parliamentary elections within 12 months.
Macron, speaking at a press conference Tuesday evening, said, “They all, without exception, committed to a goals-oriented government to be formed in coming days,” and that the new government would be formally composed of “competent” unaligned people. He cautioned, “There is no blank cheque,” adding, “If your political class fails, then we will not come to Lebanon’s aid.”
Lebanon’s economic crisis is rooted in decades of corruption and looting by the ruling elite that has created one of the world’s most heavily indebted countries, with a sovereign debt equal to 170 percent of GDP, owed in the main to Lebanese banks that are owned by leading Sunni and Christian politicians. The currency has collapsed, and the banks have prevented small depositors from accessing their savings, even as their value has plummeted. Poverty and unemployment, already high, have soared in the wake of the pandemic and the port blast in a country that hosts the world’s largest number of refugees per capita.
Macron insisted that there would be no international aid if they failed to follow their own “road map” for sweeping changes to the state and financial system. He gave them till the end of October to make the necessary changes. Should they fail to do so, this arrogant imperialist, aping Donald Trump, kept open the threat of sanctions as a stick with which to beat politicians such as President Michel Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, the leader of the mainly Christian Free Democratic Party, and Hezbollah, which has the largest bloc in parliament.
Macron announced that he would return to Lebanon in December after a visit by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in November and that France would organize two Lebanon-related conferences in mid-October. One would focus on reconstruction aid, and the other to be held in Paris on “building international support” for Lebanon’s reform agenda and “shielding Lebanon from regional power plays.”
For all Macron’s talk of curbing corruption, what he really meant was curbing the power of Hezbollah. He said that the next round of “reform” talks would focus on the group’s arsenal of weapons that rivals that of the Lebanese army.
As Macron left Beirut, protesters took to the streets with clashes with security forces taking place near the parliament building. Some chanted “Down with [President] Michel Aoun” and “Revolution,” while others said they were protesting foreign interference and Macron’s visit.
As part of Macron’s broader aim of taking a more prominent role in pursuing France’s geo-strategic interests in the region, he flew on to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. Macron was the first international leader to visit the country—and this was the third visit by French officials—since Mustafa al-Kadhimi was elected prime minister in May.
His purpose was “to launch an initiative alongside the United Nations to support a process of sovereignty,” an indirect warning to Turkey, whose military incursion into the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in June—aimed at disrupting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants—angered Baghdad and Erbil.
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