(2021-10-30). US Watchdog Says State Dept., DoD Pressured it to Redact Afghan Reports, 'Impeded' Honest Reporting. sputniknews.com In August, amid the chaos unleashed in Afghanistan as US troops withdrew from the country and Taliban swiftly gained ground, a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) agency report questioned whether gains from America's intervention in Afghanistan were "commensurate with US investment or sustainable after a drawdown".
(2021-10-30). Review: 'The Great Climate Cop Out'. mronline.org 
The 25 page pamphlet lays out concisely and effectively why we cannot look to heads of government under a capitalist system to come to an agreement on phasing out fossils fuels, cutting emissions and creating a more sustainable economy.
(2021-10-30). News on China | No. 73. dissidentvoice.org China breaks the US-led blockade to assume its UN seat 50 years ago. A 10% drop in magnesium production has occurred. China accounts for 85% of global magnesium production. Pang Jianwei and collaborating scientists have established the first integrated quantum communication network, an "unhackable" network.
(2021-10-30). La alianza Cuba-Venezuela es un puente de solidaridad. cubadebate.cu Con total apego a la ética y al sentido del deber, más de 255 000 colaboradores de la Isla han prestado servicios en la República Bolivariana a través del Convenio Integral de Colaboración Cuba-Venezuela que este 30 de octubre celebra su vigésimo primer aniversario de existencia y evoca las firmas históricas de los Comandantes Fidel y Chávez.
(2021-10-30). Australian government deepens assault on democratic rights with voter ID bill. wsws.org This bill to disenfranchise thousands of working-class voters underscores the reactionary content of the party deregistration laws that were passed with the opposition Labor Party's backing in August.
(2021-10-30). We Want Our Jobs Back! Thousands Of Unite HERE2 Workers March In San Francisco For Jobs. indybay.org Thousands of San Francisco Unite HERE Local 2 hotel workers marched in San Francisco to demand their jobs back and a contract.
(2021-10-30). G20 Focuses on Vaccines, Health, Economy and Climate During Rome Summit. indybay.org President Biden joins G20 heads of state in Rome to discuss COVID response, vaccines, debt, economic crisis and climate policies. This is the first in-person meeting of the leaders since before the onset of the pandemic.
(2021-10-30). The 2020-21 Worldwide Corona Crisis: Destroying Civil Society, Engineered Economic Depression, Global Coup d'État and the "Great Reset" globalresearch.ca We are at the crossroads of one of the most serious crises in modern history. We are living history, yet our understanding of the flow of events since January 2020 has been blurred. Worldwide, people have been misled both by their governments and the media.
(2021-10-30). Sunday 10/31: Cooperative Economics. indybay.org Join Zoom Meeting | us02web.zoom.us/j/87603046149?pwd=NXlmeTVWZkwrdVlFV25jaWVsblhqZz09 | Meeting ID: 876 0304 6149 | Passcode: ICSS1017rs | Dial by your location | +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) | Meeting ID: 876 0304 6149 | Passcode: 7184505660 | Find your local number: us02web.zoom.us/u/kdKZZtC2ub…
(2021-10-30). Thousands of New Brunswick public sector workers strike against poverty wages. wsws.org The Canadian Union of Public Employees has refused to say if the strike will continue into next week, let alone advanced any strategy to counter Premier Higgs' vow to outlaw the stoppage.
(2021-10-30). [Correspondence] When suspicion replaces evidence in public health. thelancet.com The UK Government's decision not to recognise people as vaccinated if they received COVID-19 vaccines in most of Latin America, Africa, and south Asia received widespread condemnation.1 Many commentators have rightly called out this discriminatory policy, which unfairly targets people from low-income countries. However, as a group of scholars from the medical humanities and social sciences, we are particularly concerned that the way in which the government makes decisions about which countries are exempt from quarantine once fully vaccinated dispenses with evidence-based policy making.
(2021-10-30). YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: How To Cancel Debt. dailyposter.com Also: Georgia's senators deliver on a campaign promise, and Chicago is using federal funds to provide residents a guaranteed basic income.
(2021-10-30). Philadelphia transit union calls off strike, announces deal with cuts to real wages. wsws.org The tentative agreement, which contains wage increases well below the rate of inflation, came after a unanimous strike authorization vote by SEPTA workers, who set a strike deadline for November 1.
(2021-10-30). Moving data out of China may be subject to a security review. ecns.cn Entities who want to provide data abroad may go through an internal security review and, on some occasions, will be subject to a government review, according to a draft regulation released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) Friday.
(2021-10-30). El nuevo fantasma ruso en América Latina. globalizacion.ca A mediados del siglo XIX Marx y Engels escribieron que el fantasma del comunismo recorría Europa. En el siglo XX ese mismo fantasma recorrió el mundo. Ahora, en el siglo XXI, la comunicación es el nuevo fantasma que acecha. Esto…
(2021-10-30). As UAW and Deere maintain information blackout, workers voice determination to fight: "We have a unique opportunity to win" wsws.org Wall Street is exerting immense pressure on Deere to meet extraordinarily high earnings targets, and so hold the line on workers' demands for significant improvements to wages and benefits.
(2021-10-30). An unrealized political possibility: remembering the Grenada Revolution. mronline.org 
The United States overthrow of the Grenada Revolution in 1983 initiated a vicious and unrelenting regime of neoliberalism that has gutted the Caribbean nation. But revolutionary Grenada showed the world a radical alternative to capitalism and neocolonialism is possible.
(2021-10-30). [Comment] Offline: Living in an Age of Indecency. thelancet.com Political leaders will declare COP26 a success—an important staging post, although not UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's promised "turning point for humanity", on the way to decarbonising the planet's energy use. Historians will most likely look back and judge COP26 in Glasgow, UK, as a graveyard of opportunities. To be fair, the target set for COP26 was narrowly drawn—to keep alive the 2015 Paris Agreement. That landmark agreement committed nations to "holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 ∞C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperat…
(2021-10-30). The Glasgow summit, climate change, and the case for socialism. wsws.org The past two years have seen a series of escalating climate disasters in all regions of the globe, including massive wildfires from the Australian bush to the American west, devastating flooding in Europe, Asia and the Americas, and deadly heatwaves the world over.
(2021-10-30). Philippines: Condemn Philippine National Police massacre of peasants in Masbate. fightbacknews.org Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 25 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). | The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns in the strongest terms the Philippine National Police (PNP) for the massacre of at least five peasants yesterday early morning in Barangay Bugtong, Mandaon town in Masbate province. | Contrary to the PNP's claims in their press releases, the victims were not members of the New People's Army (NPA). The PNP identified one of the victims as Eddie/Arnold Rosero, a local resident. | According to the NPA's Regional Operational Command in Bicol,…
(2021-10-29). Why the Troubled U.S. Empire Could Quickly Fall Apart. independentmediainstitute.org The U.S. wars lost in Iraq and Afghanistan showed imperial overreach beyond what even 20 years of war could manage. That the defeats were drawn out for so many years shows that domestic politics and the funding of the domestic military-industrial complex were, more than geopolitics, the key drivers of these wars. Empires can die …
(2021-10-29). FILM SCREENING: SHADOW WORLD. peoplesforum.org Join us on Friday, October 29th, from 6: 00 to 8: 00pm EDT for a screening of Shadow World, a documentary on the billion-dollar global arms trade! Based on the book The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, Johan Grimonprez and Anadil Hossain collaborate with the author, Andrew Feinstein, to explore how the international weapons industry undermines democracy and perpetuates human suffering. This screening will also feature an introduction by the author and filmmaker, Andrew Feinstein! | Due to capacity limitations, we are asking that folks put in a $6 deposit per seat to reserve a spot. The screenings are fre…
(2021-10-29). Letter to UNHRC About Political Exploitation of Indigenous Communities in Nicaragua. orinocotribune.com This letter, signed by solidarity, human rights, religious, labor and other organizations, has been sent to the UN Human Rights Council and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It denounces the misrepresentation and exploitation of disputes over land in Nicaragua's autonomous Indigenous territories for political purposes by local and international organizations which claim to represent the interests of Indigenous peoples. | To: The United Nations Human Rights Council and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | Copy to: | CEJIL (the Center for Justice and International Law) | Center for Civil and…
(2021-10-29). Seeing the forest, and the trees: Labor backs trimmed Build Back Better. peoplesworld.org 
"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." —Attributed, erroneously, to famed German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck "Politics is the art of the possible." —A real Bismarck quote, from 1867 WASHINGTON—There's been a lot of sausage-making going on at the White House and on Capitol Hill over the last several months …
(2021-10-29). Workers at El Milagro Tortillería in Chicago Take On Bosses. latinorebels.com Workers at El Milagro tortilleria in Chicago are in a fight with management over illegal labor practices, including the denial of paid sick days, immigration threats, and armed surveillance.
(2021-10-29). Power to the (working) people: The Great Resignation could change how we relate to work. nationofchange.org Only time will tell if working people, both those organized in unions and those who are not, will be able to take advantage of this moment to overthrow the mini dictatorships so many labor under.
(2021-10-29). Young workers from Milwaukee join the John Deere UAW picket lines. fightbacknews.org Waterloo, IA – At Midnight on October 14, 10,000 United Auto Worker union members went on strike across four Midwestern states and Colorado, with over 90% of workers having voted to strike. The workers rejected a six-year contract that would eliminate their pensions, preserve a two-tier wage system that disadvantages new workers, and would have raises that don't keep pace with inflation. | Workers from Milwaukee representing the Young Workers Committee (YWC) of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council (MALC) visited UAW Local 838 workers in Waterloo, Iowa, where the largest number of John Deere union workers are employed…
(2021-10-29). US Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh feigns support for Kellogg's strike in visit to picket line. wsws.org Walsh, the former mayor of Boston and ex-union bureaucrat, exemplifies the corrupt corporatist relations between the unions, the corporations and the capitalist state which Biden is seeking to develop in order to strangle the growing movement of the working class.
(2021-10-29). The Invisible Cost Of Care (A Latino USA Podcast). latinorebels.com In this episode, we dive into the high cost of caregiving labor for so many women, through the story of Daniela Contreras.
(2021-10-29). Biden's Plan For Mass IRS Surveillance Of US Bank Accounts Fails, Blocked By Sen. Manchin. moguldom.com After President Joe Biden made significant concessions on his Build Back Better economic plan, another of his proposals which calls for mass IRS surveillance of bank accounts has been blocked — and this time it's with the help of a member of his own party — Sen. Joe Manchin. The Biden administration said it proposed …
(2021-10-29). Biden Folds On Election Promise Of Paid Family Leave, Some Democrats Angry He Won't Fight For It. moguldom.com Another election promise seems to have bitten the dust. While campaigning, President Joe Biden vowed to institute paid family level. He included it in his massive Build Back Better spending package, but the initiative appears headed for the scrap heap. There have been weeks of negotiations and the Democrats have had to keep whittling the …
(2021-10-29). The Centerpiece of the Build Back Better Climate Plan Has Been Stripped Out. truthout.org 
Months into the Democrats' messy, public internal debates on President Joe Biden's Build Back Better spending plans — and despite a massive effort by Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speak Nancy Pelosi to seal the deal this week — it is still far from clear whether the factions of the party will work out a way to pass the reconciliation bill, which has already been chiseled down beyond recognition. | In an effort to prevent the bill from being gutted even furth…
(2021-10-29). Biden's incredible shrinking social "reform" bill. wsws.org The "Build Back Better" legislation has been reduced to a fig leaf of reformist pretense, without a single dollar of additional taxation on the wealthy.
(2021-10-29). Prospects for Chile: New president, new constitution, continuing turmoil. peoplesworld.org 
The 1973 U.S.-supported military coup against Chile's socialist government and the murder of President Salvador Allende may be old history. The Pinochet dictatorship ended in 1988 and democratic forms—elections, political parties, debate—are in place. And Chile's economy, recovering from the pandemic, is booming. For the U.S. State Department, Chile is now "a leader in promoting …
(2021-10-29). Despite A Slowing Economy, Inflation Remains: And Americans Find New Ways To Heckle Joe. southfront.org 
Illustrative Image | Written by William Stroock, observer, author of military fiction | American politics keep getting sillier. For a few months now fans at sporting events across the nation have taken up an obscene anti-Joe Biden chant. On 2 October, NASCAR driver Brandon Brown won the Xfinity Race series at Talladega Super Speed way, in Alabama. Alabama is a deep red state in the Deep South and a hotbed of anti-Joe Biden resistance. As Brown was being interviewed by NBC Sports Network, fans behind him took up the anti-Joe Biden chant. The interviewer said, '…as you can hear the chants from the crowd, let's go…
(2021-10-29). Special Drawing Rights: The Beginning of a Paradigm Change? cepr.net To discuss how countries can maximize the impact of the SDRs, on October 4 CEPR Senior Research Fellow Andrés Arauz participated in a panel alongside Nadia Daar of Oxfam International, George Gray Molina of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Patricia Miranda of the Latin American Network for Economic and Social Justice (LATINDADD), and Ceyla Pazarbasioglu of the IMF…
(2021-10-29). 10 Top Quotes From Legendary Political Thinker Fannie Lou Hamer. moguldom.com Fannie Lou Hammer isn't a legend by happenstance. The passionate civil, voting and women's rights activist rose to iconic status because she did iconic things. The youngest of 20 children born to sharecropper parents, Hamer wasn't a stranger to being trampled by white supremacy. As a result, she dedicated her life to fighting for economic …
(2021-10-29). Why Defending Nicaragua Is Important. popularresistance.org Since at least the start of the 21st century, if not earlier, two global trends have emerged very clearly. Firstly, increased North American and European aggression overseas has been accompanied by increased economic and political domestic repression in the US itself and its allied countries. This domestic repression has reached unprecedented levels over the last two years, | Secondly, despite the apparent demise of Western led economic globalization, North American and European corporate influence under various guises has co-opted international policy making and governance, as writers from Cory Morningstar to Ia…
(2021-10-29). Turkey Deports 7 Syrian Refugees For "Provocatively Eating Bananas" On Video, Mocking Economic Crisis. southfront.org 
Click to see full-size image | Turkey announced it would deport seven Syrian migrants accused of making "provocative" social media posts about eating bananas. | This is yet another attempt to shift focus from the deepening economic and political crisis towards arbitrary nonsense. | One of the most popular
(2021-10-29). China Moves Onto USA's Doorstep by Signing Up Cuba to Belt & Road. Will it Cause a Standoff Like the 1962 Missile Crisis? orinocotribune.com By Tom Fowdy — Oct 21, 2021 | As the United States ratchets up its support for Taiwan as a regional chess piece against China, Beijing may also be positioning Havana as a counterweight. The move is sure to enrage Washington. | Cuba this week signed up to China's Belt and Road (BRI) Energy Partnership, which is expected to see Beijing invest in the island's energy industries with a focus on renewables. | Cuba's ambassador to China stated that the agreement ratified his country's commitment to the Belt and Road Initiative and called for the building of an international mega-platform for economic exchanges, und…
(2021-10-29). Neoliberalism and the crisis of higher education. mronline.org 
Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of this historical moment. It includes a belief in the following: the efficiency of the free market and the deregulation and privatization of the public sector that markets require; tax reduction; abandoning the welfare state; and replacing the notion of the public good with a personal responsibility for one's own welfare.
(2021-10-29). Struggle intensifies in Panama amid rising prices and persecution of homeless families. peoplesdispatch.org Since October 27, thousands of Panamanians have been taking to the streets in different parts of the country, demanding that the government of President Laurentino Cortizo take measures to face rampant inflation, rising unemployment, and deteriorating public services…
(2021-10-29). COVID-19 cases detected in Christchurch as New Zealand outbreak grows. wsws.org The spread of COVID-19 to the South Island, which has remained free from the virus for nearly a year, highlights the dangers of the Labour Party-led government abandoning its previous elimination policy.
(2021-10-29). Who Will Pay For The Damage From Climate Change? popularresistance.org To people in developing countries, it seems clear, the wealthy countries that caused most of the problem of climate change should pay the most to adapt to it and to solve the problem. But instead, countries like the United States lecture low low-emitting countries to do more while they extract their resources and destroy their forests. | For example, Nicaragua was an outspoken critic of the Paris climate talks because they did not go far enough. It is one of the countries most impacted by climate change, yet its own greenhouse gas footprint is one of the smallest. Nicaragua initially insisted that the Paris Accor…
(2021-10-29). Democrats' Budget Deal Will Collect Billions from the Wealthy to Invest in Human Needs. inequality.org
(2021-10-29). Billionaire Political Meddlers, Disinformation Agents Launch 'Good Information Inc.'. popularresistance.org On Tuesday, billionaires Reid Hoffman and George Soros launched Good Information Inc., a "public benefit corporation" to serve as a conduit of funds to newsrooms that "cut through the echo chambers with fact-based information." On its website, Good Information further describes itself as a "civic incubator" aimed at fostering and financially backing projects that "counter disinformation where it spreads by increasing the flow of good information online." | But more than merely providing an alternative to bad information through their own reporting, the company suggests that censorship is also on the menu: "We bel…
(2021-10-29). Young Climate Organizers Are Calling Out Wall Street. zcomm.org Why are young people going after financial institutions? Because we know that if we can stop the flow of money, we can stop the flow of oil…
(2021-10-29). Third Quarter GDP: More Good than Bad. cepr.net The 2.0 percent growth figure reported for the third quarter was widely viewed as disappointing. It was slower than most analysts had expected and certainly a large falloff from the 6.7 percent rate in the second quarter, but on the whole, it should be viewed as a positive report. | There are two key reasons for why I see the report as largely positive. First, there were extraordinary and temporary factors that prevented the growth from being considerably more rapid. Second, we need to get a fuller picture in assessing growth. In the pre-pandemic period, no one would have considered 2.0 percent growth particularl…
(2021-10-29). German public sector workers hold initial "warning" strike in contract negotiations. wsws.org The unions Verdi, GEW, IG BAU, GdP and civil servants organisations are doing all they can to offload the costs of the coronavirus pandemic onto workers.
(2021-10-29). The 'Smoke And Mirrors' Billionaires Tax. popularresistance.org With the introduction of these two 'smoke and mirrors' tax measures, negotiations enter the 'end game' phase of the corporate strategy to beat back the two stimulus bills—the traditional Infrastructure Bill (now $0.55T new spending reduced from $2.3T) and the Human Infrastructure/Reconciliation Bill (now $1.75T reduced from $3.5T). | The strategy to slash the level of spending in both bills has been driven behind the scenes by the corporate wing of the Democrat party, with Senators Manchin and Sinema as their negotiating 'point persons'. The strategy has always been to cut the magnitude of spending on both…