Coronavirus and Racism, Worker Resistance, Sanctions & more -- The Week in News and Opinion April 5 - 12

This week's list of articles, news items, visuals and opinion pieces that I see as a must if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of  April 5 - 12.

This week's edition begins again with a very large roundup of news and left opinion about the capitalist coronavirus crisis and its impact on working people globally. There are a number of links related to such topics as racist attacks as well as the impact of systemic racism on coronavirus outcomes, the worker fightback in the United States and internationally, and the ongoing impact of cruel, criminal American imperialist sanctions against a number of countries. The Featured Article link at the start is an excellent refutation  by Glenn Greenwald of the false notion that American non-voters are somehow "privileged".

We have tried to arrange this coronavirus news thematically and to touch on many different areas of concern.

Featured Article:

Nonvoters Are Not Privileged. They Are Disproportionately Lower-Income, Nonwhite, and Dissatisfied With the Two Parties.

"NOT EVEN 24 HOURS have elapsed since Bernie Sanders announced that he was suspending his presidential run, and already a shaming campaign has been launched against those who are contemplating abstaining from voting due to dissatisfaction with the two major party candidates. The premise invoked for this tactic is that only those who are sufficiently “privileged” have the luxury of choosing not to vote — meaning that nonvoters are rich and white and thus largely immune from the harmful consequences of a Trump presidency, which largely fall on the backs of poorer and nonwhite Americans."

Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis:

- Not on the Backs of Workers! -- The Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis News on The Left Chapter

- Coronavirus didn't bring the economy down — 40 years of greed and corporate malfeasance did

- The Plan Is to Save Capital and Let the People Die

- There is no vaccine to humanize capitalism

- The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Exposing the Plague of Neoliberalism

- Capitalism provides what is superfluous, while socialism provides what is necessary

- No more unconditional corporate bailouts

- Social Distancing Is a Privilege

- It’s Time to Stop Calling Essential Workers ‘Unskilled’

- Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food Waste of the Pandemic

- Global Lockdowns Resulting In 'Horrifying Surge' In Domestic Violence, U.N. Warns

- Coronavirus pandemic exacerbates inequalities for women, UN warns

- Declare abortion a public health issue during pandemic, WHO urged

- Don’t Blame China For Your Government’s COVID-19 Failures

- Spitting and coughing assaults on service workers 'ramped up' amid COVID-19, union says

- YouTube moves to limit spread of false coronavirus 5G theory

- Muslims Spitting, Sneezing, Hiding in Mosques to Spread Coronavirus Are All Fake News Stories

- Smashed windows and racist graffiti: Vandals target Asian Americans amid coronavirus

- 'It happened because I'm Asian': Toronto ER nurse says she was spit on, verbally assaulted

- Pope Francis Calls for Debt Forgiveness and Ending Sanctions

- #BloqueoNoSolidaridadSi campaign seeks to end cruel American sanctions

- The United States was always the Evil Empire

- Billionaire-backed Human Rights Watch lobbies for lethal US sanctions on leftist governments as Covid crisis rages

- Why is the US blockading poor countries in a pandemic?

-  Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain: “Imperialism is the real virus that kills the people”

- U.S. wages economic war on Iran during pandemic, as mainstream media looks away

- US ready to block Iran's requests for coronavirus aid from the IMF, officials say

- Cuban Doctors Arrive in Angola to Train 1500 Health Technicians

- Cuban Medical Team Arrives in Barbados to Help Fight COVID-19

- Cuban Medical Aid in Italy Shows Positive Results

- Contribution from China to support Cuban fight against COVID-19

- LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF THE US FROM PRESIDENT MADURO

- Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration Blasts US Moves

- The U.S. Should Fight COVID, Not Venezuela

- Adolf Trump goes for Venezuela: A jump into nothingness?

- Venezuela Donates COVID-19 Tests to Caribbean Countries

- Venezuela Receives Humanitarian Aid From UN, WHO, Russia

- Trinidad & Tobago Rejects Possible US Intervention on Venezuela

- Brazil: Judge Prohibits Bolsonaro From Lifting Quarantines

- Chile’s Elite Escaping by Helicopter for Easter Amid Pandemic

- Peru: Indigenous People in Lockdown Without Electricity, Sewage

- Honduran Doctors Need More Medical Supplies to Fight COVID-19

- Paraguayans go hungry as coronavirus lockdown ravages livelihoods

- Latin America: 14 Million People Lost Their Jobs to COVID-19

- Ecuador Indigenous Ask IACHR to Investigate State Over COVID-19 Crisis

- Ecuador's Guayaquil Runs out of Coffins as COVID-19 Deaths Soar

- Ecuador’s Virus-Hit Guayaquil Begins Burials of 1,000 Bodies

"They wait until they die out here to attend to them. Then, their families pick them up after they die.":


- "They're Crooks": Coal Industry Aims to Exploit Coronavirus Crisis to Cut Payments to Miners With Black Lung (United States) 

- Stealing masks and stockpiling hydroxychloroquine — what America has become during this epidemic is deeply worrying

- US Seizes Ventilators Destined for Barbados

- Coronavirus Is Forcing the GOP to (Tacitly) Admit Its Ideology Is Delusional

- Trump was warned in January of Covid-19's devastating impact, memos reveal

- Trump’s campaign to reopen businesses risks hundreds of thousands of lives

- Trump Administration Tells Employers Not To Worry About Recording COVID-19 Cases

- Trump Considering New Aid Package Favoring Big Business: Report

- Dear Jeff Bezos, instead of firing me, protect your workers from coronavirus

- Chicago Amazon Workers Picket with Supporters—and Their Cars

- Coronavirus: Amazon workers threaten revolution!

- America's billionaires are giving to charity – but much of it is self-serving rubbish

- A tale of two New Yorks: pandemic lays bare a city's shocking inequities

- We’re in a Plague — Yet Andrew Cuomo Just Passed an Absolutely Brutal Austerity Budget

- In a Push to Re-Open Schools, Florida Governor Falsely Claims No One Under 25 Has Died from COVID-19 Nationwide

- How Did the U.S. End Up with Nurses Wearing Garbage Bags?

- Fast Foods Workers at 50 Restaurants Across California Are Going on Strike

- Grocery workers are beginning to die of coronavirus

- Dying to work: Frontline workers bear the brunt of the lethal virus

- The Irony of Being Essential, But Illegal (United States)

- 'A perfect storm': poverty and race add to Covid-19 toll in US deep south

- Black Americans raising concerns about being profiled for wearing masks amid coronavirus

- BLACK WOMEN HAVE LONG FACED RACISM IN HEALTHCARE. COVID-19 IS ONLY AMPLIFYING IT.

- In Chicago, 70% of COVID-19 Deaths Are Black

- Chicago mayor signs order ensuring immigrants, refugees have access to COVID-19 relief provided by city

- The US Seeks to Set New Military Base in Syria Amid Pandemic

- No rent was paid in April by nearly a third of American renters

- REPORT FROM INSIDE ANGOLA PRISON PAINTS A TROUBLING PICTURE AS CORONAVIRUS GRIPS LOUISIANA

UK healthcare professionals are being silenced and threatened for speaking out about their work during the coronavirus outbreak:




- We're not all in it together, your majesty

- Hundreds of UK care home deaths not added to official coronavirus toll

- Bus driver killed by coronavirus 'told his pay would be cut if he missed work' (United Kingdom)

- While 'low-skilled' migrants are saving us, the government is cracking down on them (United Kingdom)

- In India, Coronavirus Fans Religious Hatred

- COVID-19 Hasn’t Stopped Ford From Trying To Speedup Future Evictions (Ontario) 

- Ontario bans Airbnb and short-term vacation rentals during pandemic

- Ontario's long-term care workers still working at multiple facilities as B.C. clamps down

- Ontario suspends environmental oversight rules, citing COVID-19

- Ontario conducting far fewer COVID-19 tests than promised as cases keep climbing

- 16 people died at Ont. nursing home before sick residents were separated from the healthy

- Quebec premier confirms 31 dead at Dorval long-term care home

- Petition Re: Dollarama: Dollarama respect pandemic rules and give workers protective gear

- Fraser Institute Uses Coronavirus Pandemic to Push Dubious Claims About the Health Benefits of Plastic Bags

Africa:

- UN Seeks $130 Million To Prevent Hunger Catastrophe in Zimbabwe

- Libya War Escalation is Straining ‘Decimated’ Health System

Canada:

- Police and bylaw harassment is not a coronavirus cure

- Canada lost more than 1 million jobs last month as COVID-19 struck

- Ontario releases more than 1,900 inmates, many with nowhere to go

- Fight for publicly-owned medical manufacturing in Ontario

- Passengers hoping for refunds for cancelled flights will be out of luck

- CO-OP REFINERY SCAB GROUP: NO SAND N****R, PRAIRIE N****R, OR UNION POS TOUCHES MY TRUCK

- Big banks slammed for charging customers interest on interest for deferred mortgage payments

- THE CANADA EMERGENCY WAGE SUBSIDY IS A SUBSIDY TO BUSINESS, NOT WORKERS

- CLC LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO STEP UP

- Documents suggest Canada paid millions more than admitted to fight Cindy Blackstock

- Anti-poverty activist and writer Pat Capponi dead at 70

- Actress-activist Shirley Douglas, daughter of medicare's Tommy Douglas, dies

- Canada re-embraces Saudi monarchy by lifting freeze on arms exports

Cuba:

- Despite U.S. blockade, Cuba’s comprehensive health system looks after every citizen

Climate Change:

- Tolkien was right: giant trees have towering role in protecting forests

- Antarctica Was a Rainforest During the Times of Dinosaurs, New Study

- Will the next great pandemic come from the permafrost?

Ideas:

- Corbynism Lost, Sandersism is Losing: Why Working Within Capitalist Parties Fails

Latin America:

- Cuba’s Promising Approach to Cancer

- Ecuador: Ex President Correa Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison

- BRAZILIAN MILITARY CURTAILS PRESIDENT BOLSONARO’S POWER OVER COVID19 DISPUTE

United Kingdom:

- UK hunger crisis: 1.5m people go whole day without food

- Right turn for Labour

- An open letter to UK Labour leader Keir Starmer

United States:

- Another Sanders Betrayal

- NYT Writes Post-Mortems for a Sanders Campaign It Did Its Best to Kill

- Airlines Want To Cancel Rule Requiring Them To Refund Fares For Canceled Flights

- 'One of the Most Brazen Acts of Voter Suppression in Modern Times' as US Supreme Court Blocks Absentee Ballot Extension in Wisconsin

- Trump Signs Order Allowing Private Companies to Mine the Moon

- Trump to open more wildlife refuge land to hunting, fishing

TTC Workers, the Coronavirus, Wet'suwet'en, Cuba & more -- February and March on The Left Chapter in review

February 1 seems like an awful long time ago!

February and March saw 149 posts of various kinds on The Left Chapter.

The posts have, needless to say, become dominated in the last 2 to 3 weeks by the capitalist coronavirus crisis and the fight to prevent workers being the ones who pay for it. You can see a roundup of these posts at: Not on the Backs of Workers! -- The Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis News on The Left Chapter

Before the crisis exploded we had some special features such as a series of daily posts of vintage photographs of Che Guevara during the month of February. These were from a Soviet archive and you can see them all at: 32 Photos of Che Guevara from 1943 - 1967.

The period also saw the launch of Nathaniel Laxer's podcast Hellworld. The most recent episode was Exile -- Hellworld #7.

Aidan Monis, a teacher in Toronto, contributed the powerful Teachers change kids' lives: An Open Letter to Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, and Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education.

If you have an article, editorial, analysis, recipe or story you would like to contribute there are details on how to do so on our Submissions page as well as at the end of this post.

There were a large number of articles that came very close to making the list such as 4 Tweets tell the tale of another week in the life of the NDP and Stop the falsification of history and persecution in Poland!.

Our top food related post (in terms of hits) was: Marinated Steak and Swiss Sandwiches on Rye

Thanks very much to all our readers and contributors.

Without any further ado, here are the top six posts, in terms of hits, from February and March.

1) TTC plans to eliminate the subway guard and when people hear about it they are not happy


Did you hear the news? After raising fares and hiring more goons, trying to shame riders with idiotic, condescending new fare evasion posters and admitting that the Eglinton LRT construction  is running way behind schedule, it turns out the folks running the TTC are planning to get rid of the subway guard position on subway trains.

Read more!

2) Panic buying and hoarding are a function of capitalism

As the capitalist coronavirus crisis unfolds and people across North America (and around the world) face quarantine for two weeks or more coupled with the prospect of lost income, we have seen scenes of what has been described as "panic buying" as well as instances of hoarding. People are stalking up on food -- especially non-perishables like canned goods and pasta -- as well as, most famously, on items like toilet paper.

Read more!

3) Art and Artists of the Soviet Crimea, 1957 -- 15 Paintings

Published in 1957 in the USSR this folder of 15 cards looked at the art and artists of the Soviet Crimea. The works here were painted between 1946 and 1956.

Read more!

4) 18 Postcard Images of Soviet Stavropol, 1972

Published in 1972, this packet of 18 particularly vivid photographs showed images of the Russian city of Stavropol which is south of Rostov-on-Don and Volgograd. At this time it was a rapidly growing administrative, cultural and industrial city with a population of around 250,000.

Read more!

5) RCMP launches violent raids into Wet’suwet’en territory

The RCMP launched a violent pre-dawn raid into Wet’suwet’en territory this morning in British Columbia to enforce an injunction on behalf of Coastal GasLink against land defenders.

Read more!

6) "The miracle we are performing...could not be performed in a capitalist society" -- Cuban socialism's remarkable accomplishments despite the criminal, imperialist blockade

February 7 marked the anniversary of the imposition of the illegal and criminal, imperialist economic blockade of Cuba by the United States in 1962. Over the course of the last near sixty years of trying to strangle the Cuban economy and destroy its socialist system as a viable alternative in Latin America it has cost the Cuba at least $130 billion US according to the United Nations.

Read more!

Do you have a left point-of-view or opinion, event or petition, a recipe or a story you want to share?

Send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!

4 Tweets tell the tale of another week in the life of the NDP

Singh seemed to know who John Horgan was here!

What a week it has been so far for the wonderful folks in Canada's "labour" and "workers'" party, the NDP. And not just federally and in British Columbia, but in Ontario and Alberta too! 

There are many highlights -- from John Horgan's continuing embrace of colonialism and RCMP violence to pander to the energy corporations, to its federal MPs voting to pass Trump's North American free trade deal -- but four standouts from twitter deserve prize winning mention.

Mr. Singh and the Pacifist CEOs:

Really?

Seriously, really? The CEOs want "peaceful de-escalation"? We all know how Bay St. and Big Business absolutely NEVER supports police action against Indigenous people and workers, except, of course, all of the countless times they have!

As "Drapeau Rouge" pointed out, Singh, yet again, also forgot that this fine fellow exists:

Keener Ian Arthur Thrilled to be Hanging with Business Scumbags!

Ah look...Ian Arthur, NDP MPP for Kingston & the Islands and the NDP Environment Critic hanging with the anti-worker bottom feeders at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. The NDP, in its desperate quest for bourgeois respectability can't seem to get enough of them.

You might remember that Andrea Horwath went to their big party back in 2018, right after the OCC and Rocco Rossi had just gotten finished successfully lobbying Doug Ford and his stooges to rip up Bill 148 that granted new rights and protections to workers in Ontario and that was to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Good times.

On twitter Arthur calls himself a "Climate emergency advocate". Know who aren't? Any of the people in charge at the OCC.

Alberta NDP Loving the Petro Police State:

This one rather speaks for itself. Just when you think Notley and crew can't go any lower, they prove you wrong. It is a bottomless pit.

Ontario NDP Strikes Again:

Is there anything more craven than acknowledging that something is dangerous and a bad idea but then refusing to oppose it? In NDP land it is par for the course.

Trudeau dodges, Horgan and Singh contort on Wet'suwet'en, the RCMP and UNDRIP

On the same day NDP leader Jagmeet Singh revealed that he was open to Canada footing the security bill for Royal castaways Harry and Meghan, he also came a little more out of the shadows in de facto support of fellow NDPer and BC Premier John Horgan's colonialist line on Wet'suwet'en and the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Singh has tried to deflect any blame for the standoff from Horgan and his social democratic swamp of deepening hypocrisy by expressing "concern" over the actions of the RCMP which he paints as the fault of the federal Trudeau government.


Hence, as we have pointed out before, the farce of tweets like this one:

First, Singh himself, unlike the federal Green Party, is not actually yet calling for the RCMP to withdraw from Wet'suwet'en territory. He has only said they “should be careful,” and, as we all know, that is sure to make the RCMP think twice before acting.

Further, Singh is now echoing the misleading  propaganda of folks like Horgan and Trudeau that tries to divide and conquer with rhetoric of how "“the vast majority” of elected First Nations officials and communities along the proposed route support the project" as if that somehow overrides the concerns and opposition of the Hereditary Chiefs who do not. This is an old and ugly tactic.

It is difficult to reconcile this with Singh's role as federal NDP Indigenous affairs critic, especially given ongoing protests such as the temporary occupation of the office for the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources on Wednesday and the statement of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) that unequivocally noted that the "Wet’suwet’en Jurisdiction and Governance Must be Upheld". 

Horgan has made his commitment to pushing the project through very clear. He was profoundly dismissive of the Hereditary Chiefs in his comments on Monday saying "I'm not going to drop everything I'm doing to come running when someone is saying they need to speak with me...I'm not being disrespectful, I'm just saying be realistic here" as if the chiefs are somehow cranks or lobbyists demanding unreasonable attention from the imperial overlord.

Of course, were they actually industry lobbyists Horgan probably would meet with them, though the $10,000 dinner fee getting a one-on-one with him for resource industry corporate talking heads that was the price tag back in 2016 is not the option it once was.

Horgan also tried to say that his government's alleged commitment to the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) does not apply in this case since it was "meant to be forward looking, not backward looking" as the CBC paraphrased it, meaning projects that violate it that have already been approved must barrel ahead.

"There is no negotiating to be done," he claimed. 

Perhaps sensing that this is not playing terribly well with significant sections of the NDP's voting base, Horgan did soften this stance somewhat when later on Monday he "sent a letter to Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief Nam’oks on Monday, saying he would like to send the province’s minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation" for talks in his stead.

The NDP leadership both federally and in BC should be concerned with the federal Green Party being far stronger in its support for both the rights of the Hereditary Chiefs and the principles of UNDRIP.

In a press release Green Party MP Paul Manly said:

The fact that the RCMP have been sent in shows that this is a political failure on the part of the provincial and federal governments. The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs provided alternative routes to Coastal GasLink that would have been acceptable to them as a pipeline corridor. Coastal GasLink decided that it did not want to take those acceptable options and instead insisted on a route that drives the pipeline through ecologically pristine and culturally important areas...
...Greens call on B.C. Premier Horgan to meet with the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs as quickly as possible. We also want the B.C. government to address this situation through the lens of UNDRIP. Since UNDRIP was brought in to address historic injustice, how can it be ignored in order to allow this injustice to persist? The Wet'sowet'en hereditary chiefs have jurisdiction over their traditional territories, and they clearly have not given their consent.

Green Party Parliamentary Leader Elizabeth May stated further that “British Columbia recently enacted new legislation in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). This situation undermines the constitutional role played by the hereditary chiefs."

Prime Minister Trudeau, of course, is very happy to leave the ball entirely in Horgan's court stating “It’s a provincial project and provincial processes. It is being well taken care of by the provincial government.” This is mildly clever, if typically disingenuous.

Still, despite all of Horgan's attempts to claim matters as somehow out of his hands due to the "rule of law", it is a provincial project that would never have gone ahead without the NDP offering up billions of dollars in tax and other incentives and issuing all the necessary permits. The NDP provided all of these incentives despite also turning around and telling BC teachers that their "demands for (a) pay increase don’t square with balanced budget".

Meanwhile the RCMP, having set up roadblocks, now also "admits it’s deploying “air assets” to monitor Indigenous land defenders". Matters are coming to a head and if history is any guide the RCMP, when it acts, will do so with great violence, threats, arrests and brutality. Future progressives will likely not judge Trudeau, Horgan or Singh too kindly unless they take steps now to force a change of course.

NDP partisans have long sought to portray the Green Party as little more than "conservatives with composters". Whatever the accuracy of that moniker, Singh and Horgan had best watch out as they are increasingly -- along with the best past efforts of former Alberta Premier Rachel Notley -- making the NDP look like the corporate apologists the Liberals are, only with dusty old copies of the Regina Manifesto hidden in a desk drawer somewhere.

Further Readings: 

Horgan, Trudeau and Singh show once more "progressive" rhetoric about reconciliation is a sham

Open Letter to Jagmeet Singh regarding Trans Mountain, Site C and Coastal GasLink

"Far to the left of the NDP, far greener than the Greens" -- New leftist party launched in BC

Calling themselves "Far to the left of the NDP, far greener than the Greens", a group of activists in British Columbia have launched a new leftist initiative and party, the BC Ecosocialists.

According to their website, the party is needed as they "reject the notion that the BC NDP and the BC Green Party are left wing, or Green. Let’s face it, the BC NDP and BC Green Party stand for a set of environmental and social policies pretty much the same as those of George H W Bush’s presidency (1988-92), Brian Mulroney’s conservative government (1984-93), Bill Vander Zalm’s Social Credit Party (1986-91) and Gordon Campbell’s Non-Partisan Association (1986-93). We do not believe that conservative policies from the 1980s are left-wing."

Unlike the NDP-Green coalition that governs the province they "want to tax rich people and corporations to fund better policies, like building tens of thousands of units of public social housing, employing people to build new green energy and transportation infrastructure, and stopping all new fossil fuel infrastructure, including all LNG. We would also stop Site C, and close the coal mines."

They lay out their initial policy proposals on their Policy page while also answering questions like "But you know you can’t win under this voting system. Be practical! Why are you doing this?" and "Why are you splitting the left wing/environmentalist vote" on their FAQ page.

Among those involved in the initiative are former BC Green leader Stuart Parker, former Duncan city councilor Sharon Jackson, activists and organizers Alannah New-Small and Amrita Parmar,  and singer-songwriter Geoff Berner.

To learn more or get involved you can check them out at: http://www.bcecosocialist.ca/

Boris Johnson, the "Manosphere", Amazon & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos August 25 - September 1

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos that I see as a must if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of August 25 - September 1.



1) Canada occupies unique space in 'manosphere' of extremist violence

Caroline Orr, National Observer 

Recent acts of mass violence in the U.S. have shone a spotlight on the link between misogyny and extremism across the world. And Canada has its own unique problems with misogyny and extremism that have surfaced in recent years in a bout of attacks.

2) ‘We’re going to court’: B.C. First Nation to proceed with Site C dam ‘megatrial’

Sarah Cox, The Narwhal 

In a six-month trial, the provincial NDP government will have to fight against the treaty rights of Indigenous peoples whose traditional territory and burial grounds will be destroyed by a hydro project — one that now could be cancelled at the eleventh hour.

3) Public Transport Can Be Free

Wojciech Keblowski, Socialist Project Bullet 

If we are to believe transport experts and practitioners, abolishing fares for all passengers is the last thing public transport operators should be doing. For Alan Flausch, an ex-CEO of the Brussels public transport authority and current Secretary General of International Association of Public Transport, “in terms of mobility, free public transport is absurd.”

4) Italy crisis: PD and Five Star agree coalition deal after talks

BBC News

The leaders of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and populist Five Star Movement have agreed to form a coalition government.

5) New Poll Shows 58 Percent of Canadians See Socialism Positively

Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

A new poll out released in August finds that 58 percent of Canadians have a positive view of socialism, and 18 percent have a very positive view of it.

6) The Misogyny of Climate Deniers

Martin Gelin, The New Republic

Why do right-wing men hate Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so much? Researchers have some troubling answers to that question.

7) Minority Faction of FARC Leadership Take Up Arms

Telesur

In a blow to Colombia’s peace process, a minority of senior leaders of the FARC have announced that they are splitting from the main organization and will be taking up arms again. The FARC have officially condemned the split, defending the principles of the 2016 peace agreements.

8) Massive March in Argentina to Protest Macri, IMF Policies

Telesur 

Dozens of social movements and trade unions mobilized more than 250,000 people across  Argentina, striking Wednesday under the "emergency to confront hunger" slogan. The protesters marched to demand the implementation of a food emergency bill, an extension of the social emergency bill, and an increase in the complementary social wage, among other basic social demands.

9) The devastation of Manitoba: An autopsy of Pallister’s austerity regime

James Wilt, Canadian Dimension 

This article serves as a repository of many of these changes, roughly subdivided by issue. Following the priorities of the government, much of the focus will be on the impacts to healthcare. As many Dimension readers are aware, the litany of cuts to public funding initiated by the Pallister government will be felt for many years to come. This article, exclusive to CD, is the first attempt to analyze the full breadth of the Conservatives’ austerity regime in the province.

10) FROM PHILADELPHIA TO OREGON, THE INSURGENCY IS MAKING WAVES IN MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Akela Lacy, The Intercept 

ON MONDAY, PHILADELPHIA City Council Member Helen Gym, a Democrat, endorsed Kendra Brooks, who is backed by the progressive Working Families Party in her campaign for City Council. The local Democratic Party was incensed by the endorsement, which Bob Brady, chair of the Democratic City Committee, said was “stupid,” reasoning that it would hurt Democrats by taking votes away from their slate of candidates. 

11) Bangladeshi campaigners fight mining giant for justice

Helen Pattison, East London Socialist Party

Shouts of "GCM, shame on you, Gary Lye [Chief Officer], shame on you" rang out around the square outside the London Stock Exchange on 22 August.

12) HOW OHIO’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE KILLED AN ANTI-POLLUTION BILL OF RIGHTS

H. Claire Brown, The Intercept 

EARLIER THIS SUMMER, environmental activists in Ohio were alarmed by the passage of a mysterious state budget amendment that would close a new avenue for residents to sue polluters. The provision invalidated a landmark anti-pollution initiative passed by Toledo voters just a few months before. Now, emails obtained in a public records request reveal that the Ohio Chamber of Commerce secured the cooperation of a key Republican lawmaker in a successful effort to slip the amendment into an appropriations bill at the eleventh hour.

13) Puerto Rican “people’s assemblies” begin to challenge U.S. colonialism

Carol Widom, People's World

Peoples Assemblies that by their very nature challenge some of the worst aspects of U.S. colonialism are flourishing on the island and among the Puerto Rican diaspora on the U.S. mainland. Puerto Ricans from every walk of life on the island and on the U.S. mainland are involved in an unprecedented mobilization to create the conditions that will never allow political corruption, whether it comes from a president like Trump or from criminally negligent leaders on their island, to hamper their ability to handle what nature throws at them. They are winning support for their quest from the labor movement and many of its allies.

14) Mass protest in Myanmar calling for enforced labour law

IndustriALL 

Thousands of workers from 50 factories demonstrated in the morning of 29 August, demanding that the newly revised law on settlement of labour disputes be implemented.

15) German Neo-Nazis Are Doxxing Journalists on 'Enemy' Lists: 'We Will Get You All'

Tim Hume, Vice News

Journalists who appear on the lists say police aren't taking the threats against them seriously enough.

16) Abrogation of Article 370: Tyranny of the majority, says Yechury

T.K. Rajalakshmi, Frontline 

On August 7, five Left parties took out a joint protest to Parliament House in defence of Article 370. In an interview to Frontline, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury spoke about the manner in which the Indian Constitution was subverted and democracy and federalism were undermined.

17) Celebrating 100: The Communist Party USA and the new era of socialism

John Bachtell, People's World

The 2007 global financial crisis and the Great Recession decimated families and communities, exposing the greed, ugliness, and brutality of the capitalist system. In the economic earthquake and political aftershocks that followed, some responded with cynicism and despair, and many turned to the extreme right.

18) Amazon’s Next-Day Delivery System Has Brought Chaos And Carnage To America’s Streets — But The World’s Biggest Retailer Has A System To Escape The Blame

Caroline O'Donovan & Ken Bensinger, BuzzFeed

Valdimar Gray was delivering packages for Amazon at the height of the pre-Christmas rush when his three-ton van barreled into an 84-year-old grandmother, crushing her diaphragm, shattering several ribs, and fracturing her skull.

19) The White People’s Party of Canada


Christopher Oldcorn, Medium 

The People’s Party of Canada (PPC) is a White Nationalist political party. Maxime Bernier cannot deny being a white nationalist. There is conclusive proof!

20) In Secretive Court Hearing, NYPD Cops Who Raped Brooklyn Teen in Custody Get No Jail Time

Natasha Lennard, The Intercept 

THE YOUNG WOMAN who goes by Anna Chambers on social media had just a few short words for the public on Thursday evening. “Fuck the criminal justice system,” she tweeted. Earlier that day, through a call from her lawyer, Chambers learned that the two former New York Police Department officers who had raped her while on duty would serve no jail time.

21) Amazon Crisis: Mass Protests Erupt Across Brazil

Telesur 

Demonstrations against the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and in defense of the Amazon rainforests lasted until late Friday night in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and dozens of cities throughout Brazil. The Brazilian security forces did not even try to prevent the mobilization of thousands who took to the streets.

22) Brazil: Rio’s governor celebrates more Black deaths

Tony Rosenberg, Green Left Weekly 

Rio de Janeiro’s population watched in shock on August 20 as the state’s governor, Wilson Witzel celebrated the shooting by a sniper of a 20-year-old Black man who held 37 people hostage on a bus. The perpetrator had mental health problems, had never been in trouble with the police and had a plastic gun.

23) The biggest attack on democracy since before universal suffrage

 Chris Nineham, Counterfire

The Government’s attempt to suspend parliament for six weeks represents the biggest attack on democracy since before universal suffrage was won in 1928. 

24) Boris Johnson proroguing Parliament is a Tory coup

 Lindsey German, Counterfire

Predictable but terrible news about Johnson proroguing Parliament. As I wrote in my briefing the last person who did this lost his head. That was back in the 1640s. This move is almost unprecedented, especially from a minority government with a prime minister who has not put himself to the electorate.

25) Britain: Thousands protest Boris Johnson's plan to shut down parliament

Susan Price, Green Left Weekly

With only a few hours’ notice, thousands of people filled London’s Parliament Square on August 28 to protest against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to shut down parliament for several weeks ahead of the Brexit deadline on October 31.

26) If There’s Such a Thing as a Murderous Culture, Then It Exists in Israel

Gideon Levy, Haaretz 

This is what the editor of Haaretz’s Culture and Literature supplement, Benny Ziffer, wrote on his Facebook page upon returning from paying a condolence call in the settlement of Ofra: “En route I looked at the Palestinian villages alongside the Jewish communities, and I thought of how for the Palestinians murder is a type of sport or enjoyment, perhaps a substitute for erotica. From that perspective we will never have anything culturally in common with them.”

27) When Ilhan Omar Is Accused of Anti-Semitism, It’s News. When a Republican Smears Muslims, There’s Silence.

Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept 

As I pointed out last week, anti-Muslim bigotry has been normalized in liberal and Democratic Party circles. Meanwhile, anti-Semitism has been weaponized by Republicans eager to smear their Democratic opponents (while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the anti-Semites and white nationalists in their own ranks).

See also: Amazon Burns, David Koch, Trump & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos August 18 - 25

Janet-Lynne Durnford's NDP nomination story a Kafkaesque travesty

Public photo via Facebook

We have little more to add on the ugly reality of the NDP's dictatorial streak and drive as well as exposing the travesty regarding Sid Ryan, but it is worth sharing this post by Janet-Lynne Durnford who was trying to run for the NDP nomination in Simcoe North.

What was the transgression to seemingly prevent her from getting approved?

She was unwilling to grant the folks running the centralized party paranoia bureau access to a private Facebook group that consisted of personal communications between her and friends and she belonged to an anti-conspiracy group that the sharp knives at HQ felt was a conspiracy group.

It would be hard to make this up.

This is all grotesque for very obvious reasons. Also note that the creepy Fred Checkers account is still around to spy on candidates. It is ironic that the NDP would demand that candidates be overt about everything while using a fake Facebook account (in violation of Facebook rules) to spy on them.

But that is the NDP HQ mentality right there.

It is time for left activists and candidates in the party to actually speak up and do something about this or to simply admit that they don't really care and it is all about getting elected and making good money in parliament or as a staffer by being a party parrot.

We all know this is wrong. If you really believe in left movement building take a stand or stop pretending.

Meanwhile, Fred Checkers is watching. Think about how sad a statement that is.