The Economist: Humanity teeters on the brink of world war – SEP Newsletter

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The Economist: Humanity teeters on the brink of world war By James Cogan The Economist magazine, the influential London weekly described by Karl Marx over 150 years ago as the “European organ” of the “aristocracy of finance,” has devoted its latest issue to discussing “The Next War” and “The Growing Threat of Great Power Conflict.” Its lead editorial opens with a chilling warning: In the past 25 years war has claimed too many lives. Yet even as civil and religious strife have raged in Syria, central Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq, a devastating clash between the world’s great powers has remained almost unimaginable. No longer … powerful, long-term shifts in geopolitics and the proliferation of new technologies are eroding the extraordinary military dominance that America and its allies have enjoyed. Conflict on a scale and intensity not seen since the second world war is once again plausible. The world is not prepared. Read more » WSWS Chairperson David North interviewed on Chris Hedges’ “On Contact” Chris Hedge's RT show "On Contact" interviewed WSWS chairperson David North last month. North and Hedges discussed the political crisis in the US, internet censorship, the Russian Revolution and the growth of the class struggle around the world. Watch the video » 2018 begins with US police reign of terror By Niles Niemuth While largely ignored by the mass media, the reign of terror by police officers continues to rage across the United States. The entire state apparatus, from local cops to immigration agents, has been unleashed by the Trump administration to beat, maim and kill with impunity. During a speech to hundreds of uniformed officers last July, Trump urged the police to not be “too nice” and to treat detainees “rough.” The Justice Department has at the same time ended the toothless pretense of federal oversight over a handful of police departments put in place by the Obama administration. In the year since Trump was sworn in as president, at least 1,223 people have been killed by police. Since the beginning of 2018, according to killedbypolice.net, 3.5 people have been killed on average every day. Read more » As Trump, Republicans move to derail Russia probe, Democrats rush to defend FBI By Barry Grey Two developments on Monday, one day before Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address, signaled a sharp intensification of the conflict within the US ruling class and state. Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked as a stooge of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, unexpectedly vacated his office some five weeks ahead of his expected retirement. Later in the day, the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee defied warnings from the Justice Department and voted to release to the public a classified memo drafted by the staff of Chairman Devin Nunes that charges the FBI with abusing surveillance laws to spy on Trump election campaign officials. The document reportedly accuses the top FBI leadership of being anti-Trump and working to undermine his administration. Read more » German industrial workers poised to launch massive strikes By Dietmar Henning Germany’s most important industrial sector, the metal and electronics industry, is on the brink of a major expansion of strike action. With 960,000 workers having participated in brief warning strikes and protests over the past two weeks, the IG Metall trade union has announced one-day strikes at 250 plants between Wednesday and Friday this week. Despite its best efforts, IG Metall has failed to smother the movement surrounding the contract talks. The fifth round of bargaining collapsed because the union felt it could not, due to pressure from the workers, agree to a contract for the Baden-Württemberg region that would have served as a template for nearly 4 million workers nationwide. The union and the employers’ organisations blamed each other for the failure of the talks. The latter proposed a wage hike of 6.8 percent in two stages as part of a 27-month contract, which would equate to just 3 percent per year. The union proposed a 4.5 percent increase in wages in the first stage and a total increase of 8 percent over 27 months. This would amount to 3.6 percent per year, far below the original demand for a 6 percent annual increase. Read more » Trump unveils sweeping attack on immigrants in reform proposal By Eric London On Thursday, the Trump administration rolled out the most right-wing immigration reform proposal since the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 established immigration quotas to “stabilize the ethnic composition” of the United States. The Trump proposal, based largely on the SECURE Act introduced by Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, will fundamentally alter the sociodemographic composition of the United States. If enacted as law, the proposal will cut documented immigration by 22 million people over the next 50 years. According to the White House, the plan includes $25 billion to expand the wall along the US-Mexico border and to further militarize not only the borderlands but at all “ports of entry/exit,” i.e., all air and sea ports. The plan will result in a massive hiring of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who will be further armed and emboldened with pseudo-legal powers to conduct mass workplace raids, home invasions and public arrests of immigrants. Read more »

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