Daily Archives: January 5, 2022

2022-01-05: News Headlines

WSWS (2022-01-05). Apple market valuation touches $3 trillion. wsws.org The total divorce of Apple's value from the underlying real economy can be seen in the fact that its market capitalization is now bigger than the gross domestic product of most countries.

WSWS (2022-01-05). Sri Lankan president blames COVID-19 for economic crisis. wsws.org Rajapakse was seeking to enlist the media in deflecting surging anger among workers and the poor over rising prices and shortages of essentials, and preparing the ground for more austerity measures.

WSWS (2022-01-05). How American capitalism profits on death. wsws.org Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the correspondence between mass infection and stock prices is well established. The markets fall when they suspect measures will be taken to stop the spread of COVID-19, and they rise when the disease is allowed to spread unchecked.

Karen Conner (2022-01-05). Preview: What to Look for in the December Jobs Report. cepr.net There is much good news in the labor market, which is likely to continue with the December jobs report. But, we are still not over the pandemic, nor its influence on the labor market.

M. Shahid Alam (2022-01-05). Capitalists Are Dispensable, Laborers Are Not. dissidentvoice.org If you set to work to believe everything, you will tire out the believing-muscles of your mind, and then you'll be so weak you won't be able to believe the simplest true things. — Lewis Carroll1 Capitalists—qua owners of capital—are dispensable, but laborers are not. This thesis flows from a neglected asymmetry between capitalists and …

WSWS (2022-01-05). German government looks to shorten quarantine time despite Omicron and rising infections. wsws.org Instead of taking the necessary measures to protect the health and lives of hundreds of thousands, the ruling class is responding with regulations that do everything to keep workers on the job, enabling the maximising of profits.

WSWS (2022-01-05). Australian epidemiologist Adrian Esterman condemns government response to Omicron. wsws.org "There's no national approach. There are different definitions for things, different ways of calculating, different contact-tracing systems that don't talk to each other, different border regulations and different testing situations."

WSWS (2022-01-05). Workers Struggles: The Americas. wsws.org Between 97 — 100 percent of workers at 87 King Soopers stores in Colorado voted in favor strike action while state sanitation workers in Touluca, Mexico occupied buildings to press demands for back wages.

Matt Sedlar (2022-01-05). Andrés Arauz on CDBCs and Sovereignty. cepr.net Interview with Andres on Bitcoin, the broader world of crypto & NFTs, how to think about digital and monetary sovereignties together, the geopolitics of the global payment systems, China's efforts to control FinTech, the situation in El Salvador, and the possible ways to democratize central banking.

Adolph Reed Jr. (2022-01-05). When identity becomes a prison, there can be no liberational politics. zcomm.org Please Help ZNet Source: The Real News Network There is no doubt that racism is real and has negative consequences for people's lives," Adolph Reed Jr. and Touré F. Reed note in the abstract to their article "The Evolution of 'Race' and Racial Justice under Neoliberalism." "This is why we

ecns.cn (2022-01-04). 6,660 5G base stations built in Tibet. ecns.cn 4 (Xinhua) — Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region built 3,083 5G base stations in 2021, bringing the number of 5G base stations in the region to 6,660 in total.Tibet will also promote 5G network applications and technologies in education, medical care, transportation, and logistics, Yan said."ÄÄ"ÄÄThe region's digital economy is expected to rise 10 percent this year, said Yan. Enditem…

William Rivers Pitt (2022-01-04). Capitalism Is Preventing Bold Steps to Curb COVID as Cases Skyrocket. truthout.org The conversation on shutting down massive swaths of the economy and daily life, in order to corral the dual COVID-19 variant explosions of Delta and Omicron, has become brittle. President Biden has stated repeatedly that the U.S. is not " Their hesitancy, while not as scientifica…

Subodh Varma (2022-01-04). In India, more families are pushed to surviving without jobs. peoplesdispatch.org The latest data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows that share of families with two working members has fallen drastically. This means people are surviving on much less income…

ecns.cn (2022-01-04). South China's Hainan issues first RCEP Certificate of Origin. ecns.cn On New Year's Day, an enterprise from China's Hainan Free Trade Port started processing goods under the massive free-trade deal — the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

GuardiansWorldwide (2022-01-04). Tuesday 1/18: Open Climate: Moving Toward an Indigenous Climate Economy. indybay.org Online event (English & Spanish translation)…

_____ (2022-01-04). FBI Is Recklessly Misusing Trump-Era Espionage Policy To Create 'Climate Of Fear' Among Scientists. popularresistance.org On the Tuesday before Christmas, Dr. Charles Lieber, the former chair of Harvard's Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was convicted by a federal jury of lying to the U.S. about his involvement with China's government and failing to disclose income from China on his tax returns. He faces up to five years in federal prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. | Lieber had been prosecuted as part of the Justice Department's China Initiative, which was established in 2018 to crackdown on Chinese economic and scientific espionage. | An investigation by MIT Technology Review found that instead of focu…

Staff (2022-01-04). "Essential But Excluded": Pandemic Aid Left Out Undocumented Immigrants & Their U.S. Citizen Kids. democracynow.org Pandemic relief programs have helped millions of families get through the economic shocks of COVID-19, but undocumented immigrants — many of whom are essential workers — have been largely shut out of such federal aid. Those undocumented workers who have received limited assistance are now losing the pandemic aid they had only started receiving in August through the Biden administration's expanded child tax credit program, which expired and is being blocked from further implementation into Build Back Better legislation. "These families, in spite of the fact that they were essential workers, endured thi…

deweylaura (2022-01-04). Let's fight for transgender equality! cpusa.org The following resolution was passed by the CPUSA National Board and submitted for party-wide discussion. The demonization of transgender people in the United States is today a focal point of the far right's campaign for political and economic domination. Capitalism in the United States has always thrived on the division of working people in …

Jake Johnson (2022-01-04). 'In 2022, let's tax the rich': 10 billionaires added $402 billion to their fortunes in 2021. nationofchange.org The world's 10 richest billionaires added roughly $402 billion to their collective wealth in 2021, a year marked by continued suffering and economic dislocation fueled by the global coronavirus pandemic. "Heading into 2022, the 10 wealthiest individuals in the world are all worth more than $100 billion," CNBC noted, citing the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks and ranks the …

ecns.cn (2022-01-04). RCEP certificates issued around China as trade pact is activated. ecns.cn With the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in effect, local customs authorities issued RCEP certificates of origin to companies nationwide, bringing tariff reductions to enterprises and eventually making consumers the biggest beneficiary.

Jake Johnson (2022-01-04). As Tax Credit Expires, "Huge Increase" in Child Poverty Feared Amid Omicron Wave. truthout.org The lapse of Democrats' expanded child tax credit program at the end of last month has progressive lawmakers and advocates vocally warning of a major spike in child poverty in the new year just as the Omicron variant wreaks havoc across the U.S., fueling a staggering rise in infections and hospitalizations. | While some

Jeremy Kuzmarov (2022-01-04). FBI is recklessly misusing Trump-era espionage policy to create "Climate of Fear" among scientists—terrorizing families and ruthlessly destroying careers. mronline.org On the Tuesday before Christmas, Dr. Charles Lieber, the former chair of Harvard's Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was convicted by a federal jury of lying to the U.S. about his involvement with China's government and failing to disclose income from China on his tax returns.

_____ (2022-01-04). A Roundtable Discussion With Nurses And Teachers. popularresistance.org The United States has averaged a thousand people a day dying from COVID since August and the total number of lives lost is approaching a million. The number of children hospitalized with COVID has hit an all-time high nationally. During all of that, the rich have only gotten richer. On the same day we set a new national record for COVID cases, Wall Street hit a record high. | Labor journalist and NewsGuild organizer Chris Brooks sat down with a group of New York City nurses and teachers to talk about how the institutions they work for are collapsing and what labor activists can do about it. | Jia Lee, special edu…

Mark Gruenberg (2022-01-04). Amazon law-breaking in Chicago forces national settlement with Labor Board. peoplesworld.org

Editor (2022-01-04). After years of setbacks, U.S. labor demonstrates its power. mronline.org 2021 marked a historic year in labor organizing for workers in the US, with tens of thousands of workers in partaking in union votes and strike actions.

United Front Committee For A Labor Party (2022-01-04). Wednesday 1/12: STOP Scab Amazon In San Francisco! End Slave Labor & Union Busting By Bezos. indybay.org Proposed Massive Amazon Warehouse | 900 7th St. & Berry St. | San Francisco…

Commonwealth Club (2022-01-04). Tuesday 1/11: Inside Trump's Attempted Election Steal and the People Who Stopped It. indybay.org Online event…

ecns.cn (2022-01-04). White House announces plan to boost competition in meat, poultry processing sector amid rising prices. ecns.cn The White House on Monday announced an action plan aimed at boosting competition in the U.S. meat and poultry processing sector amid rising prices for consumers.

Moderator (2022-01-04). Big Pharma Hikes Prices on 442 Drugs. scheerpost.com By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams Patient advocates on Monday condemned the U.S. pharmaceutical industry for ushering in the new year with price hikes on more than 440 medications, a move that came as congressional Democrats' plan to lower prescription drug costs remained stuck due to Sen. Joe Manchin's persistent obstruction. According to the healthcare firm GoodRx, the prices …

WSWS (2022-01-04). Philippine election in crisis, as COVID cases skyrocket. wsws.org This year opened with a skyrocketing COVID-19 infection rate, soaring food and oil prices and rival ruling class candidates for the presidency openly plotting against democracy.

John W. Whitehead, Nisha Whitehead (2022-01-04). Despotism Is the New Normal. dissidentvoice.org Despotism has become our new normal. Digital tyranny, surveillance. Intolerance, cancel culture, censorship. Lockdowns, mandates, government overreach. Supply chain shortages, inflation. Police brutality, home invasions, martial law. The loss of bodily integrity, privacy, autonomy. These acts of tyranny by an authoritarian government have long since ceased to alarm or unnerve us. We have become desensitized …

ecns.cn (2022-01-04). Tibet's GDP grows about 7 percent in 2021. ecns.cn The gross domestic product (GDP) of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region grew about 7 percent in 2021, said Yan Jinhai, acting chairman of the regional government.

Tim Wheeler (2022-01-04). Sanders: Spiraling military spending pushes nation toward 'spiritual death'. peoplesworld.org Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered a warning to his colleagues that they are pushing the nation toward "spiritual death" in approving $778 billion for the Pentagon in 2022. It is more, he charged, than the arms budgets of the next 13 nations combined. The goal of this misguided Pentagon allocation is total global domination by U.S. imperialism, …

Dana Sanchez (2022-01-04). Investor Michael Siebel Explains Google's Search Quality Decline And How It's Creating Opportunities. moguldom.com During Y Combinator accelerator program's most recent semi-annual Demo Day, one founder claimed, "We're building a better search engine than Google!" YC picked 1,307 companies out of 16,000-plus applicants to pitch the investment community on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Each company founder had one minute to make a pitch that could land them a ticket …

_____ (2022-01-04). United Nations Official Also On The Board Of Shell Oil. popularresistance.org Jane Holl Lute is in high demand. In 2020, on top of her two high-level United Nations jobs, the American diplomat has juggled other numerous executive roles on corporate and/or nonprofit boards, earning more than $900,000, according to public records. Lute was the U.N. envoy for Cyprus until she resigned in August, and she still holds…

Mark Gruenberg (2022-01-04). Nurses to feds: Put people before profits in COVID fight. peoplesworld.org OAKLAND, Calif.—The nation's largest union of registered nurses, National Nurses United, urged the federal government, and specifically the Centers for Disease Control, not to put profits before people and to hold the line on its guidance for firms in the anti-coronavirus fight. But it lost. The union, citing the rapid spread of the coronavirus's Omicron …

WSWS (2022-01-04). 2022: Year Three of the pandemic and the emerging global class struggle. wsws.org The pandemic is both a catastrophe of historic dimensions and a monumental crime. Its impact is the result of decisions made by capitalist governments to deliberately prioritize profits over lives and adopt policies that have allowed the virus to spread wildly throughout the global population.

City Lights Booksellers & Publishers (2022-01-04). Wednesday 1/26: COVID Criminals & Pandemic Profiteers: Book Talk w/ author John Nichols & Rep. Ro Khanna. indybay.org Online event…

ecns.cn (2022-01-04). China to implement new regulation on algorithm recommendation services. ecns.cn A new set of rules on algorithm recommendation services will come into effect on March 1, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced Tuesday.

JBLM Cop Watch (2022-01-04). JBLM DES Protection Division Still Illegally Spying On You. indybay.org The Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) DES Protection Division collecting and disseminating information about First Amendment Protected Activities in violation of DOD regulations and Federal law.

deweylaura (2022-01-04). Marxist IQ: Democracy hypocrisy. cpusa.org The Biden administration hypocritically portrays the U.S. as the leader of world forces advancing "democracy" against "authoritianism," holding global forums to propagate these ideas, yet targets the People's Republic of China with boycotts of the Olympics, Cuba with the continuation of a 60-year blockade, and other nations with covert and overt support for factions …

Colin Barker (2022-01-04). Neoliberal Era Was Rich in Revolutionary Lessons. Movements Must Learn Them. truthout.org Colin Barker, a leading British Marxist intellectual, died in 2019 before the publication of his final work,

Peoples Dispatch (2022-01-04). Cambodia's NagaWorld workers continue strike despite arrests and crackdown. peoplesdispatch.org Union organizers and striking workers at Cambodia's largest casino and luxury resort have been arrested in recent crackdowns. The workers are demanding the reinstatement of those fired last year and negotiations on wages…

Chauncey K. Robinson (2022-01-04). bell hooks cambió nuestra forma de pensar sobre la feminidad, la clase y el capitalismo. peoplesworld.org Elijo volver a apropiarme del término 'feminismo', para centrarme en el hecho de que ser 'feminista' en cualquier sentido auténtico del término es querer para todas las personas, mujeres y hombres, la liberación de los patrones de roles sexistas, la dominación y opresión. — bell hooks en "Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism", …

Christian Zeller (2022-01-04). Ecosocialist strategy: industrial restructuring as a joint project of the climate movement. indybay.org The findings of international climate research and the IPCC are clear. World society is heading for tipping points that will abruptly change the earth and climate system. As a result, several billion people will lose their previous livelihoods in a few decades.

MEE staff (2022-01-04). Pegasus spyware: Hungary and Poland 'bought software after Netanyahu meeting'. middleeasteye.net Pegasus spyware: Hungary and Poland 'bought software after Netanyahu meeting' | Polish media investigations suggest some Pegasus attacks overlapped with meetings between Netanyahu and country leaders | Tue, 01/04/2022 – 09: 46 | Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) stands alongside then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) during a joint press conference with Visegrad country prime ministers in B…

WSWS (2022-01-04). Book Review: The St. Louis Commune of 1877: Communism in the Heartland by Mark Kruger. wsws.org Kruger's book is a rebuke to the most basic lie of American history: that there has been no class struggle or socialism in the United States.

teleSUR (2022-01-04). Venezuela: Arreaza Leads Massive Rallies In Barinas Campaign. telesurenglish.net The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) candidate to Barinas state governor Jorge Arreaza continues his political campaign for the elections to be held on Sunday. | RELATED: | On Monday, Arreaza took part in popular assemblies in Cruz Paredes, Obispos, and Barinas, where he listened to what citizens expect of him as governor and confirmed the effectiveness of government programs. | "Our policy proposals stem from suggestions made by citizens in these assemb…

Party for Socialism & Liberation (2022-01-04). Tuesday 1/4: Press Conference: Stop the Mayor's War on the Tenderloin! indybay.org SF City Hall. Tune into the livestream via @PSLBayArea on Twitter…

deweylaura (2022-01-04). New Year's greetings from around the world. cpusa.org Enjoy a selection of festive greetings from international political parties, as we zigzag around the globe. Tudeh Party of Iran Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) (video) Communist Party of the Russian Federation Kate≈ôina Koneƒçná, chair of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia Trade Union Association of Bohemia, Moravia & Silesia, Czech Republic …

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