Israeli Election, Democratic Primaries, the Coronavirus & more -- The Week in News and Opinion March 1 - 8

A supporter wearing a Netanyahu mask on election night in Israel

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  March 1 - 8.

The round-up of international left news is presented in sections related to topic/region listed alphabetically except for the Featured Article post at the start.

Featured Article:

Police union says cops can’t do their job without beating up Black people

The police have shown us who they are, if we ever had any doubts. They are not interested in healing from racial profiling, in working with the Black community, or in changing police culture. And they made sure to leak this email so that the public knows it. If our officials continue to refuse to hold the police accountable while giving them more and more resources to be used in their “job” of unchecked violence against us, then they are also letting us know who they are.


This email lays it all bare. It is past time to do something about it.

Brazil:

- Brazil: Left-Wing Parties Unite Against Bolsonaro's Gov't

- Brazil: Protest in Sao Paulo Against Pension Reform

Canada:

- How the Trudeau government is failing the world's most vulnerable despite its 'feminist' aid policy

- Women, children turned away from shelters in Canada almost 19,000 times a month

- No compensation for parents of First Nations children that died in care, Justice lawyer tells tribunal

- Doug Ford gives reconciliation the shaft

- ‘Bait and Switch’: Doug Ford’s New Numbers On Special Education Staff Funding Are Not Adding Up

- Ontario backs down on increasing class sizes, e-learning in teacher negotiations

- Haligonians protest police brutality on Halifax Regional Police's doorstep

- Sask. RCMP member under investigation after post joking about machine-gunning protesters

- RCMP denied using facial recognition technology - then said it had been using it for months

- Alberta government to close, privatize campgrounds

- Challenging Alberta’s Austerity

- Buffalo Declaration a 'clear display of ignorance,' says Alberta treaty nation

- Foodora couriers are now dependent contractors—that's a problem for Big Tech

Chile:

- 'Our role is central': more than 1m Chilean women to march in huge protest

- Chile: Total Arrests Rise to 283 After Day of Protests

Climate Emergency:

- The Earth System and the capitalist system are incompatible

- Tropical forests losing their ability to absorb carbon, study finds

- 'Devastating': Great Barrier Reef in Danger of Catastrophic Bleaching as Temperatures in Australia Remain High

- FOSSIL CORALS SUGGEST A MASS EXTINCTION IS ON THE WAY: 'IT'S LIKE A SLOW-MOTION CAR CRASH'

Colombia:


Scenes from Colombia where student protesters clashed with the riot police.

Students took to the streets to resist neoliberal education policies and violent police repression of protests by Ivan Duque's right-wing government.



Coronavirus:

- Coronavirus Alarm Blends Yellow Peril and Red Scare

- Exclusive: The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing

- The Official Coronavirus Numbers Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It

- America is about to get a godawful lesson in why health care should never be a for-profit business

Democratic Primary:

- 'What More Do You Need to Know?' Health Insurance Stocks Drive Wall Street Rebound on Biden Super Tuesday Wins

- The Case Against Joe Biden: Former VP’s Long Career Shows a Recurring Theme of “Appeasing the Right”

- Elizabeth Warren ends Democratic presidential campaign

- Mike Bloomberg quits 2020 race after spending more than $500m

- Super Tuesday fury as ‘thousands of voters’ in black and Latino neighbourhoods forced to queue for hours in Texas

- #WithTheseHands is Sanders' Super Tuesday, inspiring shot across the bow of American politics

- There Have Been 21 Debate Questions About Paying For Social Programs, Zero About Paying For War

Europe:

- Luxembourg becomes first country in world to provide free public transport

- Ukrainian communists warn Kiev planning a year of glorifying nazis

- VIKTOR ORBAN'S ANTI-ROMA CAMPAIGN IN HUNGARY IS BEING LEGITIMIZED BY TRUMP AND WESTERN LEADERS, ACTIVIST WARNS

Greek-Turkish Refugee Crisis:

- Refugees trapped on Greek-Turkish border attacked from both directions

- EU chief praises Greece as 'shield' of Europe after police attack refugees at border

- Two dead and hundreds more in distress as chaos ensues at Greece-Turkey border

- Refugee boats leaving Turkey for Greece attacked at sea

Guyana:

- No Winner Declared for Guyanese Elections Amid Court Hearing

- Guyana: Electoral Dispute to Continue in Court Amid Discontent

- Guyana: Ruling Party Claims Victory With Contested Data

India:

Delhi riots: Survivors tell their stories


In this ground report, we spoke to families that were displaced due to the mob violence during the anti-Muslim riots in Delhi, India. The families recall their horrifying tales of escaping from their homes as mobs set fire to everything they owned. Nearly 50 people lost their lives and countless people lost their livelihoods during the violence. Neither the Delhi state government or the Indian central government has done much to help these families.




- Inside Delhi: beaten, lynched and burnt alive

- Delhi Violence: India's Communist Party Holds Street March Demanding Top Court-Monitored Probe

International Women's Day / Feminism:

- International Women's Day: events highlighting gender inequality take place around the world

- Why the working-class, socialist history of International Women’s Day matters today

- Photos: Strong Latin American contingents feature at IWD marches across Australia

- 8M: Latin American women prepare for record feminist marches

- Bill Maher Goes Full Sexist, Defends Chris Matthews and Mocks His Sexual Harassment Accuser

- Universal Childcare Would Have Changed My Mom's Life

Israel / Palestine:

- Gazan Girl Fighting Cancer Died After Israel Denied Her Parents' Visit. She Won't Be the Last

- Israel arrests Palestinian man on the day of his release after 18-year sentence

- Israel lobby scores own goal as football charity stands by Ken Loach

- Israel election: Netanyahu begins coalition talks

- Israel Election Results: Netanyahu Reaps the Fruits of a Messianic, Racist and Nationalist Decade

- ‘An Earthquake’: How Israel’s Arabs Achieved Their Historic Election Win

- Celine Dion to perform on ethnically cleansed land

- Anti-Muslim bigots to address AIPAC

Mexico:

- Mexico Vows to End Violence Against Indigenous Women

Poland:

- International Communist and workers' parties rally against rightist persecution in Poland and Europe

- Stop the falsification of history and persecution in Poland!

- Young Communist League protests at Polish embassy over persecution of its comrades

Porn & Prostitution:

- ‘Sex work’: Why we are not buying it

South & Central America:

- Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan Priest, Poet and Revolutionary, Dies at 95

- Remembering the Heroism of Activist Berta Cáceres Four Years After Her Assassination: an Interview With Her Daughter

- Evo Morales: 'We'll Restore the Dignity of the Bolivian People'

- Venezuela: How grassroots solidarity is helping to break the US blockade

United Kingdom:

- Labour leadership: Rebecca Long-Bailey vows to rewrite party’s constitution to enshrine fight against climate emergency

- Sheikh’s daughter called UK police after kidnap, lawyer claims

United States:

- Barricades Go Up In Santa Cruz As UC Wide Wildcat Strike Expands Following Firings

- The 50-year fight by radical evangelicals that could end US abortion rights

- Children as young as eight picked coffee beans on farms supplying Starbucks

- Target raised wages. Then it cut workers' hours and doubled their workload

- Alabama to execute Nathaniel Woods on Thursday despite questions about his culpability in killing of 3 police officers

Wet'suwet'en:

- Solicitor General Mike Farnworth authorized redeploying RCMP resources in response to Coastal GasLink's injunction

- Turns out the BC NDP government authorized the RCMP attack into Wet'suwet'en after all

- Ecosocialists and UBCIC demand Mike Farnworth's resignation for authorizing RCMP's massive show of force

- First Nation deal won’t stop pipeline, Horgan says

- What If We’d Gone Hard for Treaties Instead of Fossil Fuels?

- Groups linked to oil companies funded Facebook ads denouncing the rail blockades

- Mohawks face online threats, hate as protest continues

- The blockades no one talks about devastate Indigenous economies

Zambia:

- Capitalism to blame for chaos in Zambia, says Musumali

Wet'suwet'en, Bolivian Election, the Weinstein Verdict & more -- The Week in News and Opinion February 23 - March 1

This week's list of articles, news items 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  February 23 - March 1.

The round-up of international left news is presented in sections related to topic/region listed alphabetically except for the Featured Article post and a large section Wet'suwet'en Solidarity Actions & News at the start.


Featured Article:

Bolivia dismissed its October elections as fraudulent. Our research found no reason to suspect fraud.

"The media has largely reported the allegations of fraud as fact. And many commentators have justified the coup as a response to electoral fraud by MAS-IPSP. However, as specialists in election integrity, we find that the statistical evidence does not support the claim of fraud in Bolivia’s October election."

Wet'suwet'en Solidarity and News:

- Wet'suwet'en chiefs, ministers reach proposed arrangement in pipeline dispute

- Blockades Aren’t the Crisis. It’s the Crumbling Legitimacy of Canada’s Democracy

- Indigenous civil rights blockades should be met with a new diplomacy, not violence

- Canada Lays Bare the Lie it Calls “Reconciliation”

- 'Reconciliation is dead and it was never really alive': Jesse Wente

- Politicians and Columnists Still Don’t Seem to Get the Wet’suwet’en Crisis, so Let’s Review

- Statement on the Arrest of Documentary Filmmaker Melissa Cox

- Andrew Scheer and Peter MacKay’s throwback to civil-rights-era racial stereotypes

- OPP gave intelligence, identities of Tyendinaga Mohawks to CN Rail without legal challenge

- Blair says RCMP best left to patrol Wet'suwet'en territory, not Kahnawake peacekeepers

- Wet’suwet’en Isn’t Just About a Pipeline, but Keeping Indigenous Women Safe

- London Coastal GasLink protest blocking downtown roads, CP rail, disperses before rush hour

- An Open Letter to “Angry Settlers”

- OPP dismantles Tyendinaga blockade, some demonstrators taken into custody

Kahnawake reinforces barricades after CP injunction granted:


- Kahnawake says it doesn’t recognize injunction issued against Mohawk land defenders

- Quebec premier's claim that protesters have AK-47s at blockade 'reckless,' says Mohawk Council of Kahnawake

- Arrests, travel disruptions as Wet'suwet'en solidarity protests spread across Canada

- 'Urban green left zealots': Kenney announces new law meant to curb rail blockades

- RCMP Pensions Are Invested in Controversial Gas Pipeline Owner

- Indigenous youth group gets death threat over Wet'suwet'en support

- Rise in anti-Indigenous racism and violence seen in wake of Wet'suwet'en protests

- Sticker shock: Decals of train driving through protesters is just a joke, Alberta man says

“Run them over with the train." | Canada’s indigenous peoples read out racist social media posts written about them:




Australia:

- Woolworths wage theft blows out to $315m

- Australian Labor Is Becoming the Party for Coal

Bangladesh:

- Indian citizenship act against humanity: Manoj Bhattacharya

- Parties demand withdrawal of decisions

Bolivia:

- Argentina's Fernandez Defends Evo Morales' Presidential Victory

- Bolivia: Ex-Leader of Indigenous Women Federation Detained

Canada:

- Canada squanders over $1 billion preparing to build ships -- No more bankrolling bloated corporate boondoggles!

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

- Manitoba chiefs exploring Cuban offer to send doctors to First Nations communities

- Canada mining firm accused of slavery abroad can be sued at home, supreme court rules

- Support Ontario midwives in their fight for pay equity

- Teachers change kids' lives: An Open Letter to Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, and Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education

- Foodora couriers win right to join a union in an ‘historic precedent’ for gig economy workers

- Teck’s Oilsands Mine: The Case Kept Getting Worse and Worse

- Oil politicians only care about fantasy jobs, not real jobs

- Thousands join budget-cut protest outside Alberta legislature

- Disgusting Sticker Of Greta Thunberg Linked To Alberta Oil Shocks Canadians

- Nova Scotia budget leaves poorest worse off, says human rights lawyer

- WITHER THE FIGHT AGAINST USMCA?

- Green Party of Canada leadership hopeful promising $20 per hour minimum wage

- What ever happened to dental therapy in Canada?

Central and South America:

- Sure, But Venezuela is the Narco State...

- Costa Rica: Jehry Rivera Dies While Defending Indigenous Lands

- Costa Rican Indigenous Denounce Govt Inaction Regarding Murders

- Brazilian communists: ‘we can win a life worth living’

- Argentina set to become first major Latin American country to legalise abortion

Climate Emergency:

Greta Thunberg addresses thousands in Bristol:




- New cars producing more carbon dioxide than older models

Colombia:

Heavy clashes between students and police are ongoing in Colombia where students are rising up against neoliberal education policies, ahead of the next planned general strike on March 25, called for by unions and student organisations:



Coronavirus:

- Millions of uninsured Americans like me are a coronavirus timebomb

- An Outrage': HHS Chief Azar Refuses to Vow Coronavirus Vaccine Will Be Affordable for All, Not Just the Rich

- Chinese are not a virus; racism is

Cuba:

- U.S. Blockade Hinders Organ Transplant Process in Cuba

- Western Union stops all money transfers from Canada to Cuba

- The socialist state enterprise is key to the country’s prosperity

- Russia and Cuba sign largest contract in recent history and Putin accepts Diaz-Canel’s invitation to visit Cuba

Democratic Primaries:

- Pete Buttigieg to pull out of Democratic race for White House

- Biden wins South Carolina, aims for Super Tuesday momentum

- Sanders joins Rev. Barber at New Poor People’s Campaign

- 'Watershed Moment': Joining Warren and Sanders, Centrist Democrats Klobuchar and Buttigieg Agree to #SkipAIPAC

- 'In Chile, In Guatemala, In Iran': Sanders Applauded for Highlighting US Record of Overthrowing Governments Around the World

- As a Corporate Tool, Buttigieg Is Now a Hammer to Bash Sanders

- 'The People Versus the Oligarch': Bloomberg Planning All-Out Media Assault on Sanders Ahead of Super Tuesday

- AIPAC goes to war against Bernie Sanders

Europe:

- Right wing violence in Germany is met by determined resistance

- Hysteria over Sinn Féin entering government is about power, not the past

Feminism / Women's Issues:

- The greatest human rights violation on the planet is the harm men do to women

France:

- French government to force through pension changes, bypassing parliament

- France: Macron stokes up Islamophobia to deflect from the movement to defend pensions

- France – state violence: when does democracy cease to exist?

Greece:

Protesters in Greece attacked a military camp where riot police are stationed to resist government plans to build what many have described as inhumane migrant detention camps:



Ideas / History:

- A Jewish Communist’s Revolution Against Fascism

India:

- What Happened in Delhi Was a Pogrom

- “Dead Bodies Everywhere”: Hindu Nationalist Violence Rocks Delhi as Trump Visits Modi in 
India

- Indian communists launch emergency appeal after anti-Muslim pogroms

- Widespread protests planned in Kolkata during Shah's visit

- Will fight politically, legally sedition case against Kanhaiya Kumar: CPI

- Indian Communists: Trump’s economic demands leave country vulnerable to U.S. corporations

Israel / Palestine:

- Canada says Palestine not a state, ICC can’t investigate Israeli war crimes

- In Classic Occupier Fashion, Israel Has Hit Rock Bottom. And Now It’s Too Late

- Only in apartheid Israel can an app offer option not to be picked up by Arab cab drivers  

- Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian, Drag His Body With Bulldozer

Pakistan:

- Marble quarry accident highlights ongoing slaughter in Pakistan mines

United Kingdom:

- UK would be three years into Corbyn-led government if not for ‘disgraceful behaviour’ of Labour MPs, claims Richard Burgon

- Len McCluskey: Why I’m backing Rebecca Long-Bailey for leader

- 'Judge me fairly': man who starved to death's plea to welfare officials

United States:

- Afghanistan's Taliban, US sign agreement aimed at ending war

- Afghan peace deal hits snag over prisoner releases

- Will America’s curiosity about socialism outlive today’s socialist moment?

- A Racist Voter ID Law Targeting Native Americans Just Lost its Punch

- Graduate Student Strikes Are Spreading in California

- U.S. Drops Charge Against Scott Warren, Who Aided Migrants Crossing Desert

- Starbucks Union Organizer Fired For ‘Drinking Water’ On The Job

- Supreme Court rules Mexican parents can't sue Border Patrol agent who killed their son

Weinstein Verdict:

- 'A new day': Harvey Weinstein convicted, led away in cuffs

- ‘Finally’: Ashley Judd and Other Weinstein Accusers Respond to Verdict

- ‘Thank you’: Six brave women did the hard work of holding Harvey Weinstein accountable

- The Harvey Weinstein Verdict Is a Watershed — and a Warning

Gravel reaches 65,000 donors but will be excluded from the Democratic debates anyway

In a classic Democrat backroom technocratic move the party appears to be excluding former Alaskan senator Mike Gravel from the upcoming nomination debates even though he managed to meet the very high threshold of having 65,000 unique donors.

As we reported on before, Gravel has some convoluted ideological ideas, but no one running for the nomination has such clearly anti-imperialist, anti-war foreign policy proposals. His website is subtitled "End the American Empire" and Gravel had promised to directly take on Joe Biden and others at the debates for their militarist records and views.

Despite having qualified it appears he won't be allowed in.

This is because the Democratic Party has capped the number of participants at 20 and in the event that more than that qualify the tiebreaker goes to campaigns that supposedly got a 1% or higher result in three "reputable" polls over having achieved a grassroots coup as Gravel has. Given that many mainstream polls left Gravel out while including a whole bunch of other marginal campaigns that were not able to get 65,000 donors, this is obviously unfair though predictable.

Had Gravel ended up in the debate with Biden he might have made Uncle Joe and others very uncomfortable.

Gravel has not given up yet, but for now it looks like the major focus of his campaign -- to bring an explicitly anti-militarist, anti-imperialist voice to a national televised stage -- won't be happening, which is a real shame.

Donate to Mike Gravel to help "End the American Empire"

Mike Gravel, who was a Democratic Senator for Alaska from 1968 to 1980, is running a Quixotic campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination. He is openly admitting that he cannot win the nomination but hopes to get enough support to be allowed to participate in the debates so as to push the party left on foreign policy issues.  While Gravel has rather convoluted ideological ideas -- he ran for the nomination of the Libertarian Party in 2008 and sadly seems to be influenced by 9-11 "Truther" nonsense -- his official website is subtitled "End the American Empire".

And when it comes to foreign policy, there is no one running for the nomination remotely like Mike Gravel.

His campaign video is brilliant.




Check out his twitter feed for amazing comments like this one:

And, if you are an American, donate a buck or five or ten to his campaign. He should be in the debates and he needs 65,000 donations to get there.

Justin Trudeau's dangerous Syrian Trump gambit

What a difference a night and an imperial missile strike makes. Especially to those who jockey for position within the shadow of an empire.

As we all know President Trump flexed American military muscle in a reckless and dangerous strike against a Syrian airfield that was also intended to send a message to Syria's Russian allies.

The Western media -- which by-and-large embraces its leaders narratives of the western nations as forces for democracy and humanity -- has predictably bought into the notion that Trump's about face was motivated by sincere outrage about the gas attack allegedly made by the Syrian regime. Even nominally "progressive" media outlets like The Guardian took at face value that Trump was personally horrified by pictures of dead Syrian children.

But this is all total rubbish. Anyone, anywhere who is not a diehard Trump supporter who actually believes this is a credulous dupe. The parade of media types going along with it is simply a predictable outcome of how beholden and captive they are to western imperialist lies and myths that they have helped to create and sustain for decades, now often given a "liberal" or "humanist" blush to modernize older more explicitly racist notions of the west's "civilizing mission".

Trump did this to shore up collapsing support both broadly domestically and within his own party and given the nature of the man the idea that he cares at all about Syrians is absurd. Trump has attempted and wants to bar all Syrians, including those fleeing the carnage, from the United States, so the crocodile tears here are obviously a joke.

The President is a deeply dangerous man motivated by the basest egotism and by delusions brought on by a megalomaniac's personality. The only human being he cares at all about is himself and when he thought bombing Syria benefited him and his administration he bombed it.

Never mind the continuing, typical American hypocrisy after the bombing of mosques in Syria and the slaughter of civilians by US bombing in Mosul under Trump, this action is certain to inflame tensions in the region and to have potentially serious consequences due to the direct involvement of the Russians on the ground and in the air in support of the Syrian regime. It has led to an immediate escalation of rhetoric, to the Russians having ended the formal communication that was established to prevent accidental US-Russian conflict, and having dispatched a cruise missile outfitted frigate to the region. 

American liberals in the Democratic Party have always been supporters of the broad notion of American imperial legitimacy and have from the start been goading the administration into action by claiming that somehow Trump was a Russian plant. They presumably thought this a clever strategy against him given his alleged ties to Putin. They backed themselves into a corner of their own making where they will have little choice but to now applaud his every military act on this front, not that that was not their inclination anyway. But their pathetic embrace of Trump's action should come as no surprise, no matter this context, after the blood drenched Presidency that was Obama's time in the Oval Office.

Far less clear in its reasoning, at least at first, is the immediate approval of Trump's attack by the Canadian Liberal government and by Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau less than twenty four hours prior to the attack said that there needed to be an investigation due to "continuing questions" about who was responsible for the gas strike in Syria and advised caution.

Immediately after Trump unleashed the cruise missiles, however, Trudeau was fully on board the war train and asserting now with implied certainty that there was no question of the Syrian regime's guilt. All his pretensions to supporting United Nation's investigations and all his supposed concern about multilateralism were gone.

It is amazing what loyal little puppies Canadian Liberals are to American Imperialism and how they love the whiffs of grapeshot the empire likes to unleash. The Trudeau government's utter spinelessness makes perfect sense in this context.

It likely makes them feel that they are important players on the world scene as they get the phone call from the Americans advising them in advance of the strike, they can pretend that they matter to the Yanks, and they can stand up in parliament, all serious and statesperson like, and play at being big children one day hoping to grow into adults.

The fact that Trump is a megalomaniac whose motives for this attack are anything but humanitarian, that supporting his actions helps to normalize his vile administration, and that these same liberals were denouncing Trump on every front right up until they got to get in on the political boost that seems to come with a certain kind of media endorsed violence, does not factor into their amoral, opportunistic, sad thinking at all.

But Canada's Liberal government and other western governments lining up to embrace and endorse this are faced with the immediate conundrum that they are now active apologists for a regime that they know to be headed by a President of uncommon mental instability and surrounded by extremists, bigots, racists and religious lunatics.

In even the short run this will almost certainly prove to have been a very bad idea.

See also: Obama, Trudeau & Clinton -- Feeling good about the lies of liberalism

See also: Trump -- Reflections on the state and the revolution

#Resistance150, the Oscars, Remembering Bob White & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List February 19-26

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 February 19-26. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) The Disturbing Alliance Between Zionists And Anti-Semites

Suzanne Schneider, Forward

Between the congressional hearing for David Friedman, the visit of Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump’s refusal to address the rising tide of anti-Semitism, it’s been a tense time within the American Jewish community.

Read the full article.

2) After seven years of bailouts, Greeks sink yet deeper in poverty

 Karolina Tagaris, Reuters 

Greek pensioner Dimitra says she never imagined a life reduced to food handouts: some rice, two bags of pasta, a packet of chickpeas, some dates and a tin of milk for the month.

Read the full article. 

3) Tony Clement hangs up on CBC Daybreak after exchange over asylum seekers

Benjamin Shingler, CBC News

Tony Clement, the Conservative Party's public safety critic, hung up on CBC Montreal Daybreak host Mike Finnerty this morning after he grew frustrated with Finnerty's line of questioning on asylum seekers crossing the U.S. border into Canada.

Read the full article.

4) Everyone was dead: When Europeans first came to B.C., they stepped into the aftermath of a holocaust

Tristan Hopper, The National Post

Everywhere they looked, there were corpses. Abandoned, overgrown villages were littered with skulls; whole sections of coastline strewn with bleached, decayed bodies.

Read the full article. 

5) Remembering Bob White

Herman Rosenfeld, Rank and File

With great sadness, I learned of the death of Bob White. In 1978, he became the leader of the Canadian section of the UAW about a year and half after I started working on the line at GM. Little did I know what an amazing leader and pioneer in working class history he would turn out to be.

Read the full article. 

6) Soccer Fans’ Racist ‘Monkey Chants’ Cause Brazilian Star To Leave Game In Tears

Rebecca Shapiro, Huffington Post

Partizan Belgrade’s Everton Luiz played an entire soccer game against Rad Belgrade on Sunday as rival fans hurled racist chants and remarks at him.

Read the full article. 

7) 5 Iconic Images of Black Women Saying ‘Naw’ In the Face of Racial Violence

Black Girl With Long Hair

Black women have always been on the front lines of the fight for civil rights, exhibiting strength and grace under pressure. Here are 5 iconic images of black women staring down violence when confronted with it.

Read the full article.

8) The rise and fall of Milo Yiannopoulos – how a shallow actor played the bad guy for money

Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian

So there is, after all, a line that you cannot cross and still be hailed by conservatives as a champion of free speech. That line isn’t Islamophobia, misogyny, transphobia or harassment. Milo Yiannopoulos, the journalist that Out magazine dubbed an “internet supervillain”, built his brand on those activities. Until Monday, he was flying high: a hefty book deal with Simon & Schuster, an invitation to speak at the American Conservative Union’s CPac conference and a recent appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher. But then a recording emerged of Yiannopoulos cheerfully defending relationships between older men and younger boys, and finally it turned out that free speech had limits. The book deal and CPac offer swiftly evaporated. The next day, he resigned his post as an editor at Breitbart, the far-right website where he was recruited by Donald Trump’s consigliere Steve Bannon, and where several staffers reportedly threatened to quit unless he was fired.

Read the full article.

9) This is not the way Milo Yiannopoulos should have gone down

Natasha Chart, Feminist Current

I doubt very much that a gay man in pearls and lipstick was unanimously seen as an ideal CPAC speaker, yet they were going to allow it. The only redeeming thing about the alt-right’s collection of white supremacists, anti-Semites, and misogynists, is that they hadn’t turned on homosexuals yet.

Read the full article. 

10) The Lib Dem way of solving our prostitution problem is nothing more than an Orange Book for penis rights

Sarah Ditum, The Independent

The idea that full decriminalising of kerb-crawling and brothel-keeping would make prostitution safe is based on the bizarre misapprehension that the only thing making prostitution unsafe is the law. Actually the thing that makes prostitution unsafe is men.

Read the full article. 

11) Similarities between Joseph Boyden story and Ojibway healer’s published work trigger questions

Jorge Barrera, APTN

Three Day Road author Joseph Boyden is facing questions over ‘intimate’ similarities found in a passage from one of his short stories and a piece published years earlier by an Ojibway healer and storyteller named Ron Geyshick.

Read the full article. 

12) WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ALL THE OLD RACIST WHITES FROM THOSE CIVIL RIGHTS PHOTOS?

Johnny Silvercloud, Afrosapiophile

A few months ago from this day of publishing, I had an interesting discussion with a white guy at work.  The subject of riots came up.  Pretty much, he attempted to place a mass association of “riots” to Black Lives Matter protesters.  Fascinated with his thoughts (which severely lacked critical thinking), I threw him a critical thinking question:

Read the full article. 

13) Women Of Standing Rock Make A Powerful Plea Before Evacuation

Elyse Wanshel, The Huffington Post

With a Feb. 22 evacuation deadline quickly approaching, the women of the Standing Rock Sioux have a simple request. They need help, and they need it now.

Read the full article. 

14) Five children who got longer sentences for throwing stones than Israeli soldier who shot incapacitated Palestinian dead

Bethan McKernan, The Independent

An 18-month jail sentence handed down to an Israel Defence Force (IDF) recruit for the killing of a wounded Palestinian has prompted widespread criticism for its apparent leniency in light of the severity of his crime.

Read the full article. 

15) Kshama Sawant calls for wave of anti-Trump protests and strikes on May Day

Q13 News Staff

Socialist Seattle city council member Kshama Sawant is calling for a wave of protests and strikes on May Day this year against President Donald Trump and his policies.

Read the full article.

16) Socialism’s Return

Patrick Iber, The Nation

For the American left, 2016 proved to be a year with a cruel twist ending. In the first few months, a self-described democratic socialist by the name of Bernie Sanders mounted a surprisingly successful primary challenge to the Democratic Party’s presumed and eventual presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. By the end of 2016, however, not only had Sanders lost the primary race, but Clinton had been defeated in the general election by a billionaire who dressed his xenophobic and plutocratic ambitions in the garb of class resentment.

Read the full article. 

17) WHITE MEN BEHAVING SADLY

Jack Halberstam, Bully Bloggers

At the end of a year in which men behaved badly, madly, and even gladly, how appropriate that an Oscar contending film appears in which men behave, yup, sadly. Indeed all the ladly behaviors that make up the repertoire of white masculinity have culminated in this – a film where we finally understand why the white man is sad, why everyone else is bad and why despite being sad because everyone else is bad, he learns to be a dad.

Read the full article. 

18) Bob White, Union Organizer, Union Leader: April 28, 1935 – February 19, 2017

Sam Gindin, The Bullet 

When I last visited Bob at his nursing home in Kincardine, a nurse politely pulled me aside to tell me that he no longer talked much but remained quite sociable. The deterioration in his condition was sad to hear, but I remarked that his retention of social skills was no surprise. ‘As a union organizer he had a natural sociability’. She lit up and excitedly whispered to a nearby nurse: ‘That explains it!’. ‘Explains what?’ I asked. ‘Well, the one thing he keeps telling us is: “You know, all of you work really hard but don't get paid enough; you should get a union”.’

Read the full article. 

19) Buyers’ Remorse: Americans think Trump is bad at almost Everything

Juan Cole, Informed Comment

The vast majority of Americans in a new Quinnipiac opinion poll do not believe that Donald J. Trump is level-headed or shares their values. Of course, this is only one poll, and likely the plus or minus swing is 3 or 4 percent. But actually the findings are so decisive in most cases that that wouldn’t matter. Qunnipiac showed Trump beating Clinton last summer, so you can’t accuse them of being biased against him.

Read the full article.

20) Petition: Revoke the Charitable Status of Canada Christian College

On February 15, 2017 Rebel Media founder Ezra Levant hosted Conservative Party of Canada leadership contenders as part of a protest against Muslims in Canada. The event was held at the Canada Christian College (CCC) in Toronto, and was welcomed by President Charles McVety.

Events of this nature encourage hate toward other Canadians based on their religion, and therefore can be classified as hate speech. CCC should lose its charitable status and receive other legal penalties as appropriate.

Sign the petition.

21) Canada has ‘no idea’ when it will properly fund programs for First Nations children: Blackstock

APTN National News

Exactly 10 years after filing a human rights complaint against Canada and a little more than a year after winning it Cindy Blackstock’s fight for First Nations children appears to be far from over.

Read the full article. 

22) I'm an Arab actor who's been asked to audition for the role of terrorist more than 30 times. If La La Land cleans up at the Oscars, I'm done

Amrou Al-Kadhi, The Independent

My first film job at the age of 14 – Steven Spielberg’s Munich – featured me as an Islamic terrorist’s son. When I complained about racial profiling to a director, I was told that I was lucky I could 'use my ethnicity as a playing card' in an industry where 'white actors are overlooked'

Read the full article.

23) The Travel Press is Reporting the 'Trump Slump,' a Devastating Drop in Tourism to the United States

Arthur Frommer, Frommers

Experts across the travel industry are warning that masses of tourists are being scared away from visiting the United States, and the loss of tourism jobs could be devastating.

Read the full article.

24) Burning down the globe: Climate change denial in Canada's house

Christopher Majka, Rabble

You might think that even after virtually every scientist with expertise in the discipline agrees that human-induced climate change is not only real but a dire threat to the stability of our civilization and our environment; that after virtually every scientific academy on the planet concurs with this view; that after the phenomenal work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, arguably the most thorough and extensive international scientific enterprise of all time) has definitively established the causes and consequences of this danger; that after 174 countries on the planet put their signatures to the Paris Agreement at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference to undertake immediate action to try and halt this phenomenon; that after over a century of increasing global temperatures, and in recent years, record monthly and annual temperatures records; that after an increase in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide by 42 per cent (from 280 parts per million (ppm) in pre-industrial times to over 400 ppm currently); that after a multitude of environmental impacts consistent with climate change; that there would exist no sane human being on the planet who would not only understand the reality of climate change, but also be highly concerned about it. You might think that.

And you would be wrong.

Read the full article.

25) Questions remain after Taser complaint ruled unfounded

Morgan Modjeski, Saskatoon StarPhoenix

The lawyer representing a man who was Tasered in his own apartment after police were sent to the wrong address says questions remain after the province’s police watchdog determined a complaint about the incident was unfounded.

Read the full article. 

26) White People See A Lesson In Manners. I See A Racist Assault

Tasheka Lavann, The Huffington Post

So, we're taking matters into our own hands now as TTC users? Are we not to use the relevant authorities to report misconduct anymore? I'm referring to the now-viral video of a white woman sitting on a young black man's feet on the TTC train.

Read the full article.

27) NFL Star Michael Bennett on Refusing to Go to Israel, Black Lives Matter & His Love for Angela Davis

Democracy Now

In a Democracy Now! exclusive, we speak with Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, who made headlines when he pulled out of an Israeli government-sponsored trip to Israel for NFL players. We are also joined by Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation magazine. The two discuss the role of sports in politics, including Olympian John Carlos, as well as Colin Kaepernick’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement that inspired players throughout the country at all levels to take similar actions.

Read the full article.

28) Canada's 150-year celebration doesn't fly here

Steve Bonspiel, CBC News

With all of the mainstream hype about Canada's 150th anniversary of confederation, it's no surprise that the many Native people are using a vastly different word to describe it — colonialism — and people are also raising much awareness on social media in the form of #Resistance150.

Read the full article. 

29) Progressives Need A New Party, Not A New DNC Chair

Jonathan H. Martin, The Huffington Post

The next few days could be an important turning point for U.S. progressives. During its winter meeting being held in Atlanta, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is scheduled to elect a new chair. The results could help many left-leaning activists decide whether it really is possible to reform the Democratic Party, or whether it is time to pursue alternatives.

Read the full article.

See also: Climate Change, Bill Maher, NSTU & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List February 12-19

See also: The Immigration Ban, Israel, Patriot White House Boycott, Kaepernick & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List February 5 - 12