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DOGE Wanted to Falsely List Millions of People as Dead in Social Security Database: Whistleblower

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Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

People join in a “Hands Off!” protest against the Trump administration on April 5, 2025 in Riverside, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

One critic accused the Trump administration of plotting “financial murder” against millions of people.

A federal whistleblower has revealed plans by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to falsely list millions of people in the Social Security database as dead in a scheme to pressure them to leave the US.

In an interview published Friday by The Washington Post, former Social Security Administration (SSA) executive Jeremiah Schofield outlined a DOGE-concocted scheme that would have potentially cut people off from wages, banking, and government benefits by falsely listing them as dead.

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Schofield said a DOGE employee told him in a phone call that they wanted to add 2.7 million living people to SSA’s “Death Master File,” cutting them off from essential financial services so they would either leave the country voluntarily or show up to local SSA offices to complain, where they would be promptly arrested.

“That call was one of the most disappointing calls I’ve been in in my 25-year career,” Schofield, who left the SSA in October, told the Post. “I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”

While immigrants were the primary target of the scheme, Schofield said that the list of people created by DOGE included some US citizens and lawful permanent residents.

One anonymous former SSA employee who spoke with the Post outlined the serious ramifications for the 2.7 million people had they been added to the Death Master File.

“If you’re on the [Death Master File] you can’t have a bank account,” they explained, “you can’t get credit, so no apartment, no way to save money, no way to get paid, no way to get on insurance or carry health insurance. It has a ton of devastating effects.”

Schofield said he refused to carry out the DOGE employee’s request after consulting with SSA lawyers who said falsely marking living people as dead would likely be illegal.

The plan was ultimately shelved, and the Trump administration claimed in recent court filings that it has revoked DOGE employees’ access to SSA data.

Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, said that Schofield’s whistleblower report was yet another example of President Donald Trump’s administration abusing its power and weaponizing the federal government.

“Trump ran on a promise to protect Social Security,” Altman said, “but this whistleblower report is the latest evidence of how he really views it: As nothing more than a weapon to wield against his enemies.”

Altman added that removing living people from the database is essentially “financial murder.”

“It means losing access to your bank account, your health insurance, and your credit cards,” Altman explained. “It means getting kicked out of your home. It means that your life is destroyed.”

Whistleblower Aid, the nonprofit legal assistance organization representing Schofield, said their client’s claims show “no one is safe from this type of weaponization of our Social Security data.”

“If the administration is permitted to ‘kill people off’ and ruin their lives to pursue its anti-immigrant agenda,” the group added, “it will be able to use the same cruel and illegal tactics against anyone who has a Social Security number.”

Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Continue ReadingDOGE Wanted to Falsely List Millions of People as Dead in Social Security Database: Whistleblower

300 million on the streets in a historic national strike in India

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Original article by Abdul Rahman republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license. See the original article for embedded content.

The strike was called jointly by the worker unions and farmers groups to demand the withdrawal of the anti-people policies, such as the four new labor codes and the recently signed trade deals with the US and the EU.

The strike was called jointly by the worker unions and farmers groups to demand the withdrawal of the anti-people policies, such as the four new labor codes and the recently signed trade deals with the US and the EU

300 million workers, farmers, students, and professionals from various fields took to the streets across India on Thursday, February 12, in defense of their rights and to denounce the policies of the ultra-right-wing government in the country.

Workers went on strike shutting down thousands of coal fields, refineries, factories, banking, and transportation in remote corners of the country, heeding the call of the Central Trade Unions (CTUs), a joint platform of major trade unions in India, including the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), among others.

#12thFebruaryGeneralStrike a Historic Success

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) congratulates crores of Indian workers, agricultural workers and toiling peasantry for making the 12th February 2026 General Strike a historic success. The anger of working people against the (1/n) pic.twitter.com/jfItzhDVeg

— AIKS (@KisanSabha) February 12, 2026 

The workers were joined by millions of farmers and agricultural workers from across the country under the call of the Samyukta Kisan Sabha (SKM) and the All India Agricultural Workers Union (AIAWA), among others. The farmers and agricultural workers demonstrated at all the district headquarters and the village centers across India.

is a warning to the ruling dispensation: Withdraw the slew of anti-people bills and acts and restore the pro-worker and pro-farmer policies. If the Modi government fails to respond adequately to the demands of the toilers of the country, it will be inviting a much longer (9/n) pic.twitter.com/UT0eVGOlqU

— AIKS (@KisanSabha) February 12, 2026 

In several places, workers and farmers were joined by students, women’s organizations, and other civil society groups who extended their solidarity with the strike call.

Strikers in many areas defied attempts by factory owners and security forces to stop the strike by picketing the factory gates and marching on the streets to implement the strike. 

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F2229112557619929%2F&show_text=false&width=267&t=0

In several states, such as Kerala, Odisha, and Tripura, among others, most of the business establishments were shut in solidarity with the strike call. Demonstrations were held at government offices with thousands marching, shouting slogans, carrying banners, posters, and red flags.

general strike in the coming days.

Red Salute to the 12th February 2026 General Strike!

Long Live Worker-Peasant Unity!@DrAshokDhawale
President@VijooKrishnan
General Secretary pic.twitter.com/UJEBYFYoIq

— AIKS (@KisanSabha) February 12, 2026 

In the capital, Delhi, workers held large gatherings at the state secretariat. Later they also gathered at Jantar Mantar, where the central leadership of the CTUs and the SKM made speeches calling the strike a success.

Sudip Dutta, president of the CITU, claimed that the one day strike is just symbolic and if the Narendra Modi-led government fails to fulfill their demands it should be ready to see larger and longer strikes in the coming days as workers and farmers will not allow the government to harm their interests or sell India’s national sovereignty to the US and other foreign powers.

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Major demands

One of the major demands of the strike was the withdrawal of the trade deals India has recently agreed to with the US and the EU. The CTUs, SKM, and left parties in India have called the deals a surrender of the country’s sovereignty and harmful to the interests of the millions of farmers in the country as they allow open access of Indian markets to foreign farm products.

general strike in the coming days.

Red Salute to the 12th February 2026 General Strike!

Long Live Worker-Peasant Unity!@DrAshokDhawale
President@VijooKrishnan
General Secretary pic.twitter.com/UJEBYFYoIq

— AIKS (@KisanSabha) February 12, 2026 

Another key demand was the withdrawal of the four new labor codes brought by the Modi government despite long term opposition by the trade unions, and withdrawal of a new rural employment guarantee act called the VB GRAM G Act.

The SKM and the AIAWU have claimed that the VB GRAM G Act actually makes the right to employment ineffective. They want the earlier MGNREGA back which was withdrawn by the government.

general strike in the coming days.

Red Salute to the 12th February 2026 General Strike!

Long Live Worker-Peasant Unity!@DrAshokDhawale
President@VijooKrishnan
General Secretary pic.twitter.com/UJEBYFYoIq

— AIKS (@KisanSabha) February 12, 2026 

Farmers and workers in India have also been demanding the withdrawal of a series of laws brought by the Modi government, such as the electricity law, seed bill, and others, calling them pro-corporate and anti-people.

Punjab Electricity Employees, Peasants and Agricultural Workers on #GeneralStrike#12thfebgeneralstrike pic.twitter.com/RDDVwL10Zo

— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) February 12, 2026 

The protection of India’s secular and democratic polity was one of the major demands raised during the strike. The CTUs, the SKM and others believe that the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-government is threatening the secular and democratic nature of India by pursuing majoritarian and authoritarian actions.

The #12FebGeneralStrike was observed across West Bengal with marches and rallies. #GeneralStrike pic.twitter.com/icu1ZfPJFD

— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) February 12, 2026 

The major left parties in the country: Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and others also supported the strike call.

The CITU and the SKM thanked millions for participating in the strike on Thursday, calling it “historic”. They mentioned the large-scale participation of workers from unorganized sectors and peasants and cautioned the government to listen to their demands. 

Original article by Abdul Rahman republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue Reading300 million on the streets in a historic national strike in India

Watchdog urged to probe Labour’s failure to declare value of HSBC donation

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Original article by Ethan Shone republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. 

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks at the Labour Business Conference on 1 February 2024  | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Party accused of breaching Electoral Commission rules by failing to publish value of staffer seconded from banking giant

The Electoral Commission has been urged to investigate Labour over its year-long failure to declare the value of a donation from banking giant HSBC.

HSBC seconded one of its staff members to Keir Starmer’s party in February 2023, in an arrangement that sees the bank continue to pay the staffer’s wages while they carry out work for Labour.

More than a year later, the party has still not published the value of this in-kind donation – an apparent breach of the Electoral Commission’s rules.

The former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life warned it is “absolutely crucial” that Labour follows the rules around declarations, and said the commission “should be looking at this”.

The HSBC staffer, whom openDemocracy is choosing not to name, works in shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds’ office in a part-time role focused on engaging with businesses.

They have appeared on every edition of the official register of MPs’ staff and researchers, which is updated monthly, since February 2023.

The register lists people who have parliamentary passes through their work for MPs, as well as any outside interests they may have, or benefits they have received over a certain value.

Prior to joining HSBC in October 2021, the staffer was previously a consultant at Westminster lobbying firm Portland Communications. They joined Portland in January 2020 from Labour, where they held a number of senior roles over 15 years, most recently working in the party’s HQ as the head of policy development and engagement.

Labour has accepted many in-kind donations of seconded staff members from banks, lobbyists and consultancies in recent years, but this is the first time it has failed to declare the value of such an arrangement.

Before Starmer took over the party’s leadership in 2020, Labour had banned such secondments over concerns that they amounted to “institutional corruption”, according to James Schneider, who was director of strategic communications for former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Schneider, now communications director at campaign group Progressive International, told openDemocracy: “If Labour policy is written by people who were, are or expect to be corporate lobbyists in the future, it will represent those corporate interests, not its members, unions or the public.

“In this way, the revolving door between corporate lobbying and Westminster is a form of legalised corruption that insulates the rich and powerful from democratic demands.”

He added: “With this seedy revolving door fully reinstated in Labour HQ, it’s no surprise that the party is busy rejecting policies that would benefit the many not the few.”

Political parties complete quarterly returns detailing all their donations received, with Electoral Commission rules stipulating that in-kind donations of staff time must be declared in the quarter that the arrangement began.

When openDemocracy contacted Labour about this story, the party said it had declared the donation and it would be published in the next set of returns, which relate to quarter four of 2023.

Sir Alistair Graham, who chaired the Committee on Standards in Public Life between 2004 and 2007, told openDemocracy “the Electoral Commission should be looking at this”.

Graham continued: “In the run-up to a general election when the leader of the Labour Party has stressed how he wants to demonstrate that the party will have the highest ethical standards of any government, it is absolutely crucial that they are seen to follow the rules.

“If the bank is facilitating the secondment then it is a donation which should be declared to the Electoral Commission, and the member of parliament who is supervising this secondment should really have declared it on the MPs’ register of interests.

“They’ve now got as their [chief of staff] Sue Gray, who used to be in charge of ethical standards in the Cabinet Office, so she should be overseeing that the rules are abided with and there’s full disclosure to the Electoral Commission.”

Last week openDemocracy revealed that Labour has accepted cash and in-kind donations worth £2m from banks, financiers and firms linked to the City of London since 2022.

Natwest and the lobbying firm Lowick seconded members of staff to Reynolds’ office in 2022 while he was the shadow City minister, and Reynolds’ successor in the role, Tulip Siddiq, currently has a financial services specialist seconded to her office from lobbying firm Global Counsel.

Tom Brake, director of democratic standards campaign organisation Unlock Democracy, said: “Any party receiving multi-million-pound donations from a particular industry, whether it is banking or building, has to be hyper-vigilant both about the transparency of any donations and the risk that that sector is unduly influencing Party policy.

“The Electoral Commission needs to examine whether the Labour Party has failed the first test, and the Labour Party needs to prove how it has avoided falling foul of the second.”

A HSBC spokesperson said “We are apolitical. We work with different political parties to advocate for our customers and build their understanding of the issues facing financial services. We have constructive conversations with both the government and the opposition in the UK.”

Labour declined to offer a comment or provide further details about the arrangement.

Original article by Ethan Shone republished from OpenDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. 

Continue ReadingWatchdog urged to probe Labour’s failure to declare value of HSBC donation