Make solidarity global -- Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez at a Sao Paulo Forum meeting, 2019

Excerpt from a statement by Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba to the “United against COVID-19” Non-Aligned Movement Online Summit, May 4, 2020

COVID-19 has proven to be a global challenge. It goes beyond borders, ideologies or levels of development. Therefore, the answer to it must also be global and joint and it should put political differences aside.

It is not possible to predict exactly the extent of its consequences. The high figures of infected persons and many human deaths are showing its devastating impact in an increasingly interconnected world which, still, has not been able to make use of such interconnection for the sake of solidarity and is paying today the price for its inability to correct serious social imbalances. It should be stated openly: Had we made solidarity global, as it was done with the market, the story would have been different.

There is a lack of solidarity and cooperation. Those values cannot be replaced with profit-making, which is almost the only incentive for those who worship the market while forgetting about the value of human life.

An analysis of the events that have disturbed humanity in the last four months must include the costly mistakes of neoliberal policies, which led to a downsizing of state management and capabilities, excessive privatizations and a neglect of the majorities.

This pandemic has evidenced the fragility of a fractured and excluding world. Not even those who are most fortunate and powerful would survive in the absence of those whose work creates and sustains wealth.

The multiple crises it is bringing about foretell ravaging and lasting effects for the economy and all spheres of society.

The pandemic is worsening the pressing problems in a planet riddled with deep inequalities and where 600 million people are living in dire poverty and nearly half of the population have no access to basic health services, whose management is defined by the market and not by the noble goal of saving lives.

In the meantime, global military expenditures are over 1.9 trillion dollars, of which more than 38%, or 732 billion, were appropriated in the United States in 2020.

I wish to share with you this quotation from the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz: “Instead of spending so much in the development of increasingly sophisticiated weapons, those having resources for that should promote medical research and put the results of science at the service of humanity, thus creating tools for health and life and not for death.”

Let us call, together with the Secretary General of the United Nations, for the end of wars, including non-conventional ones, so as to safeguard the right to peace.

We reject the recent and serious military threats by the government of the United States against the sisterly Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

We reaffirm our solidarity with the government and the people of Nicaragua and reject measures against their right to well being, security and peace.

The attempts at re-imposing the neocolonial past to Our America by publicly declaring the validity of the Monroe Doctrine are running counter the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

In this complex situation, the United States is attacking multilateralism and it disqualifies unjustly the role of international organizations, particularly the World Health Organization....

...For Cuba, the challenge has been a mammoth one. In the months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, we were already facing a ruthless tightening of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade policy aimed at bringing our trade and access to fuels and foreign currency to a full standstill.

Through tremendous effort and sacrifice, we have been able under such conditions to keep in place our universal and free public health system that has dedicated and highly-qualified professionals who enjoy world prestige in spite of the crude and slanderous campaigns by powerful adversaries.

The early warning signs on the possibility that COVID-19 would become a pandemic came in the midst of this suffocating context of an economic war, and that made challenges bigger. 

Right away, we drew a plan including measures based on our main strengths: A well-structured State that has the responsibility to protect the health of its citizens and a society with mass involvement as to decision-making and giving solutions to its problems.

The work resulting from years of resource appropriations to develop and strengthen health services and sciences has been put to a test and the evolution of the epidemic in Cuba in the last two months is showing the good impact social investment policies may have when facing the biggest and most unexpected challenges.

In spite of the huge constraints being imposed on us by the protracted US economic, commercial and financial blockade, that are posing a big daily challenge to keeping our public health system in place and facing this pandemic in particular, we have ensured the right to health of the Cuban people with the involvement of society as a whole.

Scientific development has allowed us to treat different communicable diseases successfully both in Cuba and in other nations. This time, the pharmaceutical industry has expanded the manufacturing of drugs of proven efficacy to prevent and deal with COVID-19 that we have shared with other countries.

In response to requests that were made, in the last month 25 new medical brigades of Cuban health professionals have joined the efforts in 23 countries to fight the pandemic. They have joined those who have been providing services already in 59 States, many of which are NAM members.

Cuba shall not give up its solidarity vocation even when, out of political reasons, the US government continues attacking and obstructing the international cooperation being provided by our country, which jeopardizes access to health services for tens of millions of people.

Read the full statement. 

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

Students from around the world study for free to become doctors at Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine which graduated 466 doctors from 84 countries in 2019, "bringing the total of medical graduates trained at the unique school to over 29,000 – including 182 doctors from the United States".

With research contributed by Nathaniel Laxer 

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

Despite this crime and the terrible impact that it has had on the Cuban people -- especially in the early 90s in the wake of the collapse of the Socialist Bloc and USSR when Cuba lost 85% of its foreign trade and investment and saw its GDP decline by 35%, a time known in Cuba as the "special period" -- the accomplishments of Cuban socialism remain truly impressive.

Once you realize the framework in which Cuba has maintained its independence and freedom, it becomes clear that only socialism can account for what it has achieved.

As Helen Yaffe noted:

Even factoring in its low GDP per capita, the Human Development Index (HDI) lists Cuba in the “high human development” category; it excels not just in health and education, but also in women’s participation and political inclusion. Cuba has eliminated child malnutrition. No children sleep on the streets. In fact, there is no homelessness. Even during the hungry years of economic crisis of the 1990s, Cubans did not starve. Cuba stuck with the planned economy, and it enabled them to ration their scarce resources.
Yes, salaries are extremely low...but Cubans’ salaries do not determine their standard of living. About 85% of Cubans own their own homes and rent cannot exceed 4% of a tenant’s income. The state provides a (very) basic food basket while utility bills, transport and medicine costs are kept low. The opera, cinema, ballet and so on are cheap for all. High-quality education and healthcare are free. They are part of the material wealth of Cuba and should not be dismissed – as if individual consumption of consumer goods were the only measure of economic success.

We could look at many areas, but one area where the magnificent legacy of the revolution shines through most clearly is in healthcare.

After the revolution Cuba was the first country to eliminate polio in 1962 and the first country to eliminate measles in 1996. When the World Health Organization (WHO) kicked off Vaccination Week in the Americas in 2018 they did so in Cuba:

"Vaccination is one of the most powerful tools we have to prevent disease and save lives," said Carissa F. Etienne, Director of PAHO, at the opening ceremony of Vaccination Week in the Americas, which took place at the Victoria de Giron Institute of Basic and Preclinical Sciences in Havana. Ministers and other high-level health authorities from Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions of the world participated in the launch.
Cuba was chosen to host the regional launch of the campaign because of the great strides the country has made in vaccine development and in eliminating vaccine-preventable diseases, including polio, neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, congenital rubella syndrome, whooping cough and mumps, said Etienne. "Cuba is a shining example of commitment, investment and passion for health."
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), also participated in the regional launch of Vaccination Week in the Week in the Americas, which has served as the base for World Immunization Week since its start in 2012. "Not only does Cuba enjoy universal coverage for vaccines, (it is) also a producer and exporter of these life-saving products," said Dr. Tedros. "World Immunization Week is an opportunity to remind all nations and all people of the incredible value of vaccines."

and:

 During the opening ceremony, the Cuban Deputy Health Minister, Jose Angel Portal Miranda, emphasized that in Cuba "vaccination is available to everyone, free of charge, and can be accessed from primary health care providers. As a result, vaccination coverage in Cuba for all vaccines currently stands at 98%, resulting in high population immunity."
Portal Miranda also highlighted that an average of 4.8 million vaccines against 13 diseases are administered each year in Cuba, with eight of the 11 vaccines that are given being produced in the country itself. He also reminded the audience that the first polio prevention campaign in Cuba took place in 1962 with the vaccination of 2.6 million children and adolescents under the age of 15. 

In fact, Cuba's accomplishments in healthcare are simply stunning. As the BBC noted: "Despite spending a fraction of what the United States spends on healthcare (the World Bank reports Cuba spends $431 per head per year compared with $8,553 in the US) Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the US and a similar life expectancy."

An article in the International Journal of Epidemiology noted that Cuba had the lowest AIDS rate in the Americas, the most effective dengue control programme in the Americas, the highest rates of treatment and control of hypertension in the world, had reduced its cardiovascular mortality rate by 45%, provided a free medical education not only for its own students but also for students from Africa and Latin America, and had created an indigenous biotechnology sector which among other things produced the first human polysaccharide vaccine.

Similarly, Cuba has made immense strides in the eradication of tuberculous, which remains a scourge throughout much of the world. In fact, "in 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) included Cuba on its select list of countries with the potential to eradicate the illness by 2035".

In 2019 Cuba achieved it highest proportion of doctors to people ever, with 9 per 1,000. This is one of, if not the highest, ratios in the world. By contrast, Canada and the United States have 2.6.

Just this year:

Jose Angel Portal Miranda, head of the Ministry of Public Health (Minsap), said that after the revolution, there were barely 3,000 doctors in Cuba. The University of Medical Sciences of Havana, since then, has trained more than 376,000 health professionals including doctors, nurses, and other health professionals.
The head of the Minsap said 35,787 foreign students from 141 countries graduated from Cuban universities, mainly from Africa and Latin America.
This year more than 10,000 medical professionals graduated from Havana, 1,535 of them are from foreign countries. Miranda also stressed that no other small developing countries could achieve such a feat.
Out of the more than 485,000 workers of the National Health System (SNS), some 234,000 are professionals from different branches of medical sciences who work in more than 13,000 health institutions in the country.

Meanwhile, despite the blockade and its stretched resources, Cuba's international medical solidarity is legendary and not just in educating students from other countries to become doctors for free.

From Mozambique, to the Solomon Islands, to tiny Kiribati, to the fight against Ebola, tens of thousands of Cuban doctors have worked around the world in solidarity with other peoples for decades. They even offered aid to the United States in the wake of Katrina which the imperialist cowards declined.

Right wing governments, such as the racist coup regime in Bolivia, have recently sent Cuban doctors home at the behest of the Americans and at great harm to their own people,  but they continue to do their important work in countries like Venezuela.

No matter how hard they try to malign Cuba's internationalist efforts the forces of reaction cannot erase its incredible legacy and history. As of 2019:

...since 1963 Cuban doctors have worked in 164 countries. Non-Cubans graduating as doctors in Cuba (1966-2017) totaled 33, 974. Originating from 135 countries, they include 28,538 graduates (2005-2017) of Cuba’s Latin American School of Medicine, among them 5135 Bolivians, 2071 Ecuadorians, and “more than 1000” Brazilians. In 2017 Cubans were teaching at 7 foreign medical schools. Cuba’s “Operación Milagro” has provided 2.9 million people from 34 countries with no-cost eye operations. Since 1963, Cuban doctors abroad have participated in 1,667,248,707 patient visits; they’ve performed 12,188,554 surgeries. Around 400,000 Cuban health care workers, mostly doctors, have served abroad over the course of 56 years.

Given all this it should come as no surprise that in 2019 the annual Save the Children report that "evaluates 176 countries using international indicators on infant mortality, access to education, nutrition, protection against harmful practices, such as child labour, child marriage, homicides and forced displacement" found that Cuba was safest country in Latin America and the Caribbean to be a child or adolescent.

Still, despite massive international opposition to it, the US blockade continues. In November 187 nations voted for a resolution for it to end at the United Nations, with only 3 voting against and 2 abstaining. Again the United States with its criminality and indifference to international law and opinion shows that it is the world's true rogue nation.

But Cuba stands courageously against this and sets an example for the entire world. Its fight against American imperialism is the world's fight.

As Fidel Castro said in a speech in 1992:

When we talk about what's happening to Cuba, we're already talking about what could happen to any country in the world, especially any Third World country. That's why the battle you are waging today for Cuba is a battle you are waging for the entire world, a battle you are waging for the Third World and for all the nations which have been blockaded for centuries, because they were colonized, exploited and their children enslaved...
...So, what has the world suffered? A 500-year-old blockade. What is neocolonialism? A blockade. What are those neoliberal and ultrareactionary policies? A blockade which forces governments to close their hospitals, to close their schools, to throw the people out onto the streets, to allow people to remain destitute. And in our country, not even during special period when our imports have been reduced to 25 percent of what they were have we closed one single school, one single day-care center, one single hospital. No one has been left destitute. When we don't have any work for them, we pay our workers a salary. At least we give them a salary and though they may have to go home, we don't abandon them...
...What we are doing, the miracle we are performing...could not be performed in a capitalist society. That's why very rich countries that are not blockaded, countries in Latin America that receive aid from the World Bank and other financial institutions, and have a high number of exports, far higher than ours, have closed thousands of schools, hospitals and social institutions. That is what the world is going through. That is why I insist on the idea that to fight for Cuba's cause today is to fight for far more than just Cuba: It is to fight for a just cause for everyone. 

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez Visits the Grave of Karl Marx, London, England 2018 -- Daily LIFT #88

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez Visits the Grave of Karl Marx, London, England 2018 

-- Daily LIFT #88

"It is impossible to be here, speak from this rostrum on behalf of Cuba, and not recall historic moments of the General Assembly which are also part of our dearest memories: Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raúl Castro and the “Chancellor of Dignity”, Raúl Roa, just to mention the most significant, have brought here not only the voice of our people but also the voice of other Latin American and Caribbean, African, Asian, non-aligned peoples, with whom we have shared more than half a century of struggles for a fair international order, which is still far to be attained.

It is absurd but consistent with the irrationality of a world in which the richest 0.7% of the population owns 46% of all the wealth, while the poorer 70% of the population can access only 2.7% of it; 3.460 billion people survive in poverty; 815 million go hungry; 758 million are illiterate and 844 million lack basic services of drinking water. All these figures, by the way, are prepared and regularly used by global organizations, but it seems that they have failed to raise sufficient awareness of the so called international community.

These realities, Madam President, are not the result of socialism, like the President of the United States said yesterday here. They are the consequence of capitalism, especially imperialism and neoliberalism; of the selfishness and exclusion that is inherent to that system, and of an economic, political, social and cultural paradigm that privileges wealth accumulation in the hands of a few at the cost of the exploitation and dire poverty of the large majorities."

- Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, United Nations Speech, 2018

Today is the 61st Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution 

United we have won! United we will win! -- Excerpts from Díaz-Canel's speech to the people of Cuba, December 21, 2019

Excerpts from Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba's tour-de-force speech about socialism, revolution, Bolivia and Venezuela, resistance to American imperialism and the coming defeat of neo-liberalism, delivered at Havana’s Convention Center, December 21, 2019.

People of Cuba:

On the eve of another anniversary of the undefeated and victorious Revolution, first of all I want to exclaim: Congratulations!

We have navigated a year full of challenges, tension and aggression. We faced these united, and united we are winning.

The 61st year of the Revolution has indeed been difficult and challenging, although never as hard as those that followed the January triumph when the harassment was accompanied by vicious attacks, including: an invasion, sabotage, arson, banditry and the isolation of Cuba throughout the hemisphere.

The challenges were defeated, overcome one by one, leaving us, the protagonists, with a history that makes us deeply proud and a very formidable revolutionary lesson: by the people, with the people and for the people: anything is possible!

Steeled by all those years of resistance, and supported by the strength of the human work erected against all odds over six decades, we have been able to navigate through 2019 overcoming obstacles that appeared insurmountable, and today can rightly celebrate, without complacency and conscious that every goal met is a new starting point.

Speaking of obstacles, let us begin with the worse and most pervasive of all: the United States economic, commercial and financial blockade.

When the history of these days is written, we will need to reserve a chapter for the year 2019 because of the brutal, one could say demented way in which aggression against Cuba was escalated this year, practically, at the rate of more than a sanction per week; that is, a "turn of the screw" every seven days to asphyxiate our economy.

Cruises, flights, remittances, medical services, financing, fuel transportation and insurance were cancelled, restricted or prohibited. There was no area exempt from witch-hunting, sieges, and persecution. Nor is there any revolutionary project or action exempt from defamation.

To justify its actions, Washington has once again resorted to blatant lies, and to the crude accusation that we are promoting instability and are a threat to the region, which we have vigorously denied...

...Neo-liberalism, driven by the powerful media and fundamentalists of all kinds, impoverishes nations that were once prosperous. We have just seen this in Argentina, which had been saved once already from neoliberal disaster and then again became "scorched earth" in only four years of disproportionate measures, as is being documented by its intellectuals and artists, outraged by the high social debt left by the outgoing government, the great promoter of neoliberal formulas.

Under similar schemes, the Chilean model, so exalted by international financial organizations, today shows its inability to solve social problems generated by an economy designed by the Chicago Boys. Their young people, beaten and abused by the hundreds, are leading, in continuous demonstrations, an epic battle against the system that excludes them.

They demand rights that have not been seriously addressed by their government, nor do they seem to be visible to the OAS, which shows such concern for stability and democracy in Venezuela, Nicaragua and even Cuba, which has no reason to thank the "Ministry of Colonies," to which we fortunately ceased to belong, more than 50 years ago.

We reaffirm that we will maintain solidarity and cooperation with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its legitimate government under the Presidency of Nicolás Maduro Moros, and with the Sandinista government and people, led by President Daniel Ortega.

Let this be a reminder to those who put on anti-Cuban shows with the grotesque OAS Secretary General at center stage.

Another outrageous, unacceptable episode that 2019 brought was the coup against President Evo Morales Ayma in Bolivia, carried out by the local oligarchy under Yankee guidance, with the scandalous complicity of the OAS.

The deeply racist coup plotters repeat the formula tried in Venezuela of self-proclaimed authorities. It no longer matters that the OAS report (on the elections) was a lie, and that there were never any violations or fraud on the part of MAS. Its leaders are now refugees in other countries, persecuted by the real criminals: those who took power with the Bible in one hand and a gun in the other.

Since the very beginnings of the coup, Cuba has condemned it. We reaffirm here today our solidarity with compañero Evo Morales Ayma and the Bolivian people...

...What is also exceptional is that we have not resorted to easy neo-liberal formulas that are back in style, even though it is more than proven that they only serve to widen the gap between the few, very few, increasingly rich and rapidly impoverished majorities.

Let me recall that at the height of neoliberalism, in the 1990s, Fidel "went to the future and came back to tell it", as they say about his powerful foresight. In the context of an Ibero-American Summit, in 1993, our historic leader warned:

"Neoliberalism has no future and the time will come when all this will begin to be questioned, but time must pass and, in the meantime, we must be there fighting the most just causes, for the most correct ideas, raising consciousness. It is very important that the people become aware, and the people will become aware to the extent that they see that these formulas do not solve their problems.”

When Fidel expressed that criticism in advance, the system’s theorists were determined to convince us that capitalism was the end of history. Today we could say that we are witnessing the end of the history of capitalism. All we see is a repetition of formulas that have already proven to be ineffective and, what is worse, in spite of their high social cost.

No, thank you, we do not want that for our people. We want prosperity and we are going to fight for it with all our might; but never at the cost of leaving the majority out of any benefit.

We are not interested in a society, as we have seen so many out there, where the lights that advertise progress overshadow the stars in the sky, while hundreds of people sleep in parks and dozens of children throw themselves onto air-conditioned vehicles to clean the windows of their well-to-do passengers, men and women who think they can ease their consciences by throwing them a few coins for food...

...There is much to be said and done, but we also need to take the time to celebrate the year that is coming to an end, full of tension and challenges, but just as much, full of victories.

Let us live the next days and hours as if the Revolution were triumphing again. The Revolution triumphs every time we snatch a victory for our cause from the empire. And in 2019 we did it many times.

May our urban and rural squares be filled with music and joy.

There is every reason to celebrate. In the 61st year of the Revolution, they threw us to our death and we are alive. Alive, celebrating and determined to continue winning.

Homeland or Death!

Socialism or Death!

Veneceremos!

For the full speech see: http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2019-12-23/diaz-canel-to-the-people-of-cuba-united-we-have-won-united-we-will-win?fbclid=IwAR34XGu5EMuB08-E0bSzcAaa2BHE3Xd6Kt5-gjUXOtChwwYLbMkuDE3bgNg

Viva Cuba!

"We do not comply with sanctions, threats, or slander from the U.S. government, which along with the reactionary oligarchies are primarily responsible for our region's dangerous convulsion and instability" - Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuban President

"The cause of the legitimate and mass protests in Latin America is the inequality and poverty caused by imperialist domination and neoliberalism. The U.S. blames Cuba as a pretext to tighten its genocidal blockade and justify the brutal repression and criminalization of demonstrations." - Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez

Art: Viktor Koretsky, USSR, 1962

Source: 'US Is Responsible for Discontent in Latin America' Cuba Blames

Solidarity with Cuba!

The bigoted, imperialist Trump regime has been intensifying the criminal and illegal economic war and blockade against both Venezuela and Cuba. 

Despite decades of economic warfare against it Cuba has resisted all American attempts to destroy its independence and its fight to create a socialist society. It will continue to resist.

"They intend to strangle the economy and damage Cubans’ standard of living, to wrest political concessions from us. They will fail once again. " - Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla June 4, 2019

“Work, creativity, effort, and resistance is our answer. They have not been able to asphyxiate us. They cannot stop us. We will live and we will triumph" - Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Granma June 5, 2019

Solidarity with Cuba! 

(Quotes from Granma June 5, 2019)

Miguel Diaz-Canel, Kinder Morgan, Starbucks & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 15-22

via Telesur on Facebook

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  April 15 - 22. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.


This installment has four entries from before the period. They have been integrated into the post.

1) First Nations say Trudeau doesn't have their consent to build Trans Mountain

Hilary Beaumont, Vice News

Justin Trudeau’s government is inching closer to a head-on collision with opposing First Nations, mayors and the B.C. government over the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Read the full article.

2) My Epiphany About the Problem With Apu

Jeet Heer, The New Republic

On last Sunday’s episode of The Simpsons, Marge and Lisa had an awkward mother-daughter conversation about a children’s book that Marge loved as a child, but which, upon revisiting, turns out to have an embarrassing colonial subtext. “Well what am I supposed to do?” Marge asked. “It’s hard to say,” Lisa said. “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” Then Lisa looks at a framed picture on her nightstand of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, an Indian-American character at the center of a debate over racist stereotyping on the nearly 30-year-old show.

Read the full article.

3) Tesla says its factory is safer. But it left injuries off the books

 Will Evans and Alyssa Jeong Perry, Reveal News

But things are not always as they seem at Tesla. An investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that Tesla has failed to report some of its serious injuries on legally mandated reports, making the company’s injury numbers look better than they actually are.

Read the full article.

4) From Starbucks to Hashtags: We Need to Talk About Why White Americans Call the Police on Black People


Jason Johnson, The Root

As horrible as the realities of American policing can be for black America, we can’t ever forget that there are even worse people out there. They’re peering out from the curtains of their house, information kiosks and “liberal” coffee counters, surreptitiously dialing their phones, whispering the exaggerations and Trumped-up fears that make America’s violent policing possible.

Read the full article.

5) 2 black men arrested at Starbucks get an apology from police

Errin Haines Whack, AP News

On Thursday, they also got an apology from Philadelphia police Commissioner Richard Ross, a black man who at first staunchly defended his officers’ handling of the encounter.

Read the full article.

6) Why Starbucks shouldn't be praised for its misguided racism workshops

Hina Tai, The Guardian

There is a place for recognizing the critical role of implicit bias in racial disparities; it’s just not here. Bottom line – don’t be too quick to label Starbucks’ racial implicit bias trainings a victory. It’s far from it. The process for change is uncomfortable and if it’s not, then it’s probably not working.

Read the full article.

7) Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans?

Adam Frank, The Atlantic

By asking about civilizations lost in deep time, we’re also asking about the possibility for universal rules guiding the evolution of all biospheres in all their creative potential, including the emergence of civilizations. Even without pickup-driving Paleocenians, we’re only now learning to see how rich that potential might be.

Read the full article.

8) Call me radical, but journalists should be able to pledge support for Palestinian journalists 

Neil Macdonald, CBC News

Call me radical, but I've always thought there are at least two subjects on which journalists are absolutely entitled to express public opinions: freedom of expression, and attacks on journalists.

Read the full article.

9) North and South Korea reportedly set to announce official end to war

Sam Meredith, CNBC News

North and South Korea are in talks to announce a permanent end to the officially declared military conflict between the two countries, daily newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed South Korean official.

Read the full article.

10) How Doug Ford's pledge of 'zero income tax' leaves minimum wage earners worse off

Mike Crawley, CBC News

Doing the math reveals Liberal, NDP plan for $15 hourly rate puts more money in workers' pockets.

Read the full article.

11) These Appear To Be The Toronto Sun’s Provincial Election Plans

Jonathan Goldsbie, Canadaland

There’s nothing surprising about the fact the Toronto Sun might take an anti-Liberal line heading in to the June 7 Ontario election. What’s somewhat more remarkable, however, is that they’d feel the need to set that down on paper.

Read the full article.

12) The restaurant industry ran a private poll on the minimum wage. It did not go well for them. 

Lisa Graves and Zaid Jilani, The Intercept

The poll — which was presented on a slide deck obtained by The Intercept and Documented — found that seven in 10 Americans want to see the minimum wage raised even if it means that they’d have to pay more for meals. It also found that the industry’s various talking points against raising the wage are mostly falling flat with the general public.

Read the full article.

13) Syria airstrikes added $10 billion to missile manufacturer stock values

C. J. Atkins, People's World

War, who is it good for? Missile manufacturers, that’s who.

Read the full article.

14) There’s dumb, and there’s Alberta dumb—and Rachel Notley’s Bill 12 is both

Martyn Brown, The Georgia Straight

The emperor has no clothes, I suggest. Be it the one occupying the prime minister’s office in Ottawa, or the tiny Tories of all political stripes in Edmonton.

Read the full article.

15) Prof. Mike Davis: “There Was Once A Generation of Lions”

Mohsen Abdelmoumen, American Herald Tribune

A 'triage' of humanity is in progress and in such times one must take a stand for the species not for the nation, for the necessary not for the immediately realistic.   The key question is not the growing inequality of wealth and income as the Occupy movements maintain, but the privatization of economic power that ensures such inequalities.  Future survival for the majority of the world's population requires that the economic surpluses generated by the information revolution and globalization are invested wisely in rebuilding our living environments and equalizing a high quality of living (which is not the same as rampant consumption).  How to democratize economic power?  Socialists may not yet have found the path, but they are the only ones urgently looking.

Read the full interview.

16) Dozens of American Jews arrested protesting Gaza violence

Edo Konrad, 972 Magazine

From Boston to San Francisco, young activists from IfNotNow demonstrate outside the offices of prominent Jewish institutions and senators, demanding they condemn Israel’s violence against Gaza protesters.

Read the full article.

17) Natalie Portman Says ‘Jewish Values’ Caused Her To Scrap Israel Visit For Genesis Prize

Dave Goldiner, Forward

Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman has refused to travel for Israel to accept a $2 million award, citing her “Jewish values” as an imperative to stand up for justice amid an increasingly deadly conflict with the Palestinians.

Read the full article.

18) Likud MK: Strip Natalie Portman of her citizenship

Arutz Sheva 

MK Hazan calls on Interior Minister to strip Portman of her citizenship, Culture Minister Regev says Portman fell into hands of BDS.

Read the full article.

19) Portman’s V for Vendetta Against Netanyahu Touches Raw Nerve for Israel

Chemi Shalev, Haaretz

Natalie Portman’s decision to withdraw from the Jerusalem ceremony to mark her acceptance of the $2 million Genesis Prize is, not to put too fine a point on it, a very big deal.

Read the full article.

20) Tory leadership candidate worries weed will make Nova Scotians lazy like Jamaicans

Jacob Boon, The Coast

One of the candidates hoping to lead the Progressive Conservative Party is concerned legalized cannabis could have the same impact on Nova Scotia's productivity as she assumes it's had on Jamaica's economy.

Read the full article.

21) B.C. First Nation wins right to its own commercial fishery

The Canadian Press

A group of West Coast First Nations has won the right to harvest and sell fish commercially after a 12-year court battle.

Read the full article.

22) Kevin Taft on what turned Rachel Notley from crusading critic to big oil crusader

Kevin Taft, The National Observer

I spent four years in the Alberta legislature with Rachel Notley, from 2008 to 2012. I liked and admired her and was delighted when she became premier in 2015. Today when I watch her on pipeline and oil issues I ask myself, what happened to the Rachel Notley I knew? And I wonder if the same thing will happen to John Horgan.

Read the full article.

23) Stop the Kinder Morgan bailout

Lead Now

Right now, Trudeau is considering using your tax dollars to bail out Texas oil giant Kinder Morgan’s floundering pipeline and tanker scheme. 

Read/sign the petition.

24) The gender pay gap is not a myth. Here are 6 common claims debunked

Marilisa Racco, Global News  

This fact (and the figures that back it up) are consistently argued and even denied by many people. In the spirit of clarification, Global News has broken down the common misperceptions around the gender pay gap and answered some of the most popular claims from opponents.

Read the full article.

25) 'One day that door will open': Women of colour talk about racism on campaign trail

Sherri Borden Colley · CBC News

One woman was asked if she was lost when she filed her papers to run; another heard refugees 'were a threat'.

Read the full article.

26) Anti-Abortion Leader Emerges As White Nationalist

Laura Bassett, The Huffington Post

Anti-abortion groups are distancing themselves from a prominent writer, activist and thought leader in the movement who has leaned into white nationalism since Donald Trump’s election.

Read the full article.

27) Sexual Harassment Was Rampant at Coachella 2018

Vera Papisova, Teen Vogue

I interviewed 54 women at Coachella, and they all said they had been sexually harassed.

Read the full article.

28) Don’t be fooled by Emmanuel Macron the ‘moderate’

Owen Jones, The Guardian

The French president is hailed as a centrist saviour, a bulwark against extremes – even as he cuts taxes for the wealthy, attacks workers’ rights and demonises refugees.

Read the full article.

29) Canada’s Wealthy Elites Are Dodging More Taxes Through Loopholes Than Previously Thought

Press Progress

It’s a wonderful time to be a wealthy tax dodger in Canada, new data from Finance Canada suggests.

Read the full article.

30) Trudeau not ready to join British PM's ban on single-use plastics

CBC News

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stopped short today of echoing British Prime Minister Theresa May's call for Commonwealth members to ban single-use plastics — but pointed to a planned discussion at the next G7 summit, being hosted by Canada later this year.

Read the full article

31) Blackface is free speech but anti-Bush tweet is not at California university

Sam Levin, The Guardian

The divergent responses have provided a stark illustration of what some critics say is a double standard that has emerged in the fraught campus free speech debates of recent years. That is, in the face of conservative outrage over controversial leftwing views, colleges are quick to condemn and censor. But when racism, hate speech and pro-fascist views emerge, university presidents regularly declare their unwavering commitment to free speech rights – no matter the content.

Read the full article.

32) Yanis Varoufakis: Marx predicted our present crisis – and points the way out

Yanis Varoufakis, The Guardian

The Communist Manifesto foresaw the predatory and polarised global capitalism of the 21st century. But Marx and Engels also showed us that we have the power to create a better world.

Read the full article.

33) Miguel Diaz-Canel Elected as Cuba's New President

Telesur

The council of 31 deputies – made up of workers, students, women and peasants – confirmed the nomination of Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Read the full article.

34) Who Is Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba's New President?

Telesur

The Cuban National Assembly elected Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez, a 57-year-old Cuban born two years after the island’s socialist revolution, as the country's new head of the Council of State and therefore the president of the Caribbean country. During his speech after he was sworn-in, Diaz-Canel vowed to be faithful to the legacy of late Cuban President Fidel Castro and his revolution.

Read the full article.

35) Cuba's New President Vows to Defend Socialist Revolution

Telesur

Cuba's new president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, began his term on Thursday with a promise to defend the socialist revolution led by the Castro brothers since 1959, giving a sober speech that also emphasized the need to modernize the island's economy.

Read the full article.

36) UN's Mideast Envoy Blasts Israel Over Gaza Deaths: 'Stop Shooting at Children'

Noa Landau and Jack Khoury, Haaretz

War of words erupts between Nickolay Mladenov and former IDF spokesman over fatal shooting of 15-year-old Palestinian during border protest. Trump envoy Greenblatt says Israel has launched investigation of the incident.

Read the full article.

See also: The Notley-Trudeau Pipeline Axis, Syria, Doug Ford & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 8 - 15