May Day Rally, Philadelphia 1935 -- Daily LIFT #191

May Day Rally, Philadelphia 1935 -- Daily LIFT #191

May Day 2020, Bolsonaro, the Bailouts & more -- The Week in News and Opinion April 26 - May 3

May Day, Istanbul

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 26 - May 3.

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 also a number of links related to International Workers' Day and Bolsonaro in Brazil.

The Featured Article link at the start is an excellent piece by Roger D. Harris about the trouble with buying into "lesser evil" narratives when it comes to Biden vs. Trump.

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

Featured Article:

Trump and Biden Trade Hit Pieces: Distinctions without a Difference

This season’s sequel to the Game of Thrones features reality TV star and current occupant of the Oval Office versus the former Senator from MBNA and two-term VP. It’s time to binge watch dueling hit pieces from the US electoral duopoly going at it.

Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis:

If you were in any doubt who the bailouts are really for Wall St. stocks saw record gains in April even as millions of people lost their jobs, were tossed scraps by our governments and face bankruptcy. Meanwhile billionaires like Elon Musk remind us that they need labour to make all their vast wealth and call for workers to head back to dangerous jobs even if they might face illness or death while Trudeau backs away from making sure offshore companies can't get handouts...still think "we are all in this together"?



- AS AMAZON, WALMART, AND OTHERS PROFIT AMID CORONAVIRUS CRISIS, THEIR ESSENTIAL WORKERS PLAN UNPRECEDENTED STRIKE

- Amazon Reinstates Fired Warehouse Worker After Employees Strike

- Women killed in Spain as coronavirus lockdown sees rise in domestic violence

- Mexico sees almost 1,000 women murdered in three months as domestic abuse concerns rise amid coronavirus

- French NGO Nominates Cuban Medical Brigades For Nobel Peace Prize

- US Prevents Cuba From Acquiring Pharmaceutical Raw Materials

- Cuba Cannot Get Swiss Respirators Due to US Inhuman Blockade

- Another life-saving brigade travels to South Africa

- Cuba Plans National Production of Drug Against COVID-19

- Former Jamaican Prime Minister Applauds Cuba's Generosity

- SOCIALISM VS CAPITALISM IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CORONAVIRUS

- Foodsters United Statement on Foodora Closing its Canadian Operations

- Help Support Foodsters United (petition) 

- Canada's early COVID-19 cases came from the U.S. not China, provincial data shows

- Right-wing political strategies based on anti-Chinese prejudice are growing

- New national group forms to combat racism against Asian Canadians

- Anti-Asian racism during coronavirus: How the language of disease produces hate and violence

- Fifty days into the COVID-19 pandemic, and homeless people are still in a desperate situation (Canada)

- Meet the Strange and Mysterious Group Organizing Anti-Lockdown Protests Across Canada

- Many Ontario workers are trying to refuse work due to COVID-19 fears — but the government isn’t letting them

- U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests

- 'America In the Age of Trump': Armed Gunmen Enter Michigan Capitol Demanding End to Covid-19 Lockdown

- Hundreds of protesters, some carrying guns in the state Capitol, demonstrate against Michigan's emergency measures

- US intelligence agencies under pressure to link coronavirus to Chinese labs

- Anti-Lockdown Rallies Are Providing an Opening for the Proud Boys and Other Far-Right Extremists

- Maryland called in National Guard troops to defend coronavirus tests from South Korea against seizure

- Georgia Went First. And It Screwed Up.

- Progressives Urge Congress to Stop 'Disgraceful' GOP Effort to Grant Corporations Immunity From Covid-19 Lawsuits

- Nearly 900 workers at Tyson meat plant in Indiana test positive for coronavirus

- Meatpackers and Others to Lose Jobless Benefits If They Refuse Return-to-Work Orders

- Lebanon Fights Country's Worst Financial Crisis Amid COVID-19

- Haiti: Food Crisis Persists Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

- Peru: Massive Exodus Continues Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

- Venezuela Leads Region in COVID-19 Tests Per Million People

- Kerala’s Social Policies Are the Best Prevention Against Future Pandemics

In this dispatch, Michael Laxer looks at how -- in contrast to Cuban internationalism and humanitarianism -- the US government has intensified their economic blockades during the capitalist coronavirus crisis despite the humanitarian toll this will take. He also looks at how we need to call out and oppose Canada's hypocritical complicity in this. 




Brazil:

- Brazil: Moro Testifies Against Bolsonaro Who Calls Him 'Judas'

- Moro Is the US' Candidate for Brazil 2022: Boaventura de Sousa

- Brazilian Court Orders Investigation Against Bolsonaro

- 'So what?': Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil's rising coronavirus death toll

Canada:

- Trudeau announces ban on 1,500 types of 'assault-style' firearms — effective immediately

- Nova Scotia Shooting Should Be a Turning Point in How We Address Abusive Men

- Wage subsidies for strikebreakers and no premium pay at the LCBO -- Dispatches from the bailouts

- John Ivison’s Attack On CERB Recipients Is Disgraceful

- Trudeau Refuses To Repeat Pledge To Cut Tax-Dodging Companies From COVID-19 Aid

- Some Canadians who received unsolicited copy of Epoch Times upset by claim that China was behind virus

- 8 environmental responsibilities Alberta’s oil and gas companies can skip because of coronavirus

- Jason Kenney’s Media Meltdown

- Disaster Capitalism at Work in Manitoba

Climate Emergency:

- Why Britain’s 2.5 billion paper coffee cups are an eco disaster

- Halt destruction of nature or suffer even worse pandemics, say world’s top scientists

- Insect numbers down 25% since 1990, global study finds

Ideas:

- Rosa Luxemburg warned us against national unity

International Workers' Day

- Proletarian comrades: It is necessary to organize and fight -- May Day statements from around the world

- May Day observed with call for fair wage, end to job cut, lay off (Bangladesh)

- Seriously...fuck capitalism -- A May Day message from The Left Chapter

- MAY DAY 2020: MASS STRUGGLE FOR A PEOPLE’S RECOVERY

- Virus worries haunt workers demanding rights on May Day

- CHANGE MUST COME – M’MEMBE (Zambia) 

Israel / Palestine:

- Trump’s OK on Israeli Annexation Is Like His Clorox Prescription: Toxic and Lethal

- Arab League Defines West Bank Annexation as "War Crime"

- B’Tselem Reports: Amid COVID-19 Emergency, Settler Violence Spikes

Latin America:

- Social Leader Killed in Colombia, 84 so Far in 2020

- Guatemalans Stage a Funeral Procession to Protest

- Chilean Police Violently Repress Protesters in Santiago

- Evo Morales Concerned Over Añez's Lack of Scientific Advisory

United States:

- Joe Biden Has Been Accused of Rape. Now What?

- The Democrats Seem Just Fine With Joe Biden’s Sexual Assault Allegations

- A former neighbor of Joe Biden's accuser Tara Reade has come forward to corroborate her sexual-assault account, saying Reade discussed the allegations in detail in the mid-1990s

- Demand Grows for Biden to Address Tara Reade Allegations as Democrats Wrestle With #MeToo Hypocrisy

- Donald Trump set to fall back on xenophobia with re-election plan in tatters

- US Unemployment Applications Reach 26.4 Million Amid Pandemic

- If a Budding Socialist Movement Can Defeat Amazon, Imagine What Else It Can Do

Venezuela:

- HANDS OFF VENEZUELA

- US to Mobilize Military Reservists in ‘Anti-Drug’ Operation Against Venezuela

- Former US Special Ops Soldier Led Plot to Invade Venezuela: Sources

Vietnam:

- Party, State leaders pay tribute to Uncle Ho on National Reunification Day

- Promoting the spirit of the Great Spring Victory of 1975 in the new period

Proletarian comrades: It is necessary to organize and fight -- May Day statements from around the world

On International Workers' Day, May 1st, we look at excerpts from statements of Communist and Workers' parties from around the world.

From Mexico, Ireland, Austria, Canada, Greece, India, Spain and a joint statement by 39 parties let working class internationalism and solidarity be reflected and strengthened. 

Workers of All Countries Unite!

Socialism or Barbarism: Salute of the Communist Party of Mexico to the working class for May Day

The owners of capital say they support workers: Bullshit! And those parasites know it. Your money alone, saved, does not make a profit. Salaried work is essential to increase profits.

Essential is the oil worker, the electrician, the industrial worker, the construction worker, the stevedore or the courier. Essential is the miner, the education and health worker, the dispatcher. Essential are migrant workers, working women, young workers. Essential is the proletariat, and the bourgeoisie is superfluous: while nothing moves without the strength of the worker, while profit is not created without the exploitation of wage labor, the bourgeoisie is superfluous, because factories, industry can function without it.

And on top of that they ask us for more sacrifices, to bow our heads to the measures that the bourgeoisie and its administrative board take against us. With the fiction of national unity they want to subdue us, so that we tighten our belts more, that we do not protest, that we do not rebel.

Proletarian comrades:

It is necessary to organize and fight. The Communist Party of Mexico, a party of the working class, ready to fight in all conditions, calls on you to raise your fist, keep it up for the new battles that are coming, to face the aggressive measures that the capitalists are preparing against us. Capitalism is in the process of a new and deep economic crisis of overproduction and over-accumulation, the coming times will be of more struggle. We call for strengthening with a class orientation the unions and accentuating the worker-employer conflict, the class against class clash, to face the wave of dismissals that is already underway, the rising cost of living, etc. Above all we call on you to conquer the new world of workers' power and socialism-communism.

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

May Day message, Eugene McCartan, General Secretary, Communist Party of Ireland

The capitalist system is in crisis and is headed into a global depression as hundreds of millions of workers have been sacked, leaving many without any means to support themselves and their families, while at the same time a handful of individuals own more wealth than half the world’s population. This injustice can no longer be tolerated.

As never before, workers must organise to defend and advance our own interests. We cannot go on with “business as usual.” There must be no going back to “normal.” The political establishment, their ideas and institutions are bankrupt. We also know from experience that the ruling classes here in Ireland and around the world will attempt to make us pay a heavy price for the growing and deepening structural crisis of this failing capitalist system. We need to resist them at every stage and at every opportunity.

The time has long past for patching up this inhuman and decaying system. It is time for real. radical change—time to end the destruction of our planet and the impoverishment of itspeople, time to end the capitalists’ booms and busts, time to end global imperialist wars. It is now time for the interests of workers, peasants, the poor and oppressed to come first and a time for unity between women, men and youth, regardless of colour, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation. It’s time for workers’ interests to be first and foremost in economic and political decision-making and to end once and for all the exploitation of man by man.

Workers of all countries, unite!

We have nothing to lose but our chains, and a world to win!

Party of Labour of Austria, Labour Day 2020

The government, instead of funding the public health system, is taking billions to subsidise capitalist companies and corporations - in fact, on a particularly large scale at present. The working class -whether in employment, part time or unemployed - must continue, and even more so, to live on alms. Those who remain working all the time despite the crisis - in supermarkets, for example - are massively strained and notoriously badly paid. Ridiculous "bonus payments", hypocritical expressions of gratitude by politicians and public applause will not change this. Even the health protection of working people is obviously of no value to the government and capital, because in many industrial companies or in the construction industry work must continue as usual. Disease is a class issue under capitalism. The fact that unemployment figures are exploding and reaching an all-time high cannot be prevented given precarious work model - nor should it: it exists to support the capitalist entrepreneurs, not the workers.

The government knows very well why it must support capital. Because with and after the epidemic comes the economic crisis - on a scale never seen before. As a regularity of the fundamentally flawed capitalist economic cycle, the crisis would have been inevitable anyway, but the epidemic and its accompanying conditions are accelerating and exacerbating the development. Of course, the government and capital will try to shift the burden of the crisis back onto the working class. There will be new "austerity agendas", which will once again affect the social system, pensions, education and - of course - health care. There will be wage losses and the destruction of jobs. For capital, this is just a purification process. For the working class, it means increased insecurity of existence, unemployment, the risk of poverty. The government will lie to us again, it will argue that it was about general necessities and that we must now stick together. In reality, the capitalist losses will be socialised again - on the back of the working class - just as all profits are privatised in times of favourable economic conditions.

Capitalists and workers have no common interests, either in or outside the crisis. The workers can always work, even without a capitalist owner, but the capitalist cannot exist without exploiting human labour. Therefore, it is obvious what would actually save expenses: economizing the capitalist, because he does not work, but consumes and rakes in most of the wealth produced by the workers; he is useless, unproductive and parasitic in society. The workers do not need him. They may just as well - and better - be themselves joint social owners of the means of production, of factories and plants, of machines and tools, of land. With the difference that they would then be free from exploitation and would no longer have to feed the capitalists and unproductive rich. The money for their profits and luxury life would be available for better things. The workers as owners would have the financial and material resources and the political decision-making power to achieve prosperity for all through fair wages, adequate housing, secure pensions, sufficient leisure time and a comprehensive health system. And they would be able to eliminate future crises from economic life through planned production and distribution based on actual needs. Such a system is called socialism.

Message of the CC of the KKE (Greece) on Workers’ May Day

The only path for the working people to not pay for the crisis is the road of struggle and workers’ power.

The coronavirus will be cured and the pandemic will end, just as others did in the past. Capitalism, however, is incurable and will continue to torture humankind, with poverty, unemployment, wars, the destruction of the environment, until the peoples decide to lead the way in the developments.

Today’s system can only be overthrown and replaced by a superior social system, socialism – communism, where social ownership of the means of production with workers’ power, scientific central planning for the satisfaction of people’s needs, workers’ control of all the administrative organs and participation in all the organs of power, from the bottom to the top, can lead to prosperity for the people, to peace and the progress of humankind.

Workers’ May Day symbolizes the invincible battle against the class enemy. This is the precious legacy of our time.  With this weapon in our hands and in our thoughts, we honor Workers’ May Day, the dead workers of Chicago in 1886, the tobacco workers of Thessaloniki  in ‘36, the 200 executed communists in Kaisariani May 1st 1944, all those who remain unflinching in the class struggle, all those who were sacrificed for a society without exploitation of man by man.

We continue on this path, for the satisfaction of all of the modern social – popular needs.

PROLETARIAT OF THE WORLD UNITE!

MAY DAY 2020: MASS STRUGGLE FOR A PEOPLE’S RECOVERY- Communist Party of Canada

The labour and people’s movements must not accept the corporate prescription for recovery, which will include permanent mass unemployment, falling wages and living standards and more austerity to pay for the corporate bailouts today.  The corporate prescription could also very well include militarism and war as a way for corporations to recover their profits.   This was how the capitalist countries pulled themselves out previous depressions – and the Great Depression, with massive profits in war production.  We are seeing a further rise of ultra-right and fascist ideologies, nationalism, and chauvinism, which were on the march even before this crisis.  This has happened before, when capitalist countries pulled themselves out of the Great Depression with massive profits in war production.

The labour and people’s movements must build a powerful united struggle for a people’s recovery based on full employment policies, rising wages and living standards, and expanded social programs and public services.  Spending on NATO and militarism should be redirected to civilian spending, to fight the pandemic with all of the resources we can muster, and to build a strong and expanded healthcare system that includes long-term care, pharmacare, dental, vision and mental health care.  These funds should be used for free quality post-secondary education, for free quality public childcare, for good jobs and higher wages, pension and living standards for all.  We need to build an economy based on sustainable manufacturing and renewable energy, action on climate change and environmental justice.  We need peace and an end to racism, exploitation, and oppression.  We need to unite for fundamental social change.  For socialism.

The coming depression, and the pandemic that triggered it, changes everything.  Seven million unemployed and counting changes everything. 

The labour and peoples’ movements are at a crossroads:  people before profit.  Or profit before people. 

We’re all in this together, but we won’t all get through this, without a mass struggle led by labour and its allies for a people’s recovery. 

This May Day, it’s the unity of the labour movement in the fight to defend workers’ jobs and living standards, and oppose imperialist wars and catastrophic climate change, that will make all the difference.

Communist Party of the Workers of Spain, 1st of May Manifesto

The Government, the capitalist parties and the employers wants us behind the interests of the Spanish bourgeoisie with discipline for the future to come. They want us to defend the interests of the employers instead of fighting for our own interests.

Our answer is absolutely NO. Our answer is that a country where the primary interests are the ones of those who produce all the social wealth with their job – and not their exploiters’ – can and must be built.

Therefore, in this 1st of May, we openly say that the PCTE wants to build a country for the working class.

This new country will not be built by itself. This new country will not be born if there is no organized and rising struggle against capitalists and their governments. This new country will not be born if there are not millions of workers who want to put an end to the exploitation and who, recognizing themselves as the only essential class, want to take over their own future.

The struggles that the class will wage in the immediate future will be decisive.

Communist Party of Iindia General Secretary D, Raja Writes to Party Cadres on the Occasion of May Day

Marx and Engels in Communist Manifesto pointed out that “…the history of hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles…”. They also pointed out that “…every class struggle is political struggle”.

The world capitalism is sick and sinking into further deep crisis. Instead of spending on public health, education and social infrastructure, there is competitive spending on military and war equipment. The report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reveals that  India is third biggest military spender, first and second being the US and China. This raises the question of alternative in the interest of peace and development of the world. Socialism is the only alternative. But there is lure for fascism and neo-fascism. This trend is encouraged by the corporate capitalists.

This situation demands that working people will have to emerge as a force which can bring a real change. As the Manifesto makes the clarion call that “let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win”.

On this May Day, while saluting the working people for their revolutionary historic role, the CPI hails this May Day to renew our pledge to fight for Socialism, a society free from exploitation, injustice and all forms of discriminations.

Statement of Communist and Workers' Parties On the occasion of the first of May the International Labor Day - Signed by 39 parties

Millions of workers have lost their jobs, and labor rights are abolished, thousands of workers, especially the elderly are at risk of losing their lives, and health systems are powerless in the face of this epidemic, the world economy is in big crisis, while the capitalist governments helps the large monopolistic capitalist firms by giving trillions dollars to their companies to protect Capitalism systems, and leaves millions who are suffering from poverty, unemployment and marginalization

The new global crisis is not a result of Covid19 epidemic. We as the Communist and Workers' parties estimate that this crisis is the result of the insurmountable contradictions of the exploitative system, while the emergence of Covid19 epidemic emphasizes the class character of the anti-popular policy of bourgeois governments and Capitalist market economy which neglected policies that serve health and the environment and scientific research.

In this new situation we fight as communist and labor parties in our countries against dictatorships, the extreme right, the new fascism and in general capitalist regimes that exploit the working class and other popular strata. We are fighting against the imperialist plans and interventions of the USA, NATO, the EU and their allies. At the same time, we are fighting together for socialism which will establish real development, which will serve the people's needs and the cause of peace, will abolish the exploitation of man by man.

Capitalism is not the end of history, and the communist and workers' parties seek to coordinate the international struggle to overthrow it.

The struggle for peace, workers' rights, saving the environment, public health protection, ending of poverty and unemployment needs workers' power, Socialism, and the joint struggle of the Communist and Workers' parties, of the working class and the peoples.

The first day of May the International Labor Day remains to motive our fight for socialism which is the bright future of humanity.

May Day Words of Ernesto Che Guevara, 1963

Cuban May Day Poster, 1973

Our path is not simple; it is full of danger and difficulties. Imperialism is lying in wait at every bend of the road, hoping for a moment of weakness in order to launch itself against us; the reactionaries of all America are waiting to publish with joy even our own official acknowledgements of our errors.

Fundamentally they are trying to show America and the whole world that if a small country such as ours, without industries, without technological development, tries to make a revolution, it is bound to fail. And they use information and tricks, and also saboteurs and divisionists, to hold back our development.

We cannot allow ourselves one moment of weakness. Not now, when we are directly under the visual inspection of our guests, nor at any time; for in each minute of our country's life we are under the eager inspection of all the peoples of America, who see in us a new hope of salvation, a new hope of redeeming themselves from their chains.

Let us show them the realities of the road we have taken, compañeros! Let us show them that not only are we capable of the dangerous task of confronting, almost unarmed at one time, the armed force of the oligarchy; of developing our popular armies by capturing arms from the enemy, of confronting them on the field of battle, and of catalysing the consciousness of the entire people of Cuba so as to convert them into a great vanguard army to destroy the dictatorship! Let us show that we are not only capable of preparing our whole people to stand as one, to launch our war cry, our defiant shout, which we all know; let us show also, compañeros, that we are capable of triumphing in this long, tiring, terrible struggle, in which we are being obstructed in the building of socialism by an imperialist blockade.

In the face of all the dangers, the threats and aggressions, the blockades, the sabotage, all the divisionists, all those powers who try to restrain us, we must show once more our people's capacity to make their own history.

We must all be united, compañeros, firm in our faith, firmer than ever today, though perhaps not so firm as we shall be tomorrow, to go forward always with our eyes on the future, with our feet on the ground, building each step, and making sure of each step we take, so that we will never give up one inch of what we have won, of what we have built, of what is ours: socialism!

Our Country or Death! We Shall Win! - Ernesto Che Guevara, Excerpt from his May Day Speech, April 30, 1963

For more on the ongoing criminal imperialist blockade of Cuba and other countries see:

Blockade No, Solidarity Yes! US imperialist sanctions need to end

and

Canadians need to demand an immediate end to criminal imperialist sanctions

Seriously...fuck capitalism -- A May Day message from The Left Chapter

image via twitter

With International Workers' Day at hand after weeks of the capitalist coronavirus crisis the truly awful, harsh and likely to get much worse, corporate driven dystopian reality we find ourselves in can only be summarized by saying...fuck capitalism.

If ever a system has been exposed as a rotting, putrid corpse riddled with the maggots of oppression, racism, vast inequality and staggering arrogance and ineptitude, it is the global capitalist order and the various clowns leading it.

Before anyone thinks our society is likely to get much better due to its being exposed, that is, rather terribly, not at all the case. Things are likely to get much worse...unless we do something about it.

For all the cheery and, frankly, delusional optimism of those who think "society cannot go back to where it was" they may be right. But at the moment not in a good way.

We are seeing the absolute triumph of the very worst tendencies of the neo-liberal era all exploding at once, from the sacrificing of the lives of the least paid, often racialized workers so as to "keep the economy going", to the white supremacist armed American rallies at state legislatures, to the billionaires, corporations and CEOs being bailed out -- yet again -- on the backs of all of us for a failed economic system they created.  

Amid the capitalist cornavirus crisis the wealthy and the powerful continue to control and take advantage of the situation. The mainstream parties are still engaging in mainstream politics. Circumstances have dictated that they have had to sweep some crumbs to the masses and say a few things here or there but they have and they will sweep a lot more to the wealthy and the corporations.

As we see millions and millions of workers or the formerly middle class facing destitution, bankruptcy and even homelessness, Wall St. just had its best month on the stock market in over 30 years. The utter and absolute disconnect between human needs and our economic system could not possibly be better expressed. Never mind the vast quantities of food being literally destroyed because capitalist agriculture is based around corporate "demand" as opposed to actual human demand. 

With trillions of dollars being pumped in to prop them up, of course the stocks are soaring. They are literally laughing in our faces all the way to the bank.

Fuck capitalism. 

Meanwhile, billionaire manchild egotists like Elon Musk scream "Free America" and the corporate political class from Georgia to Quebec look to "reopen" and throw us all under the bus as fast as possible wherever possible.

They cannot make money unless we are working. They need us to risk our lives to keep that stock market and those profits humming along. They will finance any number of stooge politicians or angry white lumpen petty bourgeois rallies to make it so. They will get the dumbest and most mechanistically reactionary of their corporate owned media talking heads to vomit out columns and TV moments claiming that compensating workers for lost income or for not being able to work will make them "lazy" and unwilling to go out and find some new job that pays less and that is more dangerous than the one they used to have but that exists now because fucking Amazon can hire more workers as Jeff Bezos gains a billion dollars in blood money every day or two.

Fuck capitalism.

The sick vampire lifeblood sucking disgusting shitshow sham of divide and conquer one day you too will be rich hahahaha reality horror show travesty that is capitalism is willing to cannibalisticly eat you whole and sacrifice the old, the workers and -- don't kid yourself -- the young and whoever else it takes as long as it can make money and thinks that it can replace one dead or sick delivery or cashier worker with another.

They will keep the mines, the factories, the warehouses going no matter how many workers are crammed together, no matter that social distancing is impossible, no matter that nearby communities will pay, no matter that workers will die, because they are all literally willing to end your life in their bloodlust for profit and "growth". 

Don't worry, hundreds of thousands of you are going to die...maybe even millions...but it will all be worth it! Freedom! Why would you not want to offer yourself up so that the parasites can feast on you living or dead. 

Soon enough they will cut off your benefits to force you back. Already the corporate class in Canada has somehow conned "progressive" politicians in parties like the NDP to back programs that hand 75% wage subsidies to businesses while Employment Insurance remains maxed out at 55%! How clever is that? And the NDP sheep squad is happily taking "credit" for this. The imbecility of it would almost be funny were the consequences not so grim.

And get ready, as it is coming fast and furious, for the austerity attack when the lockdown is lifted. When the corporate political goons and their media sycophants will demand deep, deep cuts. If you think the bailout corporate cash grab will be repaid by those who primarily benefited -- the wealthy -- I have got some Florida swampland for you for a song. You may need it after all is said and done. 

With no actual mass anti-capitalist left political movement in North America outside of the institutionalized and failed ones like the Democrats, Liberals and New Democrats, how exactly is the fightback to this politically being envisioned?

The principle that it was necessary to discard these failed capitalist vessels and build something new was perfectly obvious for many years now and especially after 2008. Had this been done we would be in a far better position now.

Capitalism is not going to just get "nicer" or disappear on its own. All that rhetoric about "heroic" workers is only that. It has already adapted to the new reality. 

If there was ever a May Day where it was obvious that we had to build new left parties and movements out of the ashes of the old it is this one. Otherwise we will once again see the workers pay dearly and deeply while perhaps a few parks are occupied again, some Marxist academics have conferences about it all and maybe everyone wishes the establishment "left" parties would really do something as it only ends up getting worse.

This is not inevitable but it is what is happening. Collectively we can try to stop it. Or the capitalists will walk away unscathed and empowered as they did after 2008. It is our choice.

Fuck capitalism.

Happy International Workers' Day.

Workers of all countries unite!

Bailouts for billionaires mean big gains for Wall St and Bay St. on the eve of May Day

If you were in any doubt who the bailouts are really for Wall St. stocks saw record gains in April even as millions of people lost their jobs, were tossed scraps by our governments and face bankruptcy. Meanwhile billionaires like Elon Musk remind us that they need labour to make all their vast wealth and call for workers to head back to dangerous jobs even if they might face illness or death while Trudeau backs away from making sure offshore companies can't get handouts...still think "we are all in this together"?

On the eve of International Workers' Day preparing to fight back against the coming corporate and government calls for vicious austerity in the wake of the capitalist coronavirus crisis is more important than ever!

Links: Wall Street powers through waves of bad economic news to one of its best months in decades

Wage subsidies for strikebreakers and no premium pay at the LCBO -- Dispatches from the bailouts

May 1, International Workers' Day Holiday Card, USSR 1976 -- Daily LIFT #185

May 1, International Workers' Day Holiday Card, USSR 1976 -- Daily LIFT #185

May Day, painting by Renato Guttuso -- Daily LIFT #184

May Day, painting by Renato Guttuso -- Daily LIFT #184

Guttuso (1911 - 1987) was a renowned Italian artist, anti-fascist and leftist. He was awarded a World Peace Council Prize in 1950 and the Order of Lenin in 1972.

Workers’ health over profit! -- WFTU May Day poster and statement

The World Federation of Trade Unions released its May Day poster and a May Day statement May Day 2020: The current situation and our duties.  Excerpt: 

The World Federation of Trade Unions, on the occasion of May Day 2020, salutes the workers in all continents; all those whose work continues to move the gears of life even in difficult conditions such as the Coronavirus Pandemic and keeps producing all the necessary goods so that life may continue and the needs of workers and popular strata can be met.

We honor the millions of employees in public healthcare systems around the world: doctors, nurses, all healthcare workers, who amidst the Coronavirus pandemic struggle every day to save the patients from the pandemic without even having the necessary protective and medical equipment, risking their own health and lives. They are at the frontline of struggle, with courage and self-denial, lifting the burden of care and treatment in a middle of a pandemic that already counts millions of cases and hundreds of thousands of deaths, in a public healthcare system deteriorated by underfunding and discredited by the policies of all capitalist governments, which consciously undermine the public healthcare system and privatize its neuralgic activities to enhance the speculative profitability of multinationals.

The workers and the popular strata, we unite our voices with those of the militant healthcare workers, we stand in solidarity with their struggle and we demand immediate coverage of the vacancies, adequacy of public health infrastructure and materials to serve the permanent and temporary needs of the people; Requisition of the private sector and abolition of the commercialization and privatization of Health and Welfare. Free public universal and high-quality health services. Workers’ health over profit!

We salute the workers in production and distribution of food and basic necessities, in supermarkets, in pharmaceutical sector, in cleaning services, in energy sector and other services, who through their work ensure the access of workers and peoples to everything necessary for their survival.

At the same time, on the occasion of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, we denounce the huge attack on workers’ labor rights through layoffs, lack of payment, undeclared work and the restriction of trade union freedoms....

...Against capitalist antagonisms and speculation, the workers and peoples raise our solidarity and proletarian internationalism, following the example of Cuba, which has sent specialized doctors to fourteen countries affected by the Pandemic, the example of the workers of Italy who organized a general strike in support of doctors and workers, following the example of workers in all countries who do not remain silent, who counter fight also this crisis with militant slogans in solidarity to all peoples.

The migrant workers in Chicago, who struggled and sacrificed their lives in May 1886 for the establishment of the 8-hour working day, paved the way of the world working class for the continuous claim of its rights.

The international class-oriented labor movement through the lines of WFTU honors the legacy of their struggle and continues under any circumstance, despite the difficulties, to struggle for the coverage of the workers’ modern needs and the abolition of exploitation. For the emancipation of the working class and its liberation from capitalist barbarism.

Click here for the full statement and list of demands.

May Day March, Toronto 1989 - Daily LIFT #130

May Day March, Toronto 1989 - Daily LIFT #130

Imperialist Coup Fails in Venezuela, Israeli Attacks, Climate Change & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos April 28 - May 5

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 April 28 - May 5.

This installment, in addition to general links, has sections related to the failed imperialist coup attempt in Venezuela, the stepping up of sanctions on Cuba, May Day, developments in Israel, the cutbacks in Ontario and climate change.

1) Venezuela’s Guaidó Falsely Claims Military Uprising in Progress: Mainstream Media Falls in Line

The Real News

Tuesday morning self-declared president and opposition leader Juan Guaidó called on the military and the population to oppose the Maduro government. Only a few thousand civilians and very few soldiers heeded the call. Mike Fox reports from Caracas

2) Once Again, Mainstream Media Get It Wrong on Venezuela

Michael Fox, The Nation


Foreign outlets, dutifully supporting Trump administration calls for regime change, reported that a widespread uprising was underway, even though Juan Guaidó’s coup attempt had little support.

3) Thousands take to the streets in Venezuela's capital in opposition to Guaido's coup attempt

Steve Sweeney, The Morning Star

Pro-government supporters march through Caracas today against Guaido's US-backed coup



4) US threatens Venezuela with possible invasion after Guaido's failed coup

Steve Sweeney, The Morning Star

Chavista workers' day march to Miraflores Palace in Caracas today

5) US Publicly Admits Support for Coup Attempt in Venezuela

Telesur

One of the first to ratify support for the coup was U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, tweeting 30 messages expressing his desire to see President Maduro deposed.

Only Chrystia Freeland could possibly go on about respecting "peaceful" protests when the day literally started with imperialist stooge Guaido arriving at a military base surrounded by heavily armed men calling for a coup against the country's legitimate government.

What a farce.

"We strongly condemn the attempted coup d’état under way in Venezuela. Cuba offers firm support and loyalty to Nicolás Maduro, the constitutional president of our sister nation and to his chavista and Bolivarian government. Let there be an end to the assaults on peace in Latin America." - Bruno Rodríguez, Foreign Minister of Cuba

6) Trump threatens Cuban embargo over Venezuela aid

Rafael Bernal, The Hill

President Trump tweeted Tuesday he would impose "a full and complete embargo" on Cuba if the island doesn't withdraw its security aid from Venezuela.

7) Change of tack? EU quieter on latest failed Venezuela coup attempt as Guaido’s influence wanes

RT News

When the US announced support for Venezuela’s self-declared ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido in January, European leaders heartily backed the move — but three months later, after a second failed coup attempt, they are suddenly shy.

8) Blackwater Founder Lobbying for Mercenaries in Venezuela to Oust Maduro: Report

Telesur

Founder of the private security firm Blackwater wants to send hired mercenaries to Venezuela and topple the legitimate government of President Nicolas Maduro.

9) Caracas Court Orders Arrest of Opposition Leader Leopoldo Lopez

Telesur 

The Fifth Court of the Criminal Judicial District of ​​Caracas has ordered the arrest of Venezuelan opposition activist Leopoldo Lopez for violating his 13-year house arrest sentence while he tried to lead a coup of the Venezuelan government under Nicolas Maduro April 30.

10) Ambush on Venezuelan Military Commission Leaves 3 Dead

Telesur

An attack on military commission left three troops dead in Venezuela. An unrecognized group of heavily armed people ambushed a mixed military commission early this Saturday morning.

Related: Venezuela resists another imperialist coup attempt -- An overview of the day's dramatic events

11) Joe Biden and Democratic Establishment Support Trump’s Coup Attempt in Venezuela

Telesur

The thin line between the Democratic establishment and the Republicans was once again crossed today, as many highly influential Demoracts showed their public support for the illegal Trump-backed coup attempt in Venezuela, following close to their political rivals remarks.

12) AOC Says She Follows Democratic Leadership on Issue of US Intervention in Venezuela

Telesur

U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional district, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, said Wednesday she would follow the Democratic Party’s leadership in regards to Venezuela, declining to answer a question on whether she sees President Nicolas Maduro as the legitimate President of the Bolivarian Republic.

13) Ilhan Omar Speaks Out Against U.S. Sanctions & Bipartisan Support for Regime Change in Venezuela

Democracy Now

Amid an ongoing coup attempt in Venezuela, we speak with Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who questioned U.S. special envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams on Capitol Hill in February about his record. Abrams is a right-wing hawk who was linked to the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela that tried to topple Hugo Chávez. In the 1980s, Abrams defended Guatemalan dictator General Efraín Ríos Montt as he oversaw a campaign of mass murder and torture of indigenous people. Ríos Montt was later convicted of genocide. Rep. Ilhan Omar says that there is a direct correlation between this type of detrimental U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and “the kind of mass migration that we’re noticing right now from Central America and South America to the U.S.”

14) Venezuelan economist: ‘Hyperinflation is a powerful imperialist weapon’


Federico Fuentes & Pascualina Curcio, Green Left Weekly

Much is made in the media of Venezuela’s deep economic crisis. But why does Venezuela have the world’s highest inflation rate and what impacts have the sanctions really had on the country? Green Left Weekly’s Federico Fuentes spoke to Venezuelan economist Pascualina Curcio, from the Simón Bolívar University, to find out more.

15) US sanctions have killed more than 40,000 people in Venezuela

Susan Price, Green Left Weekly

US sanctions imposed on Venezuela in 2017 contributed to the deaths of more than 40,000 people last year, according to a new report — and this figure is set to rise due to the latest round of sanctions.

16) The New Zealand women challenging the neoliberal narrative of ‘empowerment’ in prostitution

The Morning Star 

JO BARTOSCH talks to two activists who are facing a major battle in taking on the sex industry – against the grain of both their government and mainstream opposition movements.

17) San Diego Synagogue Shooter Inspired by New Zealand Shooter

Telesur

The suspect was identified as John Earnest, 19,  the apparent author of a "manifesto" who claimed to have set a nearby mosque on fire last month.

18) Bathroom breaks banned for factory workers, reveals damning fashion industry report

SBS Dateline 

In a detailed report released today titled “‘Paying for a Bus Ticket and Expecting to Fly’: How Apparel Brand Purchasing Practices Drive Labor Abuses,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) has identified abusive cost-saving measures by major garment and footwear factories that harm disadvantaged factory workers.


19) The Values of April: 45 years since Portugal overthrew fascism

Diana Ferreira, People's World 

April 25, 2019, marks the 45th anniversary since the April Revolution in Portugal—a mass democratic uprising which overthrew the fascist dictatorship that had ruled the country for nearly five decades. What started as a coup by anti-fascist army officers quickly morphed into a revolt of the whole Portuguese people. As she walked the streets of Lisbon that day, restaurant worker Celeste Caeiro started placing red carnations into the barrels of soldiers’ rifles and tanks, giving the 25th of April its other name—the Carnation Revolution. Below is an excerpted speech delivered today in the Assembly of the Republic, the country’s parliament, by Portuguese Communist Party member Diana Ferreira.

20) The bottom 75% of Canadian income earners can't afford an apartment

Jessy Baines, Yahoo Finance

If you’re hoping to buy a home in one of Canada’s biggest cities, you’re probably out of luck unless you’re making really big bucks.

21) Over 100 households still homeless after Grenfell fire, local MP warns

Phil Miller, The Morning Star

Labour's Emma Dent Coad tells the Star of the trauma inflicted on the community.

22) Senate committee says Lynn Beyak should be suspended over racist letters

John Paul Tasker · CBC News

Committee drops the boom after Beyak refused to remove letters describing Indigenous Canadians in racist terms.

23) Sanders suggests Disney should use 'Avengers' profits to 'pay all of its workers a middle class wage'

Zack Budryk, The Hill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday called on Disney to use profits from its "Avengers: Endgame" record-breaking opening weekend to pay all employees "a middle class wage."

24) About 13m US children are living below the poverty line, rights group reveals

Chris McGreal, The Guardian 

A leading children’s rights group has called for a doubling of the federal minimum wage and wider access to housing subsidies to end the “moral travesty” of millions of children living in poverty while the wealthiest Americans get tax cuts.

25) Angela Davis & Barbara Ransby: We Stand with Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Courageous, Bold Black Woman

Democracy Now

Two of the founders of Black Lives Matter, as well as professor Angela Davis and scores of other black women, are holding a rally today on Capitol Hill to defend Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and to urge Congress to censure President Trump for his attacks on her. Omar made history earlier this year when she and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan became the first Muslim women in Congress. She is also the first member of Congress to wear a hijab. Omar, who was born in Somalia and came to the United States as a refugee, has been at the center of numerous right-wing attacks since taking office. Omar recently said death threats against her have spiked in number since President Trump tweeted a video juxtaposing her image with footage of the 9/11 attacks. We speak to the academic and activist Angela Davis, as well as Barbara Ransby, historian, author, activist adviser to the Movement for Black Lives and one of the planners behind Black Women in Defense of Ilhan Omar.

26) 'Hands off Ilhan': Black Women in Solidarity with Ilhan Omar

Telesur 

Dozens of women from the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of African-American advocates, gathered Tuesday in support of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar who has been a target of hate-speech and trolling by right-wing politicians and their supporters.

27) Labour leaders make the case to nationalize General Motors at Oshawa event

 Reka Szekely, Oshawa This Week

If GM won't commit to maintaining jobs in Oshawa, it's time to nationalize the company, said labour leaders at an Oshawa event April 25.

28) Women are disappearing and dying in Indian country. We must act

Debra Anne Haaland, The Guardian 

The epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women has long been overlooked. That’s why I’m fighting for them in Congress.

29) Far-right yellow vest extremists threaten Saskatchewan's economy

Andrew Stevens, Regina Leader-Post 

For the first time in generations, international migration has helped to fuel Saskatchewan’s population growth. “Suddenly,” wrote Saskatchewan-based columnist Tammy Robert in Maclean’s in 2017, “Saskatchewan was the place to be — not the place to be from.” Starting in 2007, for almost a decade, a prolonged resource-led boom drew domestic and international migrants, reshaping the demographics of the province’s urban centres and rural hinterlands.

30) Turkey’s communist mayor embraces humility, transparency

AFP

Turkey’s only communist party mayor is stressing openness and humility in an effort to remake the small city he oversees in Turkey’s southeast, Agence France-Presse reported on Thursday.

31) Turkey’s only Communist party mayor wins fans

Middle East Monitor 

On his election, Fatih Macoglu's first move as mayor of his Turkish city was to knock down the walls around his office as a symbol of his transparency.

32) May Day flashbacks: Memories of a Communist and working-class leader

Gus Hall, People's World 

This collection of May Day memories from former Communist Party USA General Secretary Gus Hall (1910-2000) is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared in the Daily World newspaper on April 30, 1977. Hall shares flashbacks to some May Days in his own life—in his neighborhood, with his family, in prison during the Cold War, and more.

33) French Yellow Vests Rally in May Day Protests Amid Teargas

Telesur

French police fired tear gas to push back masked demonstrators in central Paris Wednesday as thousands of people used an annual May Day rally to protest against President Emmanuel Macron's policies.

34) Cuba Celebrates Labor Day with 'Unity, Commitment and Victory'

Telesur 

Tens of thousands of people are march in Cuba to celebrate Labor Day under the leadership of President Miguel Diaz-Canel and the Communist Party First Secretary Raul Castro. "Unity, commitment and victory" is written across a huge banner in front of the Revolution Square in Havana.

35) Bolsonaro To Defund Philosophy, Sociology to Tackle 'Leftist Takeover' of Education

Telesur

Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro said his minister of education is considering defunding philosophy and sociology programs from universities.

36) Call for students to film ‘biased’ teachers brings Brazil’s culture wars to classroom

Anna Jean Kaiser, The Guardian 

Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged school students to film teachers during class if they suspect them of pushing leftist ideas, reigniting a battle in one of the most contested arenas of Brazil’s raging culture wars.


37) Canada is ‘complicit’ in Saudi mass execution, say relatives of victims

Middle East Monitor 

Relatives of 37 Saudis executed last week on alleged “terror” offences have accused the Canadian government of being complicit in the brutal killing in which some of the bodies were nailed to a post in a public location for several hours in a “crucifixion” position.

38) 'It's because we were union members': Boeing fires workers who organized

Michael Sainato, The Guardian 

Richard Mester worked for Boeing in South Carolina as a flight safety inspector for five years before being suddenly fired – along with two other employees – in November 2018 for allegedly failing to report a bird strike. However, the bad news also came shortly after the company was told Mester had been elected a union steward.

39) Amsterdam to ban petrol and diesel cars and motorbikes by 2030

Daniel Boffey, The Guardian 

Cars and motorbikes running on petrol or diesel will be banned from driving in Amsterdam from 2030.

40) Walruses Are Jumping Off Cliffs to Their Deaths—Yes, Because of Climate Change

Shaye Wolf, Common Dreams 

The new Netflix series “Our Planet” documents the devastation wrought by humans on animals and their habitats. It’s heartbreaking. In fact, some scenes are so wrenching that Netflix last week tweeted a list of time stamps for scenes that “animal lovers may want to skip.”

41) One million species risk extinction due to humans: draft UN report

Marlow Hodd, AFP

Up to one million species face extinction due to human influence, according to a draft UN report obtained by AFP that painstakingly catalogues how humanity has undermined the natural resources upon which its very survival depends.

42) Permafrost is thawing in the Arctic so fast that scientists are losing their equipment

The Canadian Press

Permafrost in some areas of the Canadian Arctic is thawing so fast that it's gulping up the equipment left there to study it.

43) Vancouver climate strike organizer Rebecca Hamilton says students are coming together to fight for their lives

Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight 

This afternoon, Vancouver witnessed its fourth walkout by secondary students who are exasperated by adults' indifference to the planet's future.

44) Spanish General Election 2019

Iván Orosa Paleo, Socialist Project Bullet 

On April 28, a general election, for the National Congress and the Senate, was held in Spain after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called new elections. Sánchez is the leader of the social-liberal, pro-European Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSO), in power since June 2018, when he led a successful motion of confidence against the government of Mariano Rajoy’s centre-right, conservative Partido Popular (PP).

45) Pentagon Accused of Killing 10x as Many Civilians Overseas as Acknowledged in New Report

Democracy Now

The Pentagon is facing accusations that it is drastically underestimating the number of civilians being killed in U.S. airstrikes overseas. On Thursday, the Pentagon released a report saying the U.S. had killed 120 civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia last year. However, the watchdog monitoring group Airwars says the total is at least 10 times higher. In Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon admitted to killing 42 people, but Airwars put the civilian death toll from attacks by the U.S.-led coalition at over 800.

46) Exxon Uses Rockefeller Holding to Sue Cuba Under Helms-Burton

Telesur

U.S. oil and gas company, Exxon Mobil Corp., has filed a federal suit against two Cuban companies after the waiver on Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act was officially lifted by U.S. President Donald Trump on May 2. 

47) ‘Contrary to intl law’: Mogherini slams US ‘full activation’ of Cuba embargo law, vows counter steps

RT News

Full implementation of US embargo law on Cuba is illegal under international law, the EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said as she promised retaliatory measures amidst yet another row between Brussels and Washington.

48) TDSB scrambles to deal with budget shortfall expected to be 'closer' to $54M

CBC News 

The Toronto District School Board will have to make some difficult decisions as it scrambles to deal with a budget shortfall that it predicts will be about $54 million for the 2019-2020 school year, says board chair Robin Pilkey.

49) Progressive Conservatives claw back $3.5 million in child-care funding in Hamilton

 Matthew Van Dongen , The Hamilton Spectator

The Progressive Conservative government is cutting $3.5 million out of the city budget that subsidizes tens of thousands of affordable child-care spaces across Hamilton.

50) Ontario government cancels $50M fund that helped child care centres not pass on costs to parents

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press

 Ontario has ended a $50 million fund that helped child care centres cover increasing labour costs without passing them on to parents.

Related: 2,000 teaching casualties so far in Ford's war on education and kids

51) New House Bill Would Bar Israel From Using U.S. Military Aid to Detain Palestinian Children

Robert Mackey, The Intercept 

NEW LEGISLATION PROPOSED by Rep. Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, would ban Israel from using any of the billions of dollars in military assistance it receives from the United States every year to pay for the detention, interrogation, or torture of Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.

52) Israel killed 102 Palestinian journalists since 1972

Palestinian Information Center 

The Palestinian Journalists Union in the West Bank on Tuesday said that the Israeli occupation forces have killed 102 Palestinian journalists since 1972.

53) It’s time to stop talking about the Occupation, we need to talk about the Israeli Military Dictatorship instead

Yossi Gurvitz, Mondoweiss

I am beginning to think one of the reasons the Israeli occupation has endured for so long is that we insist on speaking of it as an occupation. Let’s stop doing that.

54) Embracing racism, rabbis at pre-army yeshiva laud Hitler, urge enslaving Arabs

Tamar Pileggi, The Times of Israel 

Two rabbis at a pre-military religious academy in a West Bank settlement were recorded making derogatory and racist comments about Arabs, defending Adolf Hitler’s worldview, and openly promoting Jewish supremacy.

55) Soldiers Have to Shoot at Palestinians. It's Israel's Way to Keep Them in Check

Amira Hass, Haaretz 

Israel admits it: The military is in the West Bank to protect settlements. The notion that we want peace is old fake news.

56) International Community Condemns ‘Israeli Terrorism’ in Gaza as Death Toll Reaches 18

Telesur 

The ongoing Israeli airstrikes on besieged Gaza strip killed 18 people so far including a pregnant woman, a 15-month-old child, and a Hamas commander even though the Israeli military said it has hit hundreds of targets in Gaza "belonging to Palestinian militant groups."

See also: Reckless Ontario Cuts, Creeping Towards a Biden Disaster, the NDP and more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos April 21 - 28