May Day 2020, Bolsonaro, the Bailouts & more -- The Week in News and Opinion April 26 - May 3

May Day, Istanbul

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 26 - May 3.

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 International Workers' Day and Bolsonaro in Brazil.

The Featured Article link at the start is an excellent piece by Roger D. Harris about the trouble with buying into "lesser evil" narratives when it comes to Biden vs. Trump.

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

Featured Article:

Trump and Biden Trade Hit Pieces: Distinctions without a Difference

This season’s sequel to the Game of Thrones features reality TV star and current occupant of the Oval Office versus the former Senator from MBNA and two-term VP. It’s time to binge watch dueling hit pieces from the US electoral duopoly going at it.

Capitalist Coronavirus Crisis:

If you were in any doubt who the bailouts are really for Wall St. stocks saw record gains in April even as millions of people lost their jobs, were tossed scraps by our governments and face bankruptcy. Meanwhile billionaires like Elon Musk remind us that they need labour to make all their vast wealth and call for workers to head back to dangerous jobs even if they might face illness or death while Trudeau backs away from making sure offshore companies can't get handouts...still think "we are all in this together"?



- AS AMAZON, WALMART, AND OTHERS PROFIT AMID CORONAVIRUS CRISIS, THEIR ESSENTIAL WORKERS PLAN UNPRECEDENTED STRIKE

- Amazon Reinstates Fired Warehouse Worker After Employees Strike

- Women killed in Spain as coronavirus lockdown sees rise in domestic violence

- Mexico sees almost 1,000 women murdered in three months as domestic abuse concerns rise amid coronavirus

- French NGO Nominates Cuban Medical Brigades For Nobel Peace Prize

- US Prevents Cuba From Acquiring Pharmaceutical Raw Materials

- Cuba Cannot Get Swiss Respirators Due to US Inhuman Blockade

- Another life-saving brigade travels to South Africa

- Cuba Plans National Production of Drug Against COVID-19

- Former Jamaican Prime Minister Applauds Cuba's Generosity

- SOCIALISM VS CAPITALISM IN THE BATTLE AGAINST CORONAVIRUS

- Foodsters United Statement on Foodora Closing its Canadian Operations

- Help Support Foodsters United (petition) 

- Canada's early COVID-19 cases came from the U.S. not China, provincial data shows

- Right-wing political strategies based on anti-Chinese prejudice are growing

- New national group forms to combat racism against Asian Canadians

- Anti-Asian racism during coronavirus: How the language of disease produces hate and violence

- Fifty days into the COVID-19 pandemic, and homeless people are still in a desperate situation (Canada)

- Meet the Strange and Mysterious Group Organizing Anti-Lockdown Protests Across Canada

- Many Ontario workers are trying to refuse work due to COVID-19 fears — but the government isn’t letting them

- U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Is Far Higher Than Reported, C.D.C. Data Suggests

- 'America In the Age of Trump': Armed Gunmen Enter Michigan Capitol Demanding End to Covid-19 Lockdown

- Hundreds of protesters, some carrying guns in the state Capitol, demonstrate against Michigan's emergency measures

- US intelligence agencies under pressure to link coronavirus to Chinese labs

- Anti-Lockdown Rallies Are Providing an Opening for the Proud Boys and Other Far-Right Extremists

- Maryland called in National Guard troops to defend coronavirus tests from South Korea against seizure

- Georgia Went First. And It Screwed Up.

- Progressives Urge Congress to Stop 'Disgraceful' GOP Effort to Grant Corporations Immunity From Covid-19 Lawsuits

- Nearly 900 workers at Tyson meat plant in Indiana test positive for coronavirus

- Meatpackers and Others to Lose Jobless Benefits If They Refuse Return-to-Work Orders

- Lebanon Fights Country's Worst Financial Crisis Amid COVID-19

- Haiti: Food Crisis Persists Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

- Peru: Massive Exodus Continues Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

- Venezuela Leads Region in COVID-19 Tests Per Million People

- Kerala’s Social Policies Are the Best Prevention Against Future Pandemics

In this dispatch, Michael Laxer looks at how -- in contrast to Cuban internationalism and humanitarianism -- the US government has intensified their economic blockades during the capitalist coronavirus crisis despite the humanitarian toll this will take. He also looks at how we need to call out and oppose Canada's hypocritical complicity in this. 




Brazil:

- Brazil: Moro Testifies Against Bolsonaro Who Calls Him 'Judas'

- Moro Is the US' Candidate for Brazil 2022: Boaventura de Sousa

- Brazilian Court Orders Investigation Against Bolsonaro

- 'So what?': Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil's rising coronavirus death toll

Canada:

- Trudeau announces ban on 1,500 types of 'assault-style' firearms — effective immediately

- Nova Scotia Shooting Should Be a Turning Point in How We Address Abusive Men

- Wage subsidies for strikebreakers and no premium pay at the LCBO -- Dispatches from the bailouts

- John Ivison’s Attack On CERB Recipients Is Disgraceful

- Trudeau Refuses To Repeat Pledge To Cut Tax-Dodging Companies From COVID-19 Aid

- Some Canadians who received unsolicited copy of Epoch Times upset by claim that China was behind virus

- 8 environmental responsibilities Alberta’s oil and gas companies can skip because of coronavirus

- Jason Kenney’s Media Meltdown

- Disaster Capitalism at Work in Manitoba

Climate Emergency:

- Why Britain’s 2.5 billion paper coffee cups are an eco disaster

- Halt destruction of nature or suffer even worse pandemics, say world’s top scientists

- Insect numbers down 25% since 1990, global study finds

Ideas:

- Rosa Luxemburg warned us against national unity

International Workers' Day

- Proletarian comrades: It is necessary to organize and fight -- May Day statements from around the world

- May Day observed with call for fair wage, end to job cut, lay off (Bangladesh)

- Seriously...fuck capitalism -- A May Day message from The Left Chapter

- MAY DAY 2020: MASS STRUGGLE FOR A PEOPLE’S RECOVERY

- Virus worries haunt workers demanding rights on May Day

- CHANGE MUST COME – M’MEMBE (Zambia) 

Israel / Palestine:

- Trump’s OK on Israeli Annexation Is Like His Clorox Prescription: Toxic and Lethal

- Arab League Defines West Bank Annexation as "War Crime"

- B’Tselem Reports: Amid COVID-19 Emergency, Settler Violence Spikes

Latin America:

- Social Leader Killed in Colombia, 84 so Far in 2020

- Guatemalans Stage a Funeral Procession to Protest

- Chilean Police Violently Repress Protesters in Santiago

- Evo Morales Concerned Over Añez's Lack of Scientific Advisory

United States:

- Joe Biden Has Been Accused of Rape. Now What?

- The Democrats Seem Just Fine With Joe Biden’s Sexual Assault Allegations

- A former neighbor of Joe Biden's accuser Tara Reade has come forward to corroborate her sexual-assault account, saying Reade discussed the allegations in detail in the mid-1990s

- Demand Grows for Biden to Address Tara Reade Allegations as Democrats Wrestle With #MeToo Hypocrisy

- Donald Trump set to fall back on xenophobia with re-election plan in tatters

- US Unemployment Applications Reach 26.4 Million Amid Pandemic

- If a Budding Socialist Movement Can Defeat Amazon, Imagine What Else It Can Do

Venezuela:

- HANDS OFF VENEZUELA

- US to Mobilize Military Reservists in ‘Anti-Drug’ Operation Against Venezuela

- Former US Special Ops Soldier Led Plot to Invade Venezuela: Sources

Vietnam:

- Party, State leaders pay tribute to Uncle Ho on National Reunification Day

- Promoting the spirit of the Great Spring Victory of 1975 in the new period

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