DEM VOLKE DIENEN

Last week the International Automobile Exhibition (Ger.: “Internationale Automobilausstellung - IAA”) took place again in Munich. This event is a big fair where the monopolies of the German automotive industry come together and present themselves to the public as particularly "social" and "environmentally friendly". The event was attended not only by public faces of various companies, but also by high German politicians who praised the importance of the Automobile industry for German imperialism, and by numerous policemen to quell protests against the event. As in previous years, protests were not absent this year. Justifiably so, because despite its positive self-description, the IAA stands for exploitation, environmental destruction and war.

Brazil:
The National Commission of the League of Poor Peasants published a statement on September 4 in which it comments on various issues related to the current political situation in Brazil, and in particular on the recent murders and acts of violence committed by the Latifundium and its lackeys. On August 03, three armed men stormed the home of Fumaça and his wife Cleide Silva in the rural Humaitá region of the southern part of Amazonas, tortured the couple and executed the husband with five shots to the head and the wife with five shots to the chest. Cleide and Fumaça had moved from Rondonia to the state of Amazonas to help poor peasants conquer large estates. Through WhatsApp, big landowners informed each other of the couple's arrival in the region, identifying them "as activists of the League of Poor Peasants from Rondonia." On August 17, in the state of Bahia, Mãe Bernadete, a leader of the Afro-Brazilian, the Quilombola, was murdered despite being under police protection. She had previously received death threats from big landowners. Below we quote the redherald.org-translation of parts of the statement of the National Commission of the League of Poor Peasants.

Last Friday, the state statistics office in NRW published the figures for companies that went bankrupt in the first half of the year. With 2160 company bankruptcies, the number is about 20% higher than in the previous year. At the same time, the trend is forecast to deteriorate further for the rest of the year.

Today, the G20 came to an end. Already before the summit was formally underway Newspapers like Berliner Zeitung reported, that the G20 Summit would be marked by US Imperialisms intent to combat Chinese Imperialism and particularly aim to limit the influence of BRICS, reportedly by strengthening the role of the World Bank. With its conclusion, many other publications set the results of G20 in direct relations to the BRICS groupings developments.

In the Austrian state of Carinthia, the Chamber of Economy caused a stir this summer with a campaign called "Danke, stimmt so" ("Thank you, that's all right"). Hosts were sent envelopes with advertising displays for their establishments, sending a supposedly "unobtrusive signal" to customers to tip enough. The restaurateurs themselves were largely outraged by this way of formally forcing customers to pay extra.

For 2.5 weeks now, a small but determined section of the Hagenbeck zoo has been on strike for a collective agreement and for uniform working conditions. The colleagues on strike at the zoo are thus defying the threats of managing director Dirk Albrecht, who even repeatedly announced that he would initiate criminal proceedings against the employees and the union because they would endanger animal welfare with their strike.

In Germany, one of the biggest attacks on students in recent years is taking place under the radar of the general public.This is about the abolition of the semester ticket, which is being pushed by the federal and state governments. The semester ticket is not a uniform, Germany-wide ticket for students, but looks different depending on the state and university and has different prices. The semester ticket is part of the annual semester fees and is negotiated by the respective Asta of the university. An Asta, or Asten, is the general student committee, a kind of small "pseudo-government" for students that is elected by the student parliament.