By inviting Ukrainian president Zelensky to address the Commons on the same day as PMQs, Sunak ensured that every other burning question facing the population, and not just this country’s population, was pushed aside.  Even the terrible consequences of Monday’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria were relegated.

    And no doubt as far as MPs were concerned, just as well!  The search and rescue team which arrived in Turkey on Wednesday, is made up of firefighters from 14 fire and rescue services…  yes, workers from the ranks of those who overwhelmingly voted to go on strike against their public sector “employer”, ultimately this same government, which refuses them a proper pay rise!

    As for PMQs, Sunak and Co., are hardly put on the spot by this phoney show-business of accountability.  But nevertheless, Labour’s Starmer had no questions for the PM this week.  Instead, he went even further than Sunak in his gruesome promotion of the ongoing, 12-month-long increasingly bloody and destructive Ukraine war.

    It’s estimated that 200,000 Russian soldiers, 120,000 Ukrainian soldiers and 30,000 Ukrainian civilians (neither side provides reliable figures) have already lost their lives since 24 February 2022.  Yes, acting as cannon fodder - as proxies - for the covert war of US/Nato leaders against the Putin-led Russian ruling apparatus in the Kremlin - and yes, at the terrible expense also, of the Russian population and its young and terrified army-recruits.

    Undoubtedly, the Ukrainian (but also the Russian) people, are the victims in this, the latest act of vicious inhumanity in the name of a degenerate capitalist, imperialist, system, to grab influence, territory and capture markets, in the name of profit.  Which is why it’s a war which the working class of any country - including Ukraine and Russia - cannot possibly support.

    Indeed, Zelensky’s invitation is Sunak’s contribution (along with a few tanks and jet-pilot training) to the professed US/Nato strategy to help the war continue until the “victory” of Ukraine.  But in fact it’s the victory of the (mainly) US arms industry - which has made vast profits nearing a trillion dollars since the start of this war - which they are cheering on.

    The other unchallenged profiteers of this war -already coining it in post-Covid, when they inflated their prices by 200% - are of course companies like Shell (£32bn profits for 2022) and BP which made £28bn - a historic record. Centrica (British Gas) has increased its profits 8-fold in a year! And all these superprofits, despite Sunak’s (mini) windfall tax!

    As for the working class, our energy bills go up again in April.  The government subsidy paid to householders hasn’t kept the wolf from anyone’s door, but it did add to the energy giants’ profits!

    Yet we are told, for instance, that to give nurses a pay rise, the government would have to rob Peter to pay Paul - that is, take the money out of patient care!  Do they think we’re prepared to swallow such nonsense?  It’s time to show them - all together in one big strike wave - that we will not!

The devastating earthquakes which struck south-east Turkey and north-west Syria early on Monday morning, have killed more than 11,000 people. And the death toll is still rising.

    This region, located over the East Anatolian Fault in the earth’s crust, sees frequent earthquakes.  What’s more, these fault-lines are accurately mapped out.

    Given the impossibility of knowing in time that a quake is coming, the only way to prevent such human disasters is to ensure nobody lives on or near these fault lines.  And all existing dwellings - even whole cities maybe, as would be the case for San Francisco which lies over the notorious San Andreas Fault - would need to be moved.  But not only is this not done - due to the costs and the “profit before safety” mentality of the ruling classes of this world, but new buildings are constantly built in dangerous places.

    A less costly alternative (and which respects their sacrosanct private property!) is to build earthquake-resistant buildings.  So for instance Istanbul airport is (apparently) the largest earthquake-resistant building in the world.  But what about all the other buildings?  In Gaziantep, near the epicentre of Monday’s quake, savings made on building materials in constructing residential blocks meant they collapsed.  In Syria, after decades of war, there was no chance at all for any “safe building”.

    Instead, people are stuck in “natural” disaster zones around the world, by imperialist-imposed “unnatural” borders, controlled and patrolled by armies and police.  They prevent the free movement of people for any reason – even safety from death.

    Given the choice, people would leave.  Haitians are constantly trying to escape their constantly-shaking island (a quake in 2010 killed 220,000), where today, armed gangs rule at gunpoint.  But their boats are stopped by US patrols and returned.

    The poor are not permitted to escape their fate.  Not here in the English Channel, not in Syria, and not in the Caribbean.  Instead, the deadly effects of natural disasters are compounded by the effects of a system which is not natural, but even more deadly.