The Pedestal Magazine Cover, May 1970 -- Daily LIFT #190

The Pedestal Magazine Cover, May 1970 -- Daily LIFT #190

On Mother's Day 50 years ago hundreds of women marched in Ottawa to fight for abortion rights and protest Canada's existing abortion laws. The Pedestal, a leftist women's liberation magazine, devoted much of their May issue that year to it.

You can learn more about this at this CBC report on the 50th anniversary of it: Canada's Abortion Caravan: Looking back at a historic reproductive rights movement

Scheer's Very Bad Week, PPC At It Again and more -- The Left Chapter Canadian Election Round-up Week Four

This is the fourth of our weekly Friday election round-ups of developments -- as well as the inane, bizarre, humorous and unusually facile -- in the great show that is mainstream bourgeois politics during the election of 2019.



The third was:  PPC Goes Ever Lower, Climate Fails, Brownface Aftermath and more -- The Left Chapter Canadian Election Round-up Week Three

Scheer's very bad week

Andrew Scheer spent the last week doing his best to make sure that any residual fallout from the Trudeau brownface scandal would fade away with one self-inflicted wound after another.

First there is the bizarre and somewhat humorous revelation that he trumped up his credentials as an insurance broker. Of all the many things one could fudge about on a "resume" for public office this has to be one of the most flatline and boring bourgeois options to pick.

Then came the French language TV debate where it was hard to pick a winner amidst the deadening boredom, but very easy to pick a loser that being Scheer. He performed poorly and was unusually wooden even by his standards and seemed terribly evasive on the issue of abortion rights. While during the debate itself he refused to state his personal views on abortion -- even though they are widely known -- he did tell everyone what they already know the next day. Really makes his "personally pro-life but will not reopen the debate if elected PM" line sound even less trustworthy.

This was only compounded by his apparent inability to name for a reporter "a single policy in your platform that you believe shows that you do support women’s rights?”.

Finally comes the revelation that Scheer holds American citizenship. This in-and-of-itself would really be no big deal -- not sure why anyone would have a problem with someone having dual citizenship -- were it not for the fact that he appeared to take issue with the former Governor General  Michaelle Jean holding it in 2005. 

Meanwhile Scheer tried to guard his right flank against the People's Party of Canada (PPC) with an appallingly reactionary pledge to cut foreign aid spending by 25 per cent. 

 For a laugh also see: The Conservatives Say Scheer Won The French Debate & Quebecers Are Ripping Apart The Post.

PPC on an ignorant roll

Last week we saw a number of examples of PPC bigotry and racism at work. Apparently the good folks in the party felt they did not want to let this momentum slip away!

Thus we learned that two PPC candidates tweeted a far right cartoon "of Jagmeet Singh wearing [a] turban with [a] bomb on it". Despite this being clearly racist -- and despite Singh having been the target of racism on a public street related to his turban in Montreal this week -- neither one has been dropped by Bernier.

Just to make sure everyone knows which side he is on, Bernier also retweeted this fake poster approvingly:

 Thanks Max. There might have been a few folks left who were under the illusion you were against fascism.

See also: Violent clashes break out at Maxime Bernier event in Hamilton

Not to be outdone...

Of course, the BQ would not want the PPC to hog the nativist spotlight in Quebec now would they?

Yes, the tweet actually calls for people to choose women and men who "are like them" and then ends by saying "Tomorrow belongs to you"!!!

Now, presumably they were hearkening back to the old PQ slogan of "Demain nous appartient", but given the rest of the statement it reminded a lot of people more of this:





When a party says it is not on the left...I take them at their word:

Not satire...honest.

One headline captures why when it comes to climate change, despite all the progressive rhetoric, the Liberals are a joke. 

Other notable stories:

NDP commits $10B for 500,000 new child-care spaces across Canada

NDP would allow new parents to receive full EI benefit over shortened leave, Singh says

Green party proposes a 'robot tax' when companies replace workers with machines

LOL!: He thought he was a candidate for the Marijuana Party. He was wrong

Communist candidate on the ballot in Nanaimo-Ladysmith

Communist Party leader says Canada is ‘ripe for socialism’

'Willing to be honest': Central Nova Communist candidate Chris Frazer says party will seek to address real needs

We Asked Candidates in Climate-Exposed Ridings for Their Emergency Plans

NEO-NAZI PARTY ACTIVE IN SCARBOROUGH

Manning Centre a main financial backer for network of ‘Proud’ Facebook pages

See also: PPC Goes Ever Lower, Climate Fails, Brownface Aftermath and more -- The Left Chapter Canadian Election Round-up Week Three

MMIWG Report, Climate Emergency, Cuba Blockade, Sudan & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos June 2 - 9

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos 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 June 2 - 9.

1) Inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women issues final report with sweeping calls for change

John Paul Tasker · CBC News

After more than three years, dozens of community meetings and testimony from well over 2,000 Canadians, the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls inquiry delivered its final report to the federal government at a ceremony in Gatineau, Que., today.

2) MMIWG cases continued at same rate even after national inquiry began, data shows

Jorge Barrera · CBC News

The rate of violence against Indigenous women and girls continued unabated during the mandate of the national inquiry created to investigate the root causes of the issue, according to figures in two separate databases provided to CBC News.

3) Conservative senators obstructing Indigenous rights bill

Dennis Gruending, Rabble

A group of Conservative senators are attempting to prevent an important piece of legislation from becoming law. Bill C-262 would ensure Canadian laws are consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). This bill passed resoundingly the House of Commons on May 30 by a vote of 206-79, with only the Conservatives voting against. It was then sent to the Senate for ratification.

4) Former Harper-era minister doubles down on calling MMIWG inquiry report 'propagandist'

Jorge Barrera · CBC News

A former federal Aboriginal affairs minister under the Stephen Harper government is doubling down on his social media claim that the finding of "genocide" by the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and girls was "propagandist."

5) We fact-checked a viral claim about who's killing MMIWG. It was wrong.

Emma McIntosh, The National Observer 

After the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women released its final report this week, you may have seen a statistic claiming Indigenous men killed 70 per cent of murdered Indigenous women.

6) MMIWG findings and recommendations deserve full support

Communist Party of Canada

The report issued on June 3 by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Reclaiming Power and Place, is a stunning indictment of the genocidal record and policies of the Canadian state, and a powerful call for immediate action towards justice and equality. The Communist Party of Canada extends our solidarity to all those who courageously testified to the Inquiry over the last three years, and supports their demands for a genuine transformation of this society.

7) MMIWG report calls for public inquiry into allegations of racism, sexual assault by Manitoba Hydro workers

Sean Kavanagh · CBC News 

The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls says Manitoba needs to look much deeper at the impact of its hydroelectric projects — not behind closed doors, but through a public inquiry.

8) The long fight against sex discrimination in the Indian Act

Scott Neigh, Rabble

Lynn Gehl is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe, an advocate and a writer  based in Peterborough, Ontario. Through her own decades-long court battle as well as her involvement in political mobilizations, she is a long-time participant in the fight against sex discrimination in the federal Indian Act. Scott Neigh interviews her about the history of that struggle and about the current "6(1)(a) All The Way" campaign that is putting pressure on the Trudeau government to remove the last elements of sex discrimination from the act.

9) 'Truths are piling up': The legal and moral imperatives behind the MMIWG's calls for justice

Chantelle Bellrichard · CBC News

In the wake of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Firls' final report, attention is now turning toward whether its 231 recommendations will be acted upon.

10) India weather: Temperature passes 50C Celsius in northern India

news.com.au

Temperatures passed 50 degrees Celsius in northern India as an unrelenting heatwave triggered warnings of water shortages and heatstroke.

11) How long could it take to clean up Alberta’s oilpatch? 2,800 years, Alberta Energy Regulator official warns

Emma McIntosh, Star Calgary & Mike De Souza, National Observer

It may take more than 2,800 years to clean up some of the decommissioned oil and gas wells currently dotting Alberta’s landscape, internal regulatory documents say.

12) FIRE ALARM: THIS IS NOT A DRILL

Emma McIntosh, Star Calgary 

Alberta won’t stop burning. Neither will B.C., Ontario, Quebec, the Prairies, the territories, the Maritimes nor any of the 96 per cent of Canada’s communities near forest and grassland.

13) Climate crisis seriously damaging human health, report finds

Damian Carrington, The Guardian 

A report by experts from 27 national science academies has set out the widespread damage global heating is already causing to people’s health and the increasingly serious impacts expected in future.

14) Earth's carbon dioxide has jumped to the highest level in human history

Andrew Freedman, Axios 

The monthly peak amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere in 2019 jumped by a near-record amount to reach 414.8 parts per million (ppm) in May, which is the highest level in human history and likely the highest level in the past 3 million years.

15) Deforestation of Brazilian Amazon surges to record high

Jonathan Watts, The Guardian

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon surged last month to the highest May level since the current monitoring method began, prompting concerns that president Jair Bolsonaro is giving a free pass to illegal logging, farming and mining.

16) Accused of Plagiarism, Biden Campaign Admits Lifting 'Carbon Capture' Section of Climate Plan From Fossil Fuel-Backed Group

Jake Johnson, Commons Dreams

Sections of the former vice president's plan, noted an observant climate campaigner, "looked like the type of thing the coal industry, trade groups, and coal companies themselves say."

17) Extreme Flooding Across Midwest 'Exactly In Line' With Scientific Warnings of Climate Crisis: Experts

Julia Conley, Common Dreams

Farmers and residents across the Midwest are currently "living climate change," according to experts and scientists who are observing catastrophic flooding from one of the rainiest springs on record.

18) Finland pledges to become carbon neutral by 2035

Jon Henley, The Guardian 

Finland’s new left-leaning coalition government has pledged to make the country carbon neutral by 2035 as part of a policy programme that includes a major increase in public spending on welfare and infrastructure.

19) How Venezuelans Turn to Collective Action to Defy US Blockade

Telesur

As the United States government intensifies its unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, its people have turned to one another to push ahead and deal with economic sanctions. Local Colectivos (Collectives) and demonstrations of popular support have come to represent the unbreakable will of the Bolivarian Republic.


20) Conservative Witness for ‘Online Hate’ Hearing Was a Recent Guest on a White Nationalist’s YouTube Channel

Press Progress

One of the witnesses slated to testify at a hearing on “online hate” appeared on a white nationalist’s YouTube channel last month.

21) SPOTLIGHT: IN A STUDY OF COPS’ FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS, 1 IN 5 HAD POSTED RACIST, VIOLENT CONTENT

Vaidya Gullapalli, The Appeal

On Saturday, Injustice Watch and BuzzFeed News published an investigation into racist and violent social media posts by current and retired police officers. The article by Emily Hoerner and Rick Tulsky came out of a collaboration with the Plain View Project, which examined the Facebook accounts of police officers from eight departments across the county.

22) ‘The workers have chosen to fight’: Romanians strike for living wage

Patricia Gorky, Liberation News 

Workers across Romania are on strike. From Satu Mare in the northwest corner to Targoviste in the south, workers are demanding a living wage from the multinational corporations that reap mega-profits from the country.

23) Opposition parties submit bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Japan

Japan News

The bill by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Japanese Communist Party and others states that marriage would be established on the basis of marriage equality.

24)  Westminster shut down as tens of thousands protest against Trump

Ceren Sagir, The Morning Star

TENS of thousands of protesters shut down Westminster today to show their opposition to US President Donald Trump’s state visit.

25) West Virginia Senate passes sweeping education bill to ban teacher strikes

Elham Khatami, Think Progress

The West Virginia State Senate on Monday passed a sweeping education overhaul bill that would deem teacher strikes unlawful.

26) Dozens of Children Forced to Spend Up to 39 Hours in Hot Vans After Botched ICE Family Reunification

Democracy Now

Reports emerged this week of a botched attempt to reunite separated migrant families in Texas last July, which saw 37 migrant children spend up to 39 hours waiting in vans to see their parents. The 37 children were between 5 and 12 years old, and most of them spent at least 23 hours in a van during one of the hottest months of the year. Emails obtained by NBC News from BCFS Health and Human Services—the government contractor responsible for transporting the children—reveal a lack of proper planning by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services.

27) Man faces 20 years in prison for ‘giving migrants food, water and shelter’ near US border

Tom Embury-Dennis, The Independent

A man who says he gave food, water and shelter to migrants is facing up to 20 years in prison for “shielding” the men from US authorities.

28) Social Democrats win Danish general election, ousting right wing

Johannes Ledel, AFP

Denmark's opposition Social Democrats won Wednesday's general election after a campaign focused on concerns over the climate, welfare and immigration, as support plunged for the far right and surged for the main green party.

29) Let’s not leave the Soviet Union out of our D-Day history

John Wojcik, People's World 

On the 75th Anniversary of D-Day today, there are ceremonies honoring the American heroes who landed on the beaches of Normandy and defeated the Nazis. This is as it should be. What is not right, however, is that rarely are we honoring in our ceremonies the Soviet heroes who bore the brunt of the battles to defeat fascism in World War II.

30) Ten things they don't tell you about D-Day

Lindsey German, Counterfire 

As the commemorations of the 75 year anniversary of D-Day take place, Lindsey German reminds us of the truth about the end of the Second World War.

31) In Turkey, the right to freedom of association and unionisation remains under threat

Marion Fontenille, Equal Times

With their faces wrapped in traditional white scarves, they spend hours in silence at the gates of the country’s prisons: more than 45 days outside the Maltepe Prison in Istabul, and 25 outside Bakırköy on the outskirts of the city. In the last few months these peaceful gatherings have quickly turned into violent clashes with the police, the latest example of the increasing repression against any gatherings organised by Turkey’s associations and activists. “The police threaten to tear off their veils and tread on them. They began their sit-in in front of the prisons, without slogans,” says Sinan Zincir, a lawyer.

32) This playwright is trying to unionize Foodora — while writing about one of Canada's biggest strikes


Graham Isador · CBC Arts

Thomas McKechnie and I lived together for about a year. Several days a week, McKechnie would stumble home after a nine-hour shift as a Foodora bicycle courier, crash onto our couch and sprawl across the cushions. After an hour of pure exhaustion McKechnie — like clockwork — would open up his laptop and begin typing away at some script. He'd continue working on his writing late into the night. At around 2 in the morning he'd roll a cigarette, smoke on our porch then head off to bed. I rarely saw my roomate in the mornings. By the time I'd wake up he'd already be out the door on his bike, off to make a living delivering more food.

33) Two-tier minimum wage will cost older workers their jobs

Alexander Shevalier, Calgary Herald 

Premier Jason Kenney’s cavalier approach to the minimum wage has led to one of Bill 2’s most regressive changes in a piece of legislation filled with them.

34) ‘We must not accept homophobic and misogynist violence in our society,’ Corbyn says

The Morning Star

Melania Geymonat and her partner Chris were attacked in the early hours last week by four young men.

35) Even in 2019, lesbian couples are still made to fear for their lives by men

Eleanor Margolis, New Statesman 

It’s about seven in the evening and I’m on a London overground train with my girlfriend. Tired, I’m leaning on her shoulder and she’s stroking my head. On a scale of one to ten, one being looking lovingly at each other and ten being sixty-nining in the middle of Leicester Square, this level of PDA is probably a 2.5. 

36) Argentina's women protest for legal abortion, against violence

France 24

Thousands of Argentine protesters flooded the streets of Buenos Aires on Monday in a show of force for the abortion rights movement, and to denounce violence against women.

37) Lies pave the way for anti-abortion laws. To defeat the laws we must fight the lies

Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian 

A wave of new laws banning and restricting abortion could not have been passed without misleading the public about what abortion actually is.

38) US abortion policy is 'extremist hate' and 'torture', says UN commissioner

Liz Ford, The Guardian 

The US policy on abortion is a form of extremist hate that amounts to the torture of women, the UN deputy high commissioner for human rights told the Guardian.

39) Biden campaign confirms he supports Hyde Amendment

Morgan Gstalter, The Hill

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign confirmed that he still supports a controversial ban prohibiting the use of federal funds for certain abortion services.

40) Honduras deploys security forces as doctors and teachers demand president's resignation

Nina Lakhani, The Guardian 

Honduran security forces with teargas and live bullets have been deployed to quell a wave of nationwide protests led by doctors and teachers demanding the resignation of the country’s president.

41) Honduras Gov't Backtracks on Neoliberal Laws Amid Large Strike

Telesur 

President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH) announced Sunday that two decrees related to education and health will be repealed. The decrees have been rejected by the teachers and public sector doctors who are in an indefinite strike since Thursday.

42) Corbyn to drop social mobility as Labour goal in favour of opportunity for all

Heather Stewart, The Guardian 

Jeremy Corbyn is dropping the idea of social mobility as a goal for the next Labour government, saying he would instead create a “social justice commission” with the power to audit policy.

43) Canadian FM plays good cop to US, promising Cuba 'part to play' in Venezuelan democracy

RT News

Cuba will have a "part to play" in restoring democracy in Venezuela, the Canadian foreign minister – a supporter of the coup-minded US-backed opposition – has declared after meeting with her Cuban counterpart.

44) Canada must resume visa processing in Cuba

Communist Party of Canada 

The Communist Party of Canada denounces the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cease the issuance of visas to Cubans to visit Canada from its embassy in Havana.

45) Cuba is not intimidated by measures adopted to reinforce the blockade

Granma 

The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba repudiates, in the strongest terms, measures announced by the United States government on June 4, 2019, reinforcing the economic blockade imposed on Cuba for more than 60 years, at a cost to the Cuban economy that in 2018 exceeded 134 billion dollars at current prices, or 933 billion dollars, when considering the depreciation of the dollar as compared to the value of gold on the international market.As is known, this new escalation, effective June 5, further strengthens the stringent restrictions U.S. citizens face in order to travel to Cuba, and adds full prohibitions on travel by sea from the United States, of all types, and prohibits cruise ship stops in our country immediately.The objective continues to be pressuring the Cuban nation to make political concessions, by strangling the economy and causing damage at the population’s level. In this particular case, the measures also seek to prevent the people of the United States from learning about Cuba’s reality, and thus undermining the slanderous propaganda campaigns against our country that are fabricated on a daily basis.

46) UN Praises Cuba as Model for Sustainable Policies

Telesur 

Cuba is a world reference for its constant efforts to preserve and take care of the environment, and for prioritizing a model of sustainable development,  Consuelo Vidal-Bruce, resident coordinator of the United Nations' (U.N.) System in Cuba said on Wednesday during a visit to Santa Clara whilst celebrating World Environment Day.

47) Trump administration bans educational and recreational travel to Cuba

PBS

The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed major new travel restrictions on visits to Cuba by U.S. citizens, including a ban on many forms of educational and recreational travel.

48) French Police Crack Down on 30th 'Yellow Vest' Protest

Telesur

French police violently clashed with protesters Saturday at the 30th consecutive weekend of "yellow vest" demonstrations, using tear gas and water cannons in the southern city of Montpellier.

49) 40 bodies pulled out of the Nile as bloodbath continues in Sudan

Steve Sweeney, The Morning Star

SUDANESE opposition groups pulled more than 40 bodies from the River Nile today as the country descended further into a bloodbath after the feared Janjaweed militia instigated a massacre.

50) Solidarity with the people’s struggle in Sudan

Communist Party of Canada 

Delegates to the Communist Party of Canada’s 39th Central Convention send greetings of solidarity to the people of Sudan, who are waging a massive struggle for better living standards, democracy and progressive social change.

51) Sudan: 'The people want a transition to a civilian government'


Susan Price & Osama Yousif, Green Left Weekly 

Green Left Weekly’s Susan Price spoke to Osama Yousif, a member of the Sydney Sudanese community, who has recently returned from visiting Sudan, about the events leading up to the massacre of more than 100 protesters in Khartoum on June 3.

52) Sudan security forces tear-gas protesters

BBC News

Sudanese security forces have fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse protesters setting up barricades in Khartoum.

53) Yet Another Pro-Israel Circus in Canada’s Parliament

Dimitri Lascaris

Yesterday, Canada’s Parliament treated us to yet another, pathetic spectacle of bipartisan adoration for Israel’s apartheid regime.

54) Why Should Immigrants ‘Respect Our Borders’? The West Never Respected Theirs

Suketu Mehta, The New York Times

There is a lot of debate these days about whether the United States owes its African-American citizens reparations for slavery. It does. But there is a far bigger bill that the United States and Europe have run up: what they owe to other countries for their colonial adventures, for the wars they imposed on them, for the inequality they have built into the world order, for the excess carbon they have dumped into the atmosphere.

55) 10 Cruel and Unusual Ways Doug Ford Has Made Life Worse ‘For the People’ of Ontario Since Last Year’s Election

Press Progress

Premier Doug Ford campaigned under the slogan: ‘for the people'. But one year later, it’s ‘the people’ who are paying the price.

56) Province tables legislation to cap public sector wages

City News

The province of Ontario has tabled legislation to cap public sector wages at one per cent over the next three years.

See also: Climate Emergency, Ontario's Cuts, Venezuelan Sanctions, the KKE & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos May 26 - June 2

Climate Emergency, Ontario's Cuts, Venezuelan Sanctions, the KKE & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos May 26 - June 2

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos 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 May 26 - June 2.


1) Australia plans coalfield the size of Britain in climate change U-turn

Bernard Lagan, The Sunday Times

Climate change was supposed to have won the Labor Party the Australian election. But yesterday, after having been routed by voters, its panicked leaders backed the mining of a coalfield bigger than the UK.

2) Jason Kenney vows to sue wildfires for defaming oil industry (Satire)

Mary Gillis, The Beaverton 

After wildfire smoke blanketed Edmonton yesterday and forced the cancellation of what should have been a triumphant celebration of the repeal of Alberta’s carbon tax, Premier Jason Kenney is vowing to take the culprit to court.

(Related: Scheer's energy "vision for Canada" is a demented denial of climate crisis reality)

3)  US energy department rebrands fossil fuels as 'molecules of freedom' (Not satire)

Luke O'Neil, The Guardian 

America is the land of freedom, as any politician will be happy to tell you. What you don’t hear quite so often is that the stuff under the land is also apparently made of freedom as well. That is, at least according to a news release this week from the Department of Energy (DoE).

4) Elizabeth May wants to only use Canadian oil — a plan Quebec's Green Party leader can't support

CBC Radio

"I think it's very important for Greens all across Canada to take a clear position against the Alberta tarsands. It's an oil that comes out of there that is much more greenhouse gas emission intensive than conventional oil."

5) New study finds ‘strikingly high’ rates of cancer in some Ontario industrial cities

 Megan Robinson and Carolyn Jarvis, Global News, and Mike De Souza, National Observer

A new study by Canadian researchers suggests that living in industrial cities may increase your chance of getting cancer. As Megan Robinson reports, this disturbing new data - provides validation to some - who have long believed chemical pollution where they live is making them sick.

6) Jason Kenney Rewards Big Business Lobbyists By Clawing Back Wages for Young, Low-Income Workers

Press Progress

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has unveiled a new plan to roll back workers’ wages and transfer  wealth to Canada’s biggest companies.

7) Louisiana's Democratic governor signs abortion ban into law

Associated Press

Louisiana's Democratic governor signed a ban on abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy Thursday, a move that puts him squarely in line with the leaders of other conservative Southern states while provoking anger from members of his own party.

8) Latin American rape survivors who were denied abortions turn to UN

Liz Ford, The Guardian

Women from Nicaragua, Ecuador and Guatemala who suffered child rape take cases to UN human rights committee.

9) The Secret Money Behind the Push to Ban Abortion

Sue Sturgis, Common Dreams

An index from the Institute for Southern Studies.

10) ‘Mentrification’: how men appropriated computers, beer and the Beatles

Van Badham, The Guardian 

Throughout history, women have been written out of cultural moments they helped shape. And now we have a new word for it.

11) Philippines: Left prepares for ‘long fight’ after Duterte steals election

Tony Iltus, Green Left Weekly

The election of 12 new senators was proclaimed on May 22 by the Philippines electoral commission (COMELEC) following mid-term elections on May 13. All were from the grouping endorsed by authoritarian President Rodrigo Duterte.

12) Torrent Pharmaceutical workers in India beaten and fired after joining union

IndustiALL

When Torrent Pharmaceutical workers in Himachal Pradesh became members of the Association of Chemical Workers Union in October 2018, management unleashed a series of vindictive actions aimed at union busting.

13) No to War on Iran

Greg Shupak, Jacobin

The jury long ago returned its verdict on US intervention in the Middle East: a similar catastrophe in Iran must be prevented.

14) BC Liberal MLA Says Child Labour is Needed to Prevent South Asian Kids From Joining Street Gangs

Press Progress

BC Liberal MLA Ian Paton fears South Asian children as young as twelve are more likely to join street gangs and rob convenience stores thanks to new legislation aimed at strengthening British Columbia’s child labour laws.

15) Kazakh communist party candidate seeks to fight poverty, promote economic integration with neighbouring countries

Yerbolat Uatkhanov, The Astana Times

Communist People’s Party of Kazakhstan (CPPK) candidate for president Zhambyl Akhmetbekov promises to renounce Western influence and values, fight oligarchs and poverty and promote economic integration with neighbouring countries. If elected, he will also pursue tax reform.

16) The Strategic Question Revisited: Ten Theses

Panagiotis Sotiris, Socialist Project Bullet 

In 2006 Daniel Bensaïd made a very important call to reopen the debate on the ‘politico-strategic’ question. This call was made amidst a series of discussions within the European anticapitalist Left at a moment when signs of hope, such as the new wave of militancy associated with the anti-globalization movement, were combined with strategic contradictions, such as the ones that were already evident in the turn of the Lula government in Brazil toward classical social-democratic policies or in the limits of the ‘broad parties’ approach. What Bensaïd tried to do in that intervention was to remind the richness of the strategic revolutionary traditions that had dominated or even haunted the thinking of militants in the 20th century, the general strike, the armed insurrection and the prolonged people’s war, counter-posing them to either doing away with any revolutionary strategy, exemplified for him in interventions by theorists such as John Holloway or Toni Negri, or remaining within the frame of simply electoral politics. Above all, the importance of this intervention was exactly to reopen the debate and to rethink in strategic terms despite the weight of the defeat that the revolutionary left had suffered in the previous decades.

17) “I felt anger”: why Raptors star Marc Gasol helped rescue migrants

North 99

Driven by a sense of anger at the senseless suffering of migrants trying to escape violence and flee to Europe across the Mediterranean, Gasol spent last summer participating in rescue operations aboard the Open Arms Proactiva, a migrant rescue vessel.

18) 'Egg boy' Will Connolly donates $100,000 to Christchurch mosque attack survivors

Lisa Cox, The Guardian

Will Connolly, the Australian teenager who became known as “egg boy”, says he has donated almost $100,000 to help those affected by the Christchurch mosque attack.

19) Boris Johnson could go on trial for 'lying and misleading' in Brexit campaign, judge orders

Lizzie Dearden, The Independent

Boris Johnson faces trial for allegedly “lying and misleading the British public” about the consequences of Brexit.

20) New Zealand schools hit by 'mega-strike' as 50,000 teachers walk out

Eleanor Ainge Roy, The Guardian 

More than 50,000 primary and high school teachers have gone on strike in the biggest industrial action ever seen in New Zealand’s schools.

21) New Mexico Mayor Orders Group Building Border Wall To Stop Construction

 Donica Phifer, Newsweek

The mayor of Sunland Park, New Mexico, has issued a cease-and-desist order to a private group that raised millions to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

22) Guatemalan workers allege poor conditions at Aquilini berry farm

Paisley Woodward, Belle Puri · CBC News

A group of female farmworkers from Guatemala is alleging poor living and working conditions at a B.C. berry farm owned by the billionaire Aquilini family.

23) New Hampshire abolishes death penalty after lawmakers override governor

Mark Berman, The Washington Post

Lawmakers in New Hampshire voted Thursday to abolish the death penalty, overriding a veto from the state’s Republican governor and making it the 21st state to abandon capital punishment.

24) CPI-M reclaims, reopens 200 closed party offices in Bengal

Indo Asian News Service

Amidst the violent clashes and political slugfest between West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP, the CPI-M has reclaimed and reopened around 200 party offices which were allegedly captured by the Trinamool after coming to power in 2011.

25) The rise of the Greens: what it means

Marco La Grotta, Fightback 

Ignored for 36 years, Canada’s Greens may now have reason to celebrate. On May 6, Green Party candidate Paul Manly swept the by-election in Nanaimo, BC, placing 12 points ahead of the second place Tories. Manly now joins Green Party leader Elizabeth May in Ottawa, until now the sole Green MP since 2011. Before that, the Greens had no elected representatives, either federally or provincially. The party now boasts over a dozen. In PEI, the Greens are now the official opposition, while in BC they are part of the ruling coalition government. In the course of a few years, the Greens have gone from being a marginal, often eclectic sect, to now being a considerable force in Canadian politics. How can we explain the rise of the Green Party?

26) National inquiry calls murders and disappearances of Indigenous women a 'Canadian genocide'

Jorge Barrera · CBC News

The thousands of Indigenous women and girls who were murdered or disappeared across the country in recent decades are victims of a "Canadian genocide," says the final report of the national inquiry created to probe the ongoing tragedy.

27) Honduran Police Repress Protesters Amid National Teacher, Doctor Strike

Telesur 

Honduran doctors, teachers, and students Thursday demanded the repeal of two executive orders issued by President Juan Orlando Fernandez (JOH) and were repressed by state police forces in cities and towns around the country.

28) Protesters take to Brazil's streets – in pictures

The Guardian 

Tens of thousands of students, academics and teachers have marched throughout the vast South American country in protest against ultraconservative president Jair Bolsonaro’s cuts to education, including moves to dramatically reduce funding for federal universities.

29) Congressman Hunter Says He Probably Killed ‘Hundreds’ Of Civilians While In Combat

Lynn Walsh, KPBS

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, said he probably killed “hundreds of civilians” while serving as an artillery officer in Fallujah.

30) Israeli forces shoot 16-year old through the heart

The Morning Star


Mourners carry the body of Abdullah Ghaith out of his family's home during his funeral in the West Bank city of Hebron.

31) Winnipeg police officers tried to cover up actions after family assaulted in hotel room, judge rules

Marina von Stackelberg · CBC News

Four Winnipeg police officers committed "egregious conduct" when they unlawfully entered a hotel room and assaulted three people inside, then charged one of the family members to "provide a cover" for their actions, a Manitoba judge has ruled.

32) Mass Shootings, Dinner, and the Cognitive Dissonance of Just Living in America

Shaun King, The Intercept

ON FRIDAY EVENING my wife and I were on our way to dinner with our three youngest kids when I happened to learn from Twitter that a man in Virginia Beach had just shot and killed 12 people. And so my struggle, which I am sure is also regularly your struggle, began. In almost every developed nation in the world, 12 people being killed in a mass shooting would make that incident the deadliest in years. In some nations it would be the deadliest ever. But in the United States, they happen so often, with such ferocity and carnage, that when we learn about the next one, we hardly skip a beat. Indeed, 2018 was by far the most violent year ever measured for school shootings in the United States and 2017 was the deadliest year in at least a half-century for gun deaths altogether in this country – with an astounding 40,000 people killed by guns. That’s 110 people per day. We couldn’t keep up if we tried.

33) Nearly 900 migrants found at Texas facility with 125-person capacity: DHS watchdog

Quinn Owen, ABC News

In a report out Friday, the Homeland Security inspector general has found “dangerous overcrowding” and unsanitary conditions at a Customs and Border Protection facility in El Paso, Texas, where hundreds more migrants were being housed than the center was designed to hold.

34) Declassified Cold War nuclear plans: U.S. would have blown up half the world

Shane Quinn, People's World

On August 30, 1945, Major General Lauris Norstad dispatched a document to his superior, General Leslie Groves, outlining a total of 15 “key Soviet cities” to be struck with U.S. atomic weapons, headed by the capital Moscow. This was followed by another 25 “leading Soviet cities” listed for annihilation, topping this latter group was Leningrad, almost destroyed during the Nazi siege finally lifted in late January 1944.

35)  Rats at the police station, filth on L.A. streets — scenes from the collapse of a city that’s lost control

Steve Lopez. The LA Times

The good news is that two trash-strewn downtown Los Angeles streets I wrote about last week were cleaned up by city work crews and have been kept that way, as of this writing.

36) US Senator Calls for Grenada-like Invasion of Venezuela

Telesur

“I would do exactly what Reagan did. I would give Cuba the ultimatum to get out of Venezuela. If they don’t, I would let the Venezuelan military know, you’ve got to choose between democracy and Maduro. And if you choose Maduro and Cuba, we’re coming after you. This is in our backyard.”

37) US Sanctions Leave Millions of Venezuelans Without Water

The Real News Network

“You can’t blame the Maduro government, but as for the United States, this Donald Trump is mean. He’s mean and he’s blocked a lot of things. We have to support each other and this U.S. blockade has to end.” -- Yolimar Contreras

38) Palestinians Protest US Blockade on Venezuela

Telesur 

Activists and social movements in the Palestinian city of Ramallah held a rally calling for an end to U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and expressed their support for President Nicolas Maduro.

39) US Hints at Sanctions Against Venezuela CLAP Food Programme as Maduro Incorporates Militia

 Paul Dobson, Venezuela Analysis 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced the incorporation of the National Bolivarian Militia into the subsidised CLAP (Local Supply and Production Committees) food programme.

40) Why is Ottawa aligning itself with Venezuela’s most anti-democratic elements?

Yves Engler, Canadian Dimension 

Not only has Canada financed and otherwise supported opposition parties in Venezuela, Ottawa has allied itself with some of its most anti-democratic, hardline elements. While the Liberal government has openly backed Voluntad Popular’s bid to seize power since January, Ottawa has supported the electorally marginal party for years.

41) Ontario eliminates Indigenous Culture Fund as government cuts millions of dollars in arts funding

The Canadian Press

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler says the arts, including music and storytelling, are a very important part of Indigenous culture, and cutting this fund sends a terrible message.

42) Doug Ford cancels retroactive cuts to municipalities

Robert Benzie & Rob Ferguson, The Toronto Star 


Caving in to pressure from Toronto Mayor John Tory and local leaders across the province, Premier Doug Ford has cancelled retroactive budget cuts hitting public health, child care and land ambulance services.

43) Students take Ford government to court over decision to allow opt-outs of certain fees

The Canadian Press

The Canadian Federation of Students has launched a court challenge against the Ontario government's decision to allow college and university students to opt out of certain fees.

44) Hard Right Turn Ontario

Greg Albo, The Socialist Project Bullet 

A decade after the global financial crisis, few of the initial political calculations on the trajectory of world capitalism remain intact. The assessments made by liberals and social democrats alike on the end of neoliberalism and a revival of Keynesian state intervention now seem like a bad joke. And the reading from many on the radical left that the economic slump would be met by a wave of social resistance and an opening for political rupture have fared no better in either economic analysis or political guidance. Indeed, neoliberalism has regained its pre-eminence in economic policy through re-financialization and austerity despite its ideological discredit and the endless multiplications of its contradictions.

45) Ontario cuts funding to program that helps youth quit smoking

Shawn Jeffords, The Canadian Press 

"It doesn't make any sense to do this. It's just slightly over a million dollars and that is a very small amount of money for the reach and effectiveness of the program and potential cost-savings down the road."

46) Doug Ford’s Social Services Minister is ‘Demonizing’ Child Refugees to Cut Anti-Child Poverty Program, Advocates Say

Press Progress

Child and refugee advocates are accusing Doug Ford’s social services minister of scapegoating child refugees to deflect attention from new cuts to programs that support children living in poverty.

47) Greek Communist Party Welcomes High Support from Greeks abroad in Euro-Elections

The National Herald

The high level of support for the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) from Greek voters abroad, where KKE placed third in the European elections with 14.09 pct of the overseas vote, “reflected their enthusiasm and optimism that KKE will emerge stronger in the general elections,” the party said on Friday.

48) Communist Party of Greece makes gains in elections

Fightback! News

With a powerful KKE we can make a truly great difference, for there to exist a genuine people's opposition, a genuine support for the people facing every anti-popular government that will arise, for a real wall to be raised against the far-right and fascism, conservatism, for us to open the road together with the people as the genuine leader of the developments.

49) Senseless hatred

Alfonso G. Nacianceno García, Granma 

U.S. hostility toward Cuba has once again been demonstrated with the cancellation of the agreement reached between the Cuban Baseball Federation and Major League Baseball (MLB).

50) Cuba, China Strengthen Bilateral Ties to Tackle US Sanctions

Telesur 

Foreign Ministers from both countries will analyze common interest issues, including the U.S. foreign sanctions.

See also: Abortion Rights, Economic War on Venezuela, Iran Tensions & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos May 19 - 26

George Tiller, Murdered May 31, 2009

With abortion rights under assault in the United States remember George Tiller.

Tiller, a tremendously courageous defender of women's abortion rights, was murdered 10 years ago today in his church by a misogynist, anti-abortion fanatic. As an abortion provider Tiller's clinic in Kansas had been firebombed and he had previously been shot in both arms.

George Richard Tiller, August 8, 1941 – May 31, 2009

See Abortion Rights, Economic War on Venezuela, Iran Tensions & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos May 19 - 26 and Abortion Rights Under Attack, American Imperialists Push for War with Iran, Climate Change & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos May 12 - 19   for links to recent articles about the ongoing assault on abortion rights in the United States.

Abortion Rights, Economic War on Venezuela, Iran Tensions & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos May 19 - 26

This week's list of articles, news items, opinion pieces and videos 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 May 19 - 26.


1) We Spoke With a Rape Survivor About Alabama’s New Abortion Ban: “There Are No Words”

Carter Sherman, Vice News

When Sam Blakely first heard about Alabama’s plan to ban almost all abortions in the state, she was driving. She pulled over and cried.

2) Extremists Are Winning the War on Abortion

Vegas Tenold, Vice News

The rise of the radical anti-abortion movement has transformed statehouses, courts, and the White House. Experts worry violence will follow.

3) Abortion Limits Carry Economic Cost For Women

Scott Horsley, NPR

As Republican-led states pass laws restricting abortion in hopes the Supreme Court will overturn its Roe v. Wade decision, supporters of abortion rights are pushing back.

4) Andrew Scheer Told Anti-Abortion Group He’d Let Conservative MPs Reopen the Abortion Debate

Press Progress

Conservative leader Andrew Scheer wants Canadians to have “absolute confidence” he will never reopen the abortion debate, even though he said the exact opposite when he was running for leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.

5) HERE ARE THE GOP’S SECRET TALKING POINTS DEFENDING ALABAMA’S ABORTION LAW

Daniel Newhauser, Vice News 

In the days since Alabama’s passage of the most restrictive abortion law in the nation, national Republicans have tried to distance themselves from its most controversial provisions that would outlaw abortion even in the case of rape or incest.

6) As the far right grows, its mask comes off

Phil Hearse, Green Left Weekly 

The brutal face of hard right and fascist reaction has been on vivid display on the issues of women’s rights and the climate crisis in the past few weeks.

7) ACLU and Planned Parenthood file lawsuit against Alabama abortion ban

Erin Durkin, The Guardian 

Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit to stop Alabama from implementing a law making abortion a crime at any stage of pregnancy.

8) Federal Judge Blocks Mississippi Abortion Law

Antonia Blumberg, HuffPost US

A U.S. district judge on Friday blocked Mississippi’s restrictive abortion law, setting the stage for more court battles as conservative lawmakers continue to challenge Roe v. Wade.

9) Law professor 'very angry' with new manslaughter trial in Cindy Gladue's death

CBC News 

Beverly Jacobs, who acted as an intervener in the Supreme Court case, thinks it should be a murder trial for Ontario trucker Bradley Barton instead.

10) ‘The College does not care’: How the medical watchdog closed the door on sex-abuse complainants

Karen Howlett & Vjosa Isai, The Globe and Mail 

Women sought out a Toronto pain specialist in search of help. Instead, former patients allege, he abused their trust. When they complained to the province’s medical watchdog, they expected their allegations would be heard.

11) Moby's treatment of Natalie Portman is a masterclass in nice-guy misogyny

Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian 

If someone had said the word “Moby” a week ago, chances are the first thing you’d have thought is “Dick.” That probably hasn’t changed – but now you’d likely be referring to the 90s musician rather than the 19th century whale. Over the past few days, Moby has been stress-testing the adage that “all publicity is good publicity” by repeatedly insisting that he and Natalie Portman used to be an item, even if she says they weren’t.

12) Brazil’s Military Police Kills 434 in Rio de Janeiro in 2019 

Telesur

Brazil's military police killed 434 in 2019, making it the most violent period in recorded history. Most of the killings occurred against Black men in favelas in Rio de Janeiro.

13) Italian dock strike blocks deadly cargo headed for Saudi Arabia

Steve Sweeney, The Morning Star 

Activists holds up a banner which says ‘Disobey Salvini’ as they protest against the Saudi Arabian freighter Bahri Yanbu docked in Genoa's port.

14) Organizing in the textile and garment sector in Thailand

IndustriALL 

IndustriALL organized the first workshop in Thailand on organizing in the supply chain for textile, garment, shoes and leather (TGSL) sector affiliate, Textile Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation of Thailand (TWFT) on 3-4 May in Bangkok.

15) Family of Jailed Saudi Feminist Loujain Al-Hathloul: She Was Waterboarded, Flogged & Electrocuted

Democracy Now

It’s been a year since women’s right activist Loujain Al-Hathloul was detained and jailed in Saudi Arabia for leading a movement to lift the kingdom’s ban on female drivers and overhaul its male “guardianship” system. Despite international outcry, she’s been imprisoned ever since. During that time, her family says, she’s been held in solitary confinement and faced abuse, including electric shocks, flogging and threats of sexual violence. The Saudi government has resisted calls from human rights groups and lawmakers from around the world to release Loujain and the other jailed activists. We speak with two of Loujain’s siblings, Walid and Lina Al-Hathloul.

16) Right-wing media defends Navy SEAL accused of killing Iraqi civilians, posing with corpses

Luke Barnes, Think Progress

Conservative media has jumped to the defense of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, the Navy SEAL accused of war crimes against unarmed civilians, whom President Donald Trump is reportedly considering pardoning this week.

17) NDP MP Randall Garrison’s disgraceful anti-Palestinian politics

Yves Engler

Randall Garrison is an embarrassment to everyone who supports universal human rights. The Victoria area New Democratic Party MP’s anti-Palestinian politics are beyond disgraceful.

18) Human Rights Defender Paula Rosero Killed in Colombia

Telesur 

According to a recent count, after the signing of the peace agreements in Colombia, in November 2016, 596 social leaders have been killed.

19) Death squads in Colombia - paid for by big business

Oliver Dodd, The Morning Star 

OLIVER DODD exposes the role of wealthy groups, including multinationals like Coca Cola and United Fruit, in sponsoring paramilitary murder in Latin America.

20) China's electric buses are killing oil demand

Callum Burroughs, Business Insider 

A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests that China's electric-bus revolution could kill off oil demand in the future.

21) The U.S. Has a Fleet of 300 Electric Buses. China Has 421,000

 Brian Eckhouse, Bloomberg 

Plodding down DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn is a bus moving under the power of an eerily quiet motor. It looks newer than most buses on the route, with a vivid digital display facing the driver and doors that part with a futuristic pneumatic swoosh. Commuters trundling aboard at rush hour don't seem to realize this is one of the few electric buses—300 last year, to be exact—in America.

22) 126 cases and 0 criminal charges: Is Quebec's police watchdog doing its job?

Kate McKenna · CBC News 

There are still nights when June Celik wakes up crying, wishing she hadn't called police on her son Koray.

23) New Poll Shows More People in US View Socialism as 'Good'

Telesur 

The rise of congresspeople like Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, mirrors the shifting opinions of the populace.

24) The Federal Election 2019

Australian Communist Party 

If people attached importance to pre-election polls, the result of Saturday’s federal election would have come as a great shock. The outcome will be analysed at great length by the corporate media but at a very superficial level. Bill Shorten lacked “charisma”, the Coalition targeted their pork barrelling well and carried out an effective and misleading scare campaign about increased taxes, and so on.

25) How Australia’s Labor Party Lost an Un-Losable Election

Daniel Lopez, Jacobin

Pundits are blaming the Australian Labor Party's left-wing turn for its shocking defeat in Saturday's election. But the failure lies in the fact that this leftist program came too little, too late.

26) Labor was not radical enough

Sam Wainwright, Green Left Weekly 

Barely had we digested the news of the unexpected Coalition victory when the corporate media commentators and a number of senior party leaders were blaming Labor’s election loss for it being too left-wing — “too ambitious”, “a large target” and “bit off more than it could chew”.

27) New York-born GI who defected to the East back in USA

Cameron Orr, People's Voice 

“You know what today is?” Victor Grossman asks a gathering of 30 here during a stop on his book tour. He is coming to the end of his talk.

28) Should we fear for India's democracy?

 Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Al Jazeera 

Weeks before the general elections in India, opinion polls were already showing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a fair chance of returning to office. He was riding on the crest of militaristic nationalism which gripped the nation after the military escalation with Pakistan in February.

29) Outcry after Trump officials reveal sixth migrant child died in US custody

Oliver Laughland, The Guardian 

The Trump administration has been forced to reveal that a 10-year-old migrant girl died in its custody more than seven months ago, sparking further outcry after a spate of recent migrant child deaths while detained by the US government.

China and Cuba are teaming up to revamp the island nation’s railroad system. The ambitious program, which includes these beautiful bright blue train cars, will modernize the country’s railways, putting them on par with the best in the world:




30) The NDP Is Class Conscious, Just Not How You Think

Stuart Parker 

In my last post I suggested that the New Democratic Party of Canada and its ilk are not unprincipled as many on the left suggest but instead have ideologically changed over the past generation and a half. For some, the knowledge that former social democratic parties, Third Way parties like the NDP are no longer socialist in character is sufficient. But I think that we need to go further to understand our present predicament. As we can now understand that these parties are here to actively stymie efforts to redistribute wealth or arrest the extinction event, it is important to comprehend and anticipate their actions, not so that we can work in concert with them but so as to prepare ourselves for their next move against us.

31) Brazil: More than 1 million take to the streets

Brazilwire 

A nationwide education strike on May 15 became the platform for the biggest anti-government protests since President Jair Bolsonaro took power.

32) France’s ‘Yellow Vests’: 6 months of struggle

Richard Greeman, Green Left Weekly

I am writing from Montpellier, France, where I am a participant-observer in the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement, which is still going strong after six months, despite a dearth of information in the international media.

33) Shed No Tears for Theresa May

Dawn Foster, Jacobin 

Theresa May climbed her way up the political ladder by pushing policies that brought misery to others. Her ignominious fall is richly deserved.

34) Jason Kenney’s Economic Policies Would Eliminate More Jobs Than 2015 Oil Crash, New Study Shows

Press Progress 

Jason Kenney’s $3.7 billion corporate tax giveaways and deep cuts to public services would kill nearly 60,000 jobs.

35) UN poverty expert hits back over UK ministers' 'denial of facts'

Robert Booth, The Guardian 

The United Nations expert whose warning of deepening poverty in Britain was this week dismissed as “barely believable” by ministers, has said the government’s denial is as worrying as the poverty itself.

36) Kenya court upholds ban on gay sex in major setback for activists

Jason Burke, The Guardian 

LGBT campaigners have reacted with anger and dismay after judges at Kenya’s high court rejected a bid to repeal colonial-era laws criminalising gay sex.

37) Trump Threatens “Official End of Iran” Via Tweet If It Provokes the U.S.

Democracy Now

As tensions between the U.S. and Iran continue to flare, President Trump issued a threatening tweet Sunday, writing: “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!” He did not specify what threat he was referring to. On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that Iran does not want war and that no country has the “illusion it could confront Iran,” according to state media.

38) Trump Says the Military Industrial Complex is Pressuring him Into a War With Iran

The Real News Network

With a thirty year Boeing veteran at the Pentagon, Patrick Shanahan as Acting Secretary of Defense, and with John Bolton and Mike Pompeo at the helm, war with Iran is likely says the former chief of staff to Secretary of State, Col. Larry Wilkerson.

39) Second Venezuelan Child Dies As US Blockade Stops Transplant 

Telesur 

Relatives of these chronic patients called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, to intercede in the suspension of the blockade against Venezuela.

40) Venezuela: Maduro Proposes Early Parliamentary Elections as ANC Extends Mandate

Ricardo Vaz, Venezuela Analysis 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro proposed holding early parliamentary elections as a way to defuse the country’s political crisis.

Denying Impact of Venezuela Sanctions is 'Like Climate Denial':



41) Timeline of Half a Decade of US Economic War Against Venezuela

Telesur 

As of Jan. 23, 2019 when the self-declared 'president' Juan Guaido attempted to lead a coup, the hostility of the U.S. blockade against Venezuela increased substantially.

42) Venezuela: Widespread Gasoline Shortages as Sanctions Take Toll on Oil Sector

Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz, Venezuela Analysis 

Large parts of Venezuela are suffering acute gasoline shortages as US oil sanctions begin to take effect on the nation’s fuel supply.

43) Oslo To Host New Talks Between Venezuela Gov't, Opposition 

Telesur 

The Venezuelan government and the opposition will soon be reuniting for a second round of negotiations in Norway, said the Norwegian Foreign Ministry Saturday.

43) The U.S. put nuclear waste under a dome on a Pacific island. Now it’s cracking open.

Kyle Swenson, The Washington Post

At 6:45 a.m. on March 1, 1954, the blue sky stretching over the south Pacific Ocean was split open by an enormous red flash.

44) ABC News spent more time on royal baby in one week than on climate crisis in one year

LISA HYMAS & TED MACDONALD, Media Matters for America 

Here's media misconduct in a nutshell: ABC’s World News Tonight spent more than seven minutes reporting on the birth of royal baby Archie in the week after he was born -- more time than the program spent covering climate change during the entire year of 2018.

45) A MAJOR COAL COMPANY WENT BUST. ITS BANKRUPTCY FILING SHOWS THAT IT WAS FUNDING CLIMATE CHANGE DENIALISM.

Lee Fang, The Intercept 

THE BANKRUPTCY OF one of the largest domestic coal producers in the country has revealed that the company maintains financial ties to many of the leading groups that have sowed doubt over the human causes of global warming.

46) B.C. can't impose environmental laws that could kill Trans Mountain pipeline, court rules

Jason Proctor · CBC News

British Columbia doesn't have the right to impose environmental laws that could kill the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, the province's Court of Appeal has ruled.

(Related: Blind partisan hypocrisy is not what we need to confront the climate crisis)

47) THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS DECLARING A FAKE EMERGENCY TO SELL WEAPONS TO SAUDI ARABIA

Alex Emmons, The Intercept 

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION chose the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend to invoke an obscure state-of-emergency provision that would allow it to sell billions of dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates without giving Congress a chance to block the sale.

48) Injured workers face benefit cuts as compensation board assigns them ‘phantom jobs’ with ‘ghost wages’: Report

Sara Mojtehedzadeh, The Toronto Star

Permanently injured workers are having their benefits slashed because the provincial compensation board deems them capable of doing “imaginary” jobs with “ghost wages,” a new report says — even though the board’s own audits have identified significant barriers to finding real employment.

49) Ontario government slashes funding to children’s aid societies

Sandro Contenta, The Toronto Star

The Ford government is reducing funding for children and youth at risk by $84.5 million, according to an analysis of provincial spending estimates by the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies.

50) Low-income students to be hardest hit as TDSB looks to trim outdoor education programs, some warn

CBC Radio

As the Toronto District School Board looks to trim spending amid a $67-million shortfall, some are warning low-income children stand to be some of the hardest hit when it comes to outdoor education.

51) Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy is built on the idea that people deserve to be poor

Madeleine Ritts, Healthy Debate

As a community mental health social worker in downtown Toronto, I encounter the most extreme conditions of poverty and social inequality in the city. The people I work with are often forced to find shelter in profoundly undignified environments. Some pay upwards of $1,000 a month to share a shoebox-sized room with strangers in boarding homes where sickness is rampant and pest infestations are chronic. When I search for people in dangerously cramped city respite shelters, I’m struck by their resemblance to natural disaster relief centres. There is no privacy; there are rarely any showers; and leaving your “cot” means risking the few possessions you have to theft. I often reflect on how quickly my mental health would deteriorate should I ever wind up staying in one.

52) Ford government pulls the plug on electricity program in Peel

 Marta Marychuk, Mississauga News

Students from Judith Nyman Secondary School in Brampton are angry and disappointed after the Ministry of Education pulled the plug on funding for the school’s electricity program.

See also: Abortion Rights Under Attack, American Imperialists Push for War with Iran, Climate Change & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos May 12 - 19