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3.27.15
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Military Resistance 13C10
No Coming Home This Year From
Obama’s Imperial Slaughterhouse:
2017?
“At Least” 1,000 Troops Stay “After
2016”
March 24, 2015 By Carol E. Lee and Colleen McCain Nelson. Wall Street Journal
[Excerpts]
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama delayed the planned departure of nearly half
the remaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan, extending a military presence that he hopes
will prevent a repeat of Iraq, where American forces left only to return last year.
Previously Mr. Obama had planned to leave only 5,600 troops in the country by the end
of this year. Now, 9,800 will remain through 2015.
“This will mean that there are going to be some of our folks who are in Afghanistan
under the new schedule who would have been home,” Mr. Obama said at a news
conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
For weeks, Mr. Ghani—and U.S. military commanders—had been pressing Mr. Obama
to shift his withdrawal timetable. Army Gen. John Campbell, commander of U.S.-led
forces in Afghanistan, had warned that further reducing American forces this year would
force him to shut down bases in Kandahar in the south and Jalalabad in the east, where
fighting with militants is expected to intensify this spring.
Afghanistan, like Iraq, is testing some of Mr. Obama’s earliest campaign promises
that he would pull the U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan after more than a decade of
war.
The U.S. military resumed operations in Iraq in August in attempt to blunt Islamic
State advances.
Initially Mr. Obama promised a short bombing campaign, but the effort shows no
signs of waning and continues to face significant challenges.
Under the current plan, the U.S. would have at least 1,000 troops helping Afghan forces
with training and carrying out limited operations against the Taliban and other militants
after 2016.
Earlier this week, U.S. officials meeting with Mr. Ghani in Camp David pledged to
seek billions of dollars in new support for the Afghan government to maintain
Kabul’s expensive security surge—as many as 352,000 police and soldiers—
through 2017.
Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,
And cry ‘Content’ to that which grieves my heart
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
And frame my face to all occasions.
-- Gloucester, ‘‘Henry VI’’-Shakespeare
DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE
MILITARY?
Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the email address if you
wish and we’ll send it regularly with your best wishes. Whether in
Afghanistan or at a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service
friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing
resistance to injustices, inside the armed services and at home. Send
email requests to address up top or write to: Military Resistance, Box 126,
2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657.
YOUR INVITATION:
Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service men
and women, and veterans, are especially welcome.
Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or
email [email protected]: Name, I.D., withheld unless
you request publication.
Same address to unsub.
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Resistance Action
Afghan security forces inspect the site of an attack in Kabul March 25, 2015. A bombing
in Kabul on Wednesday struck close to the presidential palace in the heart of the Afghan
capital. (REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail)
March 26, 2015 Afghanistan Times & 25 March 2015 TOLOnews.com
Afghan government has strongly condemned the latest attack in Kabul city that
left eight people killed and 31 wounded Wednesday afternoon when a bomber
detonated his explosives-laden car near Morad-Khani area in PD 2, close to the
presidential palace and the ministry of finance.
The attack which took place Wednesday afternoon in the second police district of Kabul
city.
The attacker who was driving a corolla vehicle carried out explosion during a busy hour
in Muradkhane area of Kabul city where government officials were leaving office to go
home at around 04:30PM yesterday.
Police headquarters of second police district, Presidential Palace, Ministry of Defense,
Ministry of Finance and other offices are located close to the blast site.
************************************************************
Mar 23 2015 By Zabihullah Moosakhail, Khaama Press
Seven soldiers sustained injuries in two separate explosions in western Herat province
last Sunday evening.
Officials say one explosion took place in the Park Stadium area and as security officers
arrived at the scene a secondary explosion took place which injured five policemen and
two soldiers from the Afghan National Army.
Abdul Majid Rozi, police chief of western Herat province says that the injuries of soldiers
wounded are not life threatening.
He said that the soldiers were taken to Herat Regional Hospital where they were
announced out of danger.
************************************************************
21 March 2015 by Farid Hussainkhail, TOLOnews.com
At least three people were killed and the police chief for Chahar Dara district, Ghulam
Muhiuddin, and his son were injured in a roadside mine blast in northern Kunduz
province, local officials.
The incident took place around 11 a.m. Saturday when the vehicle of Muhiuddin struck a
land mine, leaving his brother, nephew and a guard dead.
The sources added that the victims have been transported to the hospital.
SOMALIA WAR REPORTS
Insurgents Attack Mogadishu
Hotel Popular With Government
Officials:
“The Hotel Is Now Fully Under The
Control Of The Militants”
“Government Officials Trapped Inside”
27 Mar 2015 Al Jazeera and agencies
Seven people have been killed in an attack on a hotel popular with government officials
in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The African Union mission to Somalia, AMISOM, confirmed to Al Jazeera that there had
been an explosion followed by gunfire at the Makka al-Mukarama hotel on Friday.
A bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the gate of the hotel. [Mustaf
Shafana/Al Jazeera]
An AMISOM spokesman said al-Shabab fighters got out of a car that then exploded. The
armed men then entered the hotel and gunfire was heard.
The fighters took hostages, the spokesman added.
Mustaf Abdi Nor Shafana, taking photos for Al Jazeera at the scene, said he saw seven
bodies, including three dead government soldiers.
The same hotel was attacked by the al-Shabab group in November 2013.
Police told Reuters that government officials were trapped inside the hotel and that
officers had surrounded the complex.
“The hotel is now fully under the control of the militants,” Major Ismail Olow, a
Mogadishu police officer at the scene, told Reuters.
“Al-Shabab fighters are on the top of the building and inside the hotel. It is not
easy for us to go in.”
Al-Shabab issued a statement taking responsibility for the attack.
“We are behind the Hotel Makka al-Mukarama attack, and fighting is still going on
inside,” the group's military spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters.
MILITARY NEWS
Thousands Of Shiite Militiamen
Quit Fight Against ISIS In Iraq:
Threaten “To Attack Any
Americans They Found”
“We Are Going To Target The
American-Led Coalition And Their
Creation, ISIS”
“In Washington, American Military
Leaders Insisted That Things Were
Going According To Plan”
Shiite militia Thursday near Tikrit. Thousands of Shiite militia boycott fight against the
Islamic State. Credit Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press
MARCH 26, 2015 By ROD NORDLAND and HELENE COOPER; New York Times
[Excerpts]
AL RASHID AIR BASE, Iraq — By Day 2 of the American airstrike campaign against
militants holed up in Tikrit, the mission appeared beleaguered on several fronts on
Thursday: Thousands of Shiite militiamen boycotted the fight, others threatened to attack
any Americans they found, and Iraqi officials said nine of their fighters had been
accidentally killed in an airstrike.
In Washington, American military leaders insisted that things were going according to
plan.
While the withdrawal of Iranian-led Shiite militias was one of the preconditions for
the Americans to join the fight against the Islamic State in Tikrit, the sudden
departure of three of the major groups risked leaving the Iraqi ground forces
short-handed, especially if other Shiite militiamen also abandoned the fight.
The three militia groups, some of which had Iranian advisers with them until recently,
pulled out of the Tikrit fight to protest the American airstrikes, which began late
Wednesday night, insisting that the Americans were not needed to defeat the extremists
in Tikrit.
Top officials at the Pentagon appeared to think that it would not be easy to retake Tikrit
without Iranian help.
Another official, asked if he was worried that the United States now owned the
Tikrit operation, said, “Yes. This was a calculated risk, but it’s one that had to be
taken.”
Together, the four Shiite groups that objected to the American air role already represent
more than a third of the 30,000 fighters on the government side in the offensive against
the Islamic State, analysts said.
“We don’t trust the American-led coalition in combating ISIS,” said Naeem al-Uboudi, the
spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the three groups which said it would withdraw
from the front line around Tikrit. “In the past, they have targeted our security forces and
dropped aid to ISIS by mistake,” he said.
One of the leaders of the biggest militias in the fight, the Badr Organization, also
criticized the American role and said his group, too, might pull out.
“We don’t need the American-led coalition to participate in Tikrit. Tikrit is an easy battle,
we can win it ourselves,” said Mueen al-Kadhumi, who is one of the Shiite militia group’s
top commanders.
“We have not yet decided if we will pull out or not,” he said. The Badr Organization’s
leader, Hadi al-Ameri, was shown on Iraqi television leading the ground fight in Tikrit on
Thursday.
The office of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced Thursday night that he went
personally to Tikrit, presumably to persuade Mr. Ameri to keep his fighters in the field.
The Badr Organization fields the largest cohesive ground force in the conflict, and
its withdrawal from Tikrit would be potentially catastrophic, according to Wafiq alHashimi, the head of the Iraqi Group for Strategic Studies.
“Dr. Abadi rushed into this decision to liberate Tikrit with the Americans without taking
time to work out a compromise among all these groups and the Americans, most of
whom have a lot of disputes with the Americans,” Mr. Hashimi said.
Another Iranian-aligned Shiite militia group reacted with defiance and threats against the
Americans.
“We are staying in Tikrit, we are not leaving and we are going to target the American-led
coalition in Tikrit and their creation, ISIS,” said Akram al-Kabi, the leader of the Nujabaa
Brigade, a powerful militia that has previously sent fighters to Syria on behalf of the
Bashir al-Assad government there.
On Thursday night, an airstrike on the village of Alvu Ajeel, on the edge of Tikrit,
killed six Shiite militiamen, as well as three federal policemen, one of them a
colonel, according to a spokesman for the Iraqi military’s Salahuddin Operations
Command.
The strike was thought to have been carried out by the United States.
The spokesman, who would not give his name because of official policy, described it as
a “friendly fire” episode.
It was not known if the militiamen who were killed in the friendly fire episode belonged to
Al Nujabaa or another group.
The other groups that announced they would boycott the Tikrit operation were Qatab
Hizbullah, which like Asaib Ahl al-Haq is closely aligned and supported by Iran, and the
Peace Brigade, the latest name for a militia made of up followers of the Shiite cleric
Moktada al-Sadr, previously known as the Mahdi Army.
Mr. Sadr, whose troops fought bitter battles against the Americans during much of the
Iraq war, said his group was pulling out because, “The participation of the so-called
international alliance is to protect ISIS on the one hand, and to confiscate the
achievements of the Iraqis on the other hand.”
Since March 2, Islamic State forces in Tikrit have been under attack by the Iraqi militias,
collectively known as the Popular Mobilization Committees, and regular Iraqi military
forces, accompanied at times by Iranian military advisers.
Still, a much smaller force of Islamic State fighters has been able to hold them off in
areas of the city for almost four weeks.
In recent days, despite the claims of self-sufficiency made by militia commanders, Iraqi
military officials said American airstrikes were needed to break the deadlock.
The militias who were withdrawing did not say they were quitting their positions in the
Tikrit area altogether, or in adjoining areas of Salahuddin Province, just returning to their
nearby bases and boycotting the front-line advance.
Staff Gen. Anwer Hamid, the commander of the Iraqi Air Force, said that the
American airstrikes would continue, with Americans concentrating their attacks
during the night for operational reasons. [Translation: ISIS can hit the planes
during daylight. T]
MORE:
Iraq: “Going According To Plan”
March 26, 2015 By Yaroslav Trofimov, Wall Street Journal [Excerpt]
Abdelqahar al-Samarrai, a lawmaker from Samarra, the biggest Sunni Arab city outside
Islamic State’s rule, said he hears daily of kidnappings and executions by the Shiite
militias that effectively govern his area.
Asked whether his constituents would prefer Islamic State, Mr. Samarrai
answered: “Anyone is better than the hell they are enduring now.”
FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had
I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of
biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppose.”
Frederick Douglass, 1852
People do not make revolutions eagerly any more than they do war. There is this
difference, however, that in war compulsion plays the decisive role, in revolution
there is no compulsion except that of circumstances.
A revolution takes place only when there is no other way out. And the
insurrection, which rises above a revolution like a peak in the mountain chain of
its events, can be no more evoked at will than the revolution as a whole. The
masses advance and retreat several times before they make up their minds to the
final assault.
-- Leon Trotsky; The History of the Russian Revolution
The Ditch At My Lai
From: Mike Hastie
To: Military Resistance Newsletter
Sent: March 25, 2015
Subject: The Ditch At My Lai
The Ditch At My Lai
This is the picture of the infamous ditch at the
My Lai Massacre site that I took when I and
three other Vietnam veterans went back to
Vietnam in March of 1994.
This ditch is where American soldiers herded
close to 100 Vietnamese civilians, and executed
them at point-blank range with automatic weapons.
Now, imagine this village being one of a thousand
villages that were bombed or received artillery rounds
throughout the Vietnam War.
One was done by air, My Lai was done with troops on
the ground.
The ones that were done by air strikes or artillery rounds
are what I call My Lais from the skies.
They may not have been 504 murdered, but they were
atrocities, and many times far exceeded 504 with major
B-52 carpet bombing.
They happened everyday during the Vietnam War.
You do not bring the enemy to the peace table by
just killing military combatants. You ultimately bring
the enemy to the peace table by killing innocent civilians.
They are military targets. This strategy is as old as
warfare itself.
The U.S. Government lied about this in Vietnam,
because lying is the most powerful weapon in war.
If one were to emotionally absorb this statement
about killing innocent civilians because they are
military targets, you can imagine what it did to
hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans when
they came home and had their core beliefs destroyed.
That is why denial is a sacrament.
The greatest lie of the Vietnam War is unspeakable.
I was in a military unit that had three fire bases that
had heavy artillery, and tanks that had 90mm guns.
God only knows how many rounds were fired by
those weapons during the lifetime that those weapons
were in Vietnam.
You wonder how many innocent Vietnamese were
killed while the U.S. exercised the insane policy of
free-fire-zones.
Deciding to remain on their ancestral homeland was
no excuse as far as the U.S. military was concerned.
You have personality disorders, and you have barbaric
personality disorders.
It's all so neat and orderly.
And, it all starts in the, “Orderly Room.”
Some people call it the Pentagon.
I just got through listening to Seymour Hersh testify
on “ Democracy Now,” about the My Lai Massacre.
What he said was extremely powerful, to say the least.
I have such a vivid memory of the day I spent four hours
at the My Lai Massacre site with my fellow vets.
As we drove up to the massacre site, three was a Vietnamese woman who worked at the massacre site who
had to leave on a bicycle, because she could not be present
when American veterans came to visit.
The whole time I was there my gut was in my throat.
I think I felt the same way when I was at the Dachau
Concentration Camp in 1954, when I was nine-years-old.
The over powering feeling I had at My Lai that day was
absolute shame.
Guilt, is I have done something bad, Shame, is I am bad.
My national shame was who I was.
My father was a career Army officer, a WWII veteran,
so I was born in the U.S. military before Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. I lived in Japan from 1947 to 1949.
After a couple of hours at the My Lai Massacre site, the four of us
went into a separate building that had a statue of Ho Chi Minh.
There was a guest book there, so we signed it.
After awhile, I left the building because I wanted to go through
the massacre site again to take more pictures.
It was during that time that a tour bus showed up, and out
stepped about 45 Vietnamese people, many of them small
children.
When that happened, and they saw me, I felt like a murderer.
The shame inside of me was over whelming.
I took a picture of all of them standing by the large
monument depicting the massacre, with Vietnamese
holding dead children.
I hurried to take more pictures, so I could get away from
this bus load of people, the so-called “gooks” that my
country referred to.
I had my head down, as I was headed back to the building
where I last saw my other vet friends.
While I was doing this, I was stopped by a Vietnamese man
who was on the bus. He looked to be a man who had fought
against the Americans.
He stuck his hand out and we shook hands, followed by him
saying something in Vietnamese that I perceived was very kind,
and compassionate, as I could see it in his face.
I will remember that moment the rest of my life.
Mike Hastie
Army Medic Vietnam
March 25, 2015
I am become death...
the destroyer of worlds.
Robert Oppenheimer
Father of the Atomic Bomb
Photo from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For
more of his outstanding work, contact at: ([email protected]) T)
One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.
The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a
so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen
of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.
Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004
The Gravedigger
By Dennis Serdel, Vietnam 1967-68 (one tour) Light Infantry, Americal Div. 11th Brigade;
United Auto Workers GM Retiree
From Peace Speaks From The Mirror, Dennis Serdel
***********************************************
It’s cold in the morning
and he shivers,
he kicks up the furnace
he turns down at night
these heating bills are killer
he puts some coffee on
trying to remember
who he buries today
these Michigan winters
freeze the ground on down
he needs some gas
in the truck
and the digger too
it’s a hell of a way
to make a living
but it’s steady pay
After a cup and a half
of coffee and three cigarettes
it dawns on him who’s grave
he has to dig today
it’s Mary and John’s son
from across the tracks
the paper had his picture
he was just a boy
played football
at the old high school
a stand out star
joined the Army after that
cause all the jobs are gone.
FTA!
The Film Provides A Rare Glimpse
Into The Revolt From Below That
Ultimately Forced The Pentagon To
Withdraw In Defeat From Vietnam:
“Behind-The-Scenes Footage Of Soldiers
Talking Candidly To The Troupe
Members About Their Frustration And
Anger At The Ongoing War”
FTA Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g&eurl=http://ima
gineaworldof.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embedded
HU
UH
FINALLY, AFTER 35-YEARS IN EXILE
FTA IS BACK!
Ultra-Rare! F.T.A. (aka FREE THE ARMY aka FUN, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE), 1972,
Displaced Films, 97 min. Dir. Francine Parker.
F.T.A. was originally released by American-International but pulled from
distribution after only one week, with rumors of pressure from the Pentagon.
– Phil Hall, Film Threat
**************************************
About The Film:
[Thanks to Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against The War & Military Project, who
sent this in.]
February 22, 2009 By Dennis Lim, Los Angeles Times [Excerpts]
A time capsule of the anti-Vietnam War movement, “FTA” is also a vivid flashback to a
world-famous movie star’s stint as a political radical. At the peak of her celebrity, which
coincided with the dawning of her political consciousness, Jane Fonda abdicated her
Hollywood throne and remade herself as the face of the anti-establishment.
With government agents and the news media watching her every move, she led a
vaudeville troupe on a tour of U.S. military bases in 1971 -- a trip chronicled in this
fascinating documentary, largely unseen since its brief, abortive release and finally
available on DVD this week.
In the disc’s only extra, a 20-minute interview, Fonda recounts how the project came
about. She and Donald Sutherland, her costar in 1971’s “Klute” (which won her an
Oscar), were approached by Howard Levy, a doctor who had become an antiwar cause
célèbre for refusing to train Green Beret medics.
He proposed that they put on a corrective to Bob Hope’s gung-ho USO shows, giving
voice not just to the growing peace movement but to antiwar sentiment within the ranks
of the military.
The FTA troupe staged its first shows in the U.S., with Fonda and Sutherland (who had
just played the irreverent Hawkeye in Robert Altman’s “MASH”) headlining a company
that included Peter Boyle and Howard Hesseman. (The all-purpose acronym is short for
“Free the Army” and a more profane variation.)
When it came time to embark on the two-week Pacific Rim tour, Fonda assembled a
more politically correct lineup that stressed racial and gender parity -- equal numbers of
black and white, and male and female, performers, including singer Holly Near and
comedian Paul Mooney.
Fonda, Sutherland and company stopped off in Hawaii, the Philippines, Okinawa and
Japan (where they were initially refused entry). Denied permission to perform on U.S.
bases, they set up shop in nearby coffeehouses and other venues, although military
officials apparently tried to minimize attendance by publicizing incorrect show times.
All told, the troupe played 21 shows, which were attended by some 64,000 servicemen
and women. Many of the male GIs, as Fonda ruefully concedes in the interview, must
have been anticipating the Space Age sex kitten from “Barbarella” and not the righteous
radical who took the stage in jeans, no makeup and a raised fist.
The show mixes protest songs with broad and bawdy skits, taking potshots at military
chauvinism and top-brass privilege. But what it lacks in finesse, it makes up for with a
raucous energy.
Directed by Francine Parker (who died in 2007), the documentary alternates between
the song-and-dance routines and behind-the-scenes footage of soldiers talking candidly
to the troupe members about their frustration and anger at the ongoing war and the
American presence in the region.
As fate would have it, “FTA” opened the same week in July 1972 that news broke of
Fonda’s trip to Hanoi, where she made radio broadcasts for the North Vietnamese
regime and was photographed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun. Within a week, the
distributor (youth-flick specialist American-International Pictures) had pulled the movie
from theaters.
Fonda’s career went into partial eclipse, and she remains to this day a favorite target of
the right, but she recovered to win a second Oscar for the 1978 war-veteran drama
“Coming Home.” For years she quietly has distanced herself from her radical past,
which might explain why “FTA,” which she co-produced, has been out of circulation for
more than three decades.
Its recent reemergence points to a change of heart and owes much to the efforts of
filmmaker David Zeiger, who used footage from “FTA” in “Sir! No Sir!,” a 2005
documentary about antiwar resistance within the military.
To Get Your Copy Of FTA:
http://www.sirnosir.com/FTA.html
From Vietnam War Days
Military Resistance In PDF Format?
If you prefer PDF to Word format, email: [email protected]
CLASS WAR REPORTS
Down With The Ministry Of
Thirst!
“Upwards Of 100,000” March
Against Irish Government:
“We Will Not Stop Until Water
Charges Are Scrapped”
“The Government Is Pushing People
Over The Edge. They Cannot And They
Will Not Pay”
Protesters in Dublin on Saturday hold up banners in opposition to the new water charges
set in place by Ireland's coalition government. Photograph: Monica Manzzi
Barlocco/Demotix/Corbis // The Guardian
March 21, 2015 The Guardian (UK)
In Ireland, with a population of 5 million, upwards of one hundred thousand took
to the streets to protest the new charges for water.
The Irish government's austerity measure has sparked widespread public anger, with
Saturday's street protest the fourth since October.
Tens of thousands of people marched in Dublin on Saturday in the latest protest against
the government's new water charges. It is the latest show of public opposition to the
austerity measure put in place by Ireland's coalition government, which hopes the
country's economic growth will quell the discontent.
Ireland's economy surged by a post-crisis high of 4.8% last year and is forecast to be the
fastest-growing in the European Union again in 2015, but many have been left frustrated
by the uneven nature of the recovery.
One year before it seeks re-election, the government has begun directly charging
households for water use. It is the final piece of a seven-year, £21.7bn austerity drive,
but also the measure that has elicited the largest public backlash. Saturday's mass
protest was the fourth since October.
Organisers said 80,000 protesters marched in the capital - many holding Greek
flags to show solidarity with the stricken eurozone member.
The national broadcaster, RTE, said the crowd was 30,000 to 40,000 strong.
“This government believes that the anti-water charges campaign is dying, that we are on
our last legs. Well, today we have sent them a message,” said Lynn Boylan, a member
of the European Parliament for the opposition Sinn Féin party.
“These families simply cannot take any more. The government is pushing people over
the edge.”
“This campaign is going from strength to strength. We are on the march. And we will not
stop until water charges are scrapped and Irish Water is abolished.
“Sinn Féin warned the government that Irish Water was nothing more than a toxic
quango. The citizens of Ireland in their hundreds of thousands told (minister for the
environment) Alan Kelly that they cannot and they will not pay.
“Europe has warned the government that their back of the envelope calculations do not
stack up. How do they respond? By jailing protestors and spending 650,000 on a new
ad campaign; not to mention wasting over 85m on private consultants, 539m wasted on
water meters. Hundreds of Garda hours wasted on policing the ill-fated installation of
water meters.”
Boylan also questioned how people could pay the charge when they “cannot afford to
keep the roof over their head”.
She said: “The lengths that this government will go to defend their precious Uisce
Éireann (Ireland's water company) is astounding.
“Local authorities have begun the process of handing over the details of tenants.
Landlords are being forced to do the same. For Sinn Féin this is a red line issue. Let this
message go out loud and clear; water charges and Irish Water must be consigned to the
dustbin of history.”
The trade unions affiliated to the campaign - the CPSU, CWU, Mandate, Opatsi and
Unite - are also calling for a referendum to be held “following abolition of the charges” to
enshrine public ownership of Irish Water in the Constitution.
The trade unions will present the outline of their draft water management policy at their
forthcoming May Day conference.
“A Year Of Strikes In Poland”
“Anger In Zabrze Where Protesters
Attacked The Police And
Attempted To Occupy The Mine”
“Thousands From Local
Communities Assembled Outside
The Mines”
“68% Of The Public Expressed Support
For The Strike”
Polish miners protesting outside their company in February 2015. Source:
kontakt24.tvn24.pl
March 4, 2015 by Jan Ladzinski; rs21 [Excerpts]
This is a year of strikes in Poland.
From the very first days of January, 20% of GP practices in the country were closed due
to strikes. In some areas these GPs were the only doctors available.
On one level, the doctors were simply striking because they had been burdened with
new responsibilities without substantial increase in their remuneration.
The root cause, however, was the creeping marketisation of public healthcare that has
been going on for years.
GPs have been turned into entrepreneurs charged with running the whole practice in
return for payments from the public healthcare insurance. Many resent this new role and
would rather work for a fixed salary, especially if they operate in ‘costly’ areas with aging
populations.
The strike eventually ended in a moderate victory for the doctors, with an increase in
funding, but it is obvious that the agreement does not resolve the underlying problems.
On 7 January a new strike was already looming.
As the government announced restructuring plans for the largest state-run mining
company, one hundred miners in Brzeszcze mine refused to leave the mine shaft
in protest over the proposed job losses.
Ukrainian miners protesting in Kyiv against pit closures on 28 January 2015. Source:
http://cia.media.pl
Four mines were to be closed almost immediately and nine others ‘restructured’ under
new administration.
The strike continued until 17 January and involved thousands of people from local
communities who assembled outside of the mines, marched down their streets and on
one day blocked the rail tracks leading in and out the largest of Silesian cities, Katowice.
Eventually the strike concluded in a deal with the government which promised no pit
closures and job losses for those working underground.
Hailed as a victory for the unions, the agreement nevertheless allows for privatisation
and was met with anger in Zabrze where protesters attacked the police and attempted to
occupy the mine once the deal was announced.
Throughout the strike the media and the government attempted to present the Silesian
miners as a labour aristocracy, enjoying higher pay and better welfare than the growing
mass of workers precariously employed in Poland’s service sector.
State subsidies in mining, the argument went, mean young workers on minimum wages
pay taxes so others can enjoy relatively good jobs in mining.
The argument was utterly hypocritical as the government’s plans involved replacing the
closed mines with special economic zones, which are just another form of state subsidy
to business.
The public saw through the lies and in the poll for one of major news networks
68% of the public expressed support for the strike. The high public support was
most likely the decisive factor in forcing the government into compromise in the
election year.
The moderate success of the strike encouraged the workers at another state-run mining
company, JSW, to go on strike on 28 January.
Their bosses proposed to cut spending by 500 million zlotys, which according to union
estimates would translate to pay cuts of around 30%. After 17 days of strike action the
miners at JSW won a number of concessions, including lowering the cuts to 300 million
zlotys and sacking of the company’s CEO who was seen as responsible for the poor
financial situation.
These will certainly not be the last strikes of 2015.
Other groups are also organising, among them the farmers seeking compensations for
Russian embargoes and university teachers at various departments of humanities.
The latter, organised in the Crisis Committee for Polish Humanities are particularly
interesting. While the Crisis Committee campaigns for better working conditions for
junior academic staff, they do not shy away from a broader critique of privatisation and
marketisation of higher education. So far, the Crisis Committee has organised a wellpublicised conference in February and threatened the government with strikes. It also
won a promise from the ZNP, the largest teaching union in Poland, that junior academic
staff on part-time and zero-hour contracts will be accepted in the union. Seventy
institutes and departments have joined the Crisis Committee already.
These social movements are relevant for Ukraine as well as Poland.
The Polish protests have one thing in common – they attempt to resist neoliberal policies
which were introduced in the early 1990s by Leszek Balcerowicz.
Polish transformation serves as a model for Ukrainian transition and Balcerowicz himself
advises the Ukrainian government.
However, the dynamic that leads a broad movement for democracy to result in a
neoliberal government of the elites is also similar. The government that introduced
‘shock therapy’ in Poland in 1990s originated as an intellectual leadership within
Solidarity trade union, which in 1980 organised some 9 million workers.
By 1989 the leadership realised that its interests contradicted the interests of their
working-class followers. They colluded with post-communists to introduce a series of
neoliberal reforms that would benefit both groups at the expense of the workers. The
Solidarity liberals purposefully limited the growth of Solidarity trade unions, which by
1989 counted only 20% of the former membership, and then used their authority to
prevent protests against the reforms in early 1990s.
It is unsurprising that the official Solidarity rep was driven out of the miners’ strike in
1992 on a wheelbarrow.
In 1996 trade unionists in Solidarity finally broke their links with their former leadership,
who by then made up the liberal elite in power. Simultaneously, the resistance to
unpopular reforms intensified and took more organised forms.
In the years 2000-2001 strikes in healthcare shook the country. In 2002 two extremely
militant strikes made history. Workers in Ozarow wire factory went on strike from April
until November and fought pitched battles with the police and private security, while a
similarly radical protest took place in Szczecin shipyard.
In 2003, the miners took the first sector-wide action against renewed attempts at mines
closures and privatisation. The HQ of the ruling post-communist party SLD was targeted
by the protesters which then led to clashes with the police.
Another large-scale miners’ protest took place in 2005 in opposition to planned changes
in retirement age. Organised labour became once again a force to be reckoned with,
even if its influence was limited to the public sector.
In Ukraine we see a similar process in which a liberal leadership of a broad movement
for democracy is subsequently brought to government. In the Maidan some of the
oligarchs and sections of the middle class came together with workers to oppose the
repressions of Yanukovych’s regime. They called for the introduction of the rule of law
and democratic rights symbolised, perhaps naively, by the European Union.
As in Poland, the contradictory interests of the former allies became evident soon after
the movements’ leaders took power. The protests in Ukraine continue, although it is the
war in the east that makes the headlines now.
A recent wave of demonstrations in Kyiv explicitly targeted the IMF-imposed
austerity measures. The Polish experience teaches us that the conflict of
interests will become more obvious as the neoliberal reforms are introduced and
resistance will grow.
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DANGER: CAPITALISTS AT WORK
Stupid War Against Separatists
Bringing April Collapse Of
Ukrainian Economy:
“The Country Is Hurtling Toward A
Costly Default On Its Government
Bonds”
Private Capitalists Have No Hope Of
Paying $ Debts Coming Due Then;
“A Wave Of Corporate Defaults Is All But
Inevitable”
March 26, 2015 By Josie Cox, Wall Street Journal [Excerpts]
Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko’s tour of Europe this week has done
little to placate fears that the country is hurtling toward a costly default on its
government bonds.
But now concerns are mounting that Ukraine’s companies may face the same fate.
Economists are warning that a wave of corporate defaults is all but inevitable.
The prolonged recession and conflict with Russia have for months hit sales, and the
foreign investors that companies need for financing have stayed away from Ukraine
even as they have taken on more risk elsewhere.
On Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service slashed its rating on Ukraine to “Ca,” the
second worst on its scale, saying the likelihood that holders of government bonds will
face big losses is growing. A default by the government would hit companies’ credit
ratings, too.
But that is not the only problem.
Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, has plummeted more than 50% against the dollar
in the past year. That has made it cripplingly expensive for companies that issued
bonds in dollars but have revenue in hryvnia to service that debt.
Companies dependent on imports from abroad, meanwhile, have to stump up much
more cash to buy their goods too, also hurting earnings.
Some foreign investors have been burned. Emerging-market asset manager Ashmore
Group PLC, based in London, reported on its website that as of the end of last year it
held Ukrainian bonds from more than a dozen companies and banks, including
Ukrainian power company DTEK Energy BV, Ferrexpo PLC, Metinvest Holding LLC and
MHP SA. It had paid a total of $378 million for them.
The value of the bonds had fallen by almost 36% as of the end of the year, data on
Ashmore’s site shows.
A spokeswoman for Ashmore declined to comment.
Several Ukrainian companies, including VAB Bank PJSC and agriculture firm Mriya Agro
Holding, defaulted last year, and this year J.P. Morgan expects “most (Ukrainian) issuers
to attempt to restructure or extend upcoming bond maturities.”
The U.S. bank expects the rate of default among companies in emerging Europe to
rocket to 8.6% this year, almost entirely driven by Ukraine.
According to BNP Paribas data, Ukrainian companies have just over $10 billion of
external debt outstanding, the bulk of which is junk bonds, but according to the
International Monetary Fund, Ukrainian companies have external financing needs of
more than $15 billion this year including repayments of debt and coupon payments.
“Any Ukrainian company whose performance is strongly correlated to the
performance of the economy is potentially at risk of default,” said Zeke Diwan,
senior portfolio manager in the emerging market fixed income team at Allianz
Global Investors, which has around €1.8 trillion ($2 trillion) of assets under
management.
So those who hold Ukrainian corporate bonds better have a strong stomach.
Ariel Bezalel, a fund manager at Jupiter Asset Management, bought some very shortdated bonds issued by national oil and gas company Naftogaz at the end of last year.
“It was very reminiscent of picking up pennies from in front of a steamroller,” he said.
The day the bonds came due earlier this year, Jupiter started calling up the custodian to
get the funds, which didn’t come through for a nerve-racking three days.
Since then, he hasn’t been buying Ukrainian debt. “I think it’s a broken country, sadly,”
he said.
The IMF last week approved a $17.5 billion emergency loan as part of a larger $40
billion international financial package designed to keep the country afloat as Kiev’s proWest government overhauls its creaking economy and contends with Russia-backed
separatists in the east.
Ukrainian companies that generate the majority of their revenues in local
currencies, but have debt piles in dollars are likely to be the first to miss
repayment deadlines and default.
Agricultural company MHP, which specializes in chicken farming, has a $235 million
bond due in April. It has $200 million in prearranged funding in the form of a loan from
the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank group. Under the
terms of the loan, however, the IFC retains the right to cancel or suspend the loan in the
event of a significant deterioration in the political and economic environment in Ukraine,
according to Moody’s.
“IFC’s decision on whether or not to advance funds to MHP this month will be a further
test of international support for the country and its issuers,” Moody’s analysts wrote in a
recent report.
A spokesman for MHP said the company was not “operationally” in any difficulty. He
declined to comment on the debt situation.
DTEK, the power company, also has $200 million of debt due to mature in April and said
this month that it was seeking a long-term deal to restructure. It has sizable assets in the
parts of eastern Ukraine scarred by fighting.
The company is domestically concentrated, with exposure to the weak domestic
operating environment, and sizable assets in the areas subject to military action.
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DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK
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