Do employers pay into pension schemes in China? How much do they have to put in?

Why appreciate Merkel, what did she do but let the shitshow of 2010s austerity to lay the groundwork for the current shitshow of the 2020s.

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Folding comments suck ass and down votes suck ass for similar reasons, I remember that's why we got rid of them and made commenting the clearest way to disagree.

Michael Roberts- Germany: the end of EU hegemony?

What all this shows is that even German capitalism, the most successful advanced capitalist economy in Europe, cannot escape the divisive forces of the Long Depression. But it is also shows that the German coalition government’s slavish following of the interests of US imperialism in the name of ‘Western democracy’ over Ukraine and Israel is destroying the hegemony of German capital and the living standards of its poorest citizens. No wonder the voices of nationalism and reaction are gaining traction.

I don't think it's a secret that cobalt mining, or any mining really is exploitative of labour beyond normal wage relations. Plus the environmental cost is substantial as well. That is true enough, although like most real injustices this critique is ,for political reasons, aimed at former colonies rather than the more powerful governments that have the (stolen) wealth to actually create some kind of real solution.

As for the coup attempt by Christian Malanga, to me it's hard to tell how serious of an attempt at regime change that was by the US/UK simply because of how bad the attempt was. The impression I got was that the alphabet boys did not send their best, if they even bothered to get involved. Malanga and his group were quickly suppressed, Malanga himself was killed and his son imprisoned. As far as I know the only support he had was either among diaspora or western NGOs. So a total failure there. Malanga had ties to all sorts of western entities so it seems plausible he had at least a green light from some western backer to go ahead with the coup attempt with an implicit promise to be recognised upon success.

My guess is that this was an incompetent or just plain lazy attempt at regime change symptomatic of a decline in state power compared to the 50s/60s. As for the online boycott campaign, without knowing more I would venture that's maybe a 60/40 split between being created by naive libs vs from a suit filled board room somewhere.

Yes the whole thing was very odd. I assume they're still here under another username

where beatnik?

As part of the settlement, Lilium will transfer ownership of the mines to the Burkina Faso government. In return, the government will pay Endeavour $60 million and a 3% royalty on up to 400,000 ounces of gold produced at the Wahgnion mine, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

lame

Also more to the point of the capitalist mode of production, you cannot accumulate surplus value if you destroy all the labour.

Edit- not to say the point of capitalism is surplus value. It's moreso profit. But the point still stands.

I've heard rumours that he's planning to aid the bourgeois in their control of the state, and may even be planning to assist them in controlling the means of production.