Daily Archives: November 24, 2021

2021-11-24: News Headlines

Amanda Winstead (2021-11-24). Punishing the exploited: An exploration of the growing wealth gap. nationofchange.org We must find momentum through our discontent, and be "outraged enough to become even more politically active."

Leonardo Flores (2021-11-24). Five Reasons the Left Won in Venezuela. orinocotribune.com By Leonardo Flores — Nov 22, 2021 | These elections should put the Biden administration on notice that continuing to support the MUD, and in particular, the fiction of Guaidó as "interim president," is a failed policy. | For the first time in four years, every major opposition party in Venezuela participated in elections. For the fifth time in four years, the left won in a landslide. Voters elected 23 governors, 335 mayors, 253 state legislators and 2,471 municipal councilors. The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won at least 19 of 23 governorships (one race remains too close to call)…

Fight Back (2021-11-24). Tallahassee protest Rittenhouse verdict. fightbacknews.org Tallahassee, FL – Tallahassee Community Action Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Students for A Democratic Society held a protest, November 20, against the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two protesters in Kenosha. TCAC called an emergency protest the night before, urging community members to come out and fight against the white supremacist vigilantism. | Regina Joseph, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization denounced the acquittal, stating, "I am not surprised that this happened. That does not make my anger any less valid. Kyle Rittenhouse showed up to a protest, was met…

Staff (2021-11-24). "The War Party": Jeremy Scahill on How U.S. Militarism Unifies Democrats & Republicans. democracynow.org As Democrats in Congress struggle to pass the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, there is large bipartisan consensus in the U.S. Congress to spend over $7 trillion over the next 10 years in military spending. The United States spends more each year on defense than China, Russia, India, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia combined. "Democrats have to engage in theater about human rights and international law and due process, but they ultimately, at the end of the day, are just as aggressive as Republicans," says investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of the Intercept. His most recent p…

WSWS (2021-11-24). Labor Notes, DSA cover up UAW betrayal of Deere strike. wsws.org The conflict between rank-and-file workers and the UAW is being swept under the rug and deliberately concealed by organizations which have long functioned as apologists for the pro-corporate union bureaucracies.

WSWS (2021-11-24). Colonia Dignidad: Nazi criminality exported to Chile. wsws.org The Netflix documentary addresses the evangelical cult, run by the German psychopath and pro-fascist Paul Schà§fer, that participated in the torture of political prisoners and used slave labor to produce weapons for Chile's Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s .

imperial.ac.uk (2021-11-24). Future tech investment 'must support transition to green economy' – Alice Gast. imperial.ac.uk Imperial's President Alice Gast says investment in future technologies must not be overlooked as countries strive to meet climate goals.

Editor2 (2021-11-24). Cuba's Vaccine Could End up Saving Millions of Lives. orinocotribune.com By Branko Marcetic — Nov 22, 2021 | Thanks to its public biotech sector and its government's deep commitment to public health, Cuba is now the only low-income country to have made its own COVID vaccine. It's already helped millions of Cubans, and it's poised to help millions more around the world. | Much of the press coverage of Cuba last week focused on the anti-government protests that After a di…

Staff (2021-11-24). "Furious and Disgusted": Teen Survivor Speaks Out After Wealthy White Serial Rapist Gets Probation. democracynow.org The survivor of a serial rapist who received probation joins us to speak out after a New York judge sparked international outrage when he ruled it is inappropriate to jail the man who attacked her. Christopher Belter pleaded guilty to raping and sexually assaulting her along with three other teenage girls age 15 and 16, but he will avoid serving time in prison, and instead receive 8 years of probation. Belter is white, and from a prominent family who lives in a wealthy neighborhood near Niagara Falls. "This sentencing is telling rapists it's OK to rape and telling victims that there's no point in coming forward,"

WSWS (2021-11-24). Sparrow Health workers in Lansing, Michigan, vote overwhelmingly to authorize strike. wsws.org The demands of Sparrow workers include safe staffing levels, cost-of-living adjustments to wages, curtailing of ballooning health care costs, and sick time without fear of punishment.

Paul Haeder (2021-11-24). Everything goes Better with Coca Cola: Hitching Capitalism to Sweet Slow Death. dissidentvoice.org "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." — John Muir "All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We do not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to …

WSWS (2021-11-24). Australian electoral members explain why they support the SEP. wsws.org "Oppression is an inexorable process under capitalism—there is no escape from it unless socialist governments of the people, by the people and for the people take over."

Medea Benjamin (2021-11-24). The High Stakes of the U.S.-Russia Confrontation Over Ukraine. zcomm.org Risking a nuclear holocaust to appease the military-industrial complex is as insane as destroying the climate and the natural world to appease the fossil fuel industry…

Fight Back (2021-11-24). Tallahassee activists honor trans people on Trans Day of Remembrance. fightbacknews.org On November 22, Tallahassee activists gathered on Transgender Day of Remembrance. Tallahassee Community Action Committee. Florida Coalition for Transgender Liberation, Planned Parenthood, Students for A Democratic Society, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the Pride Student Union held a march and vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance, an international day of solidarity and remembrance of the transgender lives lost every year. | "We have to fight every day and mourn every day. I don't get a day when I can just mourn and not fight," said Lakey Love, co-founder of the Florida Coalition for Trans Liberatio…

Fight Back (2021-11-23). Milwaukee protest says: "Indict, convict, send Kyle Rittenhouse to jail!" fightbacknews.org Milwaukee, WI – Just after noon on November 20, over 120 people gathered at Red Arrow Park downtown to condemn the "innocent on all charges" verdict in the trial of vigilante murderer Kyle Rittenhouse. The protest was called for and organized by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, UW-Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society, and the Wisconsin district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. All three groups had a presence on the ground in Kenosha last summer in the midst of the uprising. | The rally began at Red Arrow Park, but organizers quickly took the streets with the gathered…

The Socialist Program (2021-11-23). "Justice" in America: Rittenhouse Acquitted, Racist Vigilantes Can Kill with Impunity. liberationnews.org Esther Iverem, Nicole Roussell and Walter Smolarek discuss how the menace of racist vigilante violence received a dramatic boost by the U.S. court system with the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges. They also discuss how protesters took to the streets in outraged response to the verdict, the victory of pro-Revolution candidates in the Venezuelan election, the latest Jan. 6 attack court developments, demonstrations worldwide against U.S. intervention in Ethiopia, resistance to the coup in Sudan, and more.

Editor (2021-11-23). Anti-communism, anti-Blackness, and imperialism. mronline.org In this talk prepared for the Albuquerque Anti-War Coalition's Anti-Communism & Imperialism panel discussion, Dr. Charisse Burden Stelly discusses how anti-communism and anti-Blackness are intrinsically intertwined structures of white supremacist and capitalist control.

Mark Gruenberg (2021-11-23). Unions weigh in for reproductive rights in key Mississippi case. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—When it comes to defending women's reproductive rights, there's no question where the nation's union women stand: 100% for their sisters and against the mostly male repressive forces who would strip those rights away. Which is why the Coalition of Labor Union Women and individual unions, including the four largest, joined friend-of-the-court briefs on the …

Rick Rozoff (2021-11-23). NATO launches war games in Latvia. antibellum679354512.wordpress.com Latvia Kickstarts The NATO Baltic Winter Shield 2021 Military Exercises The annual international military exercises of NATO Baltic Winter Shield 2021, kicked off in Latvia on Monday and will witness the Baltic state's military along with allied forces bolster their combat capabilities. The collaborative exercise will include military personnel from Land Force Mechanised Infantry Brigade, …

Staff (2021-11-23). Cuba rechaza inclusión del país en el informe del Departamento de Estado sobre trata de personas. cubadebate.cu El ministro de Justicia de Cuba, Oscar Silvera Martínez, rechazó la inclusión injustificada y discriminatoria de la Isla en el Informe de Trata de Personas, elaborado por el Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos. "Es inaceptable que EE. UU. acuse a Cuba de fomentar la trata de personas o la práctica de la esclavitud", puntualizó.

Staff (2021-11-23). Americans got richer thanks to vaccines & Covid policies, Biden claims. rt.com US citizens are wealthier 20 months after the Covid-19 pandemic than they were before, President Joe Biden has insisted, as many in the country check their pockets and find them still empty. | The president praised his economic leadership during a press conference on Tuesday, declaring the US was the only country whose residents could count themselves richer than they had been before the pandemic. However, while the Federal Reserve may have printed up a (digital) storm of new money to keep the economy afloat, ordinary Americans haven't seen much of it. | Biden says people have more money than before the pandem…

_____ (2021-11-23). The Politics Of Protection. popularresistance.org The 2008 financial meltdown and the global economic crisis that followed put thousands of cracks into what Mark Fisher called "capitalist realism"—the idea that it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. The neoliberal era appeared to be at its end. But it staggered on; the next decade saw most Western states respond with the typical neoliberal playbook. | Now, the coronavirus pandemic has made it even easier to imagine the end of the world, and the response of those same states has been quite different. Is neoliberalism actually ending? And what comes next? Political theorist P…

_____ (2021-11-23). Details of the Economic Relations Between PRC and South Korea in 2021. journal-neo.org The economic interaction between the ROK and the PRC during the reviewed period represented several overlapping trends. On the one hand, Beijing continues to act against companies involved in deploying US missile defense in South Korea. It restrains the penetration of South Korean cultural content into the country (mainly as part of the overall strategy …

WSWS (2021-11-23). Amid "enormous economic uncertainty," Biden reappoints Powell as Fed chair. wsws.org Having boosted the stock market to record highs by pouring trillions of dollars into the financial system, Powell received strong support from Wall Street with gushing praise for his management of the pandemic crisis.

_____ (2021-11-23). Biden-Xi Summit Only Confirms Unending Competition. journal-neo.org While the apparent purpose of the long awaited Biden-Xi virtual summit was to normalise increasing tensions between China and the US, the summit has only confirmed that there is no effective, institutional scaling down from the growing competition either in the economic/technological field or in the geo-political arena. Perhaps, no other issue better illustrates the …

WSWS (2021-11-23). Video: The pandemic is a bonanza for Australia's billionaires. wsws.org "The 200 richest people in Australia increased their wealth by 40 percent, from $341.8 billion in May 2019 to $479.6 billion in May this year."

Staff (2021-11-23). 'Take some time off oil and gas,' White House says. rt.com US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm has once again angered critics over her handling of the gas price crisis, chalking soaring prices up to an "energy transition." | Speaking during a White House event on the administration's readiness for the winter months, Granholm addressed skyrocketing gas prices around the country by saying they are part of a "transition" and people need "to take some time off of oil and gas." | "We recognize this," Granholm said. "This is a transition." | Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm: "We're working through an energy transition. And we've got to start by adding energy, a…

Chris Walker (2021-11-23). Hoping to Lower Pain at the Pump, White House Says It's Opening Oil Reserves. truthout.org The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it will release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gas prices for Americans ahead of the holiday travel season. | President Joe Biden

Climate Nexus (2021-11-23). Boston mayor Michelle Wu divests city funds from fossil fuels. peoplesworld.org In her first major policy action, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu signed an ordinance on Monday to divest public funds from fossil fuels. The measure prohibits public investment in any financial instrument deriving more than 15% of its revenue from fossil fuels, as well as from tobacco products or jail or prison facilities. "Boston, as a finance hub, is …

Staff (2021-11-23). DOJ to pay millions over FBI failure. rt.com The US Justice Department (DOJ) has agreed a settlement that will see the government pay a reported $127.5 million to victims and survivors of the Parkland school shooting, over its failure to investigate tips about the attacker. | In a joint court filing on Monday, lawyers representing families of those killed and injured during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018 confirmed that a financial settlement had been reached with the US government. Although they did not specify the figures involved, according to the Associated Press, the DOJ has agreed to pay out so…

_____ (2021-11-23). Wall Street's Diabolical Plan to Financialize All Nature. journal-neo.org It's called a Natural Asset Company. With it the New York Stock Exchange has unveiled the most radical and potentially most destructive plan yet to make literally trillions of dollars on something that is the natural right and heritage of the entire human race—nature itself, all nature, from air, fresh water to rainforests to even …

Monica Cruz (2021-11-23). Puerto Rico faces another disastrous bankruptcy deal. peoplesdispatch.org A New York federal judge is set to rule on a plan to restructure almost half of Puerto's Rico's debt in the coming weeks. The Financial Oversight and Management Board, an undemocratically elected The plan includes a list of cuts to public spending and a continuation of the harsh austerity measures which have decimated Puerto Rico's social safe…

Ajamu Baraka (2021-11-23). COP26: Greenwashing and Plutocratic Misadventures. orinocotribune.com By Ajamu Baraka -Nov 17, 2021 | For all the policy failures of COP26 it may actually be an inflection point in history — a point where social and political conditions force a transformation of consciousness and politics that can usher in epochal change. | COP 26 reaffirmed what has been obvious from the beginning: the Northern colonial and capitalist states most responsible for creating the climate crisis are unwilling to place people before profits in order to address the planet's looming ecological collapse and humanitarian catastrophe. | We need justice. But that word — Justice! — despite all…

Editor (2021-11-23). The U.S. Was Not Prepared for a Pandemic — Free Market Capitalism and Government Deregulation May Be to Blame. scheerpost.com Elanah Uretsky / By Viacheslav Lopatin on It's unclear when the pandemic will come to an end. What may be an even more important question is whether the U.S. will be prepared for the next one. The past year and a half suggests that the answer may be no. | As a

Helena Sheehan (2021-11-23). Helena Sheehan — 'Science and Technology Studies: A Marxist Narrative'. mronline.org The author of several books, including the definitive study 'Marxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History', Professor Sheehan traces the historical entanglements of Science and Technology Studies with Marxist thought, as well as her own biography as a scholar and activist.

WSWS (2021-11-23). UPMC hospital workers in Pittsburgh demand better wages and staffing. wsws.org Several hundred staff at UPMC hospitals in Pittsburgh staged a one-day strike Thursday called by the Service employees International Union, which is seeking union recognition at the giant hospital chain.

Yuri Martins Fontes (2021-11-23). Caio Prado e o fascismo como estratégia do capitalismo em crise (Parte IV). globalresearch.ca Convencido que o Brasil estava na "iminência de um retorno ao passado", conforme afirma ao final de seu

Stuart Rees (2021-11-23). 'Can do capitalism' is outdated and selfish. greenleft.org.au Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been promoting "can do capitalism" when Australia needs policies that treat all equally, argues Stuart Rees.

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-11-23). NAM: How the Military-Industrial Complex Sidelined Peace and Disarmament. libya360.wordpress.com ND Jayaprakash The untiring efforts of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Indonesian President Sukarno, Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, salvaged the objects and purpose of the Bandung Conference in 1961. That year, 25 countries—eleven each from Asia and Africa and Yugoslavia, Cuba, and Cyprus—formed the Non-Aligned Movement…

Editor (2021-11-23). What role does the military play in climate change? mronline.org A gaping hole in the COP26 official agenda was the oversized role of the military industrial complex in environmental devastation. The US is a global leader on this front with the Pentagon being a bigger polluter than 140 countries combined.

Kevin Mwanza (2021-11-23). Feds Target BlockFi DeFi Lending Product. moguldom.com Crypto exchange BlockFi Inc. is being scrutinized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its popular decentralized finance (DeFi) lending product that lets users deposit Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and earn interest on their holdings. Regulatory actions have been taken against BlockFi in five states — New Jersey, Alabama, Kentucky, Vermont and Texas …

Anonymous Contributor (2021-11-23). Oaxaca: Launch of the Campaign: "It's Not Development — It's Dispossession!" itsgoingdown.org The following is a statement from the Oaxacan Assembly in Defense of Land and Territory, translated by Scott Campbell, regarding the launch of a new permanent campaign against extractivist, neoliberal megaprojects. Launch of the Campaign: "It's Not Development — It's Dispossession!" We, the communities and organizations that have joined together since 2019 as the Oaxacan…

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-11-23). Social Policy in Africa: The Root Causes of Social Problems. libya360.wordpress.com Anna Wolkenhauer Anna Wolkenhauer commends a new book, Social Policy in the African Context, edited by ROAPE's Jimi Adesina, which rescues social policy from the assault of neoliberalism by carving out the necessary space for sovereign and transformative policymaking that can tackle the "root causes" of social problems. With its timely and important intervention into the…

VINS (2021-11-23). School Sued for Denying Equal Education to Students with Disabilities. projectcensored.org Pittsburg Unified School District, in the Bay Area of California, is accused of unequal opportunities for disabled students and will be taken to court by ACLU. On Monday, September 13,…

_____ (2021-11-23). Five Reasons Why The Left Won In Venezuela. popularresistance.org For the first time in four years, every major opposition party in Venezuela participated in elections. For the fifth time in four years, the left won in a landslide. Voters elected 23 governors, 335 mayors, 253 state legislators and 2,471 municipal councilors. The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won at least 19 of 23 governorships (one race remains too close to call) and the Caracas mayoralty in the November 21 "mega-elections." Of the 335 mayoral races, the vote count has been completed in 322 of them, with PSUV and its coalition taking 205, opposition coalitions 96 and other parties 21. Ove…

_____ (2021-11-23). Venezuela: Chavismo Wins Governorships In 20 Of 23 States. popularresistance.org Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) President Pedro Calzadilla reported a 41.80 percent turnout in Sunday's Subnational elections. | Having counted 90.21 percent of the ballots cast in the elections, Calzadilla reaffirmed that the elections took place in a peaceful environment. | The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) candidates hold leads in 20 out of 23 states for the governor's race. | Meanwhile, the opposition coalition United Democratic Table (MUD) candidates secured a lead in the Cojedes and Zulia states. Neighbors Force (FV) party secured the other governor post for opposition sectors in t…

José Manuel Blanco Diaz (2021-11-23). Venezuela's CNE Issues 2nd Report: PSUV Sweeps Vast Majority of Mayoralties. orinocotribune.com This Monday, November 22, the president of Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), Pedro Calzadilla, issued results from the municipal elections that were held, alongside regional elections, across the country on November 21. | "For the positions of mayors, we have 322 of the 335 positions in dispute, 322 of these can be judged. Of these, 205 are for the PSUV, 59 to MUD, 37 to the Democratic Alliance, and 21 to other parties and alliances," Calzadilla said. | On the regional level, the leadership of 18 state governments were won by President Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), while candida…

Ben Norton (2021-11-23). Venezuela's socialists win elections in landslide — so US tries to discredit them. thegrayzone.com The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won the November 21 mega-elections in a landslide, getting more votes in 20 of 23 states and the capital Caracas. So the US government responded by trying to discredit the vote. Venezuelan journalist Diego Sequera speaks about the elections, the historic victory of the ruling party of President Nicolás Maduro, and Washington's attempt to de-legitimize the process. The US State Department published a statement attacking Venezuela's elections, claiming they were "flawed" and that …

Peoples Dispatch (2021-11-23). Chavismo's victory in Venezuela's subnational elections hailed across region. peoplesdispatch.org Leftist and progressive leaders across the region hailed the victory of the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), a coalition of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and other Chavista forces. The GPP won overwhelmingly in the elections held on Sunday…

José Luis Granados Ceja (2021-11-23). Socialists Secure Massive Victory in Venezuelan Elections. truthout.org The United Socialist Party of Venezuela Preliminary results from the country's electoral authority showed Chavistas winning up to 20 of the 23 governorships that were up for grabs. The res…

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