Coronavirus, Nova Scotia Shootings, Tara Reade, Lenin 150 & more -- The Week in News and Opinion April 19 - 26

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

This list covers the week of  April 19 - 26.

This week's edition begins again with a very large roundup of news and left opinion about the capitalist coronavirus crisis and its impact on working people globally. There are also a number of links related to the terrible mass shooting in Nova Scotia, Tara Reade's allegations against Joe Biden and the 150th anniversary of Lenin's birth.

The Featured Article link at the start is an important piece by Pamela Palmater on the attempts by governments in Canada to use the coronavirus crisis as cover to attack the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous people. 

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

Featured Post:

Under cover of COVID-19, rule of law falters

Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada, Indigenous peoples and allies were engaged in nationwide solidarity actions in support of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, its traditional leaders and clan members. Their actions were in response to RCMP removing Wet’suwet’en peoples from their homes to allow construction of Coastal Gaslink pipeline on their territory without their consent. Solidarity actions included peaceful occupations of railways, ports, bridges, highways, legislatures and minister’s offices supporting Wet’suwet’en calls for RCMP and Coastal Gaslink off Wet’suwet’en lands.

Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis

- 'Violent Men Are To Blame, Not The Virus’: Lockdown Sees Rise In Women Being Killed

- Women disproportionately 'bearing the brunt' of coronavirus crisis, advocates say

- Sexism on the Covid-19 frontline: 'PPE is made for a 6ft 3in rugby player'

- COVID-19 Lockdowns Harmfully Impacting Millions of Children: UN

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

- So much for entitled millennials – it’s billionaires such as Richard Branson who are begging for loans

- Call for Virgin Atlantic to be nationalised after billionaire Branson asks taxpayers to bail him out

- Disney to stop paying 100,000 workers but is still on track to give shareholders $1.5 billion

- Carnival Executives Knew They Had a Virus Problem, But Kept the Party Going

- Ruth’s Chris Made $468 Million in Revenue but Gobbled Up $20 Million in Small Business Relief

- CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating

- Coronavirus pandemic 'will cause famine of biblical proportions'

- ‘Instead of Coronavirus, the Hunger Will Kill Us.’ A Global Food Crisis Looms.

- WHO to Receive $30 Million From China to Fight COVID-19

- Palestine Receives Medical Aid from China to Fight COVID-19

- 'We’re in a prison': Singapore's migrant workers suffer as Covid-19 surges back

- As pandemic rages, U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba are getting deadlier

- Cuban doctors are the world’s heroes — their nation needs us now

- U.S. Blockade Prevents Swiss Aid to Cuba

- Cuban Doctors Head to South Africa to Help Fight COVID-19

- Cuban Doctors Arrive in Honduras to Fight COVID-19

- Cuba's Medical Brigade Arrives in Cape Verde to Face COVID-19

- Argentina Welcomes Cuban Medical Aid, Slams US Blockade

- “We Don’t Have the Capacity to Treat”: Palestinian-Canadian Doctor Says Israel Must Lift Gaza Siege

- “The question was whether to die of hunger or coronavirus”: Garment factories reopen in Haiti despite fears

- Hunger Protests Grow in Colombia Amid Coronavirus Lockdown

- Latin America Surpasses 100,000 Infections From COVID-19

- Bolivia: Social Leaders Denounce Gov't for Rights Violations

- Peru: Poor People Undertake Exodus to Their Home Towns

- “Physical Distance, Social Unity”: How India’s Red State Got on Top of Coronavirus

- Domestic Violence Increases 431% in Brazil Amid Lockdown

- Brazil Registers Record of Daily Deaths as Hospitals Collapse

- Brazil becoming virus outbreak centre as hospitals reach breaking point

- Students across Europe fight COVID-19 and the neoliberal state

- Demands of European communists in response to the coronavirus pandemic

- Italy: COVID-19 Plunged One Million People Into Poverty

Social distancing is important...which is why our politicians need to stop being hypocrites about it:




- OPEN LETTER: Indigenous Leaders, Doctors, Nurses And Others Call For Closure Of Construction Camps (Canada) 

- Manitoba universities told to cut costs by up to 30% to help province endure pandemic

- Environmentalists slam Ontario for suspending oversight regulation amid pandemic

- Coronavirus discriminates against Black lives through surveillance, policing and the absence of health data

- Grocery workers talk poverty wages and pandemic profits (Canada)

- RELEASE NON-VIOLENT OFFENDERS FROM CANADIAN PRISONS (Canada)

- Coronavirus: Outbreak in federal women's prison validates worst fears of advocates (Canada)

- Bike couriers in Toronto risking illness to deliver 'junk food to rich people'

- Military and hospital teams won’t stop long-term care nightmare; test, identify and relocate residents’ with COVID-19, union asks (Canada)

- GM Oshawa plant will now produce millions of masks following worker mobilization: CUPE Ontario

Doug Ford does not deserve any praise...and neither do other neo-liberal politicians:



- Trump Says He'll Suspend All Immigration Into The United States Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

- Trump Was Real Time Informed During COVID-19 Outbreak in China

- Trump suggests 'injection' of disinfectant to beat coronavirus and 'clean' the lungs

- The White House Has Erected a Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE

- Amazon reaps $11,000-a-second coronavirus lockdown bonanza

- Hundreds of Amazon Workers Strike Over Unsafe Working Conditions

- Amazon Will Not Change Without a Union

- Las Vegas workers push back after mayor's call to reopen casinos and hotels

- COVID-19: Lockdowns Pushing Mass Transit to Brink & Low-Income Riders Will Pay the Price

- 'Heroes': Healthcare Workers Stand in Street to Block Right-Wing Protest Against Colorado Stay-at-Home Order

- Hundreds Defy Common Sense, Safety At Infowars Rally To Reopen Businesses

- KENTUCKY REPORTS HIGHEST CORONAVIRUS INFECTION INCREASE AFTER A WEEK OF PROTESTS TO REOPEN STATE

- Give Me Liberty and Also Death

- Right Wing Brain Worms - Hellworld #9 (Podcast)

- The whiteness of anti-lockdown protests

- 'A phantom plague': America's Bible Belt played down the pandemic and even cashed in. Now dozens of pastors are dead

Brazil:

- Brazil's star justice minister Sérgio Moro resigns in blow to Jair Bolsonaro

- Brazil's Attorney General Demands Inquiry Against Bolsonaro

Canada:

- Ecosocialists Demand Immediate Increase in Minimum Wage for Essential Workers (BC)

- TRUDEAU’S PATCHWORK INCOME DEAL IS INSUFFICIENT

- Why Isn’t Canada Treating Climate Change With the Same Urgency as COVID-19?

- University students demand lower tuition, fees as classes move online

- Alberta Pension Manager That Lost Billions Made Big Investments in Conservative Donors’ Companies: Report

Climate Emergency:

- Europe had hottest year on record in 2019, report shows

Feminism:

- Author of book about victim blaming bombarded with misogynist abuse

Israel / Palestine:

- Israeli plans for occupied West Bank would violate international law: EU

Lenin 150:

- The future belongs to socialism -- Statements from around the world on the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth

- Capitalism is not the end of history -- More statements from around the world on the 150th anniversary of Lenin’s birth

- Cuban Communist Party sends message on 150th anniversary of Lenin's birth

- Cuban workers honor Lenin and convoke May Day mobilization

- Lenin in Urdu: His Every Word Became Poetry

Nova Scotia Shootings:

- Nova Scotia mass shooting lays bare media's white male bias

- Nova Scotia shootings began after gunman attacked his girlfriend, sources say

- Women’s Shelters Canada Calls on Authorities to Acknowledge Gendered Aspect of Nova Scotia Mass Shooting

- Misogyny is often behind the acts we deem ‘senseless’

- When real life turns surreal

Porn/Prostitution:

- What does pornography reveal about the world we are a part of?

United Kingdom:

- Half of frontline care workers paid less than living wage

- The leaked Labour report should have been an explosive scandal

United States:

- Noam Chomsky Is a Liberal

- The Moral and Strategic Calculus of Voting for Joe Biden to Defeat Trump — or Not

- Do I have to vote for a rapist if I live in a swing state?

- On The Record: A Former Biden Staffer's Sexual Assault Allegation

- Tara Reade says Joe Biden sexually assaulted her. She deserves to be heard

- NEW EVIDENCE SUPPORTING CREDIBILITY OF TARA READE’S ALLEGATION AGAINST JOE BIDEN EMERGES

Climate Change, Ahed Tamimi, Doug Ford & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List July 29 - August 5

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 edition opens with a section of articles devoted to the alarming manifestation of climate change over the course of this summer.


This list covers the week of July 29 - August 5. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

There are several articles included from prior to the period. They have been incorporated into the post.

1) These six species are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry

Jake Bullinger, The Guardian

Republican-led changes to the Endangered Species Act put plants and animals across America at risk. Here are the ones you should be most concerned about.

Read the full article.

2) Japan’s record-breaking heatwave declared natural disaster, 80 dead

Lorraine Chow, People's World

Hot, dry and fiery conditions are being seen by many parts of the globe right now. This includes Japan, where the nation’s meteorological agency just declared the extreme heat a “natural disaster.”

Read the full article.

3) Mainstream media obscures the truth about climate change from public eyes

Shane Quinn, The Morning Star

As the summer moves on, the world is literally burning under intense heat due to ever-worsening climate change, mainly as a result of government impotence under corporate sway.

Read the full article. 

4) World's largest king penguin colony declines by almost 90 percent

Al Jazeera

The world's biggest colony of king penguins has dwindled by almost 90 percent in 30 years, a new research has said.

Read the full article. 

5) Senegal's Sinking Villages

Al Jazeera

Doune Baba Dieye was once a vibrant fishing community on the Langue de Barbarie, a narrow, 30km peninsula that has protected the Senegalese port city of Saint-Louis from the Atlantic Ocean for centuries.

Read the full article. 

6) As Climate Turns Deadly, Media Are Stuck in Denial

Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig 

If you live in California, the effects of climate change loom large this summer. In Southern California, where I live, back-to-back heat waves have enveloped suburbs in triple-digit temperatures for weeks now. In Northern California, a fire that has burned more than 100,000 acres and claimed the lives of several people in Shasta County has been declared the seventh worst in the state’s history.

Read the full article. 

7) How Record Heat Wreaked Havoc on Four Continents

Somini Sengupta, Tiffany May and Zia ur-Rehman, The New York Times

Expect more. That’s the verdict of climate scientists to the record-high temperatures this spring and summer in vastly different climate zones.

Read the full article.

8) The hottest rain on record

Al Jazeera

As the world waits to see if a new European temperature record will be set in Spain or Portugal on Saturday, another was broken in the US state of California.

Read the full article.

9) Ahed Tamimi Freed, Says Women Are Essential Part of Palestinian Cause

Telesur

Ahed Tamimi became a significant figure of the Palestinian resistance after standing up to Israeli forces who arrested her along with other family members.

Read the full article.

10) THE HOMECOMING

Alice Speri, The Intercept

As if anyone needed reminding, even on the day of her release from prison, Israeli authorities seemed to want to show Ahed Tamimi, her family, and her many supporters that they control Palestinian lives.

Read the full article.

11) Venezuela Lauds Ahed Tamimi Who Notes Maduro, Chavez Support

Telesur 

Tamimi expressed gratitude to the government, and specifically President Nicolas Maduro, for unwavering support for Palestine.

Read the full article.

12) Chomsky: Russian Meddling in US Election 'Nothing Compared to Israel's

Telesur

In an interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky accused the media of focusing "on issues which are pretty marginal.

Read the full article.

13) There is nothing compassionate about Minister MacLeod’s announcement: Ontario’s cuts to social assistance will hurt the most vulnerable in Ontario

ISAC

Minister MacLeod’s announcement to cut social assistance rates by 1.5 per cent will take approximately $150 million out of the hands of people who are among the most vulnerable in Ontario.

Read the full article.

14) Basic income recipients feel shock, betrayal at Ford government’s surprise move to cancel pilot program


Laurie Monsebraaten, The Star

People participating in Ontario’s basic income pilot project, who were beginning to breathe easier and plan for the future, are feeling betrayed after the Ford government pulled the plug Tuesday, just over a year into the three-year experiment.

Read the full article.

15) Toronto needs to stop acting like Doug Ford is someone else’s fault

 John Michael McGrath, TVO

Jennifer Keesmaat launched her mayoral campaign with talk of “secession” — but if the city wants to leave Ontario, writes John Michael McGrath, it has to take Doug Ford in the divorce.

Read the full article. 

16) Doug Ford brings the American culture wars to Canada

David Moscrop, The Washington Post

To look at him, you would not think that Ontario Premier Doug Ford was a warrior. He always seems to have a smile on this face. Or at least a grin. He seems to be pointing all the time — as though he sees you. On first glance, he disarms you. He comes off more Augustus Gloop than Caesar Augustus.

Read the full article. 

17) COMMUNITY ACTIVIST HELEN KENNEDY RUNS FOR TDSB WARD 4 TRUSTEE

People's Voice

With Toronto’s municipal election less than three months away (October 22), a popular labour and community activist has thrown her hat into the ring as a candidate for School Trustee in Ward 4.

Read the full article.

18) Pakistan’s Ali Wazir: The lone Marxist to win despite Taliban killing 16 of his family

Farooq Tariq, The Print

A rare Communist to survive and win, Wazir refused a seat from Imran Khan, who later didn’t put up a candidate against him.

Read the full article.

19) Nine years on from the coup, we still need to stand up for Honduras

Chris Williamson, The Morning Star 

It's now nine years since the US backed the military coup in Honduras which deposed the progressive democratic government of president Manuel Zelaya.

Read the full article. 

20) Mexico: Violence, Corruption and Inequality — AMLO to the Rescue?

Michael Roberts, Socialist Project Bullet 

The victory in Mexico’s presidential election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), under the rubric of his relatively new ‘progressive’ Morena party, is both unsurprising and surprising. It’s unsurprising because AMLO had a huge and increasing lead in the opinion polls leading up to polling day. And Mexico’s 88 million voters (out of 127 million people) have now given him the biggest win in post-war election history, with over 53 per cent of the vote. The candidates of the establishment parties were way behind. For the first time, the parties of the elite and the status quo were split over who should be their standard bearer. And the sheer anger and frustration at the state of Mexico’s economy and daily life for average citizens has swept AMLO into office.

Read the full article. 

21) Republicans step up attacks on the poor

Josh Bivens, People's World

This week, congressional Republicans doubled down on their tax scam for the rich and corporations―introducing Tax Scam Round 2, which if passed, would be used as an excuse for further attacks on critical services.

Read the full article.

22) Trump Administration Eyes Capital Gains Tax Cut

Scott Horsley, NPR

The administration is studying a proposal to cut capital gains taxes, a move that would primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans.

Read the full article. 

23) 200 Migrants Killed on US-Mexico Border in 2018, Trump Threatens Shutdown

Telesur

From January first to July 30th of this year 200 undocumented migrants have died in the routes crossing the Mexico-US border.

Read the full article.

24) A Look Back At Trayvon Martin's Death, And The Movement It Inspired

Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR

Most of us remember the broad outlines of the story: 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was followed, shot and killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., on the night of Feb. 26, 2012.

Read the full article.

25) Canada’s richest families own as much wealth as 3 provinces combined: report

Erica Alini, Global News 

Fewer than 90 families in Canada hold roughly as much wealth as what everyone living in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island collectively owns.

Read the full article. 

26) What does the new Cuban constitution mean for the island nation and its revolution?

Lauren Collins, The Morning Star 

On June 2 this year, an extraordinary session of Cuba’s National Assembly (its parliament), created a commission to draw up an initial draft of a new constitution for the island nation which for 60 years has defied US efforts to end its revolution.

Read the full article. 

27) Disneyland agrees to pay its workers $15 an hour

Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN

Unions representing nearly 10,000 Disneyland workers accepted Disney's three-year contract to raise starting hourly wages to $15 an hour beginning next year. The agreement ends a lengthy labor battle over pay at Disney's Anaheim resort.

Read the full article. 

28) ‘We are Q’: A deranged conspiracy cult leaps from the Internet to the crowd at Trump’s ‘MAGA’ tour

Isaac Stanley-Becker, The Washington Post

The Newport Beach Police Department said recently it was looking into the presence of a man outside Michael Avenatti’s law office after a link to the lawyer’s website and images of his office building appeared in QAnon threads. This spring, armed members of Veterans on Patrol stumbled on a homeless camp and demanded that authorities investigate it as a site of child sex-trafficking, NBC reported. They later thanked QAnon followers for taking up their cause.

Read the full article. 

29) Pope Francis Changes Catholic Church Teaching to Oppose Death Penalty, Declares it 'Inadmissible'

Telesur

The Roman Catholic Church formally changed its stance on the death penalty Thursday making it inadmissible in all circumstances, a move that is likely to be viewed askance in countries where capital punishment is legal.

Read the full article. 

30) THE STORY OF THE ‘LARGEST URBAN EVICTION CAMPAIGN’ IN CANADA

Vanmala Subramaniam, Vice

A tiny cockroach scurries along the mouldy crevice of an unwashed kitchen counter, almost barging into a pile of raw meat, cubed, and ready to cook. It’s headed in the direction of the clogged kitchen sink, half-filled with water that has a murky yellow colour to it. In the living room, an 18-year-old disabled girl lies on a mobile bed, smiling and laughing when she sees her father enter the house. It’s hot in Jamale Hussein’s house — with no ceiling fans or central air-conditioning, there’s little respite from the sweltering July heat of Canada’s capital city.

Read the full article. 

31) ‘They have nothing’: How a $20 tip cost an immigrant her Dulles job and severed a lifeline to Sierra Leone

Theresa Vargas, The Washington Post 

The tip that led to her firing she said came from a couple from Saudi Arabia flying first class. She said her managers never spoke to them or they would have known that the only discussion that occurred about money took place between the couple and in Arabic. Jalloh said she and another wheelchair worker had taken the couple to where they needed to go and once they stopped, the man pulled out a $20 bill for them to split. Jalloh said she would have been grateful for that amount but that the man’s wife then said something to him in Arabic, and he pulled out two $20 bills, one for each worker.

Read the full article. 

32) Hamilton's homeless campers told to pack up, get out but say there's nowhere to go

Dan Taekema · CBC News

Billy Case and his girlfriend AJ sorted through a pile of everything they own Thursday afternoon, deciding what they'll be able to carry on their backs and what they'll have to leave behind.

Read the full article. 

33) Revolutionary rallying cry for tenant rights in Hamilton

Teviah Moro, The Hamilton Spectator 

In a brewing battle over affordable housing, four apartment towers in Stoney Creek are at the centre of a new brand of activism that involves people of all ages, backgrounds and political stripes.

Read the full article. 

34) Socialism on the Rise as Americans Seek Out Bold, Humane Alternatives to the Brutality of Trump and Capitalism

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams 

The thousands of democratic socialists in the United States who have been organizing and fighting for justice in political obscurity for years likely never thought their ideas would be the subject of heated debates on prominent talk-shows like "The View" or feature pieces in such establishment mainstays as PBS and NPR.

Read the full article. 

35) Transit Union Refuses to Bring White Nationalists to 'Unite the Right' Rally

Erin Corbett, Fortune

Washington D.C.’s metro rail system is considering providing separate trains for white nationalists attending the so-called “Unite the Right” rally next weekend, according to the Washington Post. The rally, taking place at the National Mall, will be held on the anniversary of last year’s deadly events in Charlottesville, Va.

Read the full article. 

36) Unfounded rates start to fall in cities across Canada

Robyn Doolittle, The Globe and Mail

North Bay is a city of about 59,000 people in northern Ontario that, until a few years ago, had one of the worst sexual assault unfounded rates in the country at 44 per cent.

Read the full article. 

37) Women in South Africa are marching against gender violence with #TotalShutdown protest

Damilola Odufuwa, CNN

Women in various parts of South Africa have taken to the streets to protest the increasing levels of gender-based violence in the country.

Read the full article. 

38) This is what the life of an incel looks like

Elle Reeve, Vice

Joey’s studio apartment has one huge window with the blinds drawn, a bed with a mattress pad but no sheets, and a laptop. He almost never leaves. He spends all day chatting online, smoking Newports, sometimes going for two days straight. The blinds are drawn to cut down on the glare on the laptop. "Honestly I feel more real here, sitting in front of a computer. When I go outside I almost depersonalize a little bit and feel like I'm playing a video game,” Joey said. “I don't know why that is. It's just a state of mind. It's probably just a side effect of isolation.”

Read the full article. 

39) 500-strong Barcelona rally for a 'socialist Catalan republic'

Socialist World 

Over 500 people attended the international rally organised by Esquerra Revolucionaria (CWI in Catalonia), on 17 July, in defence of a Catalan Republic of workers and youth.

Read the full article. 

40) NRA Says It Faces A Financial Crisis In Lawsuit Against New York State Officials

Shannon Van Sant and Brian Mann, NPR

The National Rifle Association says it could soon face a financial crisis that will force it to shut down some of its operations, including broadcasts by its NRA TV division. The gun rights group blames a campaign by Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo aimed at discouraging insurance companies and other financial institutions from doing business with the NRA.

Read the full article. 

41) Maduro Survives Drone Attack, Says Suspects Captured

Telesur

"They have tried to assassinate me today, and everything points to the Venezuelan ultra-right and the Colombian ultra-right," President Nicolas Maduro said.

Read the full article. 

42) Africa: Revolutionary Intellectuals 'Inspired By Latin America'

Andre Vitchek, Telesur

Africa is bleeding, but slowly waking up, trying to move forward. There is no doubt that the momentum is building, writes Andre Vitchek.

Read the full article. 

43) Brazil party names jailed leader as presidential nominee

The Globe and Mail 

The Workers’ Party in Brazil named jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday as its nominee for the country’s top job.

Read the full article. 

See also: Doug Ford, the Toronto Sun, European Austerity, Ahed Tamimi & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List July 22 - 29

4 dudes and an accused rapist -- what some folks think passes for the "left" these days

Julian Assange

Have you all seen that Telesur article about "What 5 Leading Leftists Think About the UK Leaving the EU"?

I have. All over the place. Shared countless times.

And it is just an awful reminder of how far the left has to go.

Why?


Because, reading the piece they should make the title "What 5 MALE leftists think" as the folks who wrote it could not be bothered to find out what a single

leftist woman thought on this staggeringly important issue...you know in 20fucking16.

Five guys, four of them white, get to meditate on Brexit and represent the "left"!

Great.

And one of them is accused rapist Julian Fucking Assange. A man who is not a leftist -- at least not one that any of us should want to have anything to do with.

He is a man who has managed so far to flee justice despite the actual facts about the case against him that so many seek to continuously ignore.

For many leftists I guess "I believe women" only applies when it is the women you want to believe and when it does not involve rapists you see as heroes.



The reality that so many on the left seem to still admire this guy and seek out his opinion -- not for what he once may have done but still in spite of the facts about him that are well established -- is a depressing comment on the prevalence of misogyny and rape culture in our movements.

The fact that a major publication could post and that so many would share an all male lineup as somehow representative of leading leftist viewpoints in the here-and-now is not just tone deaf but distressing and pathetic.





We can and have to do better than this.