Canada and Freeland's rhetoric about a "rules-based international order" is bullshit and the US just proved it again

Update: It has been announced since this piece was posted that Freeland will not be Foreign Minister going forward as she is being moved to another post. As the piece notes however, the "Freeland Doctrine" will almost certainly continue to be implemented by the new minister François-Philippe Champagne. 

For years now Canada's Trudeau government and its Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland have tried to claim that their foreign policy is centered around the preservation of a "rules-based international order." Within this construct -- one that is readily accepted and regurgitated as fact by the mainstream media -- Canada, the United States and their western allies are working together to contain the alleged threat posed to this order by supposed rogue actors like Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc.

Freeland has made this the foundational ideological basis, of what could be called the "Freeland Doctrine" -- which will no doubt continue to guide the new minority Trudeau government even if she does not return as its Foreign Minister -- to be used to justify any number of steps Canada has taken from aggressively backing the disturbingly neo-fascist coup regime in Ukraine against Russia to Canada's leadership role in the Lima Group aimed at toppling the democratically elected government of Venezuela.

The problem for Freeland and her various establishment sycophants is that this line is transparently bullshit and is increasingly obviously so. The only way you can believe that Canada supports a "rules-based international order" as a staunch ally of the United States is if you believe that the US can simply make up any rules, at any time, and this can somehow be construed as "order".

The latest in a long line of examples of this is the unilateral declaration by the United States on November 18 that it no longer sees Israeli Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian lands as illegal under international law. That they are, in fact, illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which the United States signed in 1955, is very clear.

But the Trump administration simply does not care. It suits its political goals both in Israel and domestically to state otherwise so it has.

In realty, to the United States international law and any "rules" only matter insofar as they reflect American objectives. Otherwise they are either distorted or totally ignored and there is nothing new about this. 

All of the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations have indulged in orgies of drone violence ordering completely illegal extra-judicial murders worldwide that have claimed thousands of lives, including many children. You can see the grim statistics yourself on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism's Drone Warfare page.

Then there is the use of completely unilateral forms of economic embargoes and sanctions by the United States against countries whose governments it does not, for whatever reason, like. The Americans feel they have the right to extend these sanctions to penalize not just American companies but any company anywhere in the world who wants to do business or conduct trade with a regime no longer in Washington's favour.

After having unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal with Iran, for example, "the U.S. Treasury Department bragged that in just one day, November 5, 2018, it sanctioned more than 700 individuals, entities, aircraft, and vessels doing business" with them.

US sanctions on Venezuela, which are "illegal Under UN, OAS and US Law", have had devastating consequences. As  Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies noted on Common Dreams:

A study by Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot for the Center for Economic and Policy Research, titled “Sanctions as Collective Punishment: the Case of Venezuela,” reported that the combined effect of the 2017 and 2019 U.S. sanctions are projected to lead to an astounding 37.4% decline in Venezuela’s real GDP in 2019, on the heels of a 16.7% decline in 2018 and the over 60% drop in oil prices between 2012 and 2016.

They also noted that:

In North Korea, many decades of sanctions, coupled with extended periods of drought, have left millions of the nation’s 25 million people malnourished and impoverished. Rural areas in particular lack medicine and clean water. Even more stringent sanctions imposed in 2018 banned most of the country’s exports, reducing the government’s ability to pay for imported food to alleviate the shortages.

The US continues its criminal sanctions against Cuba despite 28 consecutive years of near universal condemnation by the United Nations General Assembly. This year 187 countries (including Canada) voted to condemn the sanctions while only five, including the US, did not.

Kelly Craft, the US Ambassador to the UN, even had the audacity to say that "Like all nations, we get to choose which countries we trade with. This is our sovereign right" even though, as we have seen, the Americans do not recognize that right for any other country but themselves.

Their hypocrisy and thumbing of the nose at the "rules-based international order" could not be more flagrant.

There are many other cases one could point to historically including the staggering number of democratically elected governments the US has helped to have brutally overthrown, from those of Guatemala and Iran in the 1950s, to Allende in Chile in 1973, to Honduras in 2009, to Bolivia now to name just a few.

We have already looked at the glaring hypocrisy and contempt for democracy of Canadian actions in Central and South America in "Canadian hypocrisy and double standards in South and Central America on full display".

Freeland's "rules-based international order" is a fiction invented as cover for Canada's role in advancing the interests of the United States, western imperialism and Canadian and global corporations around the world.  It is long overdue for Canadian journalists and parties like the Greens and the NDP to start calling her out fully on it.

Border Detentions, Duque Wins in Colombia, Roma Under Threat in Italy & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List June 17 - 24

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

This list covers the week of  June 17 - 24. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.


There are two articles from prior to the period that have been included. They have been integrated into the post.

1) Human rights groups condemn Ukraine over its funding of nazi militias

The Morning Star

HUMAN rights groups in Ukraine hit out today after it was revealed that nazi militias involved in brutal and violent attacks against minorities have received cash from the government.

Read the full article.

2) Et Tu, Bernie?

Chris Hedges, TruthDig

There are two versions of Bernie Sanders. There is the old Bernie Sanders, who mounted a quixotic campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination as a democratic socialist who refused corporate cash and excoriated corporate Democrats. And there is the new Bernie Sanders, who dutifully plays by the party’s rules, courts billionaires, refused to speak out in support of the lawsuit brought against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for rigging the primaries against him and endorses Democratic candidates who espouse the economic and political positions he once denounced.

Read the full article.

3) Report looks at child poverty across Canada

Jordan Press, The Canadian Press 

Anti-poverty groups are raising the stakes on the Liberal government's promise to reduce the prevalence of low-income families by detailing child poverty rates in all 338 federal ridings -- including the above-average rates facing constituents of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Read the full article.

4) Colombian Far-Right Candidate Duque Wins Presidential Elections

Telesur

One hour after the polls closed on Sunday for the second round of Colombian presidential elections, electoral authorities announced that far-right candidate Ivan Duque won over the leftist alternative Gustavo Petro with 53,98 percent versus 41,81 percent as 100 percent of the vote was counted.

Read the full article.

5) Colombia: FARC Willing to Meet With Duque to Maintain Peace

Telesur

The Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, the FARC, is worried that Duque's victory could hurt the historic peace process.

Read the full article.

6) Colombia: Duque Torpedoes Peace Before Taking Office

Telesur

Colombia’s Senate has heeded a call from Ivan Duque to indefinitely postpone a bill on the procedures to apply the Special Jurisdiction for Peace.

Read the full article.

7) The Democrats’ Myopic Reaction to the Trump–Kim Summit

James Careden, The Nation

In his recent Nation report from the Singapore summit, the redoubtable Tim Shorrock observed, “Even as the first images flashed across the world of Trump and Kim shaking hands against the unusual background of US and DPRK flags flapping together, social media and op-ed sections of media sites were filled with denunciations of Trump. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate led the attack.”

Read the full article.

8) Ontario Looks Right

Herman Rosenfeld, Jacobin

Canada is not immune to the rise of right-wing populism. Case in point: the recent election of Doug Ford as Premier of Ontario after years of Liberal rule.


Read the full article.

9) Chimps and orangutans among species in danger of being wiped out in imminent mass extinction of primates, scientists warn

Josh Gabbatiss, The Independent

Primate species including chimpanzees and orangutans are on the brink of extinction, and scientists fear that without a concerted global effort they will soon be gone for good.

Read the full article.

10) The unspeakable cruelty of Trump’s child-migrant camps

Sarah Kendzior, The Globe and Mail

Under the direction of Donald Trump and Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, the U.S. government has snatched roughly 2,000 children of asylum seekers from their parents – including an infant girl who was taken from her wailing mother while breastfeeding – and put them in detention camps. They are there for the crime of existing, as migrant children fleeing foreign violence and oppression, in Mr. Trump’s United States.

Read the full article.

11) Canada detains migrant kids, too, and it needs to stop, experts say

David P. Ball, The Toronto Star

Immigration experts and government critics say Canada Border Services Agency’s ongoing detention of minors — generally with their families — is deeply damaging to child welfare and mental health.

Read the full article.

12) THE U.S. HAS TAKEN MORE THAN 3,700 CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS — AND HAS NO PLAN FOR RETURNING THEM

Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S program of systematically separating migrant children from their parents is steadily expanding, government officials confirmed Tuesday. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s “zero tolerance” doctrine, U.S. authorities have been ordered to criminally prosecute all individuals arrested for illegally crossing the border without exception, including asylum-seekers and parents arriving with small children.

Read the full article.

13) Trump’s new immigration cruelty

Barry Sheppard, Red Flag

Washington has a long history of using deportations to strike fear among undocumented workers. In recent years deportations have increased – former president Barack Obama became known as “deporter in chief”.

Read the full article.

14) Canada aims to avoid detaining migrant children, but it happens

Benjamin Shingler · CBC News 

McGill study on Canadian practice finds 'psychiatric and academic difficulties long after detention'

Read the full article.

15) If Justin Trudeau really cares about keeping refugee women and girls alive, his government needs to rescind the Safe Third Country Agreement

Jaymie Heilman and Maria Walker, Feminist Current

Many Canadians are rightly horrified by the Trump administration’s recent move to begin separating children from their asylum-seeking parents when they cross the US-Mexico border. A related — and perhaps equally devastating — change to American policy has received far less attention: domestic violence and gang violence no longer qualify as grounds for asylum in the US. Because the Canadian government still adheres to the Safe Third Country Agreement with the US, Canada is complicit with a policy that could sentence tens of thousands of Central American refugee women to extreme physical abuse, sexual enslavement, and death.

Read the full article.

16) The Trump administration is keeping preschool children in “tender age” detention centers

David Gilbert, Vice News

The Trump administration is forcibly separating babies and toddlers from their parents on the border with Mexico and sending them to what they call “tender age shelters” in South Texas, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Read the full article.

17) Trump Signs Executive Order To Stop Family Separation At Border

Roberta Rampton, Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump backed down on Wednesday on an immigration policy that sparked outrage at home and abroad, signing an executive order to end the separation of children from their parents when immigrant families are caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

Read the full article.

18) Migrant Children Drugged Without Consent At Government Centers, Court Documents Show

Roque Planas, HuffPost US

Staff working on the behalf of the Office of Refugee Resettlement are routinely drugging detained child migrants with psychotropics without their parents’ consent, according to legal filings.

Read the full article.

19) Ripping Children Away From Families Is As American As Apple Pie

Ricky Riley, Blavity

America has a long history of separating children from their families.

Read the full article.

20) Immigrant children beaten, stripped, placed in solitary confinement at U.S. detention centre: Court documents

Michael Biesecker, Jake Pearson and Garance Burke, The Associated Press

Immigrant children as young as 14 housed at a juvenile detention centre in Virginia say they were beaten while handcuffed and locked up for long periods in solitary confinement, left nude and shivering in concrete cells.

Read the full article.

21) Dear America, we can teach you about cruelty to refugees. Love, Australia

Brigid Delaney, The Guardian

Yes, America, we have so much to teach you about cruelty and brutality and violence to some of the most vulnerable people on earth. We are a small nation, but on this issue we really punch above our weight!

Read the full article.

22) Think your ancestors came here legally and 'waited their turn'? Think again

Sheila Langan, Irish Central

As happens every time policies and practices against undocumented immigrants dominate the news, this week a vast array of memes and messages have been circulating from Americans who believe that their immigrant ancestors have nothing in common with today's undocumented immigrants.

Read the full article.

23) AN ABUSED WOMAN CAME TO THE U.S. SEEKING ASYLUM. THE GOVERNMENT TOOK HER 5-YEAR-OLD SON. THIS IS HOW SHE GOT HIM BACK.

Debbie Nathan, The Intercept

A GUATEMALAN WOMAN whose child was taken from her last month by immigration authorities in Texas after coming to the U.S. seeking asylum was released after 38 days in detention last week. Immediately after being freed, she went to the federally funded facility that was managing her 5-year-old son’s care and recovered him.

Read the full article.

24) Brazil's Lula da Silva: 'This is Political Imprisonment'

Telesur

In an exclusive interview, Brazil's favorite presidential candidate, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, says he'd never betray the trust of his supporters.

Read the full article.

25) Should Canada give up on NAFTA? Yes.

Gordon Laxer, The Toronto Star

NAFTA is a corporate rights agreement, not a free-trade agreement in the original sense.

Read the full article.

26) Australian war crimes

Ben Hillier, Red Flag

How many civilians have Australian special forces killed in Afghanistan? We don’t know and may never know. But it is becoming clearer that war crimes of a scale not previously reported or acknowledged have been carried out by some in Australia’s most venerated military units.

Read the full article.

27) Italy's far-right government announces 'census' and deportations of Roma traveller population

Jon Stone, The Independent

Italy’s new far-right interior minister has announced a “census” of the country’s Roma community and set the stage for deportations of the ethnic group.

Read the full article.

28) Italy's deputy PM Salvini called for 'mass cleansing, street by street, quarter by quarter', newly resurfaced footage reveals

Tom Embury-Dennis, The Guardian

Footage has re-emerged of Italy’s new interior minister calling for a “mass cleansing” of migrants from “entire parts” of the country.

Read the full article.

29) Salvini’s ‘Roma register’ marks a dangerous step towards fascism

The Morning Star

ITALIAN Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s order that all Roma people in the country be registered so that “non-Italians” among them can be expelled looks like fascism.

Read the full article.

30) 'Commie cadet' who wore Che Guevara T-shirt kicked out of US army

The Associated Press

A West Point cadet who wore a Che Guevara T-shirt to his graduation and posted a message online saying “communism will win” has been discharged from the US army.

Read the full article.

31) Canada's Chrystia Freeland 'Blind To Emerging Multipolar World'

Nino Pagliccia, Telesur

In a strange case of reversed roles, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland tried to convince U.S. President Donald Trump to return to his lost path of globalization and international trade agreements in an impassioned speech she gave at the Foreign Policy Forum on June 13 in Washington, D.C.

Read the full article.

32) Jewish extremists taunt ‘Ali’s on the grill’ at slain toddler’s relatives

Jacob Magid, The Times of Israel 

Two dozen far-right protesters shout outside courtroom in support of Duma terror attack perpetrators; relatives slam police for letting abusive chorus continue unabated.

Read the full article.

33) A Brief History of U.S. Intervention in the Countries of Origin of Central American Asylum Seekers

Mark Tseng-Putterman, Medium

At the margins of the mainstream discursive stalemate over immigration lies over a century of historical U.S. intervention that politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle seem determined to silence. Since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 declared the U.S.’s right to exercise an “international police power” in Latin America, the U.S. has cut deep wounds and left deeper scars throughout the region. These wounds are inextricable from the contemporary crisis of internal and international displacement and migration in the region.

Read the full article.

34) Hungary law bans helping migrants

BBC News

The Hungarian parliament has passed new legislation that criminalises lawyers and activists who help asylum seekers.

Read the full article.

35) 'Disgusting': 72% of Alberta inmates haven't been convicted of crimes — the highest proportion in Canada

Jonny Wakefield, The Edmonton Journal

Seven out of every 10 people behind bars in Alberta haven’t been convicted of their alleged crime, a statistic the head of a local prisoner advocacy group called “disgusting.”

Read the full article.

36) Three Tulsa schools don’t want to commemorate America’s racist past anymore

Christianna Silva, Vice News

Three schools in Tulsa decided to change their names from honoring a slave owner, a Confederate general, and Christopher Columbus to instead highlight positive reflections of America’s past.

Read the full article.

37) Anti-fascist lessons from Republican Spain

Jim Jump, The Morning Star

As the 80th anniversary of the decisive Spanish civil war battle of Ebro approaches, JIM JUMP recalls the heroism of the International Brigade and how European governments aided and abetted the victory of fascism.

Read the full article.

38) Jagmeet Singh Says NDP Won’t Bail On Canada-Israel Group, Despite Pressure

Althia Raj, The Huffington Post

The federal NDP says it has no plans to withdraw from the Canada-Israel interparliamentary group despite vocal concerns from some of its party members.

Read the full article.

Please note that this was in response to the Open Letter: A call for the NDP to withdraw from the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group that was published on The Left Chapter among other forums. 

39) Overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons persists amid drop in overall incarceration

Emma McIntosh and Alex McKeen, The Toronto Star

The population of people behind bars in Canada, overall on the decline, continues to include a massive overrepresentation of Indigenous inmates, according to newly released government data.

Read the full article.

40) As 'Wealthiest and Freest Country in the World,' Nikki Haley Tells Bernie Sanders It's 'Ridiculous' to Examine US Poverty

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

"As it happens, I personally believe that it is totally appropriate for the U.N. Special Rapporteur to focus on poverty in the United States," Sanders responded.

Read the full article.

41) Children's teeth are paying the price for the cancellation of fluoridation in Calgary

June Dabbagh, Leagh Harfield, Wendy Street-Wadey and Juliet Guichon, The Calgary Herald

As the school year draws to an end, it is time to consider how Calgary has been treating its children lately. In one respect, the answer is not well at all.

Read the full article.

42) CANADIAN DELEGATES ATTEND MARX CONFERENCE IN CHINA

Elizabeth Rowley, People's Voice

In late May, the Communist Party of China invited other Communist, workers’ and left parties from around the world to an important event marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx. About 70 delegates from 50 parties attended a theoretical conference held on May 29 in the southern city of Shenzhen, on “The Historical Contribution of Karl Marx and the Contemporary Significance of Marxism.”

Read the full article.

43) Fraser Institute Bombards Ontario With Ads Falsely Portraying Minimum Wage Workers as Teenagers

Press Progress

As Premier-designate Doug Ford prepares to roll back Ontario’s minimum wage, the Fraser Institute is blanketing social media with misleading ads that falsely portray minimum wage workers as teenagers.

Read the full article.

44) Extreme Inequality Creates Global Disorder

James K. Galbraith, The Nation

The principal driver of global inequality—both within and between countries—is the global financial regime. This has been a feature since the end of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, with recurrent catastrophic effects following the onset of the 1980s debt crisis, including the collapse of the socialist nations and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Back then, it was a conservative stroke of genius to institutionalize “market exchange rates” on a global scale. Those markets work well enough for rich nations, but they guarantee problems for everyone else. Each exchange crisis has wiped out a decade or more of progress against inequality, as anyone in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, or much of Africa will tell you. The rise of China, on the other hand, has everything to do with its refusal to play the game of open capital markets. And while inequality in China rose rapidly for internal reasons beginning in the 1990s, it stabilized more than a decade ago.

Read the full article.

45) Trump flips on North Korea, declaring country still an 'extraordinary threat'

The Guardian

Donald Trump has declared that North Korea still poses an “extraordinary threat” to the United States, just days after saying that the country’s nuclear program no longer constituted a danger.

Read the full article.

46) Why Canadians Don’t Care About the Air India Bombing

Chandrima Chakraborty, The Tyee

I have no personal connection to the tragedy, but our country’s broad indifference to it came to me as a surprise. A course I was teaching at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., 25 years or more after the bombing, called for a section on Air India Flight 182, but when I went to look up the scholarly research, I was astonished by how little there was.

Read the full article.

47) The age of patriarchy: how an unfashionable idea became a rallying cry for feminism today

Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian

On 7 January this year, the alt-right insurgent Steve Bannon turned on his TV in Washington DC to watch the Golden Globes. The mood of the event was sombre. It was the immediate aftermath of multiple accusations of rape and sexual assault against film producer Harvey Weinstein, which he has denied. The women, whose outfits would normally have been elaborate and the subject of frantic scrutiny, wore plain and sober black. In the course of a passionate speech, Oprah Winfrey told the audience that “brutally powerful men” had “broken” something in the culture. These men had caused women to suffer: not only actors, but domestic workers, factory workers, agricultural workers, athletes, soldiers and academics. The fight against this broken culture, she said, transcended “geography, race, religion, politics and workplace”.

Read the full article.

48) Canadian winemaker Norman Hardie accused of sexual misconduct

Ann Hui and Ivy Knight, The Globe and Mail

A Globe and Mail investigation reveals a wide-ranging pattern of alleged sexual advances and sexual harassment by Hardie, a major player in Canada’s food and wine industry.

Read the full article.

49) Eurydice Dixon: how one woman’s death put focus on ‘male rage’ in Australia

Gay Alcorn, The Guardian

The alleged rape and murder of a comedian has sparked anger about attitudes to women.

Read the full article.

50) 'Not as ironic as I imagined': the incels spokesman on why he is renouncing them

Justin Ling, The Guardian

In the wake of the Toronto van murders, Jack Peterson was the most prominent defender of the anti-feminist ‘incels’ – until the community turned on him.

Read the full article.

51) Trump’s Military Drops a Bomb Every 12 Minutes, and No One Is Talking About It

Lee Camp, TruthDig

We live in a state of perpetual war, and we never feel it. While you get your gelato at the hip place where they put those cute little mint leaves on the side, someone is being bombed in your name. While you argue with the 17-year-old at the movie theater who gave you a small popcorn when you paid for a large, someone is being obliterated in your name. While we sleep and eat and make love and shield our eyes on a sunny day, someone’s home, family, life and body are being blown into a thousand pieces in our names.

Read the full article.

52) 'We Don't Know... How Bad It Is': 31-Car Oil Train Derails Into Iowa Floodwaters

Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams

Adding to the mountain of evidence that "oil trains are a disaster for our health, our safety, and our climate"—an argument environmentalists have been making for years—a 31-car freight train derailed in Iowa and started leaking crude oil into floodwaters on Friday morning, forcing evacuations of nearby homes and raising concerns about drinking water contamination.

Read the full article.

See also: Border Separations, North Korea Summit, NAFTA & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List June 10 - 17

Border Separations, North Korea Summit, NAFTA & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List June 10 - 17

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

This list covers the week of  June 10 - 17. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

There are four articles from prior to the period that have been included. They have been integrated into the post.

1) Regime Change from Below: Toppling the Doug Ford Government

Steve D'Arcy, New Socialist 

In the coming weeks, Doug Ford will assume the office of Ontario premier, as predicted by the polls, at the helm of a Conservative majority government. Comprised of hardened reactionaries, inspired by Trump’s formula of repackaging conventional neoliberal austerity with racist ‘wedge’ politics and fake-populist rhetoric, the Ford regime will move quickly to signal its determination to empower big business, weaken labour and social movements, and embolden its most militant core of support on the grassroots Far Right. We can expect the regime to launch a series of rapidfire attacks on the living standards of workers, the Treaty and inherent rights of Indigenous people, and the social and civil rights of women, racialized people, and others.

Read the full article.

2) Denmark swings right on immigration – and Muslims feel besieged

Richard Orange, The Guardian

“It’s a lovely place,” says Jens Kramer, as he gazes across the harbour from his seat outside the wooden shed that serves as Holbæk’s boat club. “But I think people here are becoming more and more hostile to foreigners and I’m not proud of it. It’s not the Holbæk I love.”

Read the full article.

3) Football Against Imperialism: What Celtic FC's Solidarity With Palestine Could Teach the World

Michael Blosser, Telesur

As the 2018 World Cup frenzy starts to take over the news cycle, it is essential that we highlight examples of how the sport has brought people together, such as is the case of Celtic FC and Palestine. Celtic Football Club, a football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, has consistently shown solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

Read the full article.

4) Thousands of Guatemalans Protest President Morales, Demand His Resignation Over Fuego Volcano Crisis

Telesur

Protesters say President Jimmy Morales had lied about emergency funds while the disaster agency failed to evacuate despite warnings.

Read the full article.

5) This is real resistance: Teachers strike back against neoliberal assault on public education

Henry Giroux, Slate

Since Donald Trump’s election in November 2016, there have been few occasions to feel hopeful about politics. But now we are witnessing a proliferation of causes for hope: As the school year ended, thousands of courageous teachers throughout the United States led mass movements of demonstrations, walkouts and strikes. In the age of illiberal democracy and the growing fascism of the Trump administration, the unimaginable has once again become imaginable as teachers, inspired and energized by a dynamic willingness to fight for their rights and the rights of their students, are exercising bold expressions of political power.

Read the full article.

6) Southern mayors defy Italian coalition to offer safe port to migrants

Patrick Wintou, Lorenzo Tondo and Stephanie Kirchgaessner, The Guardian

Mayors across the south of Italy have pledged to defy a move by the new Italian government – an alliance of the far right and populists – to prevent a rescue boat with 629 people on board from docking in the Sicilian capital.

Read the full article.

7) Colombia Elections: Gustavo Petro Just 5.5 Points Behind Ivan Duque as Campaigns End

Telesur

A new opinion poll shows that the center-left candidate Gustavo Petro is climbing in polls for the Colombian presidential elections little by little, now sitting just 5.5 points behind the right-wing candidate Ivan Duque.

Read the full article.

8) Trump’s Travel Ban Has Torn Apart Hundreds of Families

 Kavitha Chekuru, The Nation

Yemeni Americans and other US citizens separated from their relatives await a Supreme Court decision that will determine their families’ futures.

Read the full article.

9) If Trump wants to blow up the world order, who will stop him?

Yanis Varoufakis, The Guardian

As horrified as we may be at Trump’s uncouth antics, it is important to understand the tectonic shifts underpinning them.

Read the full article.

10) The State of Manitoba’s Activist Left

Matthew Brett, Canadian Dimension

The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives under premier Brian Pallister have been implementing harsh austerity since their 2016 landslide victory, imposing emergency room and clinic closures, wage freezes, significant budget cuts, job cuts, harsh anti-labour legislation and more.

Read the full article.

11) Why is the Manitoba Left Struggling?

Matthew Brett, Canadian Dimension

The activist left in Manitoba is weak and on the defensive while the Progressive Conservative government continues to implement its regressive policy agenda pushing austerity in the province.

Read the full article.

12) “SAVE OUR TIPS,” THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST D.C.’S MINIMUM WAGE HIKE, IS RUN BY A TRUMP CONSULTANT

Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani, The Intercept 

THE RESTAURANT LOBBY IS making a masked pitch to kill Initiative 77, a ballot measure designed to gradually raise the minimum wage in Washington, D.C., for bartenders, waitstaff, and other “tipped” employees, to $15 an hour by 2025.

Read the full article.

13) Supreme Court, in 5–4 Decision, Allows States to Purge Voters for Their Failure to Vote

Mark Joseph Stern, Slate

In a 5–4 decision handed down Monday morning, the Supreme Court ruled that states may purge voters from the rolls due to their failure to cast a ballot. The ruling will disproportionately disenfranchise minorities and veterans as well as low-income and disabled people. Because of this decision, it is now likely that thousands of Americans will show up to the polls in 2018 hoping to cast a ballot—only to be told that they have been purged from the rolls because they skipped the past few elections. It is a nightmare scenario for voting-rights advocates that may affect the outcome of many future elections as well as the 2018 midterm elections in Ohio.

Read the full article.

14) Renationalising railways supported by almost two thirds of Britons, exclusive poll reveals

Lizzy Buchan, The Independent 

An overwhelming majority of the public would support renationalising the railways amid cancellations, delays and complaints of poor service from private rail operators, a new poll reveals.

Read the full article.

15) Colombia's Petro Has New Campaign Logo: Superhero Worker Bee

Telesur

Petro's supporters create a new logo for their candidate after former president Alvaro Uribe accuses him of staging a bee attack on a Duque rally.

Read the full article.

16) It’s Time for Americans to Reckon With the True History of Racial Oppression in This Country

Collier Meyerson, The Nation

In “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America,” Jeffery Robinson aims to help us do just that.

Read the full article.

17) Do Democrats Want a War With North Korea?

Branko Marcetic, Jacobin

Just a year ago, liberals were terrified of Trump starting a war with North Korea. Now they seem scared he might defuse the standoff with Pyongyang.

Read the full article.

18) The North Korea Summit Through the Looking Glass

Branko Marcetic, Jacobin

As much of the world celebrates a modest step towards peace in Korea, Western pundits seem to be panicking.

Read the full article.

19) Liberals Are Criticizing the Korea Summit From the Right. Here’s Why They Have it All Wrong.

Sarah Lazare, In These Times

With an end to the 68-year Korean War finally in sight, some U.S. “progressives” are pushing Trump to be more hardline–despite the fact that Koreans overwhelmingly want peace.

Read the full article.

20) Donald Trump was right. The rest of the G7 were wrong

George Monbiot, The Guardian 

He gets almost everything wrong. But last weekend Donald Trump got something right. To the horror of the other leaders of the rich world, he defended democracy against its detractors. Perhaps predictably, he has been universally condemned for it.

Read the full article.

21) TRUMP’S TANTRUM MAKES OUR POINT

People's Voice

Elsewhere on these pages, Communist Party of Canada leader Liz Rowley argues that “the US government has held Canada hostage to its unilateral and one-sided trade policies for long enough.” Those words were written before Donald Trump signed the G7 Summit declaration, and then tore up the same agreement minutes after departing for his Singapore meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.

Read the full article.

22) Homeless man applied for social housing but died before he completed the process, inquest hears

Mary Ormsby, The Toronto Star

Grant Faulkner took formal steps to end his homelessness by applying for social housing — which has a waiting list of 80,000 to 90,000 households looking for affordable places to live in Toronto — three months before his fiery death in a Scarborough field.

Read the full article.

23) Ukraine: Paramilitaries broadcast live pogrom against Roma on Facebook, the fourth in the last six weeks

Romea 


Radio Free Europe reports that axes and hammers were used on 7 June by neo-Nazis from the Azov National Militia to perpetrate yet another assault on Romani people in Ukraine. Their entire 7 June pogrom in Holosiyivskiy Park in Kyiv was broadcast live by them on Facebook without police ever intervening.

Read the full article.

24) Beyond the restitution of Lula’s rights as a former President

Granma

The most recent ruling by Judge André Nabarrete indicated that former Brazilian heads of state are awarded “rights and prerogatives in consonance with the assumption of the Republic’s highest office, and have no legal limitations”

Read the full article.

25) Colten Boushie’s mother says racism is on full display in Saskatchewan

The Canadian Press

The mother of Colten Boushie who was shot and killed on a Saskatchewan farm says racism is on full display in the province every day.

Read the full article.

26) Sadr welcomes return of Iraqi Jews

Saad Salloum, Al-Monitor 

In a bold move, Iraq’s Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr spoke in favor of the return of the Jews who were evicted from the country half a century ago. Sadr responded to a question posed by one of his followers June 2 on whether Iraqi Jews have a right to return after having been forcibly displaced due to previous Iraqi policies, noting that they used to own properties and were part of the Iraqi community. He said, "If their loyalty was to Iraq, they are welcome." His answer was taken as tantamount to a religious edict, or fatwa.

Read the full article.

27) VIDEO: SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL REPEALS AMAZON TAX

Socialist Alternative

Today, on short notice, the corporate politicians on the Seattle City Council voted to repeal the Amazon Tax on big business that would fund affordable housing. Below are speeches by Councilmember Kshama Sawant, a member of Socialist Alternative, as well as a brief video of the vote itself being protested.

Read the full article.

28) Peter Stringfellow’s version of ‘choice’ feminism is a gross perversion of feminist theory

Jo Bartosch, The Morning Star

As a feminist who has campaigned against the sex industry for some years, I find the facile championing of choice a gross bastardisation of feminist theory.

Read the full article.

29) Thawing permafrost a ticking time bomb 

Caitlin Keogh, Red Flag

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott last year told an audience at the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation, a think tank for climate change sceptics, that the “so-called settled science of climate change [is] absolute crap”.

Read the full article.

30) Canadian citizen held for months after border agents dismiss papers as fake

Leyland Cecco, The Guardian 

A Canadian man is suing the country’s government after he was arrested by border agents and detained for eight months – despite producing evidence of his citizenship.

Read the full article.

31) Argentina congress takes historic step towards legalising abortion

Uki Goni, The Guardian

The lower house of Argentina’s congress has narrowly approved a bill that would legalise abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, in a historic victory for the country’s growing women’s movement.

Read the full article.

32) The Wounds of the Drone Warrior

Eyal Press, The New York Times

In the spring of 2006, Christopher Aaron started working 12-hour shifts in a windowless room at the Counterterrorism Airborne Analysis Center in Langley, Va. He sat before a wall of flat-screen monitors that beamed live, classified video feeds from drones hovering in distant war zones. On some days, Aaron discovered, little of interest appeared on the screens, either because a blanket of clouds obscured visibility or because what was visible — goats grazing on an Afghan hillside, for instance — was mundane, even serene. Other times, what unspooled before Aaron’s eyes was jarringly intimate: coffins being carried through the streets after drone strikes; a man squatting in a field to defecate after a meal (the excrement generated a heat signature that glowed on infrared); an imam speaking to a group of 15 young boys in the courtyard of his madrasa. If a Hellfire missile killed the target, it occurred to Aaron as he stared at the screen, everything the imam might have told his pupils about America’s war with their faith would be confirmed.

Read the full article.

33) Hundreds of Israelis Demonstrate Against Home Sale to Arab Family

Noa Shpigel, Haaretz

About 150 residents of the northern city of Afula demonstrated on Wednesday afternoon against the sale of a house to an Arab family. Protesters waved Israeli flags and carried signs condemning the sale and the homeowners who sold their house to Arabs, one of which read: "Traitors against the Jews will get no rest."

Read the full article.

34) Special Report: In the Streets with the New Poor People’s Campaign Against Racism and Poverty

Democracy Now

Demonstrators descended on Washington Monday in the latest protest staged by the new Poor People’s Campaign, which organizers say is the most expansive wave of nonviolent direct action in the U.S. this century. Campaign organizers Reverends William Barber and Liz Theoharis and around 100 others were arrested for protesting a Supreme Court ruling that dealt a major setback to voting rights by upholding Ohio’s controversial voter purge law. At least 300 people were arrested nationwide. Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested around the country since the campaign launched, 50 years after Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the first Poor People’s Campaign. Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Carla Wills were in the streets of Washington, D.C., covering the action.

Read the full article.

35) Public-Private Partnerships Inflated Costs to Taxpayers, Says Report

 Andrew MacLeod, The Tyee

The British Columbia government should consider dissolving the agency responsible for public-private partnerships, concludes the author of a new report.

Read the full article.

36) Israel is about to destroy this Palestinian village. Will Britain step in?

David Zonsheine, The Guardian

Israel is intent on destroying the homes of the 173 Palestinians who live in the small shepherding community of Khan al-Ahmar, along with the school that serves 150 children from the area. Last month, Israel’s high court of justice removed the last obstacle to this barbaric act of demolishing an entire community in order to forcibly transfer its residents and take over their land. Israel has announced that the land from which these Palestinians will be evicted will serve to expand the nearby settlement of Kfar Adumim.

Read the full article.

37) Trinity Western loses fight for Christian law school as court rules limits on religious freedom 'reasonable'

Kathleen Harris · CBC News

A B.C.-based evangelical Christian university has lost its legal battle over accreditation for a planned new law school, with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling today saying it's "proportionate and reasonable" to limit religious rights in order to ensure open access for LGBT students.

Read the full article.

38) It’s All Too Much, and We Still Have to Care

Dahlia Lithwick, Slate

What’s going on at the border is horrifying, but we can’t go numb and turn away.

Read the full article.

39) Rob Rogers, cartoonist who clashed with Post-Gazette editors, says he's been fired

CBS News

A longtime newspaper cartoonist who says his work has been banished from the editorial page lately because of "political differences" with his editors says he's been fired. Rob Rogers tweeted Thursday he's been fired after 25 years as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's editorial cartoonist.

Read the full article.

40) Pro-Trump Conservative MP: Mexican Criminals Will Invade Canada If Marijuana is Legalized

Press Progress

Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu worries that legalizing marijuana will somehow cause Mexican criminals to flood across the Canadian border.

Read the full article.

41) Nearly 2,000 Children Have Been Taken From Adults At The US Border Since April, The DHS Says

Adolfo Flores, BuzzFeed News

Nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their families following the Trump administration's decision to prosecute every adult caught crossing into the US illegally.

Read the full article.

42) Young comedian's killing shocks Australia

BBC News

Comedians and the public have inundated social media with tributes to Ms Dixon, in a case that has reignited local debate about violence against women.

Read the full article.

See also: Doug Ford Wins, Anthem Protests, Donald Trump & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List June 3 - 10

Nicolas Maduro Wins, Ireland Votes to Repeal the 8th, the Ontario Election & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List May 20-27

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


This list covers the week of  May 20 - 27. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

There are two articles from prior to the period included. They have been integrated into the post.

1) Venezuela: After Victory, Maduro Calls for Lasting Dialogue

Telesur

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called for a lasting dialogue with all the country's opposition parties and for citizens to leave behind the strife and make way for reconciliation with all sectors of the country.

Read the full article.

2) Brazil's Left Congratulates Maduro, Denounces US, Lima Group

Telesur

Brazil’s Workers' Party (PT) and its Communist Party of Brazil congratulated Maduro and slammed the U.S. and Lima Group for inciting government overthrows like Temer did.

Read the full article.

3) Maduro Declares Top US Diplomat 'Persona Non Grata,' Gives Him 48 Hours to Leave

Telesur

Maduro,  in rejection of Washington's interventionist policies, has given Chargé d'Affaires Todd Robinson 48 hours to leave Venezuela.

Read the full article.

4) Ten attempts to destabilize the recently re-elected Venezuelan government

 Iramsy Peraza Forte, Granma

While thousands of people gathered around Miraflores Presidential Palace to greet the re-election of President Nicolás Maduro, opposition sectors, the United States, the European Union and the Latin American right launched a predictable destabilization plan against the most recent democratic electoral process undertaken on Sunday, May 20, in Venezuela.

Read the full article.

5) The United States’ Hand in Undermining Democracy in Venezuela

Alexander Main, Canadian Dimension

The Trump administration’s foreign policy toward Venezuela includes supporting a boycott of Sunday’s elections in Venezuela, hinting at the possibility of a coup, and enacting harmful economic sanctions, with consequences for democracy in the country beset by poverty and unrest.

Read the full article.

6) Palestinian Liberation Group Congratulates President Maduro

Telesur

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said, they will "never forget" support they received from the Venezuelan government.

Read the full article.

7) 'World is Not Trump's Estate': Bolivia's Evo Morales Condemns US Sanctions on Venezuela

Telesur

"We condemn the unilateral decision that imposes a new economic blockade to suffocate the Venezuelan people, in retaliation for having defeated the coup, boycott against President Nicolas Maduro democratically. Trump must understand that the world is not his estate," Morales said in a tweet posted late Monday.

Read the full article.

8) New bill will give ultra-secret spy agency extensive powers

Yves Engler, Canadian Dimension

The Trudeau government is seeking to empower an influential, if little-known, arm of Canadian imperialism.

Read the full article.

9) Pro-war pundits on US airwaves

Various Contributors, Al Jazeera

In 2008, the New York Times revealed a secret Pentagon programme which trained and briefed former military generals to push pro-Pentagon talking points to a compliant news media. Today, former military personnel are still regular contributors on every major cable news network despite some of them being the very same figures who pushed for the Iraq war.

Read the full article.

10) Death in the sun: Australia's 88-day law leaves backpackers exploited and exposed

Anne Davies, The Guardian

The 2017 death of Olivier Caramin joins a growing list of problems backpackers can face in rural jobs, including rape, harassment and underpayment.

Read the full article.

11) Supreme Court Decision Delivers Blow To Workers' Rights

Nina Totenberg, NPR

In a case involving the rights of tens of millions of private sector employees, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, delivered a major blow to workers, ruling for the first time that workers may not band together to challenge violations of federal labor laws.

Read the full article.

12) Bosses win, workers lose in High Court arbitration ruling

Mark Gruenberg, People's World

Bosses won and workers – especially non-union workers – lost when the 5-man GOP-named majority on the U.S. Supreme Court ruled mandatory arbitration trumps workers’ rights.

Read the full article.

13) 'Who are you?' Iran hits back at US demands

Al Jazeera

President Rouhani rejects US demands while Iran's foreign minister dismisses Pompeo's conditions as 'sham' diplomacy.

Read the full article.

14) No Plan B: New US demands on Iran 'set stage for war'

 Zaheena Rasheed, Al Jazeera

New Iran strategy harks back to decades of failed US policy and raises spectre of conflict in Middle East, critics say.

Read the full article.

15) Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals – study

Damian Carrington, The Guardian

The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things, according to the study. Yet since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants, while livestock kept by humans abounds.

Read the full article.

16) Facing the Past in Montgomery: Beyond the Nakba to historical justice

 Sandra Tamari, Mondoweiss

Rain had fallen the night before in Montgomery, Alabama. We had traveled there to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, an ambitious project by the Equal Justice Initiative to give witness to formerly enslaved Black people terrorized by lynching in the South.  By the time we made our way to the newly landscaped memorial site, a brilliant sun and clear skies were heating the earth. We entered the solemn space, heavy with mourning for the over 4,400 people who were executed simply because they were Black. The memorial is composed of hundreds of steel monuments. As we made our way through the memorial, we recognized a hauntingly familiar scent. Steel, as it rusts, smells like blood.

Read the full article.

17) Benefit sanctions found to be ineffective and damaging

Patrick Butler, The Guardian

Benefit sanctions are ineffective at getting jobless people into work and are more likely to reduce those affected to poverty, ill-health or even survival crime, the UK’s most extensive study of welfare conditionality has found.

Read the full article.

18) 'Be realistic, demand the impossible!'

C J Polychroniou, Al Jazeera

This week, 50 years ago, France was going through the biggest labour strike in its history. Two-thirds of its labour force were out in the streets demanding better working conditions. Workers had taken control of factories, set up barricades, organised sit-ins and fought off attempts by the police to disperse them. Thousands of students who had rebelled against conservative university administrations had also joined them.

Read the full article.

19) Ontario election campaign brings focus on nearly 2 million people living in poverty

Laurie Monsebraaten, The Toronto Star

As Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne, Green party Leader Mike Schreiner and representatives from the Progressive Conservatives and NDP watched from the front row, Lawless and other anti-poverty activists called on all parties to make Ontario a fair and equitable place where everyone belongs.

Read the full article.

20) Austria cracks down on far-right Identitarian Movement

Patrick Strickland, Al Jazeera

A slew of charges against several members of the far-right Identitarian Movement in Austria could be a "major blow" to the organisation's ability to mobilise, experts and analysts say.

Read the full article.

21) Indigenous and female: Idaho gubernatorial candidate Paulette Jordan making history

Mark Maxey, People's World

A fierce sense of urgency prompted Paulette Jordan to run for governor of Idaho. Her brazen approach worked with her Democratic primary run last Tuesday, May 15th. It will be a first on two levels if she wins in November—as a female governor and as an Indigenous tribal member. Jordan belongs to the Schitsu’umsh, Coeur d’Alene Nation. Schitsu’umsh translates to “Those who were found here.”

Read the full article. 

22) Almost half of Toronto tenants paying ‘unaffordable’ rent, study finds

Emily Mathieu, The Toronto Star

Almost half of Toronto tenants are paying too much in rent and are one health emergency or lost job away from losing their homes, in a city where rental rules favour profits over people, according to a new study.

Read the full article.

23) PROSECUTORS WITHHELD EVIDENCE THAT COULD EXONERATE J20 INAUGURATION PROTESTERS, JUDGE RULES

Sam Adler-Bell, The Intercept

CHIEF JUDGE Robert E. Morin of the D.C. Superior Court found on Wednesday that federal prosecutors suppressed potentially exculpatory evidence against six Inauguration Day protesters. In a motion filed late last night, attorneys for the defendants accused the government of withholding evidence that could have exonerated their clients — a serious violation of pretrial discovery rules. Attorneys allege that the state withheld evidence by editing a video of a protest planning meeting. Defense attorneys called on the court to sanction Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff for “blatant hiding of evidence” and requested that the indictment against their clients be dismissed.

Read the full article.

24) Kaepernick Effect: NFL Bans Players From Kneeling During Anthem

Telesur

The owners of NFL teams agreed on a new policy banning players from kneeling down when the national anthem is played, directly aiming at protests against police brutality and racism that were the center of national debate in 2016 after former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick kicked off the peaceful protest.

Read the full article.

25) NFL’s new anthem policy shows what a gutless lot its owners are

Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star

“Winning,” tweeted U.S. vice-president Mike Pence on Wednesday, with an emoji of the American flag, soon after the National Football League owners stooped just low enough to brown their noses.

Read the full article.

26) Free public transport is launched across Estonia

Euronews

Estonia is set to implement free transport for its residents across much of the country as of July 1. The free fare zone will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Read the full article.

27) DEEP IN TRUMP COUNTRY, A DEMOCRATIC POPULIST IS FACING OFF AGAINST A COUNTRY CLUB REPUBLICAN

Lee Fang, The Intercept

A BIG PART of Carol Miller’s campaign to represent West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District in Washington was to present herself to voters as carbon copy of President Donald Trump. A senior state-level lawmaker, Miller spent big on television spots declaring her loyalty to the president and repeating his campaign promises to build a wall and cut foreign aid — now cast as part of Miller’s “America first” principles. The pro-Trump rhetoric helped Miller clinch the May 8 primary for the congressional seat, emerging victorious from a field of seven candidates by a slim 1,616-vote margin.

Read the full article.

28) Indian police accused of killing at least 11 protesters

 Zeenat Saberin, Al Jazeera

Rights groups and residents demanded an investigation after police in southern India opened fire and killed at least 11 people during a protest over alleged environmental pollution by a UK-owned copper smelter.

Read the full article.

29) Israel detains Palestinian teen with severe head injury, again

Jaclynn Ashly, Mondoweiss

As Mohammad Tamimi, 15, walked to the market near his home in the occupied West Bank village of Nabi Saleh Sunday morning, he passed by a new white Hyundai.

Read the full article.

30) The plight of farm workers in Canada

Lois Ross, Rabble

The days are long, and the physical work can be heavy and exhausting. Often, particularly on smaller family farms, the monetary rewards are nowhere near what a regular urban salary provides.

Read the full article.

31) Abrams wins in Georgia; could be first black female governor

John Wojcik, People's World

Stacey Abrams, a declared supporter of the national resistance to Trump, handily defeated Stacey Evans in Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial primary yesterday. Abrams, considered the “insurgent” candidate, will make history in November if she becomes the nation’s first black female governor and Georgia’s first woman governor.

Read the full article.

32) Ontario PC candidate Andrew Lawton: gender and racial discrimination should be legal

Press Progress

"I think if someone wants to open a business and only hire people of one race...I think they should have that right."

Read the full article.

33) Landmark study reveals ‘clear evidence’ of mercury’s toll on health in Grassy Narrows

Jayme Poisson & David Bruser, The Toronto Star

More than four decades after mercury was dumped upstream from Grassy Narrows First Nation, the physical and mental health of the people there is by many key measures “considerably worse” than that of other First Nations in Canada, according to a landmark new government-funded survey.

Read the full article.

34) Liberals claim Ford participated in 'bogus' membership sales, intimidated a PC nominee

City News

The Ontario Liberal party alleges that audio it says it obtained and verified shows Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford broke election rules by participating in “bogus” membership sales for his party’s nomination in Etobicoke Centre in 2016.

Read the full article.

35) Talk to Deliveroo couriers. See a dystopia that could be your future

Owen Jones, The Guardian

A Black Mirror existence: that’s how trade unionist Mags Dewhurst describes working as a rider for Deliveroo, the pre-eminent online food-delivery company. Here is a story of workers branded as entrepreneurs, which has the effect of stripping away their rights; of a race to the bottom in terms and conditions; of being managed by algorithms and apps. I sit with five Deliveroo couriers in the headquarters of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), a union that has successfully fought for particularly low-paid migrant workers. They are currently classed as self-employed independent contractors, or cycling micro-businesses, and therefore lack rights all workers should be able to take for granted: the minimum wage, paid holidays, pensions, protection from discrimination, and trade union rights.

Read the full article.

36) Workers ready to shut down entire Vegas strip

Mark Gruenberg, People's World

Las Vegas casino owners’ threats to subcontract or automate thousands of workers’ jobs – among other issues — forced the workers, employed by Unite Here Locals 226 and 165, to vote almost unanimously to authorize a strike if bargainers fail to agree on a new pact by June 1.

Read the full article.

37) Elon Musk Blasts Labor Unions: They 'Destroyed Once Great US Auto Industry'

Sahid Fawaz, Labor 411

Tesla's CEO is on a rampage against labor unions as he fights to keep workers from organizing.

Read the full article.

38) Haifa activists vow to continue protests following ‘brutal’ police crackdown

Jaclynn Ashly, Mondoweiss

Enraged and saddened by images from Gaza last week, when the Israeli military killed at least 62 people in a single day, Palestinian citizens of Israel protested on Friday in the coastal city of Haifa to demand an end to Israeli violence and the more than decade-long siege that has strangled Gaza into a humanitarian crisis.

Read the full article.

39) Brazil Comes to Halt as Truck Drivers Strike for 4th Day

Telesur

Truck drivers in Brazil have entered their fourth day of strike, blocking major highways in at least 24 states, including the Federal District. The move comes despite Petrobras, the state-owned oil company, temporarily cutting diesel prices by 10 percent on Wednesday in an attemp to curb the protests.

Read the full article.

40) The failed Trump-Kim summit: the story of a trainwreck foretold

Julian Borger, The Guardian

The short, turbulent history of the Trump-Kim summit, from its surprise announcement in March to its abrupt cancellation on Thursday, is the chronicle of a trainwreck foretold.

Read the full article.

41) North and South Korean leaders meet as US indicates summit may yet happen

Benjamin Haas and Lauren Gambino, The Guardian

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, met his South Korean counterpart on Saturday, two days after Donald Trump cancelled a planned summit with Kim.

Read the full article.

42) Carleton PC candidate says she doesn't believe climate change is man-made

Matthew Kupfer · CBC News

The Ontario PC candidate for Carleton said she doesn't believe climate change is man-made at an all-candidates forum in the south Ottawa community of Greely Wednesday night.

Read the full article.

43) The electoral system is designed to serve the powers that be

Nicolas Lalaguna, The Morning Star

Those who seek radical change must be aware that the ruling class that has used violence and coercion to control the working people of Britain for centuries.

Read the full article.

44) Donald Trump’s Words Are a Green Light to Dictators and Torturers Around the World

Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept

DONALD TRUMP’S WORDS are no laughing matter. They get people in faraway countries tortured, raped, and killed.

Read the full article.

45) Unjust US blockade cost Cuba over $130 billion

Michael Kowalchuk, Liberation

In a stunning vindication of the Cuban government’s assertions that the Cuban economy has been drastically distorted due to the aggressive foreign policy of the United States, the head of a UN agency visiting the island confirmed that the U.S. blockade of Cuba has cost the country over $130 billion in the past 56 years.

Read the full article.

46) Letter from the Co-Chairs of the Danforth Jewish Circle, Multifaith Committee about NDP candidate Tasleem Raiz

Medium

As Jews, we believe that allegations of Anti-Semitism and hate against any group should be taken very seriously. In this case, the accusations against Tasleem are a dishonest distraction being spread for political reasons. We do not know what caused this photo to be shared on her Facebook profile, although false information has certainly been spread on the internet and social media before. We certainly do know Tasleem Riaz’s true character: she is a woman of integrity, compassion, and respect for all faiths and cultures.

Read the full article.

47) Marxism: More relevant than ever

John Bachtell, People's World

Communist Party USA leader John Bachtell will address the international conference “Marxism of the 21st Century and the Future of World Socialism,” sponsored by the Communist Party of China on May 28 in Shenzhen. This is the text of his remarks, as prepared for presentation.

Read the full article.

48) The Social Shaming of Racists Is Working

Laila Lalami, The Nation

Now, when white people assert private authority over public space, there’s a cost.

Read the full article.

49) U.S. LAW CUTTING AID TO PALESTINIANS PUNISHES ANY AND ALL RESISTANCE TO ISRAELI OCCUPATION

Henriette Chacar, The Intercept

BASHAR MASALHA LAY subdued on a strip of grass along the beachfront promenade of Jaffa, Israel, the ancient Mediterranean port that was swallowed up by the development of Tel Aviv. The injured Masalha was under the gun of an Israeli volunteer police officer. Onlookers cheered the officer on, urging him to shoot Masalha in the head. Seconds later, shots rang out. Masalha was dead. Some bystanders congratulated the officer, but one yelled, “Stop it! He’s lying there neutralized, why shoot for no reason?”

Read the full article.

50) The women of Kurdistan stand in solidarity with the women of Ireland – and call for a Yes vote to Repeal the 8th

Rosa Gilbert, The Morning Star

AS Ireland prepares for its referendum tomorrow on the constitutional amendment prohibiting free, safe, legal abortion, women and health workers in Rojava have expressed their solidarity with Irish women’s right to choose.

Read the full article.

51) Ireland has changed utterly: the cruel eighth amendment is history

Ivana Bacik, The Guardian

Ireland has spoken – and we have made history. The clause inserted into our constitution in 1983 that bestowed on the “unborn” a right to life equal to that of a pregnant woman can at last be removed. Exit polls project and official results are expected to confirm later on Saturday that the referendum to repeal the eighth amendment has been passed by a resounding majority.

Read the full article.

52) TRUMP’S GAG RULE WOULD PRESSURE MEDICAL PROVIDERS TO WITHHOLD INFORMATION ON ABORTION AND BIRTH CONTROL

Jordan Smith, The Intercept

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION launched its latest attack on women’s rights this week, introducing a so-called domestic gag rule for providers that receive Title X family planning funding. The rule would encourage providers to withhold potentially life-saving medical information from their patients and bar them from referring patients to an abortion provider. It also seeks to cut the single largest provider of Title X services, Planned Parenthood, from participating in the program altogether.

Read the full article.

53) Venezuela: 'Colombia Joining NATO A Threat To Regional Peace'

Telesur

Venezuela has rejected the announcement by Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos that his country will be entering the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a "global partner."

Read the full article.

54) CP Rail union formally serves strike notice

CBC/Radio-Canada

Union members representing Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd's conductors, locomotive engineers and communications employees have served a notice to strike as early as May 29, according to a union statement released on Saturday.

Read the full article.

55) Colombia: Can leftist Gustavo Petro become president?

Alessandro Rampietti, Al Jazeera

Even if he doesn't become Colombia's first-ever leftist president, Gustavo Petro has already made history by managing to arrive alive at Sunday's vote.

Read the full article.

See also: Gaza Massacre, Trump Pulls Out of Iran Deal, Venezuela & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List May 13-20