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 27 - June 3. It is generally in order of the date of the article's
release.
There are three articles from prior to the period included. They have been integrated into the post.
1) Northern Ireland under pressure after historic abortion vote
Robin Millard and Julien Lagache, AFP
Pressure mounted on Sunday for British-ruled Northern Ireland to liberalise its strict abortion laws after a historic referendum in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland overturned its ban.
Read the full article.
2) Italy: Thousands of Women Marched to Demand Pro-Choice Laws
Telesur
Thousands of Italian women marched across the country Saturday, under the banner, 'My Body, My Choice' to mark 40 years of the passing of the historic 1978 law, Law 194, which legalized abortion in a largely Catholic country.
Read the full article.
3) When Black women tell the plain truth, the world is sure to demand an apology
Vicky Mochama, The Toronto Star
When a Twitter user asked whether people would have the “same energy” for tennis player Francoise Abanda that they’d had for Eugenie Bouchard, Abanda responded to say, “I will never get the same treatment because I am black. It’s the truth!”
Read the full article.
4) Leftists need to stop shaming women for engaging the criminal justice system in situations of abuse
Meghan Murphy, Feminist Current
“Fuck the police” was a slogan I easily aligned myself with as a young woman. As a then-aspiring anarchist (and NWA fan), the declaration sounded appropriately rebellious, and my father the Marxist had taught me that the police were bullies who existed only to protect money and private property. He may have been partially right, but while the phrase remains politically powerful, extending the sentiment to a literal abolishment of the police, I later realized, was not as radical an idea as I’d thought.
Read the full article.
5) #WhereAreTheChildren: Anger grows over US border policy
Al Jazeera
Anger is mounting in the United States at the government's policy of separating children from migrant and refugee parents who are caught crossing the US-Mexico border.
Read the full article.
6) Ontario PC Candidate Shares Theory Linking Schools and Hospitals to Secret ‘Globalist’ Conspiracy
Press Progress
Doug Ford's candidate in Windsor shares wild theory claiming education and healthcare are a plot to ‘control the people’
Read the full article.
7) The Unbearable Whiteness of NFL Ownership
Shaun King, The Intercept
The fact of the matter is that these leagues were created by white people for the entertainment and wealth of white people. When African-Americans tinker with that formula — by demonstrating in a way that insults white sensibilities — they are shut down. Perhaps the only way to fix the problem is indeed to start new leagues with new owners and managers.
Read the full article.
8) Ex-FARC rebels eye Gustavo Petro as Colombia's new hope
Arjun Harindranath, Al Jazeera
Many former FARC fighters see the presidential candidate building a lasting peace in the country if he wins.
Read the full article.
9) Ontario PC Candidate Promoted Alt-Right Website Linked to Hate Figures at Young Conservative Event
Press Progress
Ontario PC candidate Donna Skelly gave a special ‘shout out’ to far-right extremists at a Christmas party for campus conservatives.
Read the full article.
10) This White Nationalist Says Doug Ford is Sending Him Anti-Immigrant ‘Dog Whistle’ Messages
Press Progress
“We know what you’re sayin’, Dougie” – Doug Ford’s divisive rhetoric is inspiring white supremacists and Ontario’s far-right.
Read the full article.
11) Ontario PC Candidate: Let Students Debate Whether The Holocaust ‘Actually Happened’
Press Progress
Ontario PC candidate said students should have absolute freedom to debate unpopular ideas, including Holocaust denial.
Read the full article.
12) I work at one of America's underfunded schools. It's falling apart
Melissa Smith, The Guardian
An Oklahoma teacher’s account of her school district, from the classrooms without desks and supplies to the professors who hold office hours in their cars.
Read the full article.
13) India Orders Closure of Vedanta Plant After Deadly Protests
Telesur
Indian authorities ordered Monday the permanent closure of a contested copper plant, which was at the center of deadly protests last week with 13 people killed by police fire.
Read the full article.
14) Israeli bill to ban filming soldiers on duty condemned
Al Jazeera
A Palestinian journalists' union has condemned as "racist" an Israeli bill that seeks to criminalise recording and photographing Israeli soldiers on duty.
Read the full article.
15) Why are men hiding their porn use, anyway?
Meghan Murphy, Feminist Current
Anything that happens between consenting adults is the standard by which we are told we must determine acceptable versus unacceptable sexual practices. But if that is the case, what to make of porn use?
Read the full article.
16) Planned Parenthood just had to cancel women’s abortions in Arkansas
Carter Sherman, Vice News
Planned Parenthood patients in Arkansas got some harrowing news Tuesday morning: Their abortions had been cancelled. If they still want to undergo the procedure, Arkansas women may now be forced to travel as many as 380 miles.
Read the full article.
17) Here is a List of Ontario PC Candidates Who Will Vote Against the Reproductive Rights of Women
Press Progress
Canada’s biggest anti-abortion organization has released a list of candidates who its hardline social conservative supporters will find “supportable.”
Read the full article.
18) In Britain, Austerity Is Changing Everything
Peter S. Goodman, The New York Times
After eight years of budget cutting, Britain is looking less like the rest of Europe and more like the United States, with a shrinking welfare state and spreading poverty.
Read the full article.
19) STUDENT PROTESTERS IN PUERTO RICO FACE TRIAL AS GOVERNMENT CRIMINALIZES DISSENT
Alice Speri, The Intercept
WITH THE SECOND round of trials underway in Washington, D.C., for protesters charged in connection with the J20 demonstrations against Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, another legal battle over the right to dissent is unfolding hundreds of miles away in Puerto Rico, where seven students are facing charges in connection to a protest over tuition hikes at the island’s public university.
Read the full article.
20) Hurricane Maria's Death Toll in Puerto Rico Almost 5,000, Not Official 64: Study
Telesur
According to a research team led by scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health almost 5,000 people died in Puerto Rico due to reasons related to September's category 4 Hurricane Maria. The new estimate stands in stark contrast to the official death toll of 64.
Read the full article.
21) Puerto Rico Now Says There Was A Sharp Increase In Deaths Right After Hurricane Maria
Salvador Hernandez & Nidhi Prakash, BuzzFeed News
The Puerto Rican government on Friday released a new report showing a steep increase in the number of fatalities shortly after Hurricane Maria devastated the region.
Read the full article.
22) ABC Fires Roseanne Barr After Her Apology for Her Racist Tweet Confirmed It Was Racist
Robert Mackey, The Intercept
ROSEANNE BARR LOST her popular television show on Tuesday, when ABC decided to cancel the sitcom “Roseanne” because the actress posted a racist, Islamophobic comment on Twitter, in which she suggested that Valerie Jarrett, a longtime adviser to former President Barack Obama, looked like an ape and was part of a secret Muslim plot.
Read the full article.
23) Racism with Roseanne, in real time
Khaled A Beydoun, Al Jazeera
The Roseanne saga confirmed that in the US, some forms of racism are opposed vehemently, while others remain tolerated.
Read the full article.
24) McDonald’s workers slam firm for sexual harassment, low pay
Mark Gruenberg, People's World
Imagine getting groped and fondled on the job, twice in one month, by two different male co-workers – and your supervisors turn a deaf ear. So much so that you’re forced to take three weeks off work, without pay, to try to recover.
Read the full article.
25) Cuba: International Poetry Festival Pays Homage to Che Guevara
Telesur
The festival highlighting Guevara's thoughts, life, and works, opened under the banner, 'World Meeting of Poets in Defense of Humanity.'
Read the full article.
26) Democracy be damned: Trump orders cancellation of union contracts
Mark Gruenberg, People's World
Three anti-federal worker executive orders by GOP President Donald Trump, issued late on May 25 as the nation headed into the Memorial Day weekend, are “a denial of democracy,” the president of the largest federal worker union says.
Read the full article.
27) Mexican Front-runner AMLO Has 52% of Vote Intention: Poll
Telesur
The center-left candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has widened his lead and is now 26 points ahead of his closest rival, the right-wing Ricardo Anaya, for the upcoming July 1 presidential elections in Mexico.
Read the full article.
28) Say hello to Justin Trudeau, the world's newest oil executive
Bill McKibben, The Guardian
In case anyone wondered, this is how the world ends: with the cutest, progressivest, boybandiest leader in the world going fully in the tank for the oil industry.
Read the full article.
29) Trudeau buys Kinder Morgan pipeline as First Nations water advisories increase
Emma Lui, Rabble
Yesterday morning the Trudeau government confirmed that it would pay $4.5 billion to buy the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The pipeline project is estimated to cost up to $7.4 billion.
Read the full article.
30) Namibians want reparations from Germany for a genocide you’ve probably never heard of
Julia Lindau, Vice News
Decades before the Holocaust, Germany carried out what many historians consider the first genocide of the 20th century in Namibia. German generals targeted two land-owning ethnic groups, the Herero and Nama, killing 100,000 people; and throwing the survivors into concentration camps.
Read the full article.
31) Quebec mosque attack survivors demand ban on assault weapons
Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, Al Jazeera
Muslim community, still coping with last year's deadly shooting, calls for outright ban on assault rifles in Canada.
Read the full article.
32) Grenfell victim ‘denied human right to escape’
The Morning Star
THE DAUGHTER of a Grenfell Tower victim launched a blistering attack on Kensington and Chelsea council today for housing a “vulnerable, physically disabled and partially sighted pensioner” on the 18th floor.
Read the full article.
33) Greece at a stand still as thousands strike against austerity
Patrick Strickland, Al Jazeera
Flags and banners fluttered above a steady stream of protesters, who chanted anti-austerity slogans as they marched through the streets of the Greek capital.
Read the full article.
34) ‘A unique development in an otherwise bleak political landscape’
The Morning Star
The Communist Party of Iraq’s SALAM ALI explains how the Sairoun Alliance managed to secure the largest number of seats in country’s most recent parliamentary elections.
Read the full article.
35) US 'Paying Salvadoran Paramilitaries To Murder Gang Members'
Telesur
U.S. officials are funding a special police force in El Salvador whose reputation for extrajudicial killings is worse than that of the gangs they are supposed to be fighting.
Read the full article.
36) Amazon warehouse workers suffer a litany of abuses, GMB reveals
Peter Lazenby, The Morning Star
Among the horror stories are cases of heavily pregnant women having been made to work standing up for 10 hours a day, one woman having a miscarriage that was blamed on constant pressure to meet targets, workers toiling in constant agony and 600 incidents where an emergency ambulance was called after a worker had collapsed or been injured in an accident.
Read the full article.
37) Israel approves more than 2,000 settlement units in West Bank
Al Jazeera
Since US President Donald Trump came to office, Israel has approved construction of more than 14,000 settlement units.
Read the full article.
38) Palestinian medic, 21, is killed by Israeli sniper as she tends wounded in Gaza
Mondoweiss
Today’s news from Gaza was especially disturbing. Israeli snipers shot 40 protesters and killed one of them: Razan al-Najjar, a 21-year-old volunteer medic. She was wearing a white coat when she was shot, news accounts say, and one report says she was attempting to tend a wounded protester.
Read the full article.
39) Thousands of Palestinians Mourn 'Reprehensible' Killing of Gaza Medic
Telesur
The U.N. envoy for the Middle East wrote in a tweet that “Medical workers are #NotATarget!” and that “Israel needs to calibrate its use of force."
Read the full article.
40) NYPD Isn’t Telling Prosecutors Which Cops Have A History Of Lying, DA Says
Mike Hayes and Kendall Taggart, BuzzFeed News
The New York Police Department fails to provide district attorneys with information, including police officers’ disciplinary records, that prosecutors need to decide whether to charge people with crimes, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said in a letter to the department exclusively obtained by BuzzFeed News.
Read the full article.
41) Wynne concedes she will lose Thursday’s election, urges voters to elect Liberal MPPs as a check on Ford or Horwath
Robert Benzie, The Toronto Star
Staring at certain defeat, Kathleen Wynne has conceded she “will no longer be Ontario’s premier” after Thursday’s election.
Read the full article.
42) Bernie Sanders Slams Disney for Billions in Profits While Workers Struggle to Pay for 'Food, Shelter'
Telesur
"I want to hear the moral defense of a company that makes $9 billion in profits, and have a 30-year worker going hungry,” Sanders told the crowd.
Read the full article.
43) Las Vegas casino workers prep for strike over automation: 'Robots can't beat us'
Dan Hernandez, The Guardian
Increasing automation has become a sticking point alongside other issues that could see workers bring city to a standstill.
Read the full article.
44) Trump might be leading the US to another meltdown
Larry Beinhart, Al Jazeera
Following the quiet rollback of Obama-era Wall Street regulations, the US may be on the verge of yet another crash.
Read the full article.
See also: Nicolas Maduro Wins, Ireland Votes to Repeal the 8th, the Ontario Election & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List May 20-27
