(2022-02-14). Oppose the US-NATO drive to war with Russia in Ukraine! wsws.org The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) and the World Socialist Web Site unequivocally oppose the reckless drive of Washington and its NATO allies to instigate a war with Russia, using the fraudulent claim of an imminent invasion of Ukraine as a pretext.
(2022-02-14). The Black Alliance for Peace condemns the "America COMPETES Act" passed in House of Representatives. mronline.org 
On Friday evening, February 4th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (H.R. 4521). The stated intent of the legislation is to strengthen "America's national and economic security and the financial security of families, and advance our leadership in the world."
(2022-02-14). US steals billions in Afghan bank funds. wsws.org The decision to seize $7 billion in central bank funds will further undermine the economy of Afghanistan under conditions of mass starvation.
(2022-02-14). On Contact: Richard Wolff & The Precarious State Of The US Economy. popularresistance.org Chris Hedges interviews economist Richard Wolff on the precarious state of the US economy and its consequences…
(2022-02-14). Interview on The Black Book of Capitalism. indybay.org The book is: 1) a history of the three great industrial revolutions (introduction of the manufacturing system with the steam engine at the beginning of the 19th century, Fordist "self-mobilization" with the assembly line and the rationalization of the corporate economy during the first half of the 20th century, and the microelectronic revolution.
(2022-02-14). US vs. China in Laos: Two Nations, two approaches, one obvious difference. mronline.org 
The United States has elected to lock itself in a zero-sum conflict with China, attempting to stop China's inevitable rise as the world's largest, most powerful economy and thus nation.
(2022-02-14). Western Media Continues to Flog a Dead Anti-China Horse. dissidentvoice.org When it comes to the ever ascending techno-economic colossus of China, it is year-round open season in the West for monopoly media and government officials to invoke whatever opprobrium, throw it against the wall and hope it sticks, if not repeat the defamation. Evidence does not matter. It can be cooked up. And the same …
(2022-02-14). Israel to Establish 'Triangle of Relations' with UAE, India. orinocotribune.com 
In addition to the normalization deals between Israel and several Arab and Gulf states, Israel is looking forward to developing relations with India, hoping to establish a "triangle of Israeli-Indian-Emirati relations," Israeli sources reported. | In the first meeting of its kind held in October 2021 between the foreign ministers of India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel and the US, it was decided to establish an international forum for economic cooperation. | t.co/ada0JECRiu | — Muhabarishaji News Agency (@Muhabarishaji) (2022-02-14). Rather Than Sink Main Street by Raising Interest Rates, the Fed Could Save It: Here's How. dissidentvoice.org Inflation is plaguing consumer markets, putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to tighten the money supply. But as Rex Nutting writes in a MarketWatch column titled "Why Interest Rates Aren't Really the Right Tool to Control Inflation": It may be heresy to those who think the Fed is all-powerful, but the honest answer …
(2022-02-14). Police Continue Harassment and Repression as Tent Protest Enters Week Four in Boise, Idaho. itsgoingdown.org 
Report on continuing police harassment and repression of ongoing tent protests in Boise, Idaho. Today marks 4 weeks of ongoing protest across from the Capitol building in so-called Boise, Idaho. The state and city continue to prove their insistence on criminalizing poverty and doing all they can to crush resistance. Another raid occurred, with tons…
(2022-02-14). Why capitalist governments worry more about inflation than unemployment? mronline.org 
Capitalist governments invariably seek to control inflation by enlarging unemployment.
(2022-02-14). COVID-19 surges in New Zealand. wsws.org New Zealand has reported a record 981 cases of Omicron today, as infections soar due to the Labour government abandoning its previous elimination strategy.
(2022-02-14). The workings of commodified education. mronline.org 
The product of pedagogical labour becomes something set apart from life and abstracted into the commodity of "degrees" which can be bought and sold on the educational market.
(2022-02-14). Despite Public Support, Southern Unions Still Face Barriers To Growth. popularresistance.org Public support for labor unions in the United States is at an all-time high. According to a Gallup survey last fall, 68% of U.S. residents approve of unions — the highest level of support the polling firm has registered since 1965. Pew Research similarly found last summer that 55% of U.S. adults believe unions have a "positive effect" on the country, including 69% of adults under 30. But the latest federal data on union membership shows the share of workers belonging to unions actually declined in 2021. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of unionized workers declined by more than 240,00…
(2022-02-14). NUWH workers at Kaiser strike on MLK Day. liberationnews.org 
On Jan. 17, while millions of workers across the country had the day off to honor Martin Luther King Jr., Kaiser health care workers in California were denied the day, prompting swift action from the National Union of Healthcare Workers. A hundred people gathered outside the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center to picket the health industry giant forcing its overworked health care professionals to work this holiday honoring a man who held the power of labor in such high regard. Close to 200 workers went on strike, joined in solidarity by labor organizers and community members.
(2022-02-14). Anti-fascists in Bulgaria counter neo-Nazi 'Lukovmarsh' procession. peoplesdispatch.org Progressive sections in Bulgaria have been opposing the 'Lukovmarsh' torch processions organized in honor of the Nazi collaborator Hristo Lukov. These processions have been held in Sofia since 2003…
(2022-02-14). Concord Promoting Controversial Hillsong and Bethel Concert. indybay.org One of the the events in the Concord Pavillion 2022 Concert Series is a collaboration between Hillsong and Bethel Churches. Both organizations are wrought with controversy. The Pavilion is city property, and the city of Concord's official Twitter and Facebook accounts are being used to promote the event.
(2022-02-14). Fascism, Imperialism & Labor With Vermont AFL-CIO David Van Deusen. indybay.org WorkWeek interviews Vermont AFL-CIO president about the rise of fascism, imperialism and the role of labor.
(2022-02-14). Golden Gate Bridge Workers Demand A Contract After Two Years Of Negotiations. indybay.org Dozens of Golden Gate bridge district workers rallied at the bridge to protest a failure to win a contract for over two years and a refusal to increase wages with the growing inflation.
(2022-02-14). Tomgram: Belle Chesler, Teaching in a World No Student Deserves. warisacrime.org This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here. Honestly, it's been hell on earth for grown-ups. Thanks largely to Donald Trump and crew, we're in the country with by far the highest Covid-19 death rate of any wealthy nation on earth. The U.S. has already left …
(2022-02-14). Puerto Rico: Teachers strikes and protests continue against debt payment deal. wsws.org Over the last two weeks a powerful movement of Puerto Rican teachers and public employees has been defying the governor and the Financial Oversight Management Board which controls the island's finances.
(2022-02-14). Hedges: Democrats, the More Effective Evil. scheerpost.com 
"Let's Make a Deal," an original work by Mr. Fish. | By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost | When all else fails, when you are clueless about how to halt a 7.5% inflation rate, when your Build Back Better bill is gutted, when you renege on your promise to raise the minimum wage or forgive student debt, when you can't halt the Republican suppression of voting rights, when you have no idea how to handle the pandemic which has claimed 900,000 lives — 16% of the world's total deaths although we are less than 5% of the world's population — when the stock market fluctuates on wild rollercoaster rides…
(2022-02-14). Rather Than Sink Main Street by Raising Interest Rates, the Fed Could Save It. Here's How. transcend.org Today's price inflation was triggered not so much by "too much money" as by "too little supply," due to U.S. lockdowns and mandates. The Fed can help restock consumer supplies using tools that include Open Market Operations to counteract speculation, and the Discount Window to purchase loans from local banks willing to fund Main Street businesses if they had some help from the national Lender of Last Resort.
(2022-02-14). China rolls out world's largest 5G network. rt.com 
Nation's next-generation telecom technology expected to exceed 560 million users by 2023 | China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Monday the country has set up a total of nearly 1.43 million 5G base stations as of the end of 2021. The nation now hosts over 60% of the global network. | According to the ministry, about ten 5G base stations are currently serving every 10,000 people in China — nearly double the number at the end of 2020. The government's investment in 5G reached 184.9 billion yuan (about $29 billion) last year. | The ministry said that China aims to expand 5G s…
(2022-02-14). When Private Equity Becomes Your Landlord. popularresistance.org Amid A National Housing Crisis, Giant Private Equity Firms Have Been Buying Up Apartment Buildings En Masse To Squeeze Them For Profit, With The Help Of Government-Backed Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, Tenants Say They're The Ones Paying The Price.
(2022-02-14). Knowing The Probabilities: Actual Facts And Research On Day Traders Mostly Losing Money. moguldom.com The lure of being your own boss and making potentially unlimited profits while working in your pajamas proves irresistible but unachievable for 95 percent of day traders trying to make a living on very short-term price movements, and that may be generous. Day trading is defined as buying and selling on small price movements throughout a trading day, …
(2022-02-14). Historic Rotterdam bridge to be cut up to make way for Bezos' mega-yacht. wsws.org There is no limit to how far capitalist governments will go to satisfy the indulgences of the super-rich, who have profited immensely from mass death during the pandemic.
(2022-02-14). 'Friedrich Engels and the Dialectics of Nature', by: Kaan Kangal. mronline.org 
Friedrich Engels' Dialectics of Nature has been arguably the most polemic 'book' within the corpus of classical Marxist literature.
(2022-02-14). Canadian Tire Fire #29: Anti-Convoy Counter-Protests Spread; Truckers Win Back Stolen Wages; Montreal Fights Eviction. itsgoingdown.org photo: Chris Dixon This week, we provide an update on the status of far-Right "Freedom Convoy" protests across so-called Canada and actions folks have taken to counter them. We also take a look at some more inspiring truckers and their comrades, organizing with the Naujawan Support Network in the Greater Toronto Area. Finally, we cover…
(2022-02-14). Minnesota public defenders, support staff, taking strike vote. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN – Public defense workers in Minnesota are ready to strike. The negotiating committees of both the lawyer bargaining unit and the support staff bargaining unit voted unanimously to reject a "last best final offer" from management. That unanimous vote carries with it a recommendation to strike if better terms are not reached. The membership of Teamsters Local 320 will begin voting on the offer next week, with ballots counted March 7. | At issue are wages and working conditions. Public defense workers in Minnesota are both underpaid and overworked. Pay parity with those who work in prosecutors' offic…
(2022-02-14). Teachers in Puerto Rico strike for wages, benefits. mronline.org 
On Wednesday, February 9, teachers across Puerto Rico called for a national strike to protest the government and the Fiscal Control Board's (FCB) cutting of wages and pensions.
(2022-02-14). V-Day to Earth Day: How Women in 70+ Countries Are Rising to End Violence Against Women & Our Planet. democracynow.org 
Valentine's Day kicks off a campaign by feminist leaders in 70 countries across the world to celebrate One Billion Rising, an initiative by V-Day to end violence against women — cisgender, transgender and gender nonconforming — girls and the planet. "COVID has ushered in a very strange and perplexing time for women. We are on the frontlines everywhere," says V-Day founder V (formerly Eve Ensler). The campaign seeks to resist "the broken systems of capitalism and neoliberalism," as well as the fascist governments upholding these broken systems, says Monique Wilson, global…
(2022-02-14). How The Feds Used A Cloud Warrant And Walmart Gift Card To Track Down $4B In Stolen Bitcoin. moguldom.com Netflix is already on it, making a docuseries about how federal agents nabbed the alleged masterminds behind the notorious $4.5 billion crypto heist by using a cloud warrant, as well as by tracing a Walmart gift card purchase. The Justice Department arrested the married couple on Feb. 8 and recovered 94,636 of the 119,754 Bitcoins …
(2022-02-14). Argentine Patagonia Threatened by British, Israeli & US Citizens. orinocotribune.com By Stella Calloni — Feb 11, 2022 | While the Argentine government maintains its protest against its British counterpart over the extension of the military base located in the Malvinas Islands archipelago, colonially occupied by Great Britain since 1833, a serious incident between civil guards of a foreign businessman who illegally purchased more than 12,000 hectares in the Patagonian province of Río Negro, Argentina, and protesters who rejected the usurpation of Lago Escondido, a paradisiacal site and a reserve of drinking water, exposed the alienation and occupation of the extremely rich territory of Argent…
(2022-02-14). "My pink socialism became red as a wound": Impossible interview from Ukraine. mronline.org 
In 2000s Ukraine, Anatoli Ulyanov co-made online media dedicated to art, culture, and politics, and became recognized for his provocative writing style.
(2022-02-14). The Science of Socialism and Socialism as a Science. libya360.wordpress.com Olga Pérez Soto The debates on contemporary national and global social issues, in our realities, become very complex. At the same time, determinations of diverse paradigms coexist in the academic, political, governmental, institutional, militant, individual and collective spheres. It is vital in the debate to achieve a dialogue that allows us to advance in the…
(2022-02-14). Socialists announce WA candidates. greenleft.org.au Climate activists Petrina Harley and Alex Salmon will run for the Socialist Alliance in the WA Senate while Sam Wainwright will run in the House of Representatives seat of Fremantle. Janet Parker reports.
(2022-02-14). SEP (Australia) meeting on NSW nurses strike provokes lively discussion on role of unions, fight against pandemic. wsws.org The meeting, addressed by a health worker in the US, a nurse in Sydney and Socialist Equality Party leaders, opened up a discussion on the burning need for workers to form rank-and-file committees throughout the health sector.
(2022-02-14). Socialist candidate calls for support for NSW nurses strike. greenleft.org.au Paula Sanchez, who is running for Socialist Alliance in the NSW Senate, calls on the public to back the nurses' strike on February 15. Pip Hinman reports.
(2022-02-14). Socialist senate candidate: 'This bill was never about protecting lives — Christian or otherwise'. greenleft.org.au If we needed more proof that the "religious discrimination" bill was anything more than an attempt to discriminate against the LGBTIQ community, the Australian Christian Lobby provided the proof. Petrina Harley reports.
(2022-02-13). Venezuelan Minister El Aissami Responds to Gustavo Petro's Anti-Venezuela Narrative. orinocotribune.com The Sectorial Vice President of Venezuela for Economy and Oil, Tareck El Aissami, has issued a stern response to Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, counteracting the latter's attacks on Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro. | Through a thread in his Twitter account, El Aissami blasted Petro's recent remarks in which he had claimed that President Maduro "does not embrace democracy." | Minister El Aissami wrote in response, "From Colombia, the drunken voices of the cowardly left and the voices of the paramilitary right sing together in an out of tune chorus, meddling in our affairs and with our people.
(2022-02-13). 'Politics As Usual' Will Never Be A Solution To The Current Climate Threat. popularresistance.org There is an ever-growing consensus that the climate crisis represents humanity's greatest problem. Indeed, global warming is more than an environmental crisis — there are social, political, ethical and economic dimensions to it. Even the role of science should be exposed to critical inquiry when discussing the dimensions of the climate crisis, considering that technology bears such responsibility for bringing us to the brink of global disaster. This is the theme of my interview with renowned scholar Richard Falk. | For decades, Richard Falk has made immense contributions in the areas of international affair…
(2022-02-13). Attacks on Venezuela Harm Caribbean's Most Vulnerable (+Alex Saab). orinocotribune.com February 11, 2022 ( The US and its allies have waged a non-stop economic and informational war on Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution since the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998. These attacks intensified in recent years with the imposition of unilateral coercive measures—euphemistically…
(2022-02-13). Labor-Indigenous solidarity spotlighted. iacenter.org February 11, 2022 On Jan. 20, hours before members of Boston School Bus Drivers, United Steelworkers Local 8751, were scheduled to take a strike vote, the drivers' transnational, private employer Transdev and its City of Boston client came to the negotiating table with substantially more wages than the union was officially demanding. But even in this unprecedented situation, the 1,000-strong Local 8751 made another pass which emphasized solidarity with the communities the union serves. Paid job training to recruit young drivers from the communities, COVID-19 protections, benefits for elder retirees and correcting…
(2022-02-13). Rethinking Land And Relation In Berlin's Struggle For Housing Justice. popularresistance.org Across Europe, affordable housing is being pushed farther and farther out of reach. Homes are increasingly owned not by the people who live in them, but by companies who rent them out for profit. Housing is no longer treated as a public good, but as a commodity and vehicle for wealth and investment. | In Berlin, which currently boasts some of the fastest-rising housing prices in the world, the situation is particularly extreme. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1992, private investors flocked to the city to capitalize on the state-supported financialization of the housing market. As of today, more than…
(2022-02-13). Shell Needs To Be Dismantled — Here's How. popularresistance.org It has been a turbulent year for the oil and gas giant Shell. | Last May, Dutch courts ruled that Shell must drastically reduce its carbon emissions. In October, ABP, a major shareholder, divested from the company. The following month, the firm announced plans to move its headquarters from the Hague to London and drop its iconic prefix, 'Royal Dutch' (the company is now just Shell plc). And, in recent weeks, it has come under fire for its mammoth 14-fold increase in quarterly profits, having made $16.3bn ( £12bn) pre-tax profit in the last quarter of 2021, while gas prices surged across Europe. | Now, as Sh…
(2022-02-13). More Quick Thoughts on Inflation After the January CPI. cepr.net 
I have to say that I was surprised and disappointed by the data in the January Consumer Price Index. I expected to see evidence that some of the sharp runups in the prices of items like cars, clothes, and appliances were starting to be reversed. The idea was that the main factor in these runups …
(2022-02-13). China to keep prices stable in 2022 amid solid efforts. ecns.cn Looking into 2022, China has a solid foundation for stable prices, after prices remained within an appropriate range throughout 2021, experts said.
(2022-02-13). CEO-Worker Pay Resource Guide. popularresistance.org Since 2018, U.S. publicly held corporations have had to annually report the ratio between their CEO and median worker compensation. Corporate lobby groups and allied Republicans fought hard to repeal, delay, or water down this disclosure mandate, a measure initially enacted as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. But institutional investors weighed in heavily to defend pay ratio disclosure, as did hundreds of thousands of individuals outraged about the extreme pay gaps at the vast majority of large U.S. corporations. | The CEO-worker pay ratios the new disclosures have begun revealing are boo…
(2022-02-13). Old World Odor Needs Cleansing by a New World Order before the Stench Kills Everyone. dissidentvoice.org The imperial center of the capitalist attack on nature in pursuit of private profits that threaten ultimate public loss continues into the new year, but we're hopefully closer to a solution of our racial (human) problem at this most crucial time. With countless systemic breakdowns and divisions among people that seem, especially in America, to …