China: The Zero Covid Strategy Dead End. With the zero-Covid policy, containment is declared for millions of people as soon as a positive case is detected. The Chinese are not sure that they will be able to return home after their work day.
Schools, shops, universities, businesses are closed without warning. To access places that are still accessible, such as public transport, a PCR test must be performed within the previous 48 hours. When you leave a town for work or family reasons, you are not sure if you can return to it if it is confined in the meantime. After three years of a zero Covid strategy applied with the greatest firmness, weariness is getting to the boil and frustration is getting angry. This is all the more so as blindness in the implementation results in dramas that ignite the powder. People have died several times because they were in confined areas and the assistance blocked at the gates of the area could not arrive in time.
The government is responding with violence and repression to the demonstrations of discontent of Chinese citizens who cannot be confined and tested permanently.
China is led by a Communist Party that defines itself as the Party of the working class, but when there are demonstrations including in companies, we will see it with Foxconn, the state responds with repression. The Taiwanese factory Foxconn that assembles Apple’s laptops in Zhengzhou has been virtually cut off from the world for a month. 200,000 employees worked there before the outbreak. Employees revolted against their working conditions and the company’s anti-Covid policy. Major demonstrations turned into riots.
Major demonstrations turned into riots. The Management proposed a bonus of 10.000 yuan or € 1.400 for employees who agree to put an end to the demonstrations and want to leave the company. 20,000 of them took the opportunity to resign. To replace the resigners, the authorities called on Party members and former Army executives and students to fill the positions left vacant.
The employees are prisoners of the company as were the workers of Colbert’s factories. After work they are confined in dormitories. Newcomers discovered working and living conditions, and wages that were much lower than promised. The Covid outbreak inside the site makes life and work impossible. Demonstrations resumed, with violent clashes with the police. It does not seem that the official union has taken any position on the events in Zhengzhou!
This policy disrupts economic life. Thousands of businesses are closing unexpectedly, others are slow as ports, unemployment is rising. Industrial production is down, exports, production prices are in the red.
Faced with the fear of a widening of the protest, the government clears itself by making the regional authorities responsible for a too strict application of the anti-Covid policy and announces a relaxation of certain lockdown measures, but does not change the substance of its policy.
China has entered a period of uncertainty. The rapidly repressed demonstrations are an expression of discontent that goes beyond anti-Covid politics. An increasing part of the urban population that has benefited from the country’s enormous economic growth is suffocating from political tutelage. It accepts less and less to live in constraint, in the obligation to accept all the decisions taken by the Party at the level of the central State and the regions. If the Party and the State authorities refuse to take into account the need for democracy of those who contribute to the economic prosperity of the country, they run the risk of encountering dissatisfaction of a completely different magnitude than that of 1989.
Gas price cap: What are we talking about?
The energy prices that have exploded in the last period and especially since the clash between the imperialist powers on the territory of Ukraine(1) , becomes an existential question for the developed capitalist countries and especially those of the European Union, as the cost of energy is a decisive question in the competitiveness of capitalist enterprises to secure and open up markets(2). More than 70% of the energy available in the European Union comes from fossil fuels: oil (36%), gas (22%) and coal (11%) all dominate the energy sources consumed in the EU. In the face of rising prices, the European Union countries are faced with two problems in terms of energy supply: volume and cost. These two questions obviously do not have a single answer, which explains the deep divergences that are developing within the EU states. France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Greece and nine other EU countries want a cap on wholesale energy prices, in order to be exempt from aid which they consider to be a drag on their economy and to help reduce inflation. On the other hand, Germany and the Netherlands argue that such caps would increase demand and make it more difficult for the EU to attract energy imports. These countries fear that a too low cap will divert gas sellers from European destinations when we know that deliveries go to the highest bidders even if it means allowing the LNG carriers to change direction as purchasing prices fluctuate. This does not prevent the United States from already selling its liquefied natural gas five times more on the international market than on its own market, thus effectively subsidizing its own companies The law of the market is the law of the fittest! Such a scenario would undermine their economies still extremely dependent on gas. According to German Secretary of State Sven Giegold: The central question is to avoid that it causes [the ceiling price] to dry up our gas supplies, in the face of competition from Asian buyers offering higher prices".
In order to limit the rise in gas prices, the European Commission’s proposal, presented on 24 November 2022, was not convincing. The Spanish Minister of Transport, T. Ribera, called it a "bad joke". The ceiling price decided by the European Commission of 275 euros per megawatt hour is far too high according to the Energy Ministers of the European Union member countries, Recall that the price of gas on the Amsterdam reference market fluctuated between 10 and 30 euros per megawatt hour before 2021. Faced with these difficulties, it is everyone for himself who exacerbates competition within the European Union and with the Member States-The United States' oil and gas exporters benefit greatly from higher prices and give them a competitive advantage over European industries.
We measure here, that the sacrosanct free and undistorted market which in the eyes of the ideologists of capitalism is supposed to regulate prices until their fair value of balance between supply and demand, is in fact only one tool among others for the dominant capitalist powers within the imperialist system to secure competitive advantages.
(1) https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/monde/europe/1805-ukraine-la-face-apparente-d-un-conflit-plus-profond-et-plus-large-au-sein-du-systeme-capitaliste-mondialise
(2) https://www.sitecommunistes.org/index.php/france/economie/2041-la-crise-n-est-pas-qu-energetique
Israel: establishment of a fascist government
Reminder: the parliamentary elections in Israel on 1 November 2022
The Israeli parliamentary elections of 1 November last saw the defeat of the heterogeneous coalition that had previously ruled the country(3). This conglomerate, organized around the centrist party Yesh Atid, of the outgoing prime minister (Yair Lapid), also included various right-wing parties often founded by defectors from Likud (the main right-wing party, that of Begin, Shamir, Sharon and Netanyahu), the Zionist Left (Labour Party and Meretz) and even the Ra'am party, of Islamist obedience.
Allied with the traditional religious parties, as usual, but also with the «religious Zionists», a fascist obedience coalition that followed the Kach party, the infamous Meir Kahane, Netanyahu is making his comeback strong and should lead, for the sixth time, the government of the State of Israel.
Why is the Netanyahu VI government slow to be formed?
However, Netanyahu, who has until December 11 to give the president of the Republic the composition of his government, would be about to ask for a delay, things do not combine well. Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu seems afraid to divulge the composition of his government. Last week, senior Likud officials declared their intention to introduce the new government at the opening of the Knesset session. In the meantime, the deadline has passed, but there is still no government.
Netanyahu was forced to eat the porridge he was preparing: Bezalel Smotrich (leader of the religious Zionist party) was to be appointed Defense Minister, and Itamar Ben Gvir (leader of another party of the religious Zionist coalition: Otzma Yehudit) Minister of Homeland Security. Netanyahu knows very well that the appointment of this duo to such positions is reminiscent of the appointment of an arsonist to the position of chief of a fire station. However, it seems that the future Prime Minister is trapped - The proposal to appoint Shas leader Aryeh Deri as Minister of Finance to block Smotrich upset the leader of the religious Zionists and now he is reinforcing his request to receive this portfolio. Let us look at these two leaders and their political ideas.
Smotrich began her “career” in 2005. Shortly before the operation to expel Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four others in the West Bank, Smotrich and four other activists were arrested and found in possession of 700 litres of gasoline and oil. He was detained by the Shin Bet (Israeli Internal Security Service, equivalent to DGSI in France) for three weeks but was never charged. Since then, he has come a long way, MP and minister. He has long been a strong supporter of settlements in the West Bank and equally strongly opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, endorsing the idea that Jews have a right to all of Israel’s land. His social conservatism is more than tinged with biblical fire and brimstone. He openly stated that he wanted the Israeli judicial system to finally be based on the Torah law, vehemently opposed reforms to liberalize control of Jewish religious life under the last government.
Ben Gvir has been repeatedly prosecuted by Israeli justice for rioting, inflammatory speeches, and obstruction of police work. He was also convicted of racism and possession of propaganda for a terrorist organization. In the 1990s, he was a member of the Kach party, banned from running for office and then classified as a terrorist by the Israeli and US authorities. We can say that he embodies Jewish fascism. His party, Otzma Yehudit (possibly Jewish Power), founded in 2012, is a racist Jewish supremacist group calling for the expulsion of Arab citizens from the country and the establishment of a theocracy. Otzma claims the annexation of the entire West Bank but does not grant Palestinians Israeli citizenship, wishes to expel “disloyal” Arab citizens from Israel, and encourages Arab citizens in general to emigrate in order to strengthen Israel’s Jewish character. The party also insists on reforming the Israeli judicial system in order to emphasize Jewish values rather than democratic values, especially with regard to minority rights. At the head of his party, Ben Gvir organizes provocative demonstrations in neighborhoods with a high Arab proportion, chanting with his supporters «death to terrorists».
He sometimes brandished a weapon during this type of action and called on the police to open fire with live ammunition in case of clashes with Arab demonstrators.
What is the fascist Jewish coalition planning?
The plans of the religious Zionist coalition, once in power, include the legalization of dozens ofunauthorized Israeli posts in the West Bank while enforcing demolition orders against unauthorized Palestinian construction in parts of the West Bank; reducing bureaucracy for construction in settlements; stop the destruction of illegal outposts; and repeal of the Disengagement Act to allow for the reconstruction of settlements in the northern West Bank that were evacuated and destroyed as part of the Gaza disengagement program in 2005.
An electoral manifesto of religious Zionism also calls for the abolition of civil administration - an organ of the Ministry of Defense that manages civil affairs such as building permits in Area C, the 60 percent of the West Bank where all settlers and thousands of Palestinians live. Instead, the party is seeking to transfer the powers of the civil administration to another department. This would in fact be a de facto annexation, giving the government of Jerusalem control over territories outside Israel and currently ruled by the army. In the coalition negotiations, Smotrich asked that the civilian administration be transferred to the Ministry of Finance, a portfolio he seems to have to receive in the next government. If given control of the civil administration, Smotrich could ignite relations with the Palestinians if he issues demolition orders for illegal Palestinian constructions in the West Bank and not for illegal Israeli constructions. Like Ben Gvir, Smotrich threatened to expel Arab politicians and other Arabs who do not recognize that «the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people». In September of this year, the two comrades invoked the fear that the Arab citizens of Israel could act as a fifth column against the Jewish Israelis during a war with an outside enemy and commit mass massacres, swearing to ban the Arab parties in the Knesset for what they called support for terrorism…
What could happen in the days to come?
Although it is difficult for him to admit it, Netanyahu seems to have chosen not to oppose the annexationist, ultra-colonialist and theocratic aims of his two allies. But, all this is not so easy.
One of the main legal hurdles facing the fledgling coalition is that Shas party leader Aryeh Deri, who is expected to hold key ministerial posts in the next government, is currently barred from serving as a minister due to a conviction. for a tax offense earlier this year which carries a suspended sentence. People sentenced to prison terms cannot be government ministers for seven years. Netanyahu reportedly aims to quickly pass an amendment to Israel's quasi-constitutional Basic Law that would allow those convicted of suspended sentences to serve as ministers. Any appointment of Deri as minister would likely be the subject of a petition to the High Court of Justice, as Deri's sentencing was part of a plea deal that significantly reduced his sentence, the judge being convinced that he was retiring from politics – which Deri did not.
Moreover, the Prime Minister-designate is encountering difficulties in his negotiations with UTJ (United Torah Judaism), the second traditionalist religious party. The UTJ was supposed to get the ministry in Jerusalem, but it is said that it has been stripped of many of its powers and its entire budget, which has been transferred to the Ministry of Heritage which should go to Otzma Yehudit . Likud has not signed comprehensive coalition agreements with any of the parties. But he has reached partial agreements – covering appointments and portfolios – with Otzma Yehudit and with the ultra-conservative, anti-LGBT Noam party (the third and last party in the fascistic coalition, which has only one MP ). Agreements have yet to be reached with Shas, UTJ and Bezalel Smotrich, although significant progress has been reported with the latter.
Another law Netanyahu wants to pass quickly would subordinate the Israeli police to the government. This is necessary to meet a request from the leader of Itamar Ben Gvir, who reached an agreement with the Likud that would make him the Minister of National Security, a new position in charge of the police which will have more extensive powers than the current Ministry of Public Security. Currently, the law states that the police establish their own policies.
According to various Hebrew media on Tuesday, the Likud wants to pass the laws — dubbed the Deri Law and the Ben Gvir Law — before the government is sworn in, preferably as early as next week. This would require convening the Knesset and replacing its speaker to take control of the legislative agenda. Another controversial plan by the incoming coalition is to pass far-reaching judicial reforms, including legislation that would allow the Knesset to overturn high court rulings - reinstating legislation struck down by the highest court - with a simple majority of 61 votes. The current Minister of Justice, Gideon Sa'ar said on this subject: "A country where the political level can also completely control the choice of judges and can also annul any judicial decision is not the State of Israel as we know it.” And indeed, in the logic of “bourgeois democratic republics”, since Montesquieu and his sacrosanct separation of powers, there can be no “democracy” without judicial control over parliamentary legislation.
As a first conclusion
Finally, you should know that there is a common reason for the flood of bills, legislative changes and budgetary demands of members of the government: the desire to transform the State of Israel into a Jewish and theocratic state. The fiction called "a Jewish and democratic state" is fading, and now the public in Israel will have to face a dark regime that advocates Jewish-Orthodox religious supremacy, savage capitalism at the stage of Imperialism and the deepening of occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people. It is an explosive mixture that can explode both in Israel and in the occupied territories and cause havoc and the bloody destruction it brings.
One element of the elections may give some hope: Hadash, the political front of which the Israeli Communist Party is the pivot, maintained its five deputies while the Zionist "left" collapsed, probably paying for their support and participation in the current and past governments and their vote in favor of extending the emergency ordinance that grants Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank civilian governance, while Palestinians in the same area are subject to military rule.
In the aftermath of the election, it is clear that Hadash is the only party in the Palestinian community capable of building a broad Palestinian coalition.
For his part, the secretary of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hussein Al-Sheikh, declared that: "the program of the next Israeli government and the agreement of the right-wing fascist coalition warn that we We are on the threshold of a new political phase in which tactics and strategies will change.
He added that this requires a complete reassessment and new Palestinian national plans, locally and internationally, to confront the plans of extremists and racists, the masters of the next Israeli government.”
For our part, we reaffirm our support for the struggle of the Palestinian people for the recognition of their national rights: that of a State and the right of return of refugees. More than ever, we are fighting to end France's support for the apartheid state of Israel, with the immediate severance of diplomatic and economic relations with this state.