Kamala Emanuel (2021-12-11). Assange extradition 'an attack on us all'. greenleft.org.au The British decision to extradite Julian Assange is an attack on us all, argues Socialist Alliance Senate candidate Kamala Emanuel.

Newsroom (2021-12-11). Public-Private Collaboration Will Define New Era for Cities. moderndiplomacy.eu At the World Economic Forum's inaugural Urban Transformation Summit, which closed on Wednesday, global leaders underscored the need for increased public-private collaboration to capitalize on new infrastructure funding and tackle growing urban challenges around the globe. "Our cities and our communities are changing right before our eyes. Digitization is transforming urban economies, public health and …

Joris Leverink (2021-12-11). India's community health workers' struggle for recognition. roarmag.org Asha worker marking the finger of a baby girl after administering a polio vaccine in Delhi, India. June 28, 2021. Photo: PradeepGaurs / Shutterstock.com | This essay is published in collaboration with Public Services International | | Over the last year-and-a-half, one of the most visible groups of workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in India have been the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), a cadre of community health workers appointed by the National Health Mission (NHM). These hitherto invisible women were seen not only going hou…

WSWS (2021-12-11). Fifty-five immigrants killed, over 100 injured in Mexico truck crash. wsws.org The catastrophic accident in southern Mexico came as Washington renews its "stay in Mexico" policy and the Mexican government collaborates in the repression of migrants.

Newsroom (2021-12-11). Insect and Hydroponic Farming Could Boost Food Security and the Circular Economy. moderndiplomacy.eu Insect and hydroponic crop farming, for both human food and animal feed, have the potential to increase access to nutritious food, while creating millions of jobs, improving the climate and the environment, and strengthening national economies, according to a new World Bank report 'Insect and Hydroponic Farming in Africa: The New Circular Food Economy'. "The …

Staff (2021-12-11). Venezuela: VP Delcy Rodríguez Presents 2022 Budget to National Assembly. orinocotribune.com The Executive Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, emphasized this Friday, December 10, that 2022 will be the year of the recovery of the bolívar as Venezuela's national currency. | During the presentation of the budget and annual plan 2022 before the National Assembly (NA), Rodríguez affirmed that strengthening the bolívar as the national currency will be the center of the economic actions of the national government next year. In this regard, she pointed out that the government is refusing to dollarize the economy. | "We come from the year 2020, a year of pandemic, but 2021 has also been a year of pande…

The Lancet (2021-12-11). [Editorial] Preventing violence against women: beyond 16 days. thelancet.com 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual, global civil society campaign calling for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls, ended on Dec 10. This year, the 30th anniversary of the event, carries particular poignancy. Violence against women and girls, already at high levels before COVID-19, has risen markedly during the pandemic and increased in severity, according to Oxfam. Government responses to the pandemic included lockdowns, suspension of social services, and economic hardship, many of which had the consequences of placing women at increased risk of violence, w…

Anand Naidoo (2021-12-11). The Heat: 20th Anniversary of China at WTO. america.cgtn.com 20 years of China's presence at the World Trade Organization. We examine its legacy and impact. And later, an important economic meeting in China that sets benchmarks for 2022.

Astra Taylor (2021-12-11). "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset" zcomm.org Calls Mount to Cancel Debt & Halt Wealth Transfer to the Rich…

WSWS (2021-12-11). US consumer prices rise 6.8 percent, near 40-year high. wsws.org The average family faces $4,000 more in annual expenses than one year ago.

Nguyen Huu Loi (2021-12-11). Should we start rethinking urban agriculture and food provisioning? moderndiplomacy.eu With rising global environmental effects and food production and consumption security challenges, establishing sustainable and resilient food systems will necessitate innovative methods, technologies, techniques, and procedures. Food production systems, particularly those in cities, have experienced significant innovation and improvement in recent years. Distributed food production systems and urban agriculture are becoming more prominent as a …

Coral Wynter (2021-12-11). Protesting BlackRock's support for Adani. greenleft.org.au A protest called on United States multinational investment management corporation BlackRock not to fund Adani. Coral Wynter reports.

WSWS (2021-12-11). Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand. wsws.org Indian ordnance factory workers hold national strike; Odisha state childcare workers demand higher wages; Australian plasterboard workers locked out; New Zealand rail union calls off strike.

WSWS (2021-12-11). Socialist Equality Party to continue campaign against Australia's anti-democratic electoral laws. wsws.org Whether the SEP is registered or not, the party will stand candidates in the looming federal election to take out to the broadest possible audience the fight for socialism and the overturn of capitalism.

Sara Flounders (2021-12-11). New variant, same problem: Joint U.S.-China solidarity book tackles COVID. workers.org The continuing U.S. COVID crisis was predicted in a book published a year ago. "Capitalism on a Ventilator," a unique anthology by 50 progressive commentators — written even before the vaccines were rolled out — explained why the much anticipated vaccines alone could not solve the soaring COVID death rate . . . |

WSWS (2021-12-11). Youth mental health issues in the US have skyrocketed during pandemic. wsws.org The US Surgeon General reports that symptoms of depression and anxiety have doubled.

Caitlin A. Johnstone (2021-12-10). Super serious news reporting: notes from the Edge of The Narrative Matrix. mronline.org Hi I'm a very serious news reporter. The Russians are controlling our thoughts with Facebook memes and scrambling our brains with invisible ray gun attacks. In other news, capitalism is working fine and our wars defend freedom and democracy. The government never lies. Here's Bob with the weather.

_____ (2021-12-10). Inside The Secretive World Of Union Busting. popularresistance.org While union membership has risen slightly since 2018 thanks to some major organizing wins, and public approval of unions is at its highest level since 1965, labor has a lot of ground to make up. Union membership plummeted from 20.1% of American wage and salary workers in 1983 to just 10.8% in 2020. One of the biggest reasons for that decline is the use of well-funded, aggressive campaigns by employers to fight off unions, conducted largely through expensive union avoidance consultants and lawyers. In 2019, it was estimated that companies spend at least $340 million per year on such consultants and often engage in…

Mark Gruenberg (2021-12-10). Starbucks Workers United scores first-ever union win at big coffee chain. peoplesworld.org BUFFALO, N.Y.—Starbucks Workers United broke a significant barrier on December 9 with the first-ever worker win at the big retail coffee chain. Workers at the Elmwood store in Buffalo voted 19-8 to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, the National Labor Relations Board officer announced. The union also won 15-9 at a second store, but there …

WSWS (2021-12-10). Australian Labor Party helps government ram through another anti-democratic electoral law. wsws.org The latest bipartisan bill deepens the attack on basic democratic rights made when the two ruling parties joined hands in August to rush through party deregistration laws.

Sharon Zhang (2021-12-10). Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez Celebrate Starbucks Workers' Historic Union Victory. truthout.org Progressive lawmakers are celebrating after Starbucks workers in Buffalo triumphed over nearly insurmountable odds to form the company's first-ever union on Thursday, a sign that the reawakening U.S. labor movement is growing stronger. | Workers at

Newsroom (2021-12-10). Illegal bets add up to 1.7 trillion dollars each year. moderndiplomacy.eu Up to $1.7 trillion is estimated to be wagered on illicit betting markets each year, according to a new report released on Thursday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The publication, the first-ever Global Report on Corruption in Sport, asks for an urgent, unified and international response to fight malpractice and fraud across the sector. The ground-breaking new report was issued to coincide with …

WSWS (2021-12-10). Washington, DC transit system announces it will keep defective train cars out of service for the rest of 2021. wsws.org The emergency removal of over half the transit authority's rail cars in October has exposed the dangers which the region's political establishment had been willing to expose the public to in order to keep the economy running.

Mark Gruenberg (2021-12-10). Corporate monopoly, other factors hamper workers economically. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—Why can't workers get ahead? Economically, that is. Median wages for the broad U.S. middle class have been virtually stagnant for at least 40 years, adjusted for inflation, even as productivity has galloped ahead. The median for the bottom 20% has actually dropped. Meanwhile, the rich, especially the top tenth, have reaped the rewards. That …

Staff (2021-12-10). Minister Plasencia: Capitalism is in Crisis and We are Called to Change Course. orinocotribune.com This Thursday, December 9, Venezuela's Minister for Foreign Affairs Félix Plasencia inaugurated the World People's Congress for Peace, which was organized to present proposals that can counteract the current challenges facing humanity and the planet in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. | "We met to discuss the need to deepen the guarantee of political, economic and social rights of humanity, for the welfare of the peoples," said Venezuela's top diplomat at the beginning of the conference, which is held online. | Plasencia stated that it is necessary to "change course" in the face of the new challenges arising i…

Shawgi Tell (2021-12-10). Will Billions More Vaccination Shots Stop Continual Economic and Social Decline? dissidentvoice.org Like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and other imperialist organizations, the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) recently announced that the forecast for global economic recovery will be revised downward in light of the Omicron virus variant that emerged a few weeks ago .1 Predictably, the OECD claimed that "a swifter roll-out of …

MD Staff (2021-12-10). Africa Free Trade Area, likely spur for growth and development. moderndiplomacy.eu With productivity-boosting measures, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement could reduce poverty and inequality while spurring sustainable and inclusive growth, according to a report launched on Wednesday by the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD. The Economic Development in Africa Report 2021, underscores the importance of infrastructure financing that helps link up urban …

Newsroom (2021-12-10). Cambodia Is Now Living with COVID-19: World Bank. moderndiplomacy.eu Cambodia's real GDP growth is projected to reach 2.2% this year, impeded by slow growth in services including tourism, and in construction, and real estate. While, other traditional growth drivers, especially the garment, travel goods, footwear, and bicycle manufacturing industries, as well as agriculture, are underpinning the economic recovery, according to Living with COVID-19, the …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-10). Video: #Yes, It's a "Killer Vaccine": Michel Chossudovsky. globalresearch.ca The unspoken truth is that the novel coronavirus provides a pretext to powerful financial interests and corrupt politicians to precipitate the entire World into a spiral of mass unemployment, bankruptcy, extreme poverty and despair.

Liberation staff, Birmingham (2021-12-10). Hundreds facing removal in Huntsville public housing complex. liberationnews.org Butler Terrace, a low-income public housing complex in Huntsville, Alabama will be demolished to make way for middle-income apartments.

Mary Triny Mena (2021-12-10). Venezuelans turn to dollars to combat hyperinflation. america.cgtn.com With Venezuela gripped by hyperinflation, the use of dollars has emerged as an alternative to overcome the lack of bolivar bills and to protect the income of citizens.

The Canary (2021-12-10). Labour brands investigation a 'mockery' as standards adviser demands clarification from PM. thecanary.co Lord Geidt demanded clarification from No 10 after an Electoral Commission investigation into the refurbishment of Boris Johnson's flat raised concerns the prime minister may have misled the standards adviser. Downing Street did not deny suggestions Geidt had been angered by the watchdog's report raising doubts about Johnson's denial that he knew a Tory peer was behind donations for the works costing more than £112,500. | Labour has called for the ministerial standards adviser to reopen his investigation into the funding of the lavish renovations over "inconsistencies" between his report and a damning ru…

Amy Goodman (2021-12-10). "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset": Calls Grow to Keep Student Loan Moratorium. truthout.org Image Credit: The Intercept | As calls grow for Biden to extend the moratorium on student debt, we speak with the Debt Collective's Astra Taylor and feature her new film for The Intercept, "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset," animated by artist Molly Crabapple. The $15 trillion in U.S. household debt is "a form of wealth transfer" from the poor to the rich, Taylor says. "People are in debt by design." | TRANSCRIPT: | This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. | AMY GOOD…

Karen Conner (2021-12-10). Reopening Issues Are Still a Big Factor Driving Inflation In November. cepr.net Overall, reopening issues are still a big factor in inflation. Energy prices in the CPI are lagging world prices, and are almost certain to be sharply negative (lowering inflation) in December.

David Sirota (2021-12-10). VIDEO: Corporate Media's Inflation Lies. dailyposter.com

_____ (2021-12-10). Court Ruling Threatens Eviction Of Landless Workers Movement Camp. popularresistance.org Valinhos, Brazil – The camp was created on April 14, 2018 and named after Rio de Janeiro socialist city councilwoman Marielle Franco who was murdered a month before. Since then, the residents have transformed the abandoned land into a thriving community that provides housing for the residents, a school, a community kitchen, and produces agroecological products and handicrafts. They now face eviction after a court ruling that clearly favors real estate speculation and generating profit for its investors over the social and legal right to housing and agrarian reform. | On 23 November, the Sà£o Paulo Court of…

_____ (2021-12-10). Why Thousands Of Serbians Have Been Rallying Against Rio Tinto And The Government. popularresistance.org For two weekends in a row, thousands of demonstrators across Serbia have blocked major roads and brought the country to a standstill, concerned their land, water and air risk being exploited. They're angry over what they're calling a looming ecological disaster, and accusing the government of attempting to pass laws that would allow foreign investors to seize land, and disregard environmental regulations.

_____ (2021-12-10). Why Thousands Of Serbians Have Been Rallying Against Rio Tinto. popularresistance.org For two weekends in a row, thousands of demonstrators across Serbia have blocked major roads and brought the country to a standstill, concerned their land, water and air risk being exploited. | They're angry over what they're calling a looming ecological disaster, and accusing the government of attempting to pass laws that would allow foreign investors to seize land, and disregard environmental regulations. | The most famous name among those investors is Anglo-Australian company Rio Tinto, which plans to build Europe's largest lithium mine in the Jadar Valley near the western city of Loznica. | The Serbian govern…

In Defense of Liberation! (2021-12-10). Organizing isn't Just Some Romantic Idea, it's Practical Steps and Action! anchor.fm In this episode I talk about the fact that what we need today across the world has already been tried, built, and able to grow in many places around the world; we need to only learn. Communists, socialists, and Marxists all over the world have been building revolutions and mass organizations for centuries. Our objective? Organize the people. But that's not just some slogan, that is a necessary step towards building a New World. If the people are an educated as to what's oppressing them, that they're exploited and HOW, and if they don't learn who their comrades in that fight are, then they lose time and time again…

WSWS (2021-12-10). Growth of the class struggle in Australia highlights need for rank-and-file committees. wsws.org A small but significant increase in industrial action points to mounting social and political opposition in the working class.

David Cavendish (2021-12-10). La cumbre de democracia de Biden es un buen momento para debatir la 'Bill of Rights Socialism'. peoplesworld.org La democracia estadounidense está en peligro. Solo hay que seguir las noticias de los últimos años para darse cuenta de la peligrosa situación en la que se encuentra este país. El ejemplo más obvio y dramático fue la insurrección del 6 de enero, cuando una turba de partidarios de Donald Trump irrumpió en el Capitolio …

The Socialist Program (2021-12-10). The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union — Lessons for Socialists. liberationnews.org The Russian Revolution in 1917 brought the Bolsheviks to power. For the first time in history the working class seized and held state power. What was the experience of the Soviet Union? How did it change global politics in the 20th century? What did socialism achieve and what caused the Soviet Union to fall in 1991?>

WSWS (2021-12-10). The Kathleen Stock affair: Identity politics versus socialist politics and democratic rights. wsws.org After dominating life on campus for years, identity politics has produced two results: the machinery for anti-democratic crackdowns which can now be taken over by the government and the right, and a growing resentment against what calls itself "progressive" politics that greases the right's wheels.

Caitlin A. Johnstone (2021-12-10). Super serious news reporting: notes from the Edge of The Narrative Matrix. mronline.org Hi I'm a very serious news reporter. The Russians are controlling our thoughts with Facebook memes and scrambling our brains with invisible ray gun attacks. In other news, capitalism is working fine and our wars defend freedom and democracy. The government never lies. Here's Bob with the weather.

_____ (2021-12-10). Inside The Secretive World Of Union Busting. popularresistance.org While union membership has risen slightly since 2018 thanks to some major organizing wins, and public approval of unions is at its highest level since 1965, labor has a lot of ground to make up. Union membership plummeted from 20.1% of American wage and salary workers in 1983 to just 10.8% in 2020. One of the biggest reasons for that decline is the use of well-funded, aggressive campaigns by employers to fight off unions, conducted largely through expensive union avoidance consultants and lawyers. In 2019, it was estimated that companies spend at least $340 million per year on such consultants and often engage in…

Mark Gruenberg (2021-12-10). Starbucks Workers United scores first-ever union win at big coffee chain. peoplesworld.org BUFFALO, N.Y.—Starbucks Workers United broke a significant barrier on December 9 with the first-ever worker win at the big retail coffee chain. Workers at the Elmwood store in Buffalo voted 19-8 to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, the National Labor Relations Board officer announced. The union also won 15-9 at a second store, but there …

Sharon Zhang (2021-12-10). Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez Celebrate Starbucks Workers' Historic Union Victory. truthout.org Progressive lawmakers are celebrating after Starbucks workers in Buffalo triumphed over nearly insurmountable odds to form the company's first-ever union on Thursday, a sign that the reawakening U.S. labor movement is growing stronger. | Workers at

WSWS (2021-12-10). Australian Labor Party helps government ram through another anti-democratic electoral law. wsws.org The latest bipartisan bill deepens the attack on basic democratic rights made when the two ruling parties joined hands in August to rush through party deregistration laws.

Newsroom (2021-12-10). Illegal bets add up to 1.7 trillion dollars each year. moderndiplomacy.eu Up to $1.7 trillion is estimated to be wagered on illicit betting markets each year, according to a new report released on Thursday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The publication, the first-ever Global Report on Corruption in Sport, asks for an urgent, unified and international response to fight malpractice and fraud across the sector. The ground-breaking new report was issued to coincide with …

WSWS (2021-12-10). Washington, DC transit system announces it will keep defective train cars out of service for the rest of 2021. wsws.org The emergency removal of over half the transit authority's rail cars in October has exposed the dangers which the region's political establishment had been willing to expose the public to in order to keep the economy running.

Mark Gruenberg (2021-12-10). Corporate monopoly, other factors hamper workers economically. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—Why can't workers get ahead? Economically, that is. Median wages for the broad U.S. middle class have been virtually stagnant for at least 40 years, adjusted for inflation, even as productivity has galloped ahead. The median for the bottom 20% has actually dropped. Meanwhile, the rich, especially the top tenth, have reaped the rewards. That …

MD Staff (2021-12-10). Africa Free Trade Area, likely spur for growth and development. moderndiplomacy.eu With productivity-boosting measures, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement could reduce poverty and inequality while spurring sustainable and inclusive growth, according to a report launched on Wednesday by the UN trade and development body, UNCTAD. The Economic Development in Africa Report 2021, underscores the importance of infrastructure financing that helps link up urban …

Newsroom (2021-12-10). Cambodia Is Now Living with COVID-19: World Bank. moderndiplomacy.eu Cambodia's real GDP growth is projected to reach 2.2% this year, impeded by slow growth in services including tourism, and in construction, and real estate. While, other traditional growth drivers, especially the garment, travel goods, footwear, and bicycle manufacturing industries, as well as agriculture, are underpinning the economic recovery, according to Living with COVID-19, the …

Staff (2021-12-10). Minister Plasencia: Capitalism is in Crisis and We are Called to Change Course. orinocotribune.com This Thursday, December 9, Venezuela's Minister for Foreign Affairs Félix Plasencia inaugurated the World People's Congress for Peace, which was organized to present proposals that can counteract the current challenges facing humanity and the planet in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. | "We met to discuss the need to deepen the guarantee of political, economic and social rights of humanity, for the welfare of the peoples," said Venezuela's top diplomat at the beginning of the conference, which is held online. | Plasencia stated that it is necessary to "change course" in the face of the new challenges arising i…

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-10). Video: #Yes, It's a "Killer Vaccine": Michel Chossudovsky. globalresearch.ca The unspoken truth is that the novel coronavirus provides a pretext to powerful financial interests and corrupt politicians to precipitate the entire World into a spiral of mass unemployment, bankruptcy, extreme poverty and despair.

Liberation staff, Birmingham (2021-12-10). Hundreds facing removal in Huntsville public housing complex. liberationnews.org Butler Terrace, a low-income public housing complex in Huntsville, Alabama will be demolished to make way for middle-income apartments.

The Canary (2021-12-10). Labour brands investigation a 'mockery' as standards adviser demands clarification from PM. thecanary.co Lord Geidt demanded clarification from No 10 after an Electoral Commission investigation into the refurbishment of Boris Johnson's flat raised concerns the prime minister may have misled the standards adviser. Downing Street did not deny suggestions Geidt had been angered by the watchdog's report raising doubts about Johnson's denial that he knew a Tory peer was behind donations for the works costing more than £112,500. | Labour has called for the ministerial standards adviser to reopen his investigation into the funding of the lavish renovations over "inconsistencies" between his report and a damning ru…

Amy Goodman (2021-12-10). "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset": Calls Grow to Keep Student Loan Moratorium. truthout.org Image Credit: The Intercept | As calls grow for Biden to extend the moratorium on student debt, we speak with the Debt Collective's Astra Taylor and feature her new film for The Intercept, "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset," animated by artist Molly Crabapple. The $15 trillion in U.S. household debt is "a form of wealth transfer" from the poor to the rich, Taylor says. "People are in debt by design." | TRANSCRIPT: | This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. | AMY GOOD…

Karen Conner (2021-12-10). Reopening Issues Are Still a Big Factor Driving Inflation In November. cepr.net Overall, reopening issues are still a big factor in inflation. Energy prices in the CPI are lagging world prices, and are almost certain to be sharply negative (lowering inflation) in December.

_____ (2021-12-10). Why Thousands Of Serbians Have Been Rallying Against Rio Tinto And The Government. popularresistance.org For two weekends in a row, thousands of demonstrators across Serbia have blocked major roads and brought the country to a standstill, concerned their land, water and air risk being exploited. They're angry over what they're calling a looming ecological disaster, and accusing the government of attempting to pass laws that would allow foreign investors to seize land, and disregard environmental regulations.

In Defense of Liberation! (2021-12-10). Organizing isn't Just Some Romantic Idea, it's Practical Steps and Action! anchor.fm In this episode I talk about the fact that what we need today across the world has already been tried, built, and able to grow in many places around the world; we need to only learn. Communists, socialists, and Marxists all over the world have been building revolutions and mass organizations for centuries. Our objective? Organize the people. But that's not just some slogan, that is a necessary step towards building a New World. If the people are an educated as to what's oppressing them, that they're exploited and HOW, and if they don't learn who their comrades in that fight are, then they lose time and time again…

WSWS (2021-12-10). Growth of the class struggle in Australia highlights need for rank-and-file committees. wsws.org A small but significant increase in industrial action points to mounting social and political opposition in the working class.

David Cavendish (2021-12-10). La cumbre de democracia de Biden es un buen momento para debatir la 'Bill of Rights Socialism'. peoplesworld.org La democracia estadounidense está en peligro. Solo hay que seguir las noticias de los últimos años para darse cuenta de la peligrosa situación en la que se encuentra este país. El ejemplo más obvio y dramático fue la insurrección del 6 de enero, cuando una turba de partidarios de Donald Trump irrumpió en el Capitolio …

The Socialist Program (2021-12-10). The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union — Lessons for Socialists. liberationnews.org The Russian Revolution in 1917 brought the Bolsheviks to power. For the first time in history the working class seized and held state power. What was the experience of the Soviet Union? How did it change global politics in the 20th century? What did socialism achieve and what caused the Soviet Union to fall in 1991?>

WSWS (2021-12-10). The Kathleen Stock affair: Identity politics versus socialist politics and democratic rights. wsws.org After dominating life on campus for years, identity politics has produced two results: the machinery for anti-democratic crackdowns which can now be taken over by the government and the right, and a growing resentment against what calls itself "progressive" politics that greases the right's wheels.

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-12-09). Ukraine: The Danger is NATO. libya360.wordpress.com Fabrizio Casari Putin-Biden summit focuses on Ukraine. Image: TASS The West had better abandon the war it has opened against Russia, China, India, Iran and others for absolute domination of the planet by a superpower that loses wars, markets and leadership every day. To think that the world will stand by while a decadent empire…

Mark Gruenberg (2021-12-09). AFT takes lead on push to increase state and local tax deduction. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON (PAI)—With Democratic President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act still hung up in the Senate, the Teachers (AFT) took the lead in pushing one element: A larger itemized personal income tax deduction for state and local tax (SALT) payments. "We're fighting for it," AFT President Randi Weingarten told an outdoor press conference December 8, …

Mark Gruenberg (2021-12-09). AFGE gets legal win vs. ex-Pres. Trump's Education Department. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON —Union-hating former GOP Oval Office occupant Donald Trump and his Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, may both be gone, but workers keep racking up wins against them. The latest came December 3, when David Welch, the administrative law judge for the Federal Labor Relations Authority, found DeVos's agency guilty of 14 counts of unfair labor …

People's World (2021-12-09). People's World takes home wins at 2021 Labor Media Awards. peoplesworld.org The International Labor Communications Association has announced the winners for the 2021 Labor Media Awards. People's World was honored this year with six awards. The articles below took home prizes in various categories. ILCA will present the awards at its convention on Dec. 9, 2021. Seeking justice for Breonna Taylor: Essential health worker killed …

Steven Lee (2021-12-09). "We Are Chun Tae-il!": the South Korean workers struggle continues. peoplesdispatch.org It is a cloudy afternoon on November 13. | A young man steps out into the streets of Seoul, holding a copy of the South Korean labor laws. Gasoline fire consumes his body with every step. With labor movements suffocated by the regime, this is his last declaration against inhuman exploitation. | "We are not machines," he cries through the flames. "Do not let my death be in vain!" | His name is Chun Tae-il. | Fifty-one years later, clouds once again fill the sky on November 13. | The shrill sound of whistles pierce the air. The police have already cordoned off the site of Chun's immolation to prevent the workers fr…

Sharon Zhang (2021-12-09). Buffalo Workers Overwhelmingly Vote to Form First-Ever Starbucks Union. truthout.org In a historic victory for the labor movement, workers at one of Starbucks's 9,000 corporate-owned locations have voted to form the first-ever Starbucks union in the country, after facing Workers at the Elmwood location in Buffalo voted 19 to 8 in favor of unionizing under Starbucks Workers United, which is under the Service…

Mark Niu (2021-12-09). Robots could help mitigate the Great Resignation. america.cgtn.com There is a short supply of labor for certain positions in the U.S. amid COVID-19 outbreak. Some restaurants are turning to technology to do jobs they are having trouble hiring for. See how robots help mitigate the Great Resignation.

Peter Koenig (2021-12-09). The Farce and Diabolical Agenda of A "Universal Lockdown" globalresearch.ca First published on May 1, 2020 | First comes the farce, an (almost) universal government lie around the globe about a deadly virus, WHO named COVID-19. The decision for a global lockdown — literally for the collapse of the world economy …

_____ (2021-12-09). Does the Deepening Crisis in Turkey Manifest an End to the Erdogan Era? journal-neo.org Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is experiencing his worst moments as head of state today. Social and political tensions in the country are becoming increasingly evident. The economy is collapsing, the value of the national currency is relentlessly falling, and the number of poor people is skyrocketing. According to recently published data, the nation's citizens …

Editor2 (2021-12-09). China Plays a Crucial Role Supporting Progress and Sovereignty in Latin America. orinocotribune.com By Carlos Martinez — Dec 6, 2021 | In the last two decades, economic links between Latin America and the People's Republic of China have been expanding at a dizzying rate. | Bilateral trade in 2000 was just $12 billion (1 per cent of Latin American's total trade); now it stands at $315bn. In the same time period, China's foreign direct investment in Latin America has increased by a factor of five. | Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, 19 of the 33 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region have signed up to the China-led global infrastructure development strategy. | Infrastruc…

teleSUR (2021-12-09). People's Congress for World Peace Kicks Off in Venezuela. telesurenglish.net The World People's Congress for Peace began Thursday in Venezuela with the participation of Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia, who highlighted the struggle to guarantee political, economic and social rights to counteract the current multidimensional crisis. | "We are meeting to discuss the need to deepen the guarantee of political, economic and social rights of humanity for the welfare of the peoples," he said. | RELATED: |

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-09). Sri Lankan public section workers stage strike seeking salary hike. peoplesdispatch.org After teachers and health workers, public sector workers in Sri Lanka struck working demanding higher wages in the face of repeated price hikes and an economic crisis…

Staff (2021-12-09). "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset": Calls Mount to Cancel Debt & Halt Wealth Transfer to the Rich. democracynow.org As calls grow for Biden to extend the moratorium on student debt, we speak with the Debt Collective's Astra Taylor and feature her new film for The Intercept, "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset," animated by artist Molly Crabapple. The $15 trillion in U.S. household debt is "a form of wealth transfer" from the poor to the rich, Taylor says. "People are in debt by design."

teleSUR (2021-12-09). Cuba Extends Tax-Free Importation of Food, Toiletries, Medicine. telesurenglish.net On July 16, 2021, the Ministry of Finance and Prices issued Resolution 309 published in the Official Gazette No. 62, which makes the import of foodstuffs, toiletries and medicines in luggage accompanied by passengers arriving in the country more flexible until December 31, 2021, a measure that has had a favorable impact on the population. | Cuban customs authorities have extended until June 30, 2022 the non-commercial import of medicines, foodstuffs and toiletries free of payment. These products will have no value limits and will enter through the passenger route as accompanied baggage.

Kevin Mwanza (2021-12-09). New BIS Research Paper: DeFi Is 'Decentralization Illusion', Favors Concentration of Power. moguldom.com Decentralized finance (DeFi) could be an illusion with a centralized problem that could make it susceptible to regulation, according to a quarterly review by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). DeFi is an umbrella term for a financial system that functions without third-party intermediaries like banks — one that is geared toward disrupting the traditional finance …

Nora Barrows-Friedman (2021-12-09). US college bars trauma services for Palestinians. electronicintifada.net George Washington University forced mental health office to revoke support during Gaza attacks after Israel lobby group complained.

Isheka N. Harrison (2021-12-09). After America Pissed Away Over $2 Trillion In Afghanistan, Biden, Pelosi And Democrats Approve $768 Billion Military Budget. moguldom.com The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $768 billion military budget on Tuesday, Dec. 7, with overwhelming bipartisan support. Officially named the National Defense Authorization Act, the compromise bill passed 363-70, with 169 Democrats joining 194 Republicans in approving the 2,000 page legislation. The bill — which increases military spending at a historic rate — …

Staff (2021-12-09). "An Outrage": House Passes Largest Military Budget in Generations Despite End of Afghanistan War. democracynow.org President Biden may soon approve the largest military spending bill since World War II, which ramps up spending to counter China and Russia. Separately, the Senate voted down a bipartisan bid by Senators Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Mike Lee to halt $650 million in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid the devastating ongoing war in Yemen. "The last thing we need to do is be throwing more money at the Pentagon," says William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. "This whole idea that China and Russia are military threats to the United States has primarily been…

John Feffer (2021-12-09). South Korea's Green New Deal: Myths versus Realities. fpif.org The Green New Deal is a progressive wish list that combines the reduction of carbon emissions with investments in Green technologies and Green jobs. In the United States, the Green New Deal has largely remained aspirational: a non-binding resolution that has not yet come to a vote in Congress. | In South Korea, on the other hand, the Green New Deal is a policy reality. | In 2020, the ruling Democratic Party put its version of a Green New Deal at the center of its platform. When South Korea held its parliamentary election that April in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, that platform helped propel the liberal Dem…

Editor (2021-12-09). COVID Omicron: The case for vaccine justice. mronline.org Britain is one of the main countries to have blocked the global dropping of patents for coronavirus vaccines. If there is a major outbreak of the new Omicron variant in Britain, it will be directly due to the racist and profiteering policy of the Tory government, writes rs21 member Graham Checkley.

Editor (2021-12-09). 'Why are you acting the Marxist?' Frédéric Lordon on Thomas Piketty's 'Capital and Ideology'. mronline.org On 31 January, at the Bourse du travail in Paris, Frédéric Lordon debated with Thomas Piketty on his book 'Capital and Ideology', at the invitation of Les Amis de L'Humanité. The following text is Frédéric Lordon's opening speech, with minimal revisions.

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-12-09). Xenophobia, Narrow Nationalism, & Capitalism. libya360.wordpress.com Ahjamu Umi There is a devastating and unfortunate manifestation to the ruthless oppression African people have faced for over 500 years that we must discuss. Capitalism, built and maintained through its barbaric and horrific exploitation of cheap African human and material resources, has always utilized systemic white supremacy as its chief weapon to perpetuate its…

Ann Brown (2021-12-09). Computer Scientist Craig Wright Claiming to Be Creator of Bitcoin Wins Court Battle Over $50 Billion of Bitcoin. moguldom.com An Australian computer scientist claiming to be bitcoin's creator has won a dispute over $50 billion in bitcoin. On Dec. 6, Craig Wright was victorious in a civil trial. In the Florida lawsuit, Wright was accused of interfering with the now-deceased David Kleiman's bitcoin assets and intellectual property, Bitcoin.com reported. The family of Kleiman, Wright's former business partner, alleged it was …

José Manuel Blanco Diaz (2021-12-09). Are the Candidacies of Jorge Arreaza and Claudio Fermín Legal? orinocotribune.com As the January 9 elections in the state of Barinas approach, the temperature of the political debate in Venezuela is heating up between the four opposition candidates and the candidate for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)/Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), Jorge Arreaza. | Within both the right-wing groups and the Chavistas, a debate was opened regarding the various options that are on the table. This political landscape was formed after the inconclusive elections of November 21 in Barinas, and the National Electoral Council's (CNE) announcement of a re-election process. | The present candidates now includ…

Sonny Melencio (2021-12-09). Building a socialist-green-progressive electoral slate. zcomm.org 'Fielding candidates for top posts is a bold and daring move for Left groups. It has never been done before.'

Steven Lee (2021-12-09). "We Are Chun Tae-il!": the South Korean workers struggle continues. peoplesdispatch.org It is a cloudy afternoon on November 13. | A young man steps out into the streets of Seoul, holding a copy of the South Korean labor laws. Gasoline fire consumes his body with every step. With labor movements suffocated by the regime, this is his last declaration against inhuman exploitation. | "We are not machines," he cries through the flames. "Do not let my death be in vain!" | His name is Chun Tae-il. | Fifty-one years later, clouds once again fill the sky on November 13. | The shrill sound of whistles pierce the air. The police have already cordoned off the site of Chun's immolation to prevent the workers fr…

_____ (2021-12-09). Does the Deepening Crisis in Turkey Manifest an End to the Erdogan Era? journal-neo.org Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is experiencing his worst moments as head of state today. Social and political tensions in the country are becoming increasingly evident. The economy is collapsing, the value of the national currency is relentlessly falling, and the number of poor people is skyrocketing. According to recently published data, the nation's citizens …

Editor2 (2021-12-09). China Plays a Crucial Role Supporting Progress and Sovereignty in Latin America. orinocotribune.com By Carlos Martinez — Dec 6, 2021 | In the last two decades, economic links between Latin America and the People's Republic of China have been expanding at a dizzying rate. | Bilateral trade in 2000 was just $12 billion (1 per cent of Latin American's total trade); now it stands at $315bn. In the same time period, China's foreign direct investment in Latin America has increased by a factor of five. | Since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, 19 of the 33 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region have signed up to the China-led global infrastructure development strategy. | Infrastruc…

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-09). Sri Lankan public section workers stage strike seeking salary hike. peoplesdispatch.org After teachers and health workers, public sector workers in Sri Lanka struck working demanding higher wages in the face of repeated price hikes and an economic crisis…

WSWS (2021-12-09). Bank for International Settlements raises concerns over financial system. wsws.org The BIS managing director pointed to one of the fundamental contradictions of all capitalist markets: what may be rational behaviour for an individual participant can be irrational for the system as a whole.

WSWS (2021-12-09). Billionaires increased wealth by $3.6 trillion in 2020, as millions died from global pandemic. wsws.org The coronavirus pandemic has worsened the financial gap between rich and poor around the world to levels not seen since the early 20th century.

WSWS (2021-12-09). US: No money for COVID tests, blank check for the military. wsws.org As the White House rejects sending free COVID-19 tests to Americans because it would "cost" too much, the US House of Representatives has made it clear there will be no limits on military spending.

WSWS (2021-12-09). UK: Johnson moves to Plan B measures over Omicron variant amid escalating government crisis. wsws.org Having ruled out any more lockdowns months ago in order to protect the profits of the corporations, the Plan B measures are extremely limited, inadequate, and, as always, way behind the times.

WSWS (2021-12-09). CFPE online meeting this Saturday: COVID-19 spreads through Australian schools—Lives before profit! Stop the pandemic! wsws.org Register in advance and promote the meeting among educators, students, colleagues and friends!

WSWS (2021-12-09). Australia: Sydney rail workers hold 24-hour strike. wsws.org In an expression of mounting anger in the working class, Tuesday's industrial action took place alongside strikes by teachers and bus drivers.

Fabio A. Telarico (2021-12-09). Demythologizing the Russification of Bulgarian Media's Attitude Towards Civil Society. moderndiplomacy.eu Despite 30 years of post-socialist transformation, many CSOs in the country are unable to counter the denigrating rhetoric that some media outlets use against them. Challenging the presumption of Russia's widespread influence in this area, there are many differences in key aspects of the Russian and Bulgarian media's treatment of civil society. So even if …

José Manuel Blanco Diaz (2021-12-09). Are the Candidacies of Jorge Arreaza and Claudio Fermín Legal? orinocotribune.com As the January 9 elections in the state of Barinas approach, the temperature of the political debate in Venezuela is heating up between the four opposition candidates and the candidate for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)/Great Patriotic Pole (GPP), Jorge Arreaza. | Within both the right-wing groups and the Chavistas, a debate was opened regarding the various options that are on the table. This political landscape was formed after the inconclusive elections of November 21 in Barinas, and the National Electoral Council's (CNE) announcement of a re-election process. | The present candidates now includ…

Sonny Melencio (2021-12-09). Building a socialist-green-progressive electoral slate. zcomm.org 'Fielding candidates for top posts is a bold and daring move for Left groups. It has never been done before.'

Uran Botobekov (2021-12-09). The Deadliest Enemies: China's Overseas Military Bases in Central Asia and Uyghur's Turkestan Islamic Party. moderndiplomacy.eu Amid the burgeoning sentimental relationship between Beijing and the resurrected Taliban's Emirate 2.0, the al Qaeda-affiliated Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) has aggravated its propaganda war against Communist China, hence cleverly concealing its historically faithful jihadi bonds with the Afghan Taliban. Despite the Taliban's assurances of non-interference in China's internal affairs, Beijing is building up its …

Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J.S. Davies (2021-12-08). Congress Is Still Throwing Good Money After Bad Foreign Policy. fpif.org Congress is preparing to hand 65 percent of federal discretionary spending to the war machine, even as they wring their hands over a fraction of that for the Build Back Better Act.

Moderator (2021-12-08). House Approves $778 Billion Military Budget. scheerpost.com By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams In bipartisan fashion, the U.S. House of Representatives late Tuesday passed a sprawling military policy bill that contains nearly twice as much funding on an annual basis as Democrats' flagship social spending and climate bill. That reality led Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, to slam the $778 billion National …

Kris Hamel (2021-12-08). Detroiters decry World Economic Forum. liberationnews.org Speakers called the WEF's new project the "Global Center for Urban Destruction" and said Detroit was picked as host because the city is the epicenter of austerity in the United States.

Staff (2021-12-08). A One-Sided Narrative: U.S. Press Focuses on "Russian Aggression" While Ignoring U.S. Escalation. democracynow.org During a virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden threatened to impose new economic sanctions and other measures if Russia invades Ukraine. The talks were held amid growing tension between the two countries over the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and Russia's deployment of tens of thousands troops along the border of Ukraine. Editorial director and publisher at The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel says the U.S. has a "one-sided narrative" of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that neglects to acknowledge its own role in escalating tensions. "This [t…

Ken Bank (2021-12-08). Biden 'Build Back Better' plan includes tax credits for local journalism. peoplesworld.org The Biden $1.85 trillion "Build Back Better" domestic spending plan includes a provision that will provide a payroll tax credit up to $25,000 the first year and $15,000 the next four years to media companies for hiring journalists who specialize in local news reporting. The Local Journalism Sustainability Act was first introduced last spring with …

Jason Hickel (2021-12-08). The age of imperialism is not over—but we can end it. mronline.org Capitalist accumulation has always depended on cheap labor and resources extracted from the Global South. To end this violence we need a post-capitalist transition—otherwise, as climate breakdown accelerates, the ceaseless search for profit will drive us further into barbarism.

Staff (2021-12-08). Striking Columbia Student Workers Demand Living Wage as School's Endowment Grows to $14 Billion. democracynow.org In the largest strike happening right now in the United States, 3,000 student workers at New York City's Columbia University are on their fifth week of strike. Today the student workers are calling on others to help them shut down the university. Striking student worker, Johannah King-Slutzky, accuses Columbia's administration of an "illegal form of retaliation" for threatening to replace the striking student workers who do not return to work by Friday. On Monday, many Columbia faculty members walked out of their classes in a show of solidarity. "Graduate student labor is the invisible labor of the university," s…

Candice Bernd (2021-12-08). Baristas in Buffalo Are Poised to Unionize Using Starbucks's Own PR Against It. truthout.org Baristas with Starbucks Workers United's organizing committee are cautiously optimistic one or more stores will soon become the first of the corporation's locations to unionize in the United States. Results are expected tomorrow for three of six Starbucks stores in the Buffalo, New York, area that have filed for union elections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). | On Tuesday, the NLRB dismissed Starbucks's request to impound ballots already cast in the union election and stop th…

WSWS (2021-12-08). PSOE-Podemos government, Spanish trade unions agree to savage austerity. wsws.org The pseudo-left Podemos party is imposing attacks on the working class in close collaboration with the European Union.

Michael Albert (2021-12-08). What Kind of Economy Comes After a Socialist Revolution? zcomm.org Interview on the framework for the economy that comes after a communist or socialist revolution…

Newsroom (2021-12-08). Philippines: Boosting Private Sector Growth Can Strengthen Recovery, Create More Jobs. moderndiplomacy.eu Rebounding from a deep contraction in 2020, the Philippine economy is forecast to grow 5.3 percent this year before accelerating to an average of 5.8 percent in 2022-23 on the road to recovery, according to the Philippines Economic Update (PEU) titled Regaining Lost Ground, Revitalizing the Filipino Workforce, released today by the World Bank. Government …

Daniel Rosenberg (2021-12-08). Boxing, crime, and capitalism: Gerald Horne's 'The Bittersweet Science' reviewed. peoplesworld.org It is difficult to defend boxing. It is often brutal, and sometimes deadly. Its less odious, even admirable, traits involve skill, speed, tactics, concentration, and movement. In combination with the strictest safety precautions, and free of criminal control, dubious elements, and economic exploitation, it can be deemed a sport. But its very aggression mandates caution …

rebekah (2021-12-08). A Strong Economic Case for Federal Investment in Universal Preschool. inequality.org

Chris Walker (2021-12-08). Progressives Ask Why Deal to Pass Debt Ceiling Can't Be Used for Voting Rights. truthout.org Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have reached an agreement on the debt limit, subverting the economic disaster that would have taken place if the United States government were to default on its debts for the first time. | The proposed workaround would temporarily bypass Republicans' ability to filibuster Democrats on the debt ceiling vote — leaving many progressive advocates questioning why the measure can't be taken for other critical issues, like voting protections and reprodu…

MD Staff (2021-12-08). AI for Human Resources Toolkit Helps Organizations Overcome Implementation Challenges. moderndiplomacy.eu The World Economic Forum published the "Human-Centred AI for Human Resources: A Toolkit for Human Resources Professionals" to scale the responsible use of artificial intelligence in Human Resources (HR). The toolkit includes a guide covering key topics and steps in the responsible use of AI-based HR tools, and two checklists — one focused on strategic …

WSWS (2021-12-08). Biden threatens economic sanctions and a repositioning of NATO troops in meeting with Putin. wsws.org The meeting was preceded by threats against Russia from Biden and Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and took place amidst the drum beat of war propaganda in the American and European press.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-08). Video: Covid-19: Economic and Social Chaos. globalresearch.ca V the Virus" is said to be responsible for the wave of bankruptcies and unemployment. That's a lie. There is no causal relationship between the (microscopic) SARS-2 virus and economic variables. | It's the powerful financiers and billionaires who are behind …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-08). Video: The Covid-19 Crisis Triggers Economic and Social Chaos Worldwide. globalresearch.ca V the Virus" is said to be responsible for the wave of bankruptcies and unemployment. That's a lie. There is no causal relationship between the (microscopic) SARS-2 virus and economic variables. | It's the powerful financiers and billionaires who are behind …

Monica Cruz (2021-12-08). Amid backlash World Economic Forum launches "Global Center for Urban Transformation" in Detroit. peoplesdispatch.org Protestors rallied in downtown Detroit to protest the opening of the World Economic Forum's "Global Center for Urban Transformation." The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-governmental lobbying group made up of political and business leaders, including representatives from major financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and the European Central Bank. In August, it

Peter Certo (2021-12-08). In OtherWords: December 8, 2021. otherwords.org If you're feeling low this holiday season, you're hardly alone. Record numbers of Americans are seeking treatment for mental health care. | But as Katie Prout writes this week in OtherWords, record numbers are also struggling to get it — especially if you're on Medicaid. Psychiatrists were in short supply even before the pandemic, and the number of practices who take Medicaid is declining. A year in a half into a pandemic that's seen massive deaths, unemployment, and mental illness, she asks: should we really still be tying health care to people's employers? | Also this week, Farrah Hassen calls for a bipar…

Katie Prout (2021-12-08). Mental Health Care Is Hard to Come By — Especially If You're Low-Income. otherwords.org During the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020, my boyfriend asked, not unkindly, if I've ever been diagnosed with anything besides generalized anxiety disorder. | I was relieved that somebody had finally asked about my mental health. | All spring and summer 2020, I kicked the ball of my fritzing brain down the field to some imaginary goal of "things" getting better in the world, or at least more stable. Plainly, that didn't happen. | And so, like many others, I went back to therapy. Or tried to. | I'm on Medicaid, and while the insurance I receive through the program is accepted by many dentists and primary…

Brittani Banks (2021-12-08). Kamala vs. Mitt: Two Different Viewpoints of Family Planning Prefigure Different Futures for Planetary Health. independentmediainstitute.org Click here for a photo that you may use to accompany the article (captions and credits can be found in each image's description field). U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris does not have any biological children and grew up middle-class. Meanwhile, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a Mormon with five kids, was born into wealth and has …

Ruth Milka (2021-12-08). As Americans struggle to afford rising gas prices, Big Oil profits surge to $174 billion in nine months. nationofchange.org U.S. oil companies are making more money than any other time in history.

Sharon Zhang (2021-12-08). $18 Minimum Wage May Soon Be on the Ballot in California. zcomm.org "If you work full time, you should be able to live with full financial security, and that's not the case in California"

WSWS (2021-12-08). A new turn in China's Evergrande crisis. wsws.org A restructuring process has begun after the debt-ridden property developer announced it feared it could not meet a $260 million financial obligation.

WSWS (2021-12-08). Opposition remains high to sellout contract as voting begins for 52,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers. wsws.org Workers are voting through Wednesday night on a contract which contains wage increases below inflation, no solution to understaffing and which commits the union to helping management further cut costs.

Jake Johnson (2021-12-08). House Passes $778 Billion Military Bill as Other Priorities Stall. truthout.org In bipartisan fashion, the U.S. House of Representatives late Tuesday passed a sprawling military policy bill that contains nearly twice as much funding on an annual basis as Democrats' flagship social spending and climate bill. | That reality led Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, to slam the

Kevin Mwanza (2021-12-08). Fund Manager Grayscale Launches First Solana Trust Product, Here Are The Risks They Cited in Report. moguldom.com Grayscale investments, the world's largest digital currency asset manager, launched Grayscale Solana Trust, the sixteenth product in Grayscale's suite of investment offerings, that caters to institutional and high net-worth investors. The product will offer exposure to SOL, the native token used on the Solana blockchain. The launch comes two months after Grayscale rival Osprey Funds …

Editor (2021-12-08). Watch "Marx is Back", Episode 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians. mronline.org "Marx is Back" a mini-series about the Communist Manifesto is now on youtube. Subtitles available.

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-08). Raoul Hedebouw is the new president of the Workers Party of Belgium. peoplesdispatch.org At the unity congress of the Workers' Party of Belgium, Peter Mertens stepped down from the presidency after 13 significant years during which it became one of the prominent Marxist parties in Europe…

WSWS (2021-12-08). Kellogg's strikers overwhelmingly reject sellout contract, company moves to hire permanent replacements. wsws.org The 1,400 workers at four Kellogg's plants across the US have been on strike for more than two months and have voted "overwhelmingly" against a tentative agreement containing major concessions to management over two-tiered wages.

Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J. S. Davies (2021-12-08). How Congress loots the Treasury for the military-industrial-congressional complex. nationofchange.org How the conjunction of dysfunctional military leadership, an ever-growing arms industry and a Congress that keeps handing them trillions of dollars, constitutes the full flowering of President Eisenhower's greatest fears for the future of the United States.

Kevin Mwanza (2021-12-08). How Much Money Does it Take to Manipulate The Bitcoin Price 1%? How Thin Liquidity Is Exploited. moguldom.com It takes inflows of only $93 million to move the Bitcoin price by one percent, according to the Bank of America. Bitcoin is twice as volatile as gold per dollar in-flows despite the asset existing for nearly a dozen years, with Bitcoin's nearly $ 1.1 trillion market cap equating to roughly 10 percent of golds. …

WSWS (2021-12-08). The COVID-19 pandemic, the return of the class struggle and the tasks of the Socialist Equality Party in Germany. wsws.org The Socialist Equality Party, the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, held its party congress November 19—22. We publish here the resolution unanimously adopted by the delegates.

_____ (2021-12-08). Russian-Vietnamese Relations and the Joint Fight Against the Pandemic. journal-neo.org The history of relations between Russia and Vietnam goes back to Soviet times when the USSR supported the Vietnamese communists in their war for creating their state, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). After that, the Soviet Union became a major partner of the SRV for many years. The common ideology, joint opposition to the …

Ann Brown (2021-12-08). 5 Things to Know About Lovett Fort-Whiteman: The Black Communist Who Was Taken To The Gulag in Russia. moguldom.com Lovett Fort-Whiteman was considered the first American-born Black Communist and first African American to receive training at Communist International in Moscow. Communist International (also known as Comintern) was an international organization founded in 1919 that advocated global communism. Despite his devotion to communism, Fort-Whiteman, a political and civil rights activist, spent the end of his …

Staff (2021-12-08). A One-Sided Narrative: U.S. Press Focuses on "Russian Aggression" While Ignoring U.S. Escalation. democracynow.org During a virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden threatened to impose new economic sanctions and other measures if Russia invades Ukraine. The talks were held amid growing tension between the two countries over the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and Russia's deployment of tens of thousands troops along the border of Ukraine. Editorial director and publisher at The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel says the U.S. has a "one-sided narrative" of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that neglects to acknowledge its own role in escalating tensions. "This [t…

Medea Benjamin, Nicolas J.S. Davies (2021-12-08). Congress Is Still Throwing Good Money After Bad Foreign Policy. fpif.org Congress is preparing to hand 65 percent of federal discretionary spending to the war machine, even as they wring their hands over a fraction of that for the Build Back Better Act.

Jason Hickel (2021-12-08). The age of imperialism is not over—but we can end it. mronline.org Capitalist accumulation has always depended on cheap labor and resources extracted from the Global South. To end this violence we need a post-capitalist transition—otherwise, as climate breakdown accelerates, the ceaseless search for profit will drive us further into barbarism.

Staff (2021-12-08). Striking Columbia Student Workers Demand Living Wage as School's Endowment Grows to $14 Billion. democracynow.org In the largest strike happening right now in the United States, 3,000 student workers at New York City's Columbia University are on their fifth week of strike. Today the student workers are calling on others to help them shut down the university. Striking student worker, Johannah King-Slutzky, accuses Columbia's administration of an "illegal form of retaliation" for threatening to replace the striking student workers who do not return to work by Friday. On Monday, many Columbia faculty members walked out of their classes in a show of solidarity. "Graduate student labor is the invisible labor of the university," s…

WSWS (2021-12-08). PSOE-Podemos government, Spanish trade unions agree to savage austerity. wsws.org The pseudo-left Podemos party is imposing attacks on the working class in close collaboration with the European Union.

Newsroom (2021-12-08). Philippines: Boosting Private Sector Growth Can Strengthen Recovery, Create More Jobs. moderndiplomacy.eu Rebounding from a deep contraction in 2020, the Philippine economy is forecast to grow 5.3 percent this year before accelerating to an average of 5.8 percent in 2022-23 on the road to recovery, according to the Philippines Economic Update (PEU) titled Regaining Lost Ground, Revitalizing the Filipino Workforce, released today by the World Bank. Government …

rebekah (2021-12-08). A Strong Economic Case for Federal Investment in Universal Preschool. inequality.org

Kris Hamel (2021-12-08). Detroiters decry World Economic Forum. liberationnews.org Speakers called the WEF's new project the "Global Center for Urban Destruction" and said Detroit was picked as host because the city is the epicenter of austerity in the United States.

MD Staff (2021-12-08). AI for Human Resources Toolkit Helps Organizations Overcome Implementation Challenges. moderndiplomacy.eu The World Economic Forum published the "Human-Centred AI for Human Resources: A Toolkit for Human Resources Professionals" to scale the responsible use of artificial intelligence in Human Resources (HR). The toolkit includes a guide covering key topics and steps in the responsible use of AI-based HR tools, and two checklists — one focused on strategic …

Monica Cruz (2021-12-08). Amid backlash World Economic Forum launches "Global Center for Urban Transformation" in Detroit. peoplesdispatch.org Protestors rallied in downtown Detroit to protest the opening of the World Economic Forum's "Global Center for Urban Transformation." The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-governmental lobbying group made up of political and business leaders, including representatives from major financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and the European Central Bank. In August, it

WSWS (2021-12-08). Biden threatens economic sanctions and a repositioning of NATO troops in meeting with Putin. wsws.org The meeting was preceded by threats against Russia from Biden and Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and took place amidst the drum beat of war propaganda in the American and European press.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-08). Video: Covid-19: Economic and Social Chaos. globalresearch.ca V the Virus" is said to be responsible for the wave of bankruptcies and unemployment. That's a lie. There is no causal relationship between the (microscopic) SARS-2 virus and economic variables. | It's the powerful financiers and billionaires who are behind …

Katie Prout (2021-12-08). Mental Health Care Is Hard to Come By — Especially If You're Low-Income. otherwords.org During the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020, my boyfriend asked, not unkindly, if I've ever been diagnosed with anything besides generalized anxiety disorder. | I was relieved that somebody had finally asked about my mental health. | All spring and summer 2020, I kicked the ball of my fritzing brain down the field to some imaginary goal of "things" getting better in the world, or at least more stable. Plainly, that didn't happen. | And so, like many others, I went back to therapy. Or tried to. | I'm on Medicaid, and while the insurance I receive through the program is accepted by many dentists and primary…

Brittani Banks (2021-12-08). Kamala vs. Mitt: Two Different Viewpoints of Family Planning Prefigure Different Futures for Planetary Health. independentmediainstitute.org Click here for a photo that you may use to accompany the article (captions and credits can be found in each image's description field). U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris does not have any biological children and grew up middle-class. Meanwhile, Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a Mormon with five kids, was born into wealth and has …

Sharon Zhang (2021-12-08). $18 Minimum Wage May Soon Be on the Ballot in California. zcomm.org "If you work full time, you should be able to live with full financial security, and that's not the case in California"

WSWS (2021-12-08). A new turn in China's Evergrande crisis. wsws.org A restructuring process has begun after the debt-ridden property developer announced it feared it could not meet a $260 million financial obligation.

WSWS (2021-12-08). Opposition remains high to sellout contract as voting begins for 52,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers. wsws.org Workers are voting through Wednesday night on a contract which contains wage increases below inflation, no solution to understaffing and which commits the union to helping management further cut costs.

Editor (2021-12-08). Watch "Marx is Back", Episode 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians. mronline.org "Marx is Back" a mini-series about the Communist Manifesto is now on youtube. Subtitles available.

WSWS (2021-12-08). Kellogg's strikers overwhelmingly reject sellout contract, company moves to hire permanent replacements. wsws.org The 1,400 workers at four Kellogg's plants across the US have been on strike for more than two months and have voted "overwhelmingly" against a tentative agreement containing major concessions to management over two-tiered wages.

Kevin Mwanza (2021-12-08). How Much Money Does it Take to Manipulate The Bitcoin Price 1%? How Thin Liquidity Is Exploited. moguldom.com It takes inflows of only $93 million to move the Bitcoin price by one percent, according to the Bank of America. Bitcoin is twice as volatile as gold per dollar in-flows despite the asset existing for nearly a dozen years, with Bitcoin's nearly $ 1.1 trillion market cap equating to roughly 10 percent of golds. …

_____ (2021-12-08). Russian-Vietnamese Relations and the Joint Fight Against the Pandemic. journal-neo.org The history of relations between Russia and Vietnam goes back to Soviet times when the USSR supported the Vietnamese communists in their war for creating their state, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). After that, the Soviet Union became a major partner of the SRV for many years. The common ideology, joint opposition to the …

WSWS (2021-12-08). The COVID-19 pandemic, the return of the class struggle and the tasks of the Socialist Equality Party in Germany. wsws.org The Socialist Equality Party, the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, held its party congress November 19—22. We publish here the resolution unanimously adopted by the delegates.

New Atlas (2021-12-07). The real reason for US aggression against China (opinion). newatlas.report December 7, 2021 (Angelo Giuliano — DotDotNews) — In 1945, the world woke up to a new reality, a new world order. The US had escaped World War II unscathed while Europe and Asia were completely destroyed. Throughout the war the US developed a massive industrial base to supply the war effort and its share of …

Sam Knight (2021-12-07). Watchdogs Urge DOJ to Investigate Legality of Facebook's Cryptocurrency Venture. truthout.org Financial industry watchdogs are asking federal officials to attempt to stop the cryptocurrency pilot program launched by Facebook, noting that the U.S. government has the power to criminally prosecute executives for operating the venture. | The Open Markets Institute sent a letter on

Anonymous Contributor (2021-12-07). LA Art and Music Festival Benefiting Mutual Aid Project A Success Despite Threats from Far-Right and Police. itsgoingdown.org Report on successful anarchist art and music festival in the so-called Los Angeles area. To support the Autonomous Anarchist Revolutionary Front's ongoing mutual aid project, go here. In October, the Autonomous Anarchist Revolutionary Front (AARF) reached out to LA Crust Printing (who is known to help mutual aid groups raise funds) for collaboration on an…

_____ (2021-12-07). Eritrea Versus AFRICOM: Defending Sovereignty From Imperialist Aggression. popularresistance.org The U.S. has built military-to-military relations with 53 out of the 54 African countries that include agreements to cede operational command to AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command. The broad network of AFRICOM military bases, as well as those from France and other world powers, are examples of how African states are surrendering their sovereignty through neocolonial relationships with Western countries. African self-determination and national sovereignty are impossible as long as the U.S. and its European allies are allowed to use military power to control African land, labor, and resources. As Netfa Freeman pointe…

_____ (2021-12-07). Kellogg's Union Workers Reject New Contract. popularresistance.org Hundreds of striking union workers at four Kellogg's cereal plants in the US have overwhelmingly voted to reject a tentative agreement on a five-year contract negotiated between the union and the company, extending a strike that started in early October. | Roughly 1,400 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union "have spoken", union president Anthony Shelton said in a statement on 7 December. "The strike continues." | The union is "grateful for the outpouring of fraternal support we received from across the labor movement for our striking members at Kellogg's," he…

WSWS (2021-12-07). Labor Party enforcing Australian ruling elite's criminal response to Omicron variant. wsws.org Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared: "We will not be pursuing an Omicron zero here… It might already be here."

WSWS (2021-12-07). Australian Labor Party leader makes pro-business election pitch. wsws.org With the Liberal-National government disintegrating, Albanese presented Labor and the unions as the force that could best enforce the requirements of the Australian capitalist class.

Matthew Rozsa (2021-12-07). Sit-down strikes revolutionized the labor movement — could it happen again? zcomm.org At the height of American labor, seizing control of the means of production was a strategy — not just a slogan…

Ann Brown (2021-12-07). 5 Reasons Why Some Say Neoliberalism Is At The Root of America's Problems. moguldom.com To many, the U.S. seems in chaos. The economy is spiraling out of control, and inflation keeps rising. Race relations have been strained to the breaking point, and the atmosphere is just tense. So why now? "The current state of chaos and confusion is because the "policies of the past have failed," said Felicia Wong …

Tamanna Islam (2021-12-07). Blue Economy and the opening of new horizons in Bangladesh. moderndiplomacy.eu The sea is called the lungs of the earth. The land beneath the sea is a world full of diversity and abundance of life. Professor Gunter Pauli, an Australian citizen, gave the first idea of the huge economic potential. In 2010, at the invitation of the United Nations, the idea of formulating an environmentally friendly …

_____ (2021-12-07). Nicaragua's Evidence-Based Democracy Threatens US Oppression. popularresistance.org Despite Washington's best effort to derail Nicaragua's electoral process through hybrid warfare, strong voter turnout resulted in a decisive victory by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), and the reelection of President Daniel Ortega with 75.92% of the votes cast. Nicaragua's non-partisan, independent Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) reported on Monday, November 8th that 65.23% of 4.4 million eligible voters (16 years and older) participated in Sunday's election. Supporters attribute the FSLN's success to its ability to ensure peace and achieve socioeconomic & political objectives that strengthen…

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-07). Trade unions in Turkey call for demonstrations demanding revision in minimum wage. peoplesdispatch.org The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey has said that the current national minimum wage is not sufficient for workers to meet their basic needs amid rising prices and an economic crisis intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic…

Kester Kenn Klomegah (2021-12-07). Putin Stresses Broadening Economic Cooperation With African States. moderndiplomacy.eu Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated some aspects of Russia's foreign policy agenda when he received letters of credence from 20 foreign ambassadors, including seven from Africa, who had arrived in the country to begin their duty tour. The seven new African ambassadors are from Republics of Angola, Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Mauritania and Somalia. …

Yasmine Sherif (2021-12-07). Education Must Come First in Cameroon: Yasmine Sherif calls for an end to attacks on schools. moderndiplomacy.eu The future of humanity hangs in the balance. Acute threats of conflict, COVID-19, climate change, poverty, displacement, hunger and other factors are pushing millions more people — with children the most vulnerable and hardest hit — to the edge in humanitarian crises around the world. We can save humanity from these vast interconnected crises, including …

Staff (2021-12-07). As World Confronts Omicron Variant, Top 8 Pfizer & Moderna Investors Make $10 Billion in a Week. democracynow.org The eight top Pfizer and Moderna shareholders made over $10 billion last week when their stock holdings skyrocketed after the discovery of the new Omicron variant. This comes as global public health advocates warn the world will keep seeing more coronavirus variants unless wealthy nations and vaccine manufacturers do more to address vaccine inequity. "The companies that make the most are doing the least to share their technology," says Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now U.K., which is documenting Big Pharma's profits. "The priority is making enormous amounts of money for some of the richest people in th…

Moderator (2021-12-07). Richest 1% Took 38% of New Global Wealth Since 1995. The Bottom Half Got Just 2%. scheerpost.com By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams In the nearly three decades since 1995, members of the global 1% have captured 38% of all new wealth while the poorest half of humanity has benefited from just 2%, a finding that spotlights the stark and worsening gulf between the very rich and everyone else. That's according to the …

Karen Conner (2021-12-07). PREVIEW: What to Look for in the November Consumer Price Index. cepr.net The argument that the rise in the inflation rate we have seen this year will be transitory depends largely on the belief that the price increases in cars and many other durable goods will be reversed in the months ahead.

Anonymous Contributor (2021-12-07). Report Back from Disruption of Heartland Alliance's Holiday Brunch. itsgoingdown.org Report back on recent mobilization and disruption of the Heartland Alliance, a non-profit which imprisons migrant children in so-called Chicago. For a deeper dive, go here. On Sunday, December 5 at 10 AM, demonstrators gathered outside the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Chicago to confront donors arriving at Heartland Health's annual holiday brunch. While Heartland…

Ann Brown (2021-12-07). New Campaign Launched For Colonial Slavemaster Scotland to Pay Reparations For Her Crimes, Slavery. moguldom.com Some Caribbean islands want Scotland to pay slavery reparations. And a former Scottish National Party (SNP) adviser has backed calls for the country to pay reparations to the Caribbean islands for the damage inflicted during the years of the slave trade. Scotland profited from the enslaved workers in the Caribbean and took the money back …

Guest Contributor (2021-12-07). Unorthodox Covid Views and Medical Regulation — Richard Smith. ukhumanrightsblog.com White v General Medical Council [2021] EWHC 3286 (Admin) (03 December 2021) A case in which the High Court reminds the regulator of requirements for imposing curbs on free speech. Dr Samuel White is a GP. Earlier this year he posted a seven minute video on Instagram explaining that he had resigned from his job …

Jim McIlroy (2021-12-07). NSW teachers strike, rally against staff shortages. greenleft.org.au Tens of thousands of teachers went on strike across New South Wales against staff shortages and for sustainable workloads and better wages. Jim McIlroy reports.

WSWS (2021-12-07). Stalinist Communist Party of the Philippines supports right-wing Robredo campaign. wsws.org The CPP has never in its fifty-year history mounted an independent political campaign. Election cycles are opportunities to strike an alliance with a faction of the ruling elite.

New Atlas (2021-12-07). The real reason for US aggression against China (opinion). newatlas.report December 7, 2021 (Angelo Giuliano — DotDotNews) — In 1945, the world woke up to a new reality, a new world order. The US had escaped World War II unscathed while Europe and Asia were completely destroyed. Throughout the war the US developed a massive industrial base to supply the war effort and its share of …

Anonymous Contributor (2021-12-07). LA Art and Music Festival Benefiting Mutual Aid Project A Success Despite Threats from Far-Right and Police. itsgoingdown.org Report on successful anarchist art and music festival in the so-called Los Angeles area. To support the Autonomous Anarchist Revolutionary Front's ongoing mutual aid project, go here. In October, the Autonomous Anarchist Revolutionary Front (AARF) reached out to LA Crust Printing (who is known to help mutual aid groups raise funds) for collaboration on an…

WSWS (2021-12-07). Australian Labor Party leader makes pro-business election pitch. wsws.org With the Liberal-National government disintegrating, Albanese presented Labor and the unions as the force that could best enforce the requirements of the Australian capitalist class.

WSWS (2021-12-07). Labor Party enforcing Australian ruling elite's criminal response to Omicron variant. wsws.org Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared: "We will not be pursuing an Omicron zero here… It might already be here."

Matthew Rozsa (2021-12-07). Sit-down strikes revolutionized the labor movement — could it happen again? zcomm.org At the height of American labor, seizing control of the means of production was a strategy — not just a slogan…

Ann Brown (2021-12-07). 5 Reasons Why Some Say Neoliberalism Is At The Root of America's Problems. moguldom.com To many, the U.S. seems in chaos. The economy is spiraling out of control, and inflation keeps rising. Race relations have been strained to the breaking point, and the atmosphere is just tense. So why now? "The current state of chaos and confusion is because the "policies of the past have failed," said Felicia Wong …

Tamanna Islam (2021-12-07). Blue Economy and the opening of new horizons in Bangladesh. moderndiplomacy.eu The sea is called the lungs of the earth. The land beneath the sea is a world full of diversity and abundance of life. Professor Gunter Pauli, an Australian citizen, gave the first idea of the huge economic potential. In 2010, at the invitation of the United Nations, the idea of formulating an environmentally friendly …

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-07). Trade unions in Turkey call for demonstrations demanding revision in minimum wage. peoplesdispatch.org The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey has said that the current national minimum wage is not sufficient for workers to meet their basic needs amid rising prices and an economic crisis intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic…

Kester Kenn Klomegah (2021-12-07). Putin Stresses Broadening Economic Cooperation With African States. moderndiplomacy.eu Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated some aspects of Russia's foreign policy agenda when he received letters of credence from 20 foreign ambassadors, including seven from Africa, who had arrived in the country to begin their duty tour. The seven new African ambassadors are from Republics of Angola, Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Mauritania and Somalia. …

Newsroom (2021-12-07). World Bank Supports Cabo Verde to Build a Sustainable and Equitable Recovery. moderndiplomacy.eu The World Bank approved a $30 million Development Policy Financing Operation on December 6 to support the Government's efforts to strengthen policies for a sustainable, equitable, and greener recovery from the COVID-19 crisis in Cabo Verde. "As Cabo Verde is recovering from the largest economic contraction in history and leveraging the moment to embark in …

Yasmine Sherif (2021-12-07). Education Must Come First in Cameroon: Yasmine Sherif calls for an end to attacks on schools. moderndiplomacy.eu The future of humanity hangs in the balance. Acute threats of conflict, COVID-19, climate change, poverty, displacement, hunger and other factors are pushing millions more people — with children the most vulnerable and hardest hit — to the edge in humanitarian crises around the world. We can save humanity from these vast interconnected crises, including …

Staff (2021-12-07). As World Confronts Omicron Variant, Top 8 Pfizer & Moderna Investors Make $10 Billion in a Week. democracynow.org The eight top Pfizer and Moderna shareholders made over $10 billion last week when their stock holdings skyrocketed after the discovery of the new Omicron variant. This comes as global public health advocates warn the world will keep seeing more coronavirus variants unless wealthy nations and vaccine manufacturers do more to address vaccine inequity. "The companies that make the most are doing the least to share their technology," says Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now U.K., which is documenting Big Pharma's profits. "The priority is making enormous amounts of money for some of the richest people in th…

Karen Conner (2021-12-07). PREVIEW: What to Look for in the November Consumer Price Index. cepr.net The argument that the rise in the inflation rate we have seen this year will be transitory depends largely on the belief that the price increases in cars and many other durable goods will be reversed in the months ahead.

Guest Contributor (2021-12-07). Unorthodox Covid Views and Medical Regulation — Richard Smith. ukhumanrightsblog.com White v General Medical Council [2021] EWHC 3286 (Admin) (03 December 2021) A case in which the High Court reminds the regulator of requirements for imposing curbs on free speech. Dr Samuel White is a GP. Earlier this year he posted a seven minute video on Instagram explaining that he had resigned from his job …

Jim McIlroy (2021-12-07). NSW teachers strike, rally against staff shortages. greenleft.org.au Tens of thousands of teachers went on strike across New South Wales with rallies against staff shortages and for sustainable workloads and better wages. Jim McIlroy reports.

WSWS (2021-12-07). Stalinist Communist Party of the Philippines supports right-wing Robredo campaign. wsws.org The CPP has never in its fifty-year history mounted an independent political campaign. Election cycles are opportunities to strike an alliance with a faction of the ruling elite.

Editor (2021-12-06). The ecosocialist imperative. mronline.org Thirty years ago, climate modeling scientists predicted exactly the global events—massive wildfires, intensified tropical storms, flooding and droughts—that we're seeing right now.

Tanya Wadhwa (2021-12-06). Over 1.5 Million Bolivians March in Defense of Democracy. zcomm.org Over 1.5 million workers, women, students and peasants from across Bolivia joined the rally in the capital and expressed their approval of the national government of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism party…

_____ (2021-12-06). The Age Of Imperialism Is Not Over. popularresistance.org As the failure of COP26 sinks in, it is increasingly clear that our leaders have neither the courage nor the will to respond effectively to ecological breakdown. This is not surprising. The ecological crisis is being driven by capitalist growth, which is tearing through the living world at a staggering pace, with the rich states and corporations of the global North responsible for the vast majority of the damage. Responding to this crisis will require deep changes to the structure and logic of the world economy, and existing incumbents are clearly unable to take the necessary steps. | This leaves us with a series…

Mark Gruenberg (2021-12-06). Jobless rate drops in November to 4.2 percent, other numbers mixed. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON —The U.S. unemployment rate dropped 0.4% in November, to 4.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. But BLS, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Institute for Women's Policy Research all noted mixed numbers behind that positive decline. The number of unemployed declined by 542,000, to 6.877 million, BLS said. And there were 1.155 million …

Anonymous Contributor (2021-12-06). Why Anarchists Can't Be Absent From the New Wave of Labor Militancy. itsgoingdown.org Anarchists must push for self-organization, direct action and mutual aid in the midst of a wave of mass strikes, workers walking off the job, and growing anger at rising inequality. The month of October was the start of what has been called "Striketober" a massive wave of labor strikes across the so called United States….

_____ (2021-12-06). Governments Buy More Weapons In First Year Of COVID-19. popularresistance.org In 2020, when the global economy contracted over 3.1% due to the COVID-19 pandemic, global arms trade recorded an increase of 1.3%, as per latest data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday, December 6. The growth in arms trade, both domestic and international, reveals how governments worldwide chose to maintain or increase their spending on arms despite the economic hardships caused by the pandemic. | According to SIPRI, arms trade by the world's top 100 companies in the sector touched USD 531 billion in 2020, making it the sixth consecutive year of growth since 2015.

Isheka N. Harrison (2021-12-06). The Federal Reserve Is Tapering: What It Means And Why This Can Pop America's Speculative Asset Bubble. moguldom.com The U.S. Federal Reserve announced it would begin tapering in November — and it remained true to its word. Now the country's central bank has begun that process. But what exactly does tapering mean and how can its impact on the economy pop America's speculative asset bubble? According to Investopedia, "tapering is the theoretical reversal of …

Matt Sedlar (2021-12-06). CEPR Spotlight: Private Equity in Health Care. cepr.net CEPR co-director Eileen Appelbaum has become a recognized expert on how Private Equity has permeated all sectors of our economy. And nowhere is this practice more insidious than in health care.

Joris Leverink (2021-12-06). Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: Monopolistic Competition. roarmag.org Season 3, Episode 26 — Monopolistic Competition: | In this episode of ACC, Prof. Harvey speaks about monopolistic competition and its impact on market pricing and location. All monopolistic competition is spacial competition that creates a highly unstable economy and has a tendency to produce conglomerations in rich locations. | You can support this podcast on

_____ (2021-12-06). We Need A Peoples' Movement And Not The World Economic Forum. popularresistance.org Detroit, which remains a major industrial center in the sectors of automotive and other sources of production and services, is a focal point for the economic and social transformations of urban areas in the United States and internationally. | Since the 19th century, the city has been a location for various forms of manufacturing, mining and shipping. | Initially there was the strategic location linked to the Great Lakes and rivers which flow into them. The mining of copper during the mid-to-late 19th century which fueled migration eventually gave way to steam engine manufacturing for shipping and the timber trad…

Irina Imamur Nadia (2021-12-06). Bangladesh's Vaccine Policy: Cooperation beyond Geopolitical Lens. moderndiplomacy.eu Since its outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented devastation to every nook and corner of the world. Not being just a cataclysmic health crisis, the pandemic is subtly but substantially reshaping social norms, economic systems, diplomacy way-outs, as well as global leadership and rivalry. As of now, experts believe that this deadly virus …

_____ (2021-12-06). David Stockman on the Consequences of Abolishing the Gold Standard. strategic-culture.org By David STOCKMAN | Before Alan Greenspan fell off the wagon in pursuit of government power, position, praise, and riches, in his 1966 speech, "Gold and Economic Freedom," he said the following: In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value… The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the…

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-06). Governments buy more weapons in first year of COVID-19 boosting global arms trade. peoplesdispatch.org Data published by SIPRI for the year 2020 shows the world's top 100 weapons manufacturers increase their overall sales in comparison to previous years as governments chose to increase arms procurement despite COVID-19-related economic hardships…

WSWS (2021-12-06). Germany: Federal and state governments give the pandemic free rein. wsws.org Despite record infection rates and the spread of the highly contagious Omicron mutation, the policy of "profits before lives" continues, sacrificing tens of thousands more human lives in the interest of the financial markets.

_____ (2021-12-06). US Isn't Prepared For Climate Disasters That Push People Deeper Into Poverty. popularresistance.org Despite years of preparations, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell said there was no time to issue a mandatory evacuation order as Ida rapidly intensified into a powerful Category 4 hurricane. She urged city residents to "hunker down." Mass evacuations require coordination among multiple parishes and states, and there wasn't enough time. In several surrounding parishes, people were told to evacuate, but in low-lying and flood-prone areas, many residents couldn't afford to leave. | Hurricane Ida became the most destructive storm of the busy 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, which ended Nov. 30. It was one of eight nam…

imperial.ac.uk (2021-12-06). People from BAME and deprived groups more affected by Covid hospital disruption. imperial.ac.uk People from lower-income areas or from BAME backgrounds were less likely to access non-Covid-related hospital care during the pandemic.

WSWS (2021-12-06). Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan prepares to enforce historic Tory assault on London transport. wsws.org The cuts are so deep that by Transport for London's own admission they will push the capital's transport system into a state of "Managed Decline".

Kevin Mwanza (2021-12-06). Billionaire in China is Risky Business: 14 Were Executed by Government, 15 Murdered, and 17 Committed Suicide. moguldom.com The path of the wealthy in China is perilous and nothing can protect them from the arbitrary power of the Communist Party, according to an opinion piece published by the Financial Times (FT). Elites living in the country are vulnerable to disgrace, disappearances or even worse, a 2011 Forbes report titled "Friends don't let friends …

_____ (2021-12-06). Chris Hedges: American Satyricon. popularresistance.org The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell which began this week in Manhattan will not hold to account the powerful and wealthy men who are also complicit in the sexual assaults of girls as young as twelve Maxwell allegedly procured for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. | Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard Larry Summers, Stephen Pinker, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire Victoria's Secret CEO Les Wexner, the J.P Morgan banker Jes Staley, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barac…

Moderator (2021-12-06). Hedges: American Satyricon. scheerpost.com By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost | The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell which began this week in Manhattan will not hold to account the powerful and wealthy men who are also complicit in the sexual assaults of girls as young as twelve Maxwell allegedly procured for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. | Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard Larry Summers, Stephen Pinker, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire Victoria's Secret CEO Les Wexner, the, J.P Morgan banker Jes Staley…

Kevin Mwanza (2021-12-06). New Study: NFT Prices Are Manipulated by Few with Wash Trades (Artificial Demand). moguldom.com A new study has shown that Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) prices are manipulated by few with wash trades, which artificially inflates the price of an asset by opening multiple accounts and trading with themselves. This behavior is not only fraudulent, but the artificial price inflation also results in end users purchasing the NFT asset at a …

Muhammad Amin Musa (2021-12-06). Thailand and Kon La Krueng Co-payment Scheme: A Challenge towards Sustainable Consumption. moderndiplomacy.eu The COVID-19 has impacted many people around the world, particularly the poor people who are unable to meet their fundamental needs through self-sufficiency. These hard times of the COVID-19, it has taught us that our world is becoming more complex and that we must be prepared for unexpected events, such as this severe pandemic. From …

Ann Brown (2021-12-06). West Hollywood Considers Financial Compensation For Redlining Against Black Residents. moguldom.com A city in Los Angeles may give reparations to Black residents who were victims of redlining. West Hollywood announced it is considering giving financial compensation to Black residents for housing discrimination that took place over the last century. The West Hollywood City Council aims to spend $100,000 on a historical context study to determine the …

teleSUR (2021-12-06). Bolivia To Repair The Relatives Of Senkata & Sacaba Victims. telesurenglish.net On Monday, Bolivia's Justice Minister Ivan Lima met with the relatives of the Senkata and Sacaba massacres' victims, who requested him to approve 13 reparation actions that include giving them financial compensation for the crimes and speeding the prosecution of perpetrators. | RELATED: | "It is necessary to repair these people, who suffered military violence during the Jeanine Añez's dictatorship (2019-2020)," Lima said, r…

Julia Rock (2021-12-06). Six Things They're Not Telling You About Inflation. dailyposter.com

teleSUR (2021-12-06). Argentina Approves Russian Single-Dose Vaccine Sputnik Light. telesurenglish.net The Ministry of Health of Argentina approved the Russian single-dose vaccine Sputnik Light as a standalone and booster vaccine against coronavirus, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced from Moscow. | According to a statement from the RDIF, the Russian preparation was approved as a "standalone vaccine and booster dose" against the coronavirus. | RELATED: | The Russian fund recalled that Argentina was…

Anonymous Contributor (2021-12-06). Report Back from Disruption of Heartland Alliance's Holiday Brunch. itsgoingdown.org Report back on recent mobilization and disruption of the Heartland Alliance, a non-profit which imprisons migrant children in so-called Chicago. For a deeper dive, go here. On Sunday, December 5 at 10 AM, demonstrators gathered outside the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Chicago to confront donors arriving at Heartland Health's annual holiday brunch. While Heartland…

Staff (2021-12-06). "Systemwide Failure": Gun Control Advocates Demand New Regulations After Michigan School Shooting. democracynow.org Funerals have begun in Oxford, Michigan, for the four students killed when their 15-year-old classmate opened fire in a rampage that also injured seven others. Ethan Crumbley has been charged with terrorism and first-degree murder, and his parents have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly giving him access to a firearm even as he displayed obvious signs he was thinking about committing violent crimes. We're joined by Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, prompting her to found Sandy Hook Promise; and Kris Brown, president of Br…

teleSUR (2021-12-06). Myanmar Junta Sentences Suu Kyi To Four Years In Prison. telesurenglish.net On Monday, the Myanmar dictatorship sentenced Nobel Peace Prize Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison, accusing her of incitement against the Military and violation of COVID-19 regulations. | RELATED: | Using the Penal Code to justify the accusation of "incitement", the accusing court held that her political party, the National League for Democracy (LND), issued several public statements against the recognition of the Military Junta that took the po…

Amy Goodman (2021-12-06). Gun Control Advocates Demand New Regulations After Michigan School Shooting. truthout.org Funerals have begun in Oxford, Michigan, for the four students killed when their 15-year-old classmate opened fire in a rampage that also injured seven others. Ethan Crumbley has been charged with terrorism and first-degree murder, and his parents have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly giving him access to a firearm even as he displayed obvious signs he was thinking about committing violent crimes. We're joined by Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed i…

Jenny Farrell (2021-12-06). Sally Rooney: In search of the Marxist novel. peoplesworld.org For the past weeks, successful 30-year-old Irish author Sally Rooney has been in the headlines. Following her refusal to grant the translation rights of her new novel Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) to the Israeli Modan publishing house, 70 prominent authors have now backed her decision in a statement. In May of this year, …

Liberation Staff (2021-12-06). Garment workers win breakthrough legislation against sweatshop pay. liberationnews.org After years of organizing, California garment workers have won their fight to pass SB62 — the Garment Worker Protection Act. This bill bans the exploitative piece-rate system which has kept garment workers earning below minimum wage.

WSWS (2021-12-06). Australia: Sydney bus drivers strike over pay and conditions. wsws.org The industrial action reflects mounting anger as the city's bus service approaches full privatisation.

WSWS (2021-12-06). Union bureaucrats sell out Mississippi shipyard workers, force through contract extension. wsws.org Facing resistance from the rank and file, the Metal Trades Council and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers released a leaflet threatening workers with dire consequences if they rejected the contract extension.

Editor (2021-12-06). The ecosocialist imperative. mronline.org Thirty years ago, climate modeling scientists predicted exactly the global events—massive wildfires, intensified tropical storms, flooding and droughts—that we're seeing right now.

Tanya Wadhwa (2021-12-06). Over 1.5 Million Bolivians March in Defense of Democracy. zcomm.org Over 1.5 million workers, women, students and peasants from across Bolivia joined the rally in the capital and expressed their approval of the national government of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism party…

WSWS (2021-12-06). Germany: Federal and state governments give the pandemic free rein. wsws.org Despite record infection rates and the spread of the highly contagious Omicron mutation, the policy of "profits before lives" continues, sacrificing tens of thousands more human lives in the interest of the financial markets.

Anonymous Contributor (2021-12-06). Why Anarchists Can't Be Absent From the New Wave of Labor Militancy. itsgoingdown.org Anarchists must push for self-organization, direct action and mutual aid in the midst of a wave of mass strikes, workers walking off the job, and growing anger at rising inequality. The month of October was the start of what has been called "Striketober" a massive wave of labor strikes across the so called United States….

Joris Leverink (2021-12-06). Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: Monopolistic Competition. roarmag.org Season 3, Episode 26 — Monopolistic Competition: | In this episode of ACC, Prof. Harvey speaks about monopolistic competition and its impact on market pricing and location. All monopolistic competition is spacial competition that creates a highly unstable economy and has a tendency to produce conglomerations in rich locations. | You can support this podcast on

Peoples Dispatch (2021-12-06). Governments buy more weapons in first year of COVID-19 boosting global arms trade. peoplesdispatch.org Data published by SIPRI for the year 2020 shows the world's top 100 weapons manufacturers increase their overall sales in comparison to previous years as governments chose to increase arms procurement despite COVID-19-related economic hardships…

imperial.ac.uk (2021-12-06). People from BAME and deprived groups more affected by Covid hospital disruption. imperial.ac.uk People from lower-income areas or from BAME backgrounds were less likely to access non-Covid-related hospital care during the pandemic.

WSWS (2021-12-06). Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan prepares to enforce historic Tory assault on London transport. wsws.org The cuts are so deep that by Transport for London's own admission they will push the capital's transport system into a state of "Managed Decline".

Moderator (2021-12-06). Hedges: American Satyricon. scheerpost.com By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost | The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell which began this week in Manhattan will not hold to account the powerful and wealthy men who are also complicit in the sexual assaults of girls as young as twelve Maxwell allegedly procured for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. | Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard Larry Summers, Stephen Pinker, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire Victoria's Secret CEO Les Wexner, the, J.P Morgan banker Jes Staley…

Julia Rock (2021-12-06). Six Things They're Not Telling You About Inflation. dailyposter.com

Anonymous Contributor (2021-12-06). Report Back from Disruption of Heartland Alliance's Holiday Brunch. itsgoingdown.org Report back on recent mobilization and disruption of the Heartland Alliance, a non-profit which imprisons migrant children in so-called Chicago. For a deeper dive, go here. On Sunday, December 5 at 10 AM, demonstrators gathered outside the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Chicago to confront donors arriving at Heartland Health's annual holiday brunch. While Heartland…

Staff (2021-12-06). "Systemwide Failure": Gun Control Advocates Demand New Regulations After Michigan School Shooting. democracynow.org Funerals have begun in Oxford, Michigan, for the four students killed when their 15-year-old classmate opened fire in a rampage that also injured seven others. Ethan Crumbley has been charged with terrorism and first-degree murder, and his parents have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly giving him access to a firearm even as he displayed obvious signs he was thinking about committing violent crimes. We're joined by Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, prompting her to found Sandy Hook Promise; and Kris Brown, president of Br…

WSWS (2021-12-06). Australia: Sydney bus drivers strike over pay and conditions. wsws.org The industrial action reflects mounting anger as the city's bus service approaches full privatisation.

WSWS (2021-12-06). Union bureaucrats sell out Mississippi shipyard workers, force through contract extension. wsws.org Facing resistance from the rank and file, the Metal Trades Council and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers released a leaflet threatening workers with dire consequences if they rejected the contract extension.

Staff (2021-12-06). Jorge Arreaza PSUV Candidate for Barinas Re-Election. orinocotribune.com With the battle-cry "Long live Chávez!", Jorge Arreaza Montserrat assumed, on Sunday, December 5, the candidacy for governorship in Barinas state, after being so designated by the national leadership of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). | Arreaza declared that he was moved, and thanked, from the heart, President Nicolás Maduro, for the confidence in him to undertake this new battle in the state where Hugo Chávez was born and that has great ideological significance for the Bolivarian Revolution. | "If you trust this son of Chávez, this brother of Nicolás Maduro, to lead the reins of Barinas for the n…

Editor2 (2021-12-06). Diego Sequera Discusses the Underpinnings of Venezuelan Election and Huge Maduro/Socialist Victory. orinocotribune.com Sunday's result underscores the notion that the Venezuelan people blame the U.S. sanctions for their suffering, rather than purely pointing the finger at the government. | The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is celebrating as, with almost all votes counted, they appear to have won 20 out of the country's 23 states in Sunday's regional "mega elections." More than 70,000 candidates stood for one of 3,082 public positions, including local mayorships, councillors, regional legislators and state governors — the vast majority of candidates affiliated with opposition parties. | The landslide victory was…

Rossana Rossanda (2021-12-06). For Rossana Rossanda, Communism Was a Choice Compelled by Reason. zcomm.org Interview about becoming a Communist in Fascist Italy…

_____ (2021-12-05). How China Is Taking On Billionaires And Big Tech To Combat Inequality. popularresistance.org China is imposing harsh regulations on private education, big tech, and billionaires. The new Cold Warriors in the U.S. government and media call these moves authoritarian, leftward tyranny, and bad for business. But Chinese president Xi Jinping calls it part of a "common prosperity" agenda to create a more equitable society on the road to building socialism. To help understand the Chinese point of view, Rania Khalek was joined by Tings Chak, a writer and researcher with Dongsheng News and the Tricontinental Institute.

_____ (2021-12-05). Why Unionizing Efforts Terrify Amazon. popularresistance.org The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just ruled that a historic union vote held earlier this year among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) was not valid. The highly publicized vote, which took place over several weeks in February and March 2021, resulted in a resounding defeat for the union, with more than 70 percent of those voting choosing against union membership. Stuart Appelbaum, president of RWDSU, accused Amazon of engaging in "efforts to gaslight its own employees," and filed a petition in April to nullify the vote. After inv…

Jonathan Cook (2021-12-05). How Starmer's Labour Reversed 40 Years of Progress on Israel and Palestine. dissidentvoice.org British politics is lurching backwards when it comes to Israel. Gains won over many decades that made it possible to critique Israel and its belligerent rule over Palestinians are being undone almost overnight — and on both sides of the supposed political divide. A rash of recent incidents illustrate how quickly the rot has set …

_____ (2021-12-05). Totally Exhausted US and EU Hit China With Sanctions. journal-neo.org The growing contradictions between China and the West, which received an ideological coloring after the speech of Mike Pompeo in 2020, who called the confrontation between Beijing and Washington a struggle between the Free World and the Marxist-Leninist Regime, is increasingly acquiring the character of a complex conflict between the parties. Washington and its Western …

John Bellamy Foster (2021-12-05). Marxism, Ecology and the Climate Crisis—John Bellamy Foster. mronline.org In the week before the COP26 international summit, John Bellamy Foster analyzed the climate emergency and how we can achieve climate justice.

Misión Verdad (2021-12-05). How Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and Big Pharma Destroyed US Public Health. orinocotribune.com A country's success or failure in managing the COVID-19 pandemic is measured by the number of infections and deaths from the disease. Although it was expected that the crisis would generate a change in the relationship dynamics between nations, even in their internal management, what the outcome has shown is the overall dominance of a barbarism which was the product of the logic of capitalism. | In the case of the United States, the country that so far leads the death count worldwide, the handling of the pandemic has been catastrophic and its effects have influenced and upset global dynamics. Who was in charge of…

Tyler Walicek (2021-12-05). Recall Campaign Against Socialist Kshama Sawant Is Backed by Billionaires. truthout.org An unusual special election in Seattle's District 3 on December 7 will decide whether avowedly socialist City Councilor Kshama Sawant will be recalled from her position. The fact that Sawant's seat is under dire threat is indicative of the contempt that Seattle's business interests hold for her and her policies: The considerable victories Sawant has won for working people have made her the target of some of Seattle's most powerful forces. | Despite protestations to the contrary, it's eminently c…

Dakotah Lilly (2021-12-05). The Socialist Leader America Loves to Hate Wins Again. What now? orinocotribune.com By Dakotah Lilly — Nov 26, 2021 | Recent elections in Venezuela saw Nicolás Maduro's leftist ruling party win 20 out of 23 governorships. The US predictably cries foul, but I witnessed voting that was perfectly free and fair. | Western This smear is in direct contradict…

Hamilton Nolan (2021-12-05). Which Side Are You Democrats On? zcomm.org Even the friendliest Democratic officials are cowards. The labor movement needs to save itself…

Jonathan Cook (2021-12-05). How Starmer's Labour Reversed 40 Years of Progress on Israel and Palestine. dissidentvoice.org British politics is lurching backwards when it comes to Israel. Gains won over many decades that made it possible to critique Israel and its belligerent rule over Palestinians are being undone almost overnight — and on both sides of the supposed political divide. A rash of recent incidents illustrate how quickly the rot has set …

Rod Driver (2021-12-05). The World's Richest People: Excessive Wealth Disorder Is Destroying Our Societies. globalresearch.ca Incisive and timely article first published by Global Research on March 29, …

_____ (2021-12-05). Totally Exhausted US and EU Hit China With Sanctions. journal-neo.org The growing contradictions between China and the West, which received an ideological coloring after the speech of Mike Pompeo in 2020, who called the confrontation between Beijing and Washington a struggle between the Free World and the Marxist-Leninist Regime, is increasingly acquiring the character of a complex conflict between the parties. Washington and its Western …

John Bellamy Foster (2021-12-05). Marxism, Ecology and the Climate Crisis—John Bellamy Foster. mronline.org In the week before the COP26 international summit, John Bellamy Foster analyzed the climate emergency and how we can achieve climate justice.

Misión Verdad (2021-12-05). How Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and Big Pharma Destroyed US Public Health. orinocotribune.com A country's success or failure in managing the COVID-19 pandemic is measured by the number of infections and deaths from the disease. Although it was expected that the crisis would generate a change in the relationship dynamics between nations, even in their internal management, what the outcome has shown is the overall dominance of a barbarism which was the product of the logic of capitalism. | In the case of the United States, the country that so far leads the death count worldwide, the handling of the pandemic has been catastrophic and its effects have influenced and upset global dynamics. Who was in charge of…

Tyler Walicek (2021-12-05). Recall Campaign Against Socialist Kshama Sawant Is Backed by Billionaires. truthout.org An unusual special election in Seattle's District 3 on December 7 will decide whether avowedly socialist City Councilor Kshama Sawant will be recalled from her position. The fact that Sawant's seat is under dire threat is indicative of the contempt that Seattle's business interests hold for her and her policies: The considerable victories Sawant has won for working people have made her the target of some of Seattle's most powerful forces. | Despite protestations to the contrary, it's eminently c…

Dakotah Lilly (2021-12-05). The Socialist Leader America Loves to Hate Wins Again. What now? orinocotribune.com By Dakotah Lilly — Nov 26, 2021 | Recent elections in Venezuela saw Nicolás Maduro's leftist ruling party win 20 out of 23 governorships. The US predictably cries foul, but I witnessed voting that was perfectly free and fair. | Western This smear is in direct contradict…

Staff (2021-12-04). Twitter Removes 277 Venezuelan Accounts for Supporting Nicolás Maduro (Social Media Censorship). orinocotribune.com Twitter is back at the center of the global controversy over freedom of expression. On this occasion, the US company undertook the task of censoring thousands of accounts for their supposed security violations and breach of regulations and for an alleged "disclosure of state-linked information." | Hay un dataset de 277 cuentas de Venezuela.

_____ (2021-12-04). An Obscure Agency Is Threatening To Hand Medicare Over To Wall Street. popularresistance.org In the face of massive support for Medicare for All and the failure of the U.S.'s for-profit health care system, the inevitable fall of the medical-industrial complex can be predicted, if not with precision, with certainty. Everyone is aware of the impending demise, none more so than those in charge of the for-profit health care system and their supporters in Congress, as evidenced by the frenetic activity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transfer the traditional Medicare program to the insurance industry as fast as humanly possible. Given this urgency, physicians representing Physicians…

Staff (2021-12-04). Bitcoin drops nearly $10,000 in an hour. rt.com The world's crypto pioneer, bitcoin, saw a sharp decline of nearly $10,000 in roughly an hour to as low as $42,000 before bouncing back to $45,000, extending the latest downtrend amid the emergence of the Omicron Covid-19 strain. | The price of bitcoin has dropped around $15,000 over the past 24 hours. It was trading at nearly $47,580 as of 08: 16 GMT, down 16.14% day over day, having dropped by 31.6% from the year's high of $69,000, which it reached on November 10. | Read more | | Meanwhile, ether, the sec…

Seth Galinsky (2021-12-04). Fidel Castro: How Cuban working people made a socialist revolution. themilitant.com U.S. imperialism will never forgive working people in Cuba for overthrowing the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, replacing capitalist rule with a government of workers and farmers, nationalizing U.S. and Cuban companies and opening the first socialist revolution in the Americas. | That revolution was a product of the operations of capitalism, but it could not have charted a path to victory without the political leadership of Fidel Castro. The U.S. rulers hoped when he died Nov. 25, 2016, the revolution would die with him. But five years later, his ideas and example are looked to by millions in Cuba…

Fight Back (2021-12-04). Presidential victory in Honduras represents another loss for U.S. imperialism. fightbacknews.org Tucson, AZ – In the early hours of June 28, 2009, Honduran soldiers snatched President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya from his home and removed him from power in a coup d'état with tacit support from the U.S. What followed was a brutal dictatorship that murdered, disappeared and oppressed Hondurans. In close collaboration with criminal cartels, the Honduran power elite implemented neoliberal policies, while violence and drugs plagued the country. It should come as no surprise that waves of Hondurans poured out into caravans headed north to seek asylum in the U.S. only to be met by the cruel denial of President Trump and U.S…

_____ (2021-12-04). Backed By AFRICOM, Corporations Plunder DR Congo For "Climate-Friendly" Materials And Blame China. popularresistance.org Cobalt, A Key Metallic Element Used In Lithium Batteries And Other "Green" Technology, Is Sourced From Slave Labor In The Democratic Republic Of Congo. As The West Points The Finger At China, The US Africa Command Is Indirectly Policing Mining Operations That Profit US Corporations.

_____ (2021-12-04). Backed By AFRICOM, Corporations Plunder DR Congo. popularresistance.org Cobalt, A Key Metallic Element Used In Lithium Batteries And Other "Green" Technology, Is Sourced From Slave Labor In The Democratic Republic Of Congo. As The West Points The Finger At China, The US Africa Command Is Indirectly Policing Mining Operations That Profit US Corporations.

_____ (2021-12-04). How To Picket Stores That Sell Your Employer's Products. popularresistance.org Picketing stores that sell an employer's products can publicize a strike and hurt earnings. It is also a good way to generate community support. Although the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) usually bars unions from picketing secondary (i.e., "neutral") employers, a narrow legal exception applies to retail stores and distributors—provided the union does not interfere with operations, only asks the public not to buy struck products, does not ask customers to stop doing all business with the retailer (unless the store only sells struck products), and does not demand that the store stop buying products from…

Middle East Monitor (2021-12-04). Even Israel's Labor Party President signals that the Occupation of Palestinians in Permanent. juancole.com By Ashraf Al-Ajrami | — ( Middle East Monitor) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog chose to celebrate the Jewish Hanukkah holiday — the "Festival of Lights" — at the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron, accompanied by a group of settler leaders. "The historical affinity of the Jewish people to Hebron, to the Cave of the …

WSWS (2021-12-04). Australian government in "chaos" as pandemic intensifies political disarray. wsws.org The Liberal-National government is in tatters, yet there is low popular support for the Labor Party and rising distrust in the entire parliamentary establishment.

WSWS (2021-12-04). Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), giant of American musical theater. wsws.org An inventive lyricist, a collaborator and mentor to many, he created 19 full-length musicals.

Terry Evans (2021-12-04). Workers need to use our unions to fight against the ravages of inflation. themilitant.com With no end in sight to the biggest price hikes in decades, especially on food, gas and other necessities, strikes by workers at Kellogg's cereal plants, ExxonMobil in Texas and at Warrior Met Coal in Alabama set an important example for workers everywhere. By using our unions to fight, striking workers show we can stand up to the bosses and struggle together for protection from the effects of today's crisis of capitalist production and trade. | Employers are driving hard to jack up our "productivity" — an index of the exploitation of our labor — while holding wages down and increasing speedup and ove…

Staff (2021-12-04). China wants its casino paradise to become tech Mecca. rt.com The Chinese government plans to transform its largest casino den, Macau, into a regional technology hub, the South China Morning Post reported, citing technology industry executives and officials. | This comes as the Venetian Macao Convention and Exhibition Centre this week hosted a big technology-themed trade fair, which is expected to give rise to new industries and revitalize the regional economy. | The event's website portrayed Macau as "the new centre of international technologies" to connect the Asia Pacific tech ecosystem with the rest of the world. | "The Guangdong-Macau in-depth cooperation zone in He…

United Health Professionals (2021-12-04). The Covid Outbreak: "Biggest Health Scam of the 21st Century." Report by 1500 Health Professionals. globalresearch.ca We say : STOP disproportionate measures to fight SARS-CoV-2 (lockdown, blocking the economy and education, social distancing, wearing of masks for all, etc.) because they are totally unjustified, are not based on any scientific evidence and violate the basic principles of evidence-based medicine.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-04). Video: The Corona Crisis and the Engineered Destabilization of the Global Economy. Michel Chossudovsky. globalresearch.ca First published on May 19, 2021 | Visit and follow us on Instagram …

_____ (2021-12-04). Central Asian and Middle Eastern Countries Step Up Cooperation. journal-neo.org On November 28, the 15th Summit of the Leaders of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Member-States was held in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, with the participation of the heads of state and governments of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, the countries that are members of the organization. The ECO summit …

_____ (2021-12-04). Russia Is Primed for a Persian Gulf Security 'Makeover'. strategic-culture.org By Pepe ESCOBAR | It's impossible to understand the resumption of the JCPOA nuclear talks in Vienna without considering the serious inner turbulence of the Biden administration. | Everyone and his neighbor are aware of Tehran's straightforward expectations: all sanctions — no exceptions — must be removed in a verifiable manner. Only then will the Islamic Republic reverse what it terms 'remedial measures,' that is, ramping up its nuclear program to match each new American 'punishment.' | The reason Washington isn't tabling a similarly transparent position is because its economic circumstances are, biza…

Yanis Varoufakis (2021-12-04). Do we really want negotiations to replace markets and hierarchies? — Yanis Varoufakis, 4th December 2021. zcomm.org Note: This is the second entry in an ongoing debate between Michael Albert and Yanis Varoufakis titled: Envisioning a postcapitalism worth striving for. Each entry will be 500 words or less. Each will appear as a stand alone ZNet article, but each will link as well to a cumulative essay containing all the submissions

Dongsheng News (2021-12-04). News on China | No. 78. dissidentvoice.org Meeting in Dakar, Senegal, China announces that it will donate 600 million doses of vaccines for African countries and produce 400 million doses in partnership with African countries. China will send 500 specialists for ten agriculture and poverty alleviation projects on the continent, among other commitments. Macao tightens regulations on casino operators. The ex-Portuguese colony …

Dean Baker (2021-12-04). Cheap Fun Saturday: Job Growth Under Biden and Trump. cepr.net The November jobs report left a number of people, including me, somewhat confused. The data from the survey of households was great. The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 4.2 percent, with over 1.1 million more people reporting that they were employed. This was far better than the consensus forecast, which put the drop at 0.1-0.2 percentage points. (My number was 4.3 percent.) | It's worth noting that 4.2 percent is a very low rate of unemployment by historical standards. The unemployment rate did not get this low from 1970 until 1999. Then, after the recession in 2001, it didn't again fall to 4.

sputniknews (2021-12-04). Millions Remain Long-Term Unemployed Despite Big Decline in November US Jobless Rate. sputniknews.com The new US jobs report showed an unexpectedly large decrease in unemployment alongside a smaller-than-expected increase in non-farm payroll jobs. Economists say it could mean the US is approaching full employment, meaning interest rate hikes could be on the way. However, longer-term unemployed numbers remained almost unchanged.

Ezekiel J Emanuel, Cécile Fabre, Lisa Herzog, Ole F Norheim, Govind Persad, G Owen Schaefer, Kok-Chor Tan (2021-12-04). [Correspondence] Obligations in a global health emergency — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We thank Felipe de Carvalho Borges da Fonseca and colleagues, and Kayvan Bozorgmehr and Rosa Jahn for their comments on our Viewpoint.1 We agree with de Carvalho Borges da Fonseca and colleagues about the need for "a more equitable, sustainable, and accountable medical innovation system". Whether waiving patent rights will meaningfully improve access to COVID-19 vaccines for low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in the short term, is an empirical matter. There is wide agreement that intellectual property (IP) for mRNA vaccines is not a primary barrier to vaccinating the world;2,3 vaccine pr…

Tom Shakespeare (2021-12-04). [Perspectives] The many worlds of disability. thelancet.com Jan Grue is a phenomenon in the disability world: a 40-year-old with a congenital muscular atrophy, who is an author of fiction for adults and children and is also Professor of Qualitative Research at the University of Oslo, Norway. In this eagerly awaited book, I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir, he tells the story of his life and his daily existence. Grue is expert at capturing sights, sounds, and even smells. The stories he relates are likely to represent the reality for many educated people in high-income countries with lived experience of disability who have stumbled, fallen, and wheeled through school, clin…

_____ (2021-12-04). Barbados Becomes A Republic. popularresistance.org At midnight on Tuesday, November 30, Barbados, an island nation in the Caribbean, declared itself a republic. Sandra Prunella Mason was promoted from governor general to president after by Parliament. In a formal ceremony, attended by Prince Charles representing Queen Elizabeth II, the country ceased to be a constitutional monarchy, removing the queen from her position as head of state. The country, however, will remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Kenn Orphan (2021-12-04). Censorship, the Myth of Free Data and the False Solutions on the Table. zcomm.org Social media has never been a free service for any of us. But it has certainly given a lot of advertisers, wealthy investors, intelligence agents and politicians a free ride…

The Lancet (2021-12-04). [Editorial] Reinstating universal health coverage on the global agenda. thelancet.com Who remembers universal health coverage (UHC)? The World Health Organization defines UHC as all individuals and communities receiving the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving this target was a top priority in global health, as it underpins Sustainable Development Goal 3: to ensure health and wellbeing for all. But as countries focused on the pandemic, the world's health community has neglected to sustain the momentum needed to achieve UHC.

WSWS (2021-12-04). Chile's election: Boric and pseudo-left offer no defense against threat of fascism. wsws.org International and historical experience demonstrates that once in power, the pseudo-left abandons all pretense of reform, bowing to the international financial and corporate elite.

Janine Jackson (2021-12-04). Inflation Is Bad for Those Who Profit From Your Mortgage Debt and Student Loans. truthout.org Janine Jackson: A New York Times That framing is echoed and adumbrated everywhere…

Amanda Khan (2021-12-04). Accountability is the start of true recovery. nationofchange.org People's Action welcomes these much-needed investments, and stands ready to defend our priorities and the communities that need recovery most.

Brian Williams (2021-12-04). Mine explosion in Russia kills over 50 workers, dozens injured. themilitant.com The bosses' drive for profit at the expense of safety led to a deadly coal mine methane gas explosion in the Kemerovo region of southwestern Siberia Nov. 25. Over 50 people were killed and dozens more hospitalized. Five workers who came to help in rescue operations were among those killed, and one survived. | The explosion occurred after a ventilation shaft began filling with toxic gas while 285 people were working underground in the Listvyazhnaya mine, government officials said. Methane gas levels were dangerously high prior to the blast, but no action was taken either by the company — SDS-Coal — or…

WSWS (2021-12-04). Lives before profits! Stop the pandemic! wsws.org Ending the COVID-19 pandemic requires rejecting the concept that profit interests must be "balanced" against saving lives.

_____ (2021-12-04). UK Higher Education Workers Strike For Fair Pay, Working Conditions And Other Stories. popularresistance.org In today's episode of the Daily Round-up we look at the 3-day UCU strike by Higher Education workers across 58 universities in the UK to demand fair wages and job security; the re-imposition of the Migrant Protection Protocols by the U.S. and its implications for asylum seekers currently in Mexico and at the border; a report on rising hunger in the Latin America and the Caribbean region during the pandemic; and a Stand Earth report linking major brands like Nike and Adidas to cattle ranching operations fueling large-scale destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

_____ (2021-12-04). UK Higher Education Workers Strike For Fair Pay, Working Conditions. popularresistance.org In today's episode of the Daily Round-up we look at the 3-day UCU strike by Higher Education workers across 58 universities in the UK to demand fair wages and job security; the re-imposition of the Migrant Protection Protocols by the U.S. and its implications for asylum seekers currently in Mexico and at the border; a report on rising hunger in the Latin America and the Caribbean region during the pandemic; and a Stand Earth report linking major brands like Nike and Adidas to cattle ranching operations fueling large-scale destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

John Steele (2021-12-04). Canada flood social disaster is a product of capitalist greed. themilitant.com MONTREAL — Tens of thousands of workers and farmers across British Columbia face widespread flooding, mud and rock slides after torrential rain hit central and southern parts of the province beginning Nov. 14. | The unfolding social catastrophe, however, is not caused by weather, but by the refusal of governments at all levels to prepare for such conditions and the fact that under capitalism working people are forced to live where housing is cheapest — on flood plains. | As of Nov. 17, six people were dead or missing. At least 17,775 people were forced out of their homes, entire towns were evacuated a…

California Nurses Association (2021-12-04). Watsonville Community Hospital nurses to hold press conference to demand hospital remain open. indybay.org Nurses who work at Watsonville Community Hospital will hold a press conference on Friday, Dec. 3, to demand that the hospital remain open, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today. The event is being held in response to a recent letter from the hospital to employees citing plans to sell the facility as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization process.

indyradio (2021-12-04). Joseph McCarthy Censured by US Senate Dec 2nd 1954. indybay.org The Anti-communist crusade of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy came to a close in 1954 after his own committee shifted focus to investigate him for abusing army general Ralph W. Zwicker.

Staff (2021-12-04). Twitter Removes 277 Venezuelan Accounts for Supporting Nicolás Maduro (Social Media Censorship). orinocotribune.com Twitter is back at the center of the global controversy over freedom of expression. On this occasion, the US company undertook the task of censoring thousands of accounts for their supposed security violations and breach of regulations and for an alleged "disclosure of state-linked information." | Hay un dataset de 277 cuentas de Venezuela.

Staff (2021-12-04). Bitcoin drops nearly $10,000 in an hour. rt.com The world's crypto pioneer, bitcoin, saw a sharp decline of nearly $10,000 in roughly an hour to as low as $42,000 before bouncing back to $45,000, extending the latest downtrend amid the emergence of the Omicron Covid-19 strain. | The price of bitcoin has dropped around $15,000 over the past 24 hours. It was trading at nearly $47,580 as of 08: 16 GMT, down 16.14% day over day, having dropped by 31.6% from the year's high of $69,000, which it reached on November 10. | Read more | | Meanwhile, ether, the sec…

Fight Back (2021-12-04). Presidential victory in Honduras represents another loss for U.S. imperialism. fightbacknews.org Tucson, AZ – In the early hours of June 28, 2009, Honduran soldiers snatched President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya from his home and removed him from power in a coup d'état with tacit support from the U.S. What followed was a brutal dictatorship that murdered, disappeared and oppressed Hondurans. In close collaboration with criminal cartels, the Honduran power elite implemented neoliberal policies, while violence and drugs plagued the country. It should come as no surprise that waves of Hondurans poured out into caravans headed north to seek asylum in the U.S. only to be met by the cruel denial of President Trump and U.S…

Middle East Monitor (2021-12-04). Even Israel's Labor Party President signals that the Occupation of Palestinians in Permanent. juancole.com By Ashraf Al-Ajrami | — ( Middle East Monitor) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog chose to celebrate the Jewish Hanukkah holiday — the "Festival of Lights" — at the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron, accompanied by a group of settler leaders. "The historical affinity of the Jewish people to Hebron, to the Cave of the …

WSWS (2021-12-04). Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), giant of American musical theater. wsws.org An inventive lyricist, a collaborator and mentor to many, he created 19 full-length musicals.

WSWS (2021-12-04). Australian government in "chaos" as pandemic intensifies political disarray. wsws.org The Liberal-National government is in tatters, yet there is low popular support for the Labor Party and rising distrust in the entire parliamentary establishment.

Editor2 (2021-12-04). Backed by AFRICOM, Corporations Plunder DR Congo for "Climate-Friendly" Materials and Blame China. orinocotribune.com By T.J. Coles — Nov 30, 2021 | Cobalt, a key metallic element used in lithium batteries and other "green" technology, is sourced from slave labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the West points the finger at China, the US Africa Command is indirectly policing mining operations that profit US corporations. | Ever since Belgium's King Leopold II (1835-1909) established the Congo Free State in 1885, international powers have exploited the region's vast resources. Leading a regime that went on to kill an

Staff (2021-12-04). China wants its casino paradise to become tech Mecca. rt.com The Chinese government plans to transform its largest casino den, Macau, into a regional technology hub, the South China Morning Post reported, citing technology industry executives and officials. | This comes as the Venetian Macao Convention and Exhibition Centre this week hosted a big technology-themed trade fair, which is expected to give rise to new industries and revitalize the regional economy. | The event's website portrayed Macau as "the new centre of international technologies" to connect the Asia Pacific tech ecosystem with the rest of the world. | "The Guangdong-Macau in-depth cooperation zone in He…

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-04). Video: The Corona Crisis and the Engineered Destabilization of the Global Economy. Michel Chossudovsky. globalresearch.ca First published on May 19, 2021 | Visit and follow us on Instagram …

_____ (2021-12-04). Central Asian and Middle Eastern Countries Step Up Cooperation. journal-neo.org On November 28, the 15th Summit of the Leaders of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Member-States was held in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, with the participation of the heads of state and governments of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan, the countries that are members of the organization. The ECO summit …

Dean Baker (2021-12-04). Cheap Fun Saturday: Job Growth Under Biden and Trump. cepr.net The November jobs report left a number of people, including me, somewhat confused. The data from the survey of households was great. The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 4.2 percent, with over 1.1 million more people reporting that they were employed. This was far better than the consensus forecast, which put the drop at 0.1-0.2 percentage points. (My number was 4.3 percent.) | It's worth noting that 4.2 percent is a very low rate of unemployment by historical standards. The unemployment rate did not get this low from 1970 until 1999. Then, after the recession in 2001, it didn't again fall to 4.

Tom Shakespeare (2021-12-04). [Perspectives] The many worlds of disability. thelancet.com Jan Grue is a phenomenon in the disability world: a 40-year-old with a congenital muscular atrophy, who is an author of fiction for adults and children and is also Professor of Qualitative Research at the University of Oslo, Norway. In this eagerly awaited book, I Live a Life Like Yours: A Memoir, he tells the story of his life and his daily existence. Grue is expert at capturing sights, sounds, and even smells. The stories he relates are likely to represent the reality for many educated people in high-income countries with lived experience of disability who have stumbled, fallen, and wheeled through school, clin…

Ezekiel J Emanuel, Cécile Fabre, Lisa Herzog, Ole F Norheim, Govind Persad, G Owen Schaefer, Kok-Chor Tan (2021-12-04). [Correspondence] Obligations in a global health emergency — Authors' reply. thelancet.com We thank Felipe de Carvalho Borges da Fonseca and colleagues, and Kayvan Bozorgmehr and Rosa Jahn for their comments on our Viewpoint.1 We agree with de Carvalho Borges da Fonseca and colleagues about the need for "a more equitable, sustainable, and accountable medical innovation system". Whether waiving patent rights will meaningfully improve access to COVID-19 vaccines for low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in the short term, is an empirical matter. There is wide agreement that intellectual property (IP) for mRNA vaccines is not a primary barrier to vaccinating the world;2,3 vaccine pr…

Kenn Orphan (2021-12-04). Censorship, the Myth of Free Data and the False Solutions on the Table. zcomm.org Social media has never been a free service for any of us. But it has certainly given a lot of advertisers, wealthy investors, intelligence agents and politicians a free ride…

The Lancet (2021-12-04). [Editorial] Reinstating universal health coverage on the global agenda. thelancet.com Who remembers universal health coverage (UHC)? The World Health Organization defines UHC as all individuals and communities receiving the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving this target was a top priority in global health, as it underpins Sustainable Development Goal 3: to ensure health and wellbeing for all. But as countries focused on the pandemic, the world's health community has neglected to sustain the momentum needed to achieve UHC.

WSWS (2021-12-04). Chile's election: Boric and pseudo-left offer no defense against threat of fascism. wsws.org International and historical experience demonstrates that once in power, the pseudo-left abandons all pretense of reform, bowing to the international financial and corporate elite.

WSWS (2021-12-04). Lives before profits! Stop the pandemic! wsws.org Ending the COVID-19 pandemic requires rejecting the concept that profit interests must be "balanced" against saving lives.

California Nurses Association (2021-12-04). Watsonville Community Hospital nurses to hold press conference to demand hospital remain open. indybay.org Nurses who work at Watsonville Community Hospital will hold a press conference on Friday, Dec. 3, to demand that the hospital remain open, announced California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) today. The event is being held in response to a recent letter from the hospital to employees citing plans to sell the facility as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization process.

indyradio (2021-12-04). Joseph McCarthy Censured by US Senate Dec 2nd 1954. indybay.org The Anti-communist crusade of Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy came to a close in 1954 after his own committee shifted focus to investigate him for abusing army general Ralph W. Zwicker.

Ana Malinow (2021-12-03). An Obscure Agency Is Threatening to Hand Medicare Over to Wall Street. truthout.org In the face of massive support for Medicare for All and the failure of the U.S.'s for-profit health care system, the inevitable fall of the medical-industrial complex can be predicted, if not with precision, with certainty. Everyone is aware of the impending demise, none more so than those in charge of the for-profit health care system and their supporters in Congress, as evidenced by the frenetic activity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transfer the traditional Medicare p…

Jerry Goldberg (2021-12-03). Strikers at John Deere win COLA adjustments. liberationnews.org One of the most significant gains by United Auto Workers members at John Deere as a result of their five-week strike against this multinational corporation was the restoration of quarterly cost of living adjustments (COLA) to their wages.

WSWS (2021-12-03). Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa. wsws.org Danish nurses organise wildcat stoppage and mass resignation in protest at pay and working conditions in defiance of government and unions; French transport workers, including bus, tram and train drivers, continue wave of strikes over pay and conditions; South African gold miners at Sibanye-Stillwater poised to join strikes of Clover dairy and Massmart store workers over pay; protests in Lebanon over continuing economic crisis plunging six million into poverty…

teleSUR (2021-12-03). Puebla Group Rejects US Harsh Policy Against Cuba. telesurenglish.net On Thursday, Cuba's Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez welcomed that the Puebla Group condemned the U.S. smear campaign and economic blockade against his country. | RELATED: | "We appreciate the solidarity of the Puebla Group with our people, who suffer the consequences of coercive policies that go against international conventions and obey the anachronistic logic of the Cold War," Rodriguez stated. | The forum also condemned th…

Brittani Banks (2021-12-03). Why Amazon Is Terrified of Its U.S. Workers Unionizing. independentmediainstitute.org The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has just ruled that a historic union vote held earlier this year among Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama, by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) was not valid. The highly publicized vote, which took place over several weeks in February and March 2021, resulted in a …

Dean Baker (2021-12-03). Marginalized Workers Facing Labor Market Discrimination See Largest Jobs Gains. truthout.org The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points in November, even though the economy added just 210,000 jobs. The drop in the unemployment rate went along with an increase in the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) of 0.4 percentage points, corresponding to a rise in employment of more than 1.1 million in the household survey. The unemployment rate had not fallen this low following the Great Recession until September 2017. | The 210,000 job growth in the establishment survey is slower th…

WSWS (2021-12-03). Canadian Armed Forces providing military training to Ukrainian neo-Nazis. wsws.org The Canadian military has been training and collaborating with neo-Nazi groups active in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with the knowledge and tacit approval of successive Canadian governments.

_____ (2021-12-03). Israel's Illegal Occupation of the Golan Heights Remains an Obstacle to Peace. journal-neo.org During the period of the last Labor government in Australia, the general policy of that government, which was in power for six years from 2008 to 2014, was to abstain on votes in the United Nations critical of Israel. When the Liberal government has been in power, as it has continuously since 2014, the vote …

Sam Wainwright (2021-12-03). WA Labor's electoral reforms: one step forward, two steps back. greenleft.org.au Under the cover of applying "one vote, one value" to elections for the Legislative Council, last month WA Labor also pushed through legislation that disadvantages smaller political parties, writes Sam Wainwright.

Staff (2021-12-03). Haitian Asylum Seekers Held Under Del Rio Bridge Now Face Inhumane Conditions in New Mexico ICE Jail. democracynow.org The world was shocked by images of Haitians whipped by U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback as they sought refuge. Thousands were soon deported, but dozens are now detained in an ICE jail in New Mexico where they face inhumane conditions and lack access to legal services. We speak with a lawyer who describes medical neglect, deteriorating mental and physical health, and poor treatment by the staff. "They cannot get the basic tools and have the basic human contact that they need to save their own lives," says immigration attorney Allegra Love of the El Paso Immigration Collaborative.

teleSUR (2021-12-03). Cuba Celebrates Health Workers on Day of Latin American Medicine. telesurenglish.net On the day commemorating Latin American Medicine, teleSUR English reproduces in full the speech offered by Cuban Minister of Health Jose Angel Portal Miranda to the health workers of Cuba and the region. | Cuba celebrates Latin American Medicine Day every December 3, to commemorate the birth of Cuban epidemiologist Carlos J. Finlay, an occasion to thank doctors, nurses, scientists, and collaborators for their successful efforts against Covid-19.

teleSUR (2021-12-03). US Sent Wheat Seeds Containing Pests To Syria. telesurenglish.net Syrian agriculture officials have been complaining that the wheat seeds, recently provided by the United States for farmers in the Al-Hasakah province, contain a high degree of nematode (plant-parasitic worm) infection that would harm the soil. | RELATED: | In the laboratory examination that used saline solution, researchers found a number of grains are infected with wheat allele, which is a nematode infection. In the visual examination of the sample, the…

Derek Royden (2021-12-03). "Only the people can save the people!" Xiomora Castro's presidential win in Honduras. nationofchange.org "I believe firmly that the democratic socialism I propose is the solution to pull Honduras out of the abyss we have been buried in by neo-liberalism, a narco-dictator and corruption."

Karen Conner (2021-12-03). Unemployment Falls to 4.2 Percent in November as Economy Adds 210,000 Jobs. cepr.net The rise in the index of aggregate hours would be equivalent to more than 630,000 jobs with no changes in workweeks.

teleSUR (2021-12-03). Peru's Officers Must Put Aside Political Differences: Castillo. telesurenglish.net On Friday and Monday, Peru's President Pedro Castillo will meet with lawmakers to coordinate policies to promote economic reactivation, political stability and help the citizens affected by the 7,2-magnitude earthquake, which shook the country on Nov. 28. | RELATED: | "We need to put aside political differences to work together in favor of our people," Castillo said and condemned the position assumed by the Attorney General'

Stavroula Pabst (2021-12-03). Flattening the curve or flattening the global poor? How Covid lockdowns obliterate human rights and crush the most vulnerable. thegrayzone.com Marketed as life-saving public health measures, lockdowns triggered death and economic devastation on a global scale while doing little to slow the spread of Covid-19. Now, they're back with a vengeance. In October 2021, it seemed as though the lockdowns that still paralyzed societies from Australia to New Zealand and Singapore were coming to an end, as these countries threw in the "Zero-COVID" towel following a year and a half of rolling restrictions and closures. But with COVID-19 cases rising …

David L. Wilson (2021-12-03). Media don't factcheck right-wing migration myths. mronline.org Increases and declines in unauthorized immigration mostly correlate with changes in job opportunities and other economic conditions in the United States and in nearby countries.

imperial.ac.uk (2021-12-03). David Miles to become top forecaster at UK fiscal watchdog. imperial.ac.uk Professor David Miles has been appointed to one of the most influential roles in UK economic policy.

Isheka N. Harrison (2021-12-03). Berkshire's Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett Partner: This Bubble is Crazier Than 2000 Dotcom Bust. moguldom.com Billionaire investor Charlie Munger is not here for the current state of global financial markets. The 97-year-old is the vice-chair of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffet's closest confidante. He emphatically stated his position during the Sohn Hearts & Minds Investment Conference in Sydney, Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. "The dotcom boom was crazier on …

_____ (2021-12-03). We Have to Stand on Our Ground, the Best Ground from Which to Reach the Stars. popularresistance.org The geographical distribution of low and high-income countries reveals the same old divides. This was the main focus of dossier no. 43 (CoronaShock and Education in Brazil: One and a Half Years Later, August 2021), summarised in our seven theses on the present and future of education in Brazil. These regional and gender inequalities predated the pandemic but have been exacerbated because of the lockdowns. Signs of improvement are not yet visible. Earlier this year, the World Bank and UNESCO noted that, since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, two-thirds of developing countries have cut their education budget…

teleSUR (2021-12-03). Historic China-Laos Railway Commences Operations. telesurenglish.net The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, started operation on Friday. | Today the $6 billion China-Laos bullet train, which could raise the country's income 20%, starts to operate. What most people didn't know is that the U.S. made Laos the most bombed nation in human history, killing 10% of its population.

WSWS (2021-12-03). Go-Ahead drivers in London win support for petition against Unite collusion over Remote Sign On. wsws.org RSO is opposed by an overwhelming majority of bus drivers across London—84 percent according to a recent Unite survey. Bus companies plan to introduce it across the network to slash payroll costs and introduce full labour force "flexibility".

_____ (2021-12-03). COP26: On The Outside, Always Looking In. popularresistance.org "It wasn't long until I realized why this was the case: even if I came from a country that is continuously being ravaged by the climate crisis, I wasn't the target audience of this conference. I wasn't white, I did not come from a position of power or wealth, and I wasn't significant enough to be let inside the negotiations. I did not belong in this theater of performative climate "action". So much for COP26 being the most inclusive COP ever."

Laura Finley (2021-12-03). Facing the Facts About Gun Violence in the U.S. zcomm.org U.S. gun-related homicide rates are 25 times greater than other wealthy nations…

Chris Walker (2021-12-03). Using Inflation as an Excuse, Corporations Raised Prices & Increased Profits. zcomm.org "Corporations are seizing the opportunity to engage in massive profiteering because they can…they don't care you have to pay more for your groceries"

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-12-03). A New Diplomacy for China. libya360.wordpress.com Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein No one will be able to say that China is trying to impose its model on the world, attack another country, organize coups, assassinate presidents, exert armed pressure or install military bases in other countries (Photo: Financial Times). The Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of…

WSWS (2021-12-03). Tentative agreement announced in Kellogg's strike. wsws.org The BCTGM union is bringing a contract for a vote by 1,400 workers striking at four company cereal plants on Sunday, December 5, proposing to preserve the two-tier system and to accept wage increases below the rate of inflation.

teleSUR (2021-12-03). US House Approves Funding Bill Ahead Of Shutdown Deadline. telesurenglish.net On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a short-term spending bill that would keep federal agencies running through February, averting a partial shutdown just a day before government funding is set to expire. | RELATED: | The Democrats-held lower chamber approved the bill by a vote of 221-212. The measure now heads to the Senate, where a group of Republicans have threatened to delay the passage o…

_____ (2021-12-03). Two Fake Stories about the DPRK in November 2021. journal-neo.org Anti-Pyongyang propaganda periodically delights the world with horror stories in the DPRK, which circulate well in the media and which now must be clarified. It happened twice in the second half of November. On November 16, Radio Free Asia, a private non-profit news service funded by the US government, told the world the heartbreaking story …

WSWS (2021-12-03). New Zealand rail union enters talks ahead of national strike. wsws.org Driven by the rising cost of living and stagnant wages, Kiwirail workers have voted overwhelmingly for a nationwide strike. The RMTU, however, has resumed talks with management.

WSWS (2021-12-03). Sri Lankan public sector workers hold nationwide protests to demand higher wages. wsws.org The island-wide actions, held on consecutive days beginning Monday, are another indication of mounting working-class opposition to the Rajapakse government's austerity measures and its escalating anti-democratic attacks.

teleSUR (2021-12-03). Puebla Group Rejects US Harsh Policy Against Cuba. telesurenglish.net On Thursday, Cuba's Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez welcomed that the Puebla Group condemned the U.S. smear campaign and economic blockade against his country. | RELATED: | "We appreciate the solidarity of the Puebla Group with our people, who suffer the consequences of coercive policies that go against international conventions and obey the anachronistic logic of the Cold War," Rodriguez stated. | The forum also condemned th…

WSWS (2021-12-03). Canadian Armed Forces providing military training to Ukrainian neo-Nazis. wsws.org The Canadian military has been training and collaborating with neo-Nazi groups active in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with the knowledge and tacit approval of successive Canadian governments.

Stavroula Pabst (2021-12-03). Flattening the curve or flattening the global poor? How Covid lockdowns obliterate human rights and crush the most vulnerable. thegrayzone.com Marketed as life-saving public health measures, lockdowns triggered death and economic devastation on a global scale while doing little to slow the spread of Covid-19. Now, they're back with a vengeance. In October 2021, it seemed as though the lockdowns that still paralyzed societies from Australia to New Zealand and Singapore were coming to an end, as these countries threw in the "Zero-COVID" towel following a year and a half of rolling restrictions and closures. But with COVID-19 cases rising …

Ana Malinow (2021-12-03). An Obscure Agency Is Threatening to Hand Medicare Over to Wall Street. truthout.org In the face of massive support for Medicare for All and the failure of the U.S.'s for-profit health care system, the inevitable fall of the medical-industrial complex can be predicted, if not with precision, with certainty. Everyone is aware of the impending demise, none more so than those in charge of the for-profit health care system and their supporters in Congress, as evidenced by the frenetic activity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transfer the traditional Medicare p…

WSWS (2021-12-03). Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa. wsws.org Danish nurses organise wildcat stoppage and mass resignation in protest at pay and working conditions in defiance of government and unions; French transport workers, including bus, tram and train drivers, continue wave of strikes over pay and conditions; South African gold miners at Sibanye-Stillwater poised to join strikes of Clover dairy and Massmart store workers over pay; protests in Lebanon over continuing economic crisis plunging six million into poverty…

Staff (2021-12-03). Haitian Asylum Seekers Held Under Del Rio Bridge Now Face Inhumane Conditions in New Mexico ICE Jail. democracynow.org The world was shocked by images of Haitians whipped by U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback as they sought refuge. Thousands were soon deported, but dozens are now detained in an ICE jail in New Mexico where they face inhumane conditions and lack access to legal services. We speak with a lawyer who describes medical neglect, deteriorating mental and physical health, and poor treatment by the staff. "They cannot get the basic tools and have the basic human contact that they need to save their own lives," says immigration attorney Allegra Love of the El Paso Immigration Collaborative.

Sam Wainwright (2021-12-03). WA Labor's electoral reforms: one step forward, two steps back. greenleft.org.au Under the cover of applying "one vote, one value" to elections for the Legislative Council, last month WA Labor also pushed through legislation that disadvantages smaller political parties, writes Sam Wainwright.

Dean Baker (2021-12-03). Marginalized Workers Facing Labor Market Discrimination See Largest Jobs Gains. truthout.org The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points in November, even though the economy added just 210,000 jobs. The drop in the unemployment rate went along with an increase in the employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) of 0.4 percentage points, corresponding to a rise in employment of more than 1.1 million in the household survey. The unemployment rate had not fallen this low following the Great Recession until September 2017. | The 210,000 job growth in the establishment survey is slower th…

Derek Royden (2021-12-03). "Only the people can save the people!" Xiomora Castro's presidential win in Honduras. nationofchange.org "I believe firmly that the democratic socialism I propose is the solution to pull Honduras out of the abyss we have been buried in by neo-liberalism, a narco-dictator and corruption."

David L. Wilson (2021-12-03). Media don't factcheck right-wing migration myths. mronline.org Increases and declines in unauthorized immigration mostly correlate with changes in job opportunities and other economic conditions in the United States and in nearby countries.

teleSUR (2021-12-03). Peru's Officers Must Put Aside Political Differences: Castillo. telesurenglish.net On Friday and Monday, Peru's President Pedro Castillo will meet with lawmakers to coordinate policies to promote economic reactivation, political stability and help the citizens affected by the 7,2-magnitude earthquake, which shook the country on Nov. 28. | RELATED: | "We need to put aside political differences to work together in favor of our people," Castillo said and condemned the position assumed by the Attorney General'

imperial.ac.uk (2021-12-03). David Miles to become top forecaster at UK fiscal watchdog. imperial.ac.uk Professor David Miles has been appointed to one of the most influential roles in UK economic policy.

_____ (2021-12-03). We Have to Stand on Our Ground, the Best Ground from Which to Reach the Stars. popularresistance.org The geographical distribution of low and high-income countries reveals the same old divides. This was the main focus of dossier no. 43 (CoronaShock and Education in Brazil: One and a Half Years Later, August 2021), summarised in our seven theses on the present and future of education in Brazil. These regional and gender inequalities predated the pandemic but have been exacerbated because of the lockdowns. Signs of improvement are not yet visible. Earlier this year, the World Bank and UNESCO noted that, since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, two-thirds of developing countries have cut their education budget…

WSWS (2021-12-03). Go-Ahead drivers in London win support for petition against Unite collusion over Remote Sign On. wsws.org RSO is opposed by an overwhelming majority of bus drivers across London—84 percent according to a recent Unite survey. Bus companies plan to introduce it across the network to slash payroll costs and introduce full labour force "flexibility".

_____ (2021-12-03). COP26: On The Outside, Always Looking In. popularresistance.org "It wasn't long until I realized why this was the case: even if I came from a country that is continuously being ravaged by the climate crisis, I wasn't the target audience of this conference. I wasn't white, I did not come from a position of power or wealth, and I wasn't significant enough to be let inside the negotiations. I did not belong in this theater of performative climate "action". So much for COP26 being the most inclusive COP ever."

Laura Finley (2021-12-03). Facing the Facts About Gun Violence in the U.S. zcomm.org U.S. gun-related homicide rates are 25 times greater than other wealthy nations…

Chris Walker (2021-12-03). Using Inflation as an Excuse, Corporations Raised Prices & Increased Profits. zcomm.org "Corporations are seizing the opportunity to engage in massive profiteering because they can…they don't care you have to pay more for your groceries"

WSWS (2021-12-03). Tentative agreement announced in Kellogg's strike. wsws.org The BCTGM union is bringing a contract for a vote by 1,400 workers striking at four company cereal plants on Sunday, December 5, proposing to preserve the two-tier system and to accept wage increases below the rate of inflation.

teleSUR (2021-12-03). US House Approves Funding Bill Ahead Of Shutdown Deadline. telesurenglish.net On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a short-term spending bill that would keep federal agencies running through February, averting a partial shutdown just a day before government funding is set to expire. | RELATED: | The Democrats-held lower chamber approved the bill by a vote of 221-212. The measure now heads to the Senate, where a group of Republicans have threatened to delay the passage o…

WSWS (2021-12-03). Sri Lankan public sector workers hold nationwide protests to demand higher wages. wsws.org The island-wide actions, held on consecutive days beginning Monday, are another indication of mounting working-class opposition to the Rajapakse government's austerity measures and its escalating anti-democratic attacks.

WSWS (2021-12-03). New Zealand rail union enters talks ahead of national strike. wsws.org Driven by the rising cost of living and stagnant wages, Kiwirail workers have voted overwhelmingly for a nationwide strike. The RMTU, however, has resumed talks with management.

Rubén Armendáriz (2021-12-03). Argentina — Procesaron al expresidente Macri por espiar a familiares del submarino hundido. globalizacion.ca El expresidente neoliberal argentino Mauricio Macri fue procesado sin prisión preventiva, pero con un embargo de 100 millones de pesos sobre sus bienes, por el juez federal de Dolores Martín Bava, quien consideró al político y empresario de 62 años…

Ivan Stoiljkovic (2021-12-03). 'It was once our home': Socialist Yugoslavia before the breakup. peoplesworld.org On November 29, 1943, in the midst of the Second World War, a beautiful, big, and strong socialist Yugoslavia was established in the town of Jajce in central Bosnia. It was established by the Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ), at its second session, as a state of equal nations and peoples …

Vijay Prashad (2021-12-03). We have to stand on our ground, the best ground from which to reach the stars: The Forty-Eighth Newsletter (2021). mronline.org During the pandemic, socialist projects—such as those of LDF government in Kerala, the Cuban educational programmes, and the MST literacy campaign—are flourishing, while other governments cut their educational funding. 'It's always time to learn', says the MST literacy programme, but this adage is not in use everywhere.

William Rivers Pitt (2021-12-02). With Omicron in US, GOP Hard-Liners Are Still Trying to Thwart Vaccine Mandates. truthout.org Stop me if you've heard this one before: The current federal spending agreement that funds many operations of government is set to expire at midnight on Friday. Absent a new deal, or at least a vote to kick the can down the road a bit, much of the federal government will shut down, again. M*A*S*H didn't get this many reruns. | The last one ran 35 days, from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019, and happened because then-President Donald Trump wanted to staple funding for his draconian bor…

Dana Sanchez (2021-12-02). Gold Investor Peter Schiff: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Just Admitted Biden Wants To Empower IRS To Go After Low-Income Tax Cheats. moguldom.com The Biden administration in November dropped its unpopular proposal from the $2.2 trillion Build Back Better plan to make banks share data about customers with the Internal Revenue Service for accounts with total annual deposits or withdrawals of $10,000-plus. However, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she still supports the concept. The bank reporting idea was …

In Defense of Liberation! (2021-12-02). Socialism in the Global South w/ Comrades Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez and Libre X. Sankara. anchor.fm In this episode I have on Comrades Libre X. Sankara from Troika Kollective (@troikakollectiv on Instagram and Twitter) and Ramiro Sebastián Fúnez, host of Unmasking Imperialism on Youtube, director of "Nicaragua Against Empire" (youtu.be/-wUDr0tQxqs) | We discuss the situations in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua briefly, touching mostly upon the recent elections in Nicaragua and Venezuela, as well as the false accusations levied by the US Empire against these nations at this time. We also go in depth to discuss the overall situation facing Central and South America, as colonized nations, and how their figh…

_____ (2021-12-02). Revival of Class Politics in the U.S…. Will It Be Socialism or Fascism? strategic-culture.org The U.S. empire, like the USSR, is imploding out of its own corruption, says Harriet Fraad in an interview with Finian Cunningham. | Over the past year, the massive upheaval in the United States from workers going on industrial strike and walking off jobs signifies an increasing awareness of class politics. In the following interview, Harriet Fraad says that American workers are overcoming decades of suppression from anti-communist propaganda as well as a betrayal by the two main political parties. | Workers are becoming aware of their rights and their conditions of exploitation under the corporate capitalist sys…

WSWS (2021-12-02). National Labor Relations Board orders new union election at Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. wsws.org The Biden administration is intervening not to defend workers' democratic rights, but to impose a labor police force over this decisive section of the working class…

teleSUR (2021-12-02). Humanity Demands The Abolition of Modern Slavery Every Dec. 2. telesurenglish.net On the International Day for The Abolition of Slavery, the United Nations (UN) recalled that over 40 million people across the globe are victims of modern slavery, a practice that includes forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. | RELATED: | "These forms of slavery are the result of long-standing discrimination against vulnerable social sectors such as undocumented immigrants, LGBT people, and Indi…

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-12-02). Over 1.5 Million Bolivians March in Defense of Democracy and President Arce's Government. libya360.wordpress.com Tanya Wadhwa Over 1.5 million Bolivians took part in a rally in La Paz on November 29, in defense of democracy and President Luis Arce's government. Photo: Luis Arce/Twitter President Luis Arce thanked Bolivian citizens for their overwhelming support, and promised to continue working to rebuild the country and the economy with the people Thousands…

Editor2 (2021-12-02). Cuba, China, Latin America and US Hybrid War. orinocotribune.com By John Ross — Nov 26, 2021 | This analysis by John Ross of the Renmin University of China looks at the long relationship between China and Cuba. He analyzes why it is important to defeat the US attack on Cuba. | Foreword by China Environment editors | Cuba joined Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2019, hoping it would assist in strengthening its troubled economy, which has been badly hit by aggressive US sanctions for decades. China already become Cuba's main trading partner in 2017. In October this year (2021) Cuba officially became a member of the Alliance for Energy of the Belt and Road Initiative, a pr…

WSWS (2021-12-02). "The laws are ultimately censorship"—SEP electoral members support campaign against Australia's anti-democratic legislation. wsws.org "The government does not care about the health and wellbeing of the population; they just want to keep the economy 'healthy'"

Ann Brown (2021-12-02). The Sneaky And Hidden Tax: How High Inflation Can Heavily Tax Your Cash. moguldom.com There's more to inflation than just rising prices. Some economists say inflation is actually another way to tax your dollars. Back in February, Larry Summers, former director of the National Economic Council and an alumnus of both the Clinton and Obama administrations, warned President Joe Biden that more spending could easily trigger a spike in …

Staff (2021-12-02). Puebla Group Calls for Unity in the Face of Far-Right Maneuvers in Latin America. orinocotribune.com On Wednesday, December 1, the Puebla Group called for leaders to close ranks in the face of extreme right-wing maneuverings in Latin America, in order to defend the victories of the progressive currents in various regional electoral processes. | At a conference held in Mexico with some 200 regional political leaders in attendance, including five former presidents and representatives of 19 countries of the continent, the group debated the day before on the political, economic, and social challenges to be faced in the immediate future. | They also reviewed the main political events that have hampered the advance of…

teleSUR (2021-12-02). CELAC Celebrates 10 Years Facing US Interference In LATAM. telesurenglish.net At the "Unity Summit" held in Mexico in 2010, the heads of state of the Latin American and Caribbean countries decided to create a multilateral institution that truly responds to their economic, political, and cultural interests. | RELATED: | Fulfilling this common desire on Dec 2, 2011, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) was born in Caracas, where 33 nations met to form a space to promo…

Martin Hart-Landsberg (2021-12-02). The dollar costs of inequality: they are greater than you think. mronline.org Pretty much everyone accepts that inequality is a big problem in the U.S. But it is doubtful that most people truly grasp how successfully U.S. elites have captured the benefits of economic growth and, as a result, how much the resulting inequality has cost them.

_____ (2021-12-02). The Right-Wing Story About Human Nature Is False. popularresistance.org One common view of human beings is that we are "by nature" selfish, violent, cruel, and untrustworthy, and that, to the extent we manage to restrain these base instincts, it is because we are taught to be generous, and punished if we go around hurting others. Sometimes this view is accompanied by a story about human development: once upon a time, life was nasty, brutish, and short, a war of all against all. Prehistoric human beings were violent barbarians. Fortunately, civilization has gradually brought out the better angels of our nature. Free markets can actually direct humans' natural selfishness toward social…

Anis Chowdhury (2021-12-02). Profiting from the carbon offset distraction. mronline.org Carbon offset markets allow the rich to emit as financial intermediaries profit. By fostering the fiction that others can be paid to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) instead, it undermines efforts to do so.

Peter Certo (2021-12-02). Greed Is Prolonging the Pandemic. fpif.org Stop me if this sounds familiar. | It's been kind of a hard year, but I felt optimistic about the holidays. My wife and I had just scheduled our COVID-19 boosters. Even better, we'd been able to get our young child vaccinated. | We imagined a cautious return to simple family pleasures like indoor dining — and maybe playdates at indoor play centers during the long Midwestern winter. Maybe we'd even test our kid's appetite for air travel and visit relatives in different parts of the country. | Then — another COVID-19 variant. Possible breakthrough infections. Travel bans and tumbling stock markets. And…

Carolina V N Coll, Thiago M Santos, Karen Devries, Felicia Knaul, Flavia Bustreo, Anne Gatuguta, Gbenankpon Mathias Houvessou, Aluísio J D Barros (2021-12-02). Identifying the women most vulnerable to intimate partner violence: A decision tree analysis from 48 low and middle-income countries. thelancet.com Starting with well-known predictors of IPV, the decision-tree approach provides important insights about subpopulations of women where IPV prevalence is high. This information can help designing targeted interventions. For a large proportion of women who experienced IPV, however, no particular risk factors were identified, emphasizing the need for population wide approaches conducted in parallel, including changing social norms, strengthening laws and policies supporting gender equality and women ¥s rights as well as guaranteeing women ¥s access to justice systems and comprehensive health services.

Gauri Gandbhir (2021-12-02). India: Victory for farmers protesting fascist farm laws. greenleft.org.au The Indian farmer's movement is a demonstration that people power can preserve the public sector and has become an inspiration for labourers around the world to take on neoliberalism and fascism, writes Gauri Gandbhir.

Johanna Kichton (2021-12-02). People's Action Proudly Endorses Sonia Chang-Díaz for Governor of Massachusetts. peoplesaction.org WASHINGTON, D.C.—People's Action today announced its endorsement of Sonia Chang-Díaz for Governor of Massachusetts. Chang-Díaz is running a movement politics, people-powered campaign and will work to advance the People's Action People's Platform once elected. Chang-Díaz is also endorsed by People's Action member organization, Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts Action Fund. "Profiteers and the ultra-wealthy have dominated …

Staff (2021-12-02). Three Reasons Why Congress Must Pass the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Now. aclu.org Although Congress outlawed pregnancy discrimination in 1978, far too many employers still routinely deny pregnant workers the temporary job modifications they need to keep working and have a healthy pregnancy. These requests for "accommodations" — such as more frequent breaks, schedule changes, and reassignment of hazardous tasks — often are denied to pregnant workers, and can result in severe consequences for their health and financial security. Nobody should have to choose between a healthy pregnancy and a job. | The bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) would outlaw such discrimination…

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-12-02). Bolivia Has the Lowest Inflation in Latin America. libya360.wordpress.com Kawsachun News Bolivia's accumulated inflation for 2021 is just 0.54%, says a new report by the Bolivian Institute for Foreign Trade (IBCE), a private research center. Meanwhile, the regional average, according to the IMF, has reached 9.3% across Latin America. Bolivia's 0.54% is in stark contrast to Central Bank figures of its neighbors, such as…

Johanna Kichton (2021-12-02). People's Action: Bloated Military Budget Proves Congress Needs a Reality Check on Priorities. peoplesaction.org Contact: Johanna Kichton, press@peoplesaction.org, 202.660.0605 WASHINGTON, D.C.—People's Action today released the following statement by Director of Federal Affairs Megan Essaheb as the Senate debates the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act: "It's rich that some senators will soon greenlight a bill, written and lobbied for by defense contractors and corporations who profit off forever wars, …

Steve O'Brien (2021-12-02). Newcastle socialist candidate: It's time to put people before profit. greenleft.org.au Community-minded people can successfully challenge powerful interests, and the governments that serve them, to create communities that are sustainable, affordable, socially just and inclusive, writes Steve O'Brien.

WSWS (2021-12-02). Philippine government ramps up campaign for "living with the virus" wsws.org Like capitalist governments around the world, the Duterte administration aims to force workers to "live with the virus" and remove all barriers to the profit-making of the capitalist class.

WSWS (2021-12-02). Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz and Germany's federal states reject necessary pandemic restrictions. wsws.org All the parties in the new coalition government to be headed by Scholz are aggressively pursuing the "profits before lives" policies that have already resulted in more than 100,000 deaths in Germany alone and are creating an ever-expanding catastrophe.

WSWS (2021-12-02). Anger among Mississippi Ingalls shipbuilders on eve of contract extension vote. wsws.org Workers want higher wages and safer conditions at the giant military shipbuilding facility, located on Mississippi's Gulf Coast…

The Socialist Program (2021-12-02). Why China Succeeded and the U.S. Failed to Beat COVID. liberationnews.org What can we learn about how different countries have handled the pandemic, and the radically different outcomes they produced?>

Emir Sader (2021-12-02). Latin America: Why the Elections in Chile, Brazil and Colombia are Crucial. orinocotribune.com By Emir Sader — Nov 29, 2021 | Latin America has become the epicenter of the greatest political struggles of the 21st century because it was the epicenter of neoliberalism in the world. It was the region with the most neoliberal and radical governments. Therefore, it became the region where the anti-neoliberal governments developed, thus becoming the fundamental scenario of the most important disputes in the world in the 21st century. | The first decade of the century in Latin America was marked by the emergence of anti-neoliberal governments, which implemented a set of measures that attacked the main factor…

WSWS (2021-12-02). National Labor Relations Board orders new union election at Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. wsws.org The Biden administration is intervening not to defend workers' democratic rights, but to impose a labor police force over this decisive section of the working class…

WSWS (2021-12-02). "The laws are ultimately censorship"—SEP electoral members support campaign against Australia's anti-democratic legislation. wsws.org "The government does not care about the health and wellbeing of the population; they just want to keep the economy 'healthy'"

Anis Chowdhury (2021-12-02). Profiting from the carbon offset distraction. mronline.org Carbon offset markets allow the rich to emit as financial intermediaries profit. By fostering the fiction that others can be paid to cut greenhouse gases (GHGs) instead, it undermines efforts to do so.

Peter Certo (2021-12-02). Greed Is Prolonging the Pandemic. fpif.org Stop me if this sounds familiar. | It's been kind of a hard year, but I felt optimistic about the holidays. My wife and I had just scheduled our COVID-19 boosters. Even better, we'd been able to get our young child vaccinated. | We imagined a cautious return to simple family pleasures like indoor dining — and maybe playdates at indoor play centers during the long Midwestern winter. Maybe we'd even test our kid's appetite for air travel and visit relatives in different parts of the country. | Then — another COVID-19 variant. Possible breakthrough infections. Travel bans and tumbling stock markets. And…

Carolina V N Coll, Thiago M Santos, Karen Devries, Felicia Knaul, Flavia Bustreo, Anne Gatuguta, Gbenankpon Mathias Houvessou, Aluísio J D Barros (2021-12-02). Identifying the women most vulnerable to intimate partner violence: A decision tree analysis from 48 low and middle-income countries. thelancet.com Starting with well-known predictors of IPV, the decision-tree approach provides important insights about subpopulations of women where IPV prevalence is high. This information can help designing targeted interventions. For a large proportion of women who experienced IPV, however, no particular risk factors were identified, emphasizing the need for population wide approaches conducted in parallel, including changing social norms, strengthening laws and policies supporting gender equality and women ¥s rights as well as guaranteeing women ¥s access to justice systems and comprehensive health services.

Gauri Gandbhir (2021-12-02). India: Victory for farmers protesting fascist farm laws. greenleft.org.au The Indian farmer's movement is a demonstration that people power can preserve the public sector and has become an inspiration for labourers around the world to take on neoliberalism and fascism, writes Gauri Gandbhir.

WSWS (2021-12-02). Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz and Germany's federal states reject necessary pandemic restrictions. wsws.org All the parties in the new coalition government to be headed by Scholz are aggressively pursuing the "profits before lives" policies that have already resulted in more than 100,000 deaths in Germany alone and are creating an ever-expanding catastrophe.

WSWS (2021-12-02). Philippine government ramps up campaign for "living with the virus" wsws.org Like capitalist governments around the world, the Duterte administration aims to force workers to "live with the virus" and remove all barriers to the profit-making of the capitalist class.

Steve O'Brien (2021-12-02). Newcastle socialist candidate: It's time to put people before profit. greenleft.org.au Community-minded people can successfully challenge powerful interests, and the governments that serve them, to create communities that are sustainable, affordable, socially just and inclusive, writes Steve O'Brien.

WSWS (2021-12-02). Anger among Mississippi Ingalls shipbuilders on eve of contract extension vote. wsws.org Workers want higher wages and safer conditions at the giant military shipbuilding facility, located on Mississippi's Gulf Coast…

The Socialist Program (2021-12-02). Two Verdicts: Racist Violence & American Capitalism. liberationnews.org The three men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery have been convicted of murder in a major victory for the struggle against racism, but at the same time the Rittenhouse verdict reveals a grave danger.

Fra Hughes (2021-12-02). Sinn Fein from Revolutionary Party to Constitutional Nationalists. orinocotribune.com By Fra Hughes — Nov 28, 2021 | Sinn Fein went from being a revolutionary party supporting a legitimate armed struggle against Britain's illegal imperialist military occupation of Ireland and aiming to build a socialist republic, to becoming a business-oriented party, focused on acquiring more seats in the parliament. | Where did it all go wrong? | Once the vanguard of Irish republicanism and claiming to be fighting for a free sovereign socialist 32 county Irish republic SF is now a parody of its previous incarnation. | From a revolutionary party supporting a legitimate armed struggle against Britain's illega…

WSWS (2021-12-02). SEP meeting discusses the socialist policies needed to fight Sri Lankan government's budget. wsws.org The speakers urged workers to reject all nationalist programs and fight for international socialist policies in order to defeat the austerity budget.

Dana Sanchez (2021-12-01). Federal Reserve's Jerome Powell Taps Out On Inflation, Now Admits Inflation Isn't Transitionary, Will Remain High. moguldom.com Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who repeatedly downplayed the risk of inflation earlier in 2021, now says he is retiring the word "transitory" to describe the inflationary outlook and believes that the omicron variant could threaten the U.S. economy. Speaking to Congress on Tuesday, Nov. 30, Powell acknowledged the growing risk of more persistent inflation …

Peter Certo (2021-12-01). In OtherWords: December 1, 2021. otherwords.org Markets crashed again over the weekend as reports of a new COVID-19 variant cropped up first in South Africa and then in countries all over the world. Already it's been spotted in California. | By now the cycle of relief and uncertainty feels very familiar. We don't yet know how serious the Omicron variant will be, but one thing is for certain: The longer this virus circulates, the more variants we'll see. | In other words, the vast vaccination gaps between richer and poorer countries are putting all of us at risk — even those of us who are already vaccinated. This week, I explain how overcoming corporate g…

_____ (2021-12-01). WHO Stands With African Nations And Calls For Borders To Remain Open. popularresistance.org As a growing number of countries impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns over the new Omicron variant, World Health Organization (WHO) urges countries to follow science and the International Health Regulations (2005). | Travel restrictions may play a role in slightly reducing the spread of COVID-19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods. If restrictions are implemented, they should not be unnecessarily invasive or intrusive, and should be scientifically based, according to the International Health Regulations which is a legally binding instrument of international law recognized b…

WSWS (2021-12-01). African National Congress rejects new measures to counter South Africa's Omicron variant surge. wsws.org South Africa's third wave was the result of inadequate safety measures implemented by the governments around the world in the interest of reopening the economy. President Ramaphosa is now declaring that even those limited mitigation measures are unacceptable.

Fight Back (2021-12-01). Interview with Toni Gilpin on recent strikes and the need for fighting unions. fightbacknews.org Toni Gilpin is a prominent labor historian, author and activist. She wrote the book The Long Deep Grudge which covered the militant history of the Farm Equipment Union whose members later merged into the United Auto Workers, including some the locals that recently struck for five weeks at John Deere, where Gilpin provided support on the picket lines. | Fight Back! was able to speak to Gilpin recently about the John Deere strike, the uptick in recent strikes, union leadership and elections, and what is needed in the American labor movement today. The following are excerpts from that conversation. | Fight Back!: Wh…

Joris Leverink (2021-12-01). Earthcare Fieldcast: Migrant Labor Struggles in Agriculture and Care. roarmag.org As we are sliding from crises of social reproduction into crises of planetary ecology, | Episode 3 —Feminist Organizing across Migrant Agricultural and Care Work:…

Staff (2021-12-01). Amazon Workers in Alabama Get New Shot at Union After NLRB Rules Company Broke the Law in 1st Vote. democracynow.org Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama may soon get another chance to decide whether to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Amazon violated U.S. labor law while waging an aggressive anti-unionization campaign against warehouse workers earlier this year in Bessemer, Alabama. This comes as Amazon workers worldwide from Bangladesh to Germany campaigned on Black Friday for fairer working conditions under the banner, "Make Amazon Pay." "If Amazon is trying to eat the world, it's also bringing many disparate sets of workers and activists and communities together to fight against the…

Monica Cruz (2021-12-01). Amazon workers in Alabama get a second chance to vote on unionizing. peoplesdispatch.org A federal labor official has ruled in favor of the union, which charged the company with illegally interfering with the election held earlier this year…

a guest author (2021-12-01). Workers of the world demand: MAKE AMAZON PAY! workers.org By Tony Murphy and John Catalinotto Strikes, protests and militant job actions marked the global day of actions Nov. 26, targeting the megamonopoly and superprofiteer Amazon in 20 countries. Chris Smalls, president of Amazon Labor Union, speaks at NYC rally Nov. 26, organized by Workers Assembly Against Racism. The day . . . |

_____ (2021-12-01). Backed by AFRICOM, corporations plunder DR Congo for "climate-friendly" materials and blame China. strategic-culture.org Cobalt, a key metallic element used in lithium batteries and other "green" technology, is sourced from slave labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the West points the finger at China, the US Africa Command is indirectly policing mining operations that profit US corporations. | TJ COLES | Ever since Belgium's King Leopold II (1835-1909) established the Congo Free State in 1885, international powers have exploited the region's vast resources. Leading a regime that went on to kill an

_____ (2021-12-01). Leftist Castro's Victory In Honduras Vote Spells End Of US-Backed 'Narco-Politics, Neoliberalism'. popularresistance.org Xiomara Castro, the presidential candidate for the leftist opposition party Libre, seems to have won a resounding victory in Honduras' presidential elections. Her victory comes in spite of attempts by the ruling National Party, which overthrew her husband, Manuel Zelaya, in 2009, to stifle voter turnout, as one Sputnik journalist observed.

Editor (2021-12-01). Anti-neoliberal candidate Xiomara Castro dominates Honduras' presidential election. mronline.org With a significant advantage over the closest contender, Xiomara Castro has emerged as the likely next president of Honduras.

Joris Leverink (2021-12-01). Economic Update: Imagining a Different Economy. roarmag.org On this week's show, Prof. Wolff presents updates on his recent debate with the Ayn Rand Institute on capitalism vs socialism; inflation in Europe; he offers an analysis of right vs left splitting in the US today; and real vs fake causes of energy price inflation. | The second half of the show features an interview with Professor David McNally, University of Houston, on lessons from the history of capitalism. | You can support this show on

Jayati Ghosh (2021-12-01). The feminist building-blocks of a just, sustainable economy. mronline.org Jayati Ghosh finds in a UN Women report a blueprint for an economy which serves the public—rather than the other way around.

Maxximilian Seijo (2021-12-01). The Metaphysics of Accounting with Paolo Quattrone. mronline.org Paolo Quattrone (@PaoloQuattrone) joins Money on the Left to discuss the metaphysics of accounting and the significance of accounting's repressed history for political economy today. Professor of Accounting, Governance & Society at The University of Manchester, Quattrone insists that, while often seen as a positivist and merely technical skill for recording extant data, accounting in truth represents a rhetorical and quite generative engagement with the "mystery of value."

Molly Shah (2021-12-01). Berlin's 'new economy' workers fight exploitation and union busting. zcomm.org Workers at Gorillas, the Berlin-based grocery delivery service, secured a major court victory as they continue their fight against "new economy" exploitation and rampant union busting…

Tanya Wadhwa (2021-12-01). Over 1.5 million Bolivians march in defense of democracy and President Arce's government. peoplesdispatch.org President Luis Arce thanked Bolivian citizens for their overwhelming support, and promised to continue working to rebuild the country and the economy with the people…

_____ (2021-12-01). IPCC Warns That Capitalism Is Unsustainable. popularresistance.org A leaked draft of the third part of the upcoming IPCC report establishes that we must move away from the current capitalist model to avoid exceeding planetary limits. It also confirms that, as stated in the article published by CTXT on August 7, "Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must peak in at most four years". The document also acknowledges that there is little chance of further economic growth. | The signatories of this article, scientists and journalists, have analysed a new part of the Sixth Report, leaked by the scientists' collective Scientist Rebellion and Extinction Rebellion Spain. The leak clearly shows…

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2021-12-01). 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.

Anand Naidoo (2021-12-01). The Heat: China-Africa Forum. america.cgtn.com China pledges more vaccine and economic help for Africa.

Ann Brown (2021-12-01). Who Is Jessica Mason? Meet The Dallas-Based Activist Running For Congress In Texas. moguldom.com There's a progressive Democrat candidate running for Congress in Texas who is growing in popularity. Jessica Mason is running in Texas District 30, which encompasses a large portion of Dallas including the downtown central business and arts districts. The 30th District population is 792,445, and nearly 19 percent of residents live below the poverty line, …

Jim Hightower (2021-12-01). Rethinking Work — And Life. otherwords.org As a writer, I get stuck every so often straining for the right words to tell my story. Over the years, though, I've learned when to quit tying myself into mental knots over sentence construction. Instead, I step back and rethink where my story is going. | This process is essentially what millions of American working families are going through this year as record numbers of them are shocking bosses, politicians, and economists by stepping back and declaring: "We quit!" | Most of the quits are tied to very real abuses that have become ingrained in our workplaces over the past couple of decades — poverty payc…

WSWS (2021-12-01). Harvard graduate student union pushes through contract with cut in real wages. wsws.org The four-year deal will result in an effective wage cut for exploited student-workers at the world's wealthiest university.

rebekah (2021-12-01). Blame Corporate Greed For Inflation. inequality.org

Nora Barrows-Friedman (2021-12-01). Major Canadian academic group rejects Israel lobby's anti-Semitism definition. electronicintifada.net Scholars must be able to critique states without fear of outside political influence, association says.

_____ (2021-12-01). Sandinistas Won A Landslide Victory Because They Uplifted Nicaragua's Poor. popularresistance.org As predicted by multiple polls, the Sandinistas, led by Daniel Ortega, won a resounding victory on the November 7th elections in Nicaragua. The elections were a referendum on the path that the Sandinista government has taken the country, which is grounded on large investments in social programs that have benefited people, especially the most disadvantaged, in every nook and cranny of the national territory. | Support for the reelection of the Sandinista government was astounding. Of the entire patron electoral (eligible voters), about 65% came out to vote and, of those, about 75.9% voted for the FLSN (Sandinista…

_____ (2021-12-01). Sandinistas Won A Landslide Victory Because They Uplifted The Poor. popularresistance.org As predicted by multiple polls, the Sandinistas, led by Daniel Ortega, won a resounding victory on the November 7th elections in Nicaragua. The elections were a referendum on the path that the Sandinista government has taken the country, which is grounded on large investments in social programs that have benefited people, especially the most disadvantaged, in every nook and cranny of the national territory. | Support for the reelection of the Sandinista government was astounding. Of the entire patron electoral (eligible voters), about 65% came out to vote and, of those, about 75.9% voted for the FLSN (Sandinista…

WSWS (2021-12-01). US corporate profits hit new record. wsws.org US corporations are enjoying the largest profit margins since 1950 as the Biden administration pledges to oppose any public health measures in response to the pandemic that might impinge on profits.

WSWS (2021-12-01). FedEx locks out Australian workers fighting for improved wages and conditions. wsws.org The global logistics company last week locked out workers for two full shifts after they began four-hour work stoppages.

Gary Olson (2021-12-01). Thoughts on the Left's Response to Capitalism's Global Death Spiral. dissidentvoice.org For those whose personal and political identities are virtually indistinguishable, these are especially vexing times. Specifically, during this historical stage of capitalism it's challenging to abide by Gramsci's optimism of the will and heart and not acquiesce to pessimism of the mind, to the intellect's awareness of certain recalcitrant realities in our world. And residing …

WSWS (2021-12-01). Moses Kur, 37-year-old auto parts worker, dies in industrial accident at Ventra's Grand Rapids plant. wsws.org The accident is not the product of individual error but of an unsafe environment which has persisted for years at the auto parts maker, the product of continuous speedup and long working hours that are common throughout the industry.

WSWS (2021-12-01). Wall Street falls as Fed chair points to accelerated taper of asset purchases. wsws.org Testimony by US Fed chair Jerome Powell to the Senate Banking Committee yesterday set off the second significant fall on Wall Street in three days as he indicated that the central bank was moving to tighten its monetary policy.

_____ (2021-12-01). Castro's Victory Spells End Of US-Backed 'Narco-Politics, Neoliberalism'. popularresistance.org Castro's victory is just the latest in a year of leftist victories in Latin America, including Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Pedro Castillo in Peru, and Luis Arce in Bolivia, all of which represent significant setbacks for the US' agenda in the region. | "There will be no more abuse of power in this country," Castro said in an unofficial victory speech on Sunday. "Today, the people have made justice. We have reversed authoritarianism." | With 40% of votes counted, she held a commanding lead of 53.3% over her chief rival, National Party candidate Nasry Asfura, who Sputnik News journalist Wyatt Reed described as the…

WSWS (2021-12-01). Opposition candidate Robredo endorses anti-Communist task force in Philippine election. wsws.org The anti-Communist task force, endorsed by Robredo, is a heavily funded and murderous apparatus of McCarthyism…