In editorials published on 14 June, several leading newspapers have expressed deep regret at the highly selective use of bulldozers to damage or demolish houses or other buildings related to or belonging to protesters. The Tribune has written an editorial appropriately titled ‘Free run for bulldozers—Bypassing of due process a dangerous trend ’. This editorial has written, “ The no-holds barred demolition of the house of Mohammad Javed, the alleged mastermind of Friday’s mob-violence in Prayagraj, seems to be an instance of vindictive rather than administrative action.’’ This editorial says that the bulldozer “ is fast becoming the most potent instrument of official high handedness is one state after another.” Mentioning objectionable statements by those in official positions, this editorial says “it is obvious that a particular community was being targeted, with even the fig leaf of ‘due process of law’ being conveniently dispensed with in most cases.”
The editorial notes, “The modus operandi of the authorities is becoming rather predictable—give the alleged offender little or no time to take legal recourse or reply to the notice, if at all it is issued.”
This editorial concludes with an important statement, “The bulldozing of rights of citizens is a dangerous trend for our increasingly vulnerable democracy. The onus is on the judiciary to stop these sledgehammer demolitions from becoming par for the course.”
The Indian Express in an editorial titled ‘Demolition Squad’ has expressed deep regret at what it sees as “a new level of brutalization in public discourse.” More specifically it has stated, “The Uttar Pradesh government’s bulldozer drive, targeting the protester and political opponent, and, by joining the dots, a community , is becoming predictable — that should not take away from the fact that it violates due process. That the Yogi Adityanath administration should wrap its actions in self-righteous claims of the tough state moving against anti-social elements , and that UP officials and politicians should boast about ‘Saturdays following Fridays’ and return-gifts to the riot-accused marks a new level of brutalization in public discourse.”
Further this editorial notes, “That, even the requirements of adequate notice, or the opportunity to appeal, is being dispensed with, is no mere technical issue—it is, as former Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Govind Mathur told this newspaper, “totally illegal … a question of rule of law.”
This editorial has also concluded by making a very important statement, “In a constitutional democracy, the bulldozer on the rampage is the state thumbing its nose at the court, the DM and SP playing judge and jury and loyal executioners. They need to be checked, firmly.”
What is common to both these editorials is that they have made critical references to new statements made by persons in official positions which are likely to be considered very hurtful and insulting to an entire community. Just a few days back a big storm had been created due to such statements and the union government should hasten to take suitable action to prevent such inflammatory statements before more problems can be caused by the tendency to go on making such comments. In fact both the union government and even the BJP had clearly stated at that time that such statements should be entirely avoided in future and it is shocking that these instructions have been violated within such a short time.
The Times of India has written an editorial titled ‘System Bull-Dozed’. This is preceded by a quotation which says, “An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of cleverness” ( Baltasar Gracian). Some of the ruling regime members indulging in such recklessness would be well advised to reflect on not just this editorial but this quotation as well.
The Times of India editorial makes a very important opening statement, “Bulldozers are posing a challenge to constitutional rights. But our higher courts are not responding. It’s as if they are in a daze. Or, perhaps we should say, in a state of ‘bull-daze’—a state of systemic passivity when confronted with governments’ unconstitutional use of force. With more house demolitions, in UP and MP, and Gujarat, Assam, Tripura and Delhi civic authorities already in the bulldozer club, violations of basic rights are widespread. But the wheels of justice are moving far slower than the tracks of bulldozers.”
This important editorial adds, “Courts must show much more urgency. HCs and SC can even take suo motto notice because courts’ core duty of determining guilt and punishment, premised on due process, is at stake.”
Further this editorial notes, “The concept of collective punishment was popular in Middle Ages and even codified in law. To state the obvious, it has no place in constitutional democracies. Yet, over the last couple of years, and particularly over the last few weeks, bulldozers ordered by state officials are posing a dangerous question to the rule of law.”
To these we can add the no less strong sense of regret and resentment expressed by several other leading newspapers and web-sites. This reflects the wider feelings among a large number of people. One can only hope that the ‘bulldozer justice’, a term used by The Times of India, will soon be replaced by some real justice.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include A Day in 2071, Man over Machine and Planet in Peril.
A UN survey entitled “Humanitarian Needs and Priorities—Food Security Crisis Sri Lanka” issued on June 9 painted a tragic picture of the social devastation being inflicted on workers and the poor by Colombo’s ruling elite and the capitalist system.
“Sri Lanka is experiencing a multidimensional crisis, compounded by food insecurity, threatened livelihoods, shortages of essential medical items and rising protection concerns,” the 39-page report stated.
After months of strikes and protests over shortages of essential items, escalating inflation and extended power cuts, mass demonstrations erupted in early April across the island demanding the ouster of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government. These were followed by one-day general strikes on April 28 and May 6.
In her foreword to the report, UN Residential Coordinator in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer Hamdy revealed that about 5.7 million people, or around 22 percent of the total population, needs urgent humanitarian assistance. There is an “unfolding multi-dimensional food security crisis,” she wrote, with “many families unable to afford basic food commodities,” and “up to 70 percent of households having to reduce food consumption, including by skipping meals.”
Inflation and a sharp decline in the country’s agricultural products means that “low-income families face severe threat of food security.” This has worsened over the last two years with a 73 percent increase in the cost of food items. The annualised food inflation rate climbed steeply last month to 57.4 percent, Hamdy said.
Unable to afford the rising prices, people have resorted to various “coping mechanisms,” such as borrowing money, withdrawing savings, pawning belongings and selling property to make ends meet. “The number of households that borrowed money has significantly increased, from 40 percent in August 2021 to 68 percent in April 2022,” Hamdy stated. Such mechanisms, she added, “are not sustainable over the long term and will lead to greater losses in the future.”
Citing a World Food Program assessment, the UN report said that the highest risk of food insecurity is in households relying on “unskilled casual labor, fishing, and those without home gardens and livestock. Estate and urban poor, including migrants, are considered disproportionately affected.”
The report indicated that 73 percent of households surveyed had seen a reduction in income over the past two years, including 11 percent who had received no income over that period.
The UN report stated that the health sector is among the most severely impacted. Sri Lanka imports about 80 percent of its medicines, but depleted foreign reserves have prevented many vital medicines being imported. “The shortage of medicines has paralysed about 50 percent of medical operations in the country. Only urgent surgeries are performed, as some of the medical equipment and anesthesia are quickly running out,” the report said.
According to surveys cited in the report, stocks of about 200 essential drugs, including blood-thinners for heart attacks, antibiotics, vaccines and cancer chemotherapy, will be depleted in the next three months. Over 2,720 essential surgical consumables and more than 250 regular laboratory items are already out of stock. It warned, “There is an urgent need to replenish essential medicines and medical supplies” in order to protect lives and prevent more deaths. The crisis has been exacerbated by the lack of fuel and extended power cuts.
“The shortage of essential medicines is also limiting the availability and access to life-serving sexual and reproductive health services,” the UN report stated, under conditions in which there will be an estimated 72,000 births in the next three months.
The poor nutritional situation in Sri Lanka has deteriorated as a result of high food costs, the breakdown of supply chains and consequent disruptions in government nutritional support programs. The purchase of diverse food groups, the report stated, “is becoming increasingly unaffordable and out of reach for most low-income households. Pregnant and lactating women are particularly at risk because the majority cannot purchase the required nutritious food.”
Citing other surveys, the UN report stated, “Low-nutrition diets among children under-five places Sri Lanka among the ten worst low- and middle-income countries in the world.”
Prior to COVID-19, Sri Lanka recorded stunting rates of 17.3 percent, wasting of 15 percent and under-weights of 20.5 percent among children under five years of age. The UN report revealed that as of April 2022, the monthly costs of a nutritious diet per household had increased by 156 percent and that at least 56,000 children under 5 are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The number of children going to school without breakfast has also considerably increased this year and schools, due to lack of funds, are unable to provide free, nutritious meals.
Other indices of the catastrophic situation showed that 66.3 percent of households in plantation estates do not have safe drinking water and over 48.5 percent of households in Sri Lanka do not practice any water treatment methods, such as boiling or chlorinating. Limited fuel supplies to cook food means many households have stopped treating water at their homes.
Rural areas are facing serious crop failures caused by the Rajapakse government’s bans on imported chemical fertiliser due to the lack of foreign exchange. Paddy production has fallen by about 50 percent and maize by 35 to 70 percent leading to major financial problems for the rural masses, pushing up prices and causing food shortages.
Residential Coordinator Hamdy said that while 5.7 million people need humanitarian assistance in Sri Lanka, the UN program would only target 1.7 million of the most vulnerable, and that it needed $US47.2 million. The UN Humanitarian Country Team has appealed to international organisations to donate funds.
“If we don’t act now—we will see Sri Lanka slide into a humanitarian crisis,” Hamdy added. She said the UN was responding swiftly in response to requests from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for “multi-sectoral international assistance.”
Wickremesinghe’s appeals to the UN are a cynical attempt to politically hoodwink the population. President Rajapakse appointed Wickremesinghe as prime minister in early May in order to implement International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity measures.
Last week, Wickremesinghe telephoned IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva to finalise talks for a bailout loan. The IMF has insisted that any loan program is dependent on Colombo imposing harsh austerity measures. These include increasing taxes, downsizing and privatisating the state sector, slashing social programs, cutting public education and health and other regressive policies, some of which have already been implemented.
While the masses are suffering, big business and banks are reaping profits. This includes Hatton National Bank Finance, which at the end of May recorded net profits of 515.6 million rupees from a loss last year; the blue-chip Aitken Spence conglomerate that announced a before-tax profit of 14.2 billion rupees; and Softlogic Holdings which reported a 35 percent annual revenue surge and gross profit of 39 billion rupees, a 52 percent increase.
At the same time, Wickremesinghe told parliament last week that one of his priorities is repayment of $5 billion in loans due to international finance institutions. All of Sri Lanka’s capitalist parties, including the Samagi Jana Balawegaya and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, as well as the trade unions endorse the IMF’s demands and defend the profit system.
Contrary to the illusions promoted by the opposition parties, the trade unions and pseudo-left formations, there is no national solution to the deepening economic collapse in Sri Lanka, which is inseparably connected to the global crisis of the capitalist profit system. Since 2020, the Sri Lankan economy has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and then heavily impacted by the US-led NATO war against Russia in Ukraine which began in February. This resulted in spiralling oil prices, food shortages, supply-chain disruptions and, like in every other country, skyrocketing inflation.
The only way for the working class to halt the worsening social catastrophe and defeat the attacks of the government, the banks and big business is by mobilising its independent political strength and fighting for a socialist program. This includes the repudiation of all foreign loans, the nationalisation of the banks, large companies and estates under democratic workers’ control and the seizure and distribution of the wealth of the billionaires to address poverty and starvation.
For that, the Socialist Equality Party urges workers to establish their own action committees in every workplace and in working-class suburbs independent of trade unions and capitalist parties. These committees must form the basis of a mass movement fighting for a workers’ and peasants’ government to implement these policies.
Originally published in WSWS.org
The world, now more complex, is facing unprecedented polycrisis, the World Trade Organization (WTO) chief has warned.
Export restrictions are pushing up food prices and could further exacerbate the global “polycrisis,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the opening of the 12th WTO ministerial conference in Geneva on Sunday.
According to the official, the world has “become more complex” since the last ministerial meeting back in 2017, given the lingering Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the ensuing food and energy crises.
“This polycrisis is really unprecedented. And what is very central to all of this is that no one country can solve this crisis on its own. This is the time that you need the world working together. You need global solidarity,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala drew attention to export controls, which, as she repeatedly stated, should be eased in order to avoid making an already dire situation worse.
“You saw that in the 2008-2009 food crisis, just those kinds of actions [export controls] did lead to price spikes. In the food security declaration, our members are trying to speak about how they would try to restrain themselves from taking these kinds of actions. And this is a very important contribution that they can make to keep the price of food products from rising even higher,” she said.
The WTO chief noted that while international trade has helped lift some 1 billion people out of poverty, poorer nations and poorer people in well-off countries are still struggling and are often left without support while the wealthy stock up on supplies.
The official also pointed to the situation in Ukraine, which is traditionally considered one of the world’s breadbaskets but is currently unable to export its grain due to the military standoff with Russia. The WTO estimates that between 22 million and 25 million tons of grains are currently held at Ukraine’s ports. Western nations have accused Russia of blocking these exports, but Russia has repeatedly stated that it is eager to provide safe passage for the grain-laden ships through the Black Sea but that the Ukrainian army has created obstacles to this, such as the recent act of arson in the port of Mariupol, and also the fact that the areas in and around the ports have been mined.
Commenting on this situation, Okonjo-Iweala said that the UN “keeps it under control” and is in constant talks with Russia and Ukraine, as well as the EU and other entities to resolve the matter. She expressed hope that the problem with the export of grain from Ukraine would be resolved soon. Earlier, Okonjo-Iweala warned that food imports from the Black Sea region were crucial for the survival of some 35 African countries, given that Russia and Ukraine together provide 24% of global wheat supplies.
According to the official, the current WTO meeting will consider whether to lift or ease export restrictions on food in order to help alleviate pressures on countries facing a shortage of wheat, fertilizers and other products because of the crisis in Ukraine. She noted that a draft of an agreement that would relax the export measures is already being negotiated.
Global Food Catastrophe, Warns UN
Up to 181 million people in 41 countries could be hit by severe food shortages this year due to the conflict in Ukraine and its impact on grain and fertilizer exports, according to a UN report.
“Food should never be a luxury; it is a fundamental human right. And yet, this crisis may rapidly turn into a food catastrophe of global proportions,” the Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance report released on Wednesday warned.
According to the UN, the situation could deteriorate beyond 2022, with 19 million more people expected to face chronic undernourishment globally in 2023 if food exports from Russia and Ukraine continue to decline.
IMF Chief’s Warning
Earlier this week, the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, warned that the global economy is facing “its biggest test since the Second World War.” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said global hunger levels “are at a new high,” with the number of people facing severe food insecurity doubling in just two years, from 135 million before the pandemic to 276 million today.
Lack Of Access And Lack Of Food
“This year’s food crisis is about lack of access. Next year’s could be about lack of food,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that the number of severely food-insecure people has doubled in the past two years.
Guterres has been involved in negotiations to resume shipments of grain from the Ukrainian port of Odessa. The UN, Russia and Turkey have also been cooperating to provide unimpeded access to global markets for Russian food and fertilizers.
Kiev has also accused the Russian military of “stealing” its stockpiles of wheat amid the ongoing conflict.
Earlier this week, the UN said it was unable to verify such allegations, adding that neither the UN Secretary General’s office nor the UN World Food Programme (WFP) had any credible information on the matter.
On Wednesday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian “militants of the nationalist battalions” of deliberately setting fire to a large granary in Mariupol’s sea port while fleeing from Russian forces. The fire reportedly destroyed more than 50 thousand tons of grain.
From Grain To Sugar
Sugar prices are expected to soar due to the export restrictions imposed by a number of key producing nations seeking to tame rising domestic food prices.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which seriously undermined global supply chains, has been dramatically aggravated by the crisis in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed on Russia. The conflict between the two major grain exporters has disrupted global supplies.
A number of countries have moved to limit exports of other key commodities, putting global food security under threat, while risking further increases in the prices of agricultural products.
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has begun a six-month ban on white and cane sugar exports.
India
India is reportedly considering placing restrictions on sugar exports for the first time in six years to prevent a surge in domestic prices. India’s ban is expected to target around 10 million tons of this season’s exports.
Brazil
Reuters reported last week that sugar cane mills in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer and exporter of sugar, were canceling sugar export contracts and shifting production to ethanol in an attempt to take advantage of the high energy prices. The estimated cancelations could equate up to 400,000 tons of raw sugar.
Pakistan
Earlier this month, Pakistan imposed a complete ban on sugar exports, citing deep concerns about inflation. In March, Russia banned sugar exports until the end of August.
“For sugar, it is relatively easy for Brazilian mills to switch production to ethanol production if the economics make sense, and this can push global sugar markets higher,” Darin Friedrichs, founder and market research director at Sitonia Consulting, a Shanghai-based commodities analysis firm, told the South China Morning Post.
“In particular, as both food and energy prices are rising, there is increased focus on the use of food for the production of fuel,” he added.
Dong Xiaoqiang, the commercial head of AB Sugar China, said he does not expect a global shortage of sugar this year despite mounting concerns, adding that India and Thailand, the world’s second largest sugar producer and number two exporter respectively, are expected to increase their sugar output in 2022.
“What has happened recently is more a show of emotional tension over the supply of food including sugar,” Dong told the media. “Most countries that announced export bans are small sugar producers with a tight balance between supply and demand, and not many contracts have been cancelled in Brazil,” he said, while adding that prices are still expected to surge.
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