Daily Archives: December 5, 2021

2021-12-05: News Headlines

_____ (2021-12-05). Will Ethiopia Become Biden's Libya 2.0 or a Driver for an African Renaissance? strategic-culture.org The situation in Ethiopia is rather simple to understand as long as you don't believe western media spin doctors, Matthew Ehret writes. | Many westerners trying to make sense of the events in the "dark continent" of Africa have many barriers standing in the way of their minds and reality. This must be the case, for without such filters of spin proclaiming Africa's problems to be self-induced (or the consequence of Chinese debt slavery), we in the west, might actually feel horrified enough to demand systemic change. We might come to recognize that the plight of Africa has less to do with Africa and more to do with…

Hamilton Nolan (2021-12-05). Which Side Are You Democrats On? zcomm.org Even the friendliest Democratic officials are cowards. The labor movement needs to save itself…

_____ (2021-12-05). New Orleans Has A Trash Problem. Thanks To Climate Change, Your City Probably Will, Too. popularresistance.org Dealing with tons of trash isn't out of the ordinary for the City of New Orleans. By the end of Carnival season, city clean-up crews and paid volunteers collect about 900 tons of garbage on average each year. Onlookers have called the efforts "mesmerizing" to watch. More than a century of Mardi Gras celebrations have refined the city's approach to bulk garbage collection down to a science. A "parade" of sanitation workers, tractors, trucks, and street sweepers mobilize to collect the trash and clean the city after Fat Tuesday.

_____ (2021-12-05). What Can Organizers At Amazon Learn From Walmart? Part 2. popularresistance.org "Amazon is the epoch-defining corporation of the moment in a way that Walmart was two decades ago," said Howard W, an Amazon warehouse worker and organizer with Amazonians United, a grassroots movement of Amazon workers building shop-floor power. What can organizers at Amazon learn from the Walmart campaigns in the 2000s? And what can these two efforts teach us about organizing at scale? Unions haven't successfully organized an employer with more than 10,000 workers in decades, so getting to scale is one of the most pressing challenges for the social justice movements.

WSWS (2021-12-05). Workers' anger mounts at trade union sell-outs of strikes across Spain. wsws.org Opposition is growing among workers across Spain to the continual betrayals of these pro-corporate, anti-worker organisations.

Tyler Walicek (2021-12-05). Recall Campaign Against Socialist Kshama Sawant Is Backed by Billionaires. truthout.org An unusual special election in Seattle's District 3 on December 7 will decide whether avowedly socialist City Councilor Kshama Sawant will be recalled from her position. The fact that Sawant's seat is under dire threat is indicative of the contempt that Seattle's business interests hold for her and her policies: The considerable victories Sawant has won for working people have made her the target of some of Seattle's most powerful forces. | Despite protestations to the contrary, it's eminently c…

Dakotah Lilly (2021-12-05). The Socialist Leader America Loves to Hate Wins Again. What now? orinocotribune.com By Dakotah Lilly — Nov 26, 2021 | Recent elections in Venezuela saw Nicolás Maduro's leftist ruling party win 20 out of 23 governorships. The US predictably cries foul, but I witnessed voting that was perfectly free and fair. | Western This smear is in direct contradict…

F. William Engdahl (2021-12-05). Is Gene Editing the New Name for Eugenics? "Enter Bill Gates" globalresearch.ca A major new technology known as Gene Editing has gained significant attention in recent months. Its advocates claim it will revolutionize everything from agriculture production to disease treatment. Is this technology a stealth way to introduce GMO genetic manipulation by way of another technique.

_____ (2021-12-05). Totally Exhausted US and EU Hit China With Sanctions. journal-neo.org The growing contradictions between China and the West, which received an ideological coloring after the speech of Mike Pompeo in 2020, who called the confrontation between Beijing and Washington a struggle between the Free World and the Marxist-Leninist Regime, is increasingly acquiring the character of a complex conflict between the parties. Washington and its Western …

John Bellamy Foster (2021-12-05). Marxism, Ecology and the Climate Crisis—John Bellamy Foster. mronline.org In the week before the COP26 international summit, John Bellamy Foster analyzed the climate emergency and how we can achieve climate justice.

Misión Verdad (2021-12-05). How Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and Big Pharma Destroyed US Public Health. orinocotribune.com A country's success or failure in managing the COVID-19 pandemic is measured by the number of infections and deaths from the disease. Although it was expected that the crisis would generate a change in the relationship dynamics between nations, even in their internal management, what the outcome has shown is the overall dominance of a barbarism which was the product of the logic of capitalism. | In the case of the United States, the country that so far leads the death count worldwide, the handling of the pandemic has been catastrophic and its effects have influenced and upset global dynamics. Who was in charge of…

Jonathan Cook (2021-12-05). How Starmer's Labour Reversed 40 Years of Progress on Israel and Palestine. dissidentvoice.org British politics is lurching backwards when it comes to Israel. Gains won over many decades that made it possible to critique Israel and its belligerent rule over Palestinians are being undone almost overnight — and on both sides of the supposed political divide. A rash of recent incidents illustrate how quickly the rot has set …

_____ (2021-12-04). An Obscure Agency Is Threatening To Hand Medicare Over To Wall Street. popularresistance.org In the face of massive support for Medicare for All and the failure of the U.S.'s for-profit health care system, the inevitable fall of the medical-industrial complex can be predicted, if not with precision, with certainty. Everyone is aware of the impending demise, none more so than those in charge of the for-profit health care system and their supporters in Congress, as evidenced by the frenetic activity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transfer the traditional Medicare program to the insurance industry as fast as humanly possible. Given this urgency, physicians representing Physicians…

Jason Ditz (2021-12-04). Airstrikes Kill Over 90 Houthis in Yemen's Maarib. news.antiwar.com The Saudi-led coalition reported Friday that airstrikes launched in 13 operations have The statement claims eight pieces of military equipment were destroyed in the attacks. They are vague on that point, but this usually refers to random destroyed vehicles that they've decided has some military use. | The Houthis have surrounded Maarib City, though there has as of yet been no siege. Despi…

WSWS (2021-12-04). Video: Workers must oppose Australian ruling elite's homicidal response to Omicron variant. wsws.org SEP Assistant National Secretary Max Boddy warns: "There is no viable way to stop the pandemic and save lives, other than a strategy of global elimination."

Internationalist 360 ∞ (2021-12-04). The Supreme Council of Libyan Tribes Calls for Continued Protests in Sebha. libya360.wordpress.com The head of the Supreme Council of Tribes and Cities of Fezzan in Libya, Abu Sbeiha, called on the people of the south to demonstrate tomorrow, Sunday, in front of the headquarters of the High Electoral Commission in Sebha. In his Facebook post, Abu Sbeiha urged citizens to demonstrate to demand "the impartiality of the…

Seth Galinsky (2021-12-04). Fidel Castro: How Cuban working people made a socialist revolution. themilitant.com U.S. imperialism will never forgive working people in Cuba for overthrowing the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, replacing capitalist rule with a government of workers and farmers, nationalizing U.S. and Cuban companies and opening the first socialist revolution in the Americas. | That revolution was a product of the operations of capitalism, but it could not have charted a path to victory without the political leadership of Fidel Castro. The U.S. rulers hoped when he died Nov. 25, 2016, the revolution would die with him. But five years later, his ideas and example are looked to by millions in Cuba…

Fight Back (2021-12-04). Presidential victory in Honduras represents another loss for U.S. imperialism. fightbacknews.org Tucson, AZ – In the early hours of June 28, 2009, Honduran soldiers snatched President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya from his home and removed him from power in a coup d'état with tacit support from the U.S. What followed was a brutal dictatorship that murdered, disappeared and oppressed Hondurans. In close collaboration with criminal cartels, the Honduran power elite implemented neoliberal policies, while violence and drugs plagued the country. It should come as no surprise that waves of Hondurans poured out into caravans headed north to seek asylum in the U.S. only to be met by the cruel denial of President Trump and U.S…

_____ (2021-12-04). How To Picket Stores That Sell Your Employer's Products. popularresistance.org Picketing stores that sell an employer's products can publicize a strike and hurt earnings. It is also a good way to generate community support. Although the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) usually bars unions from picketing secondary (i.e., "neutral") employers, a narrow legal exception applies to retail stores and distributors—provided the union does not interfere with operations, only asks the public not to buy struck products, does not ask customers to stop doing all business with the retailer (unless the store only sells struck products), and does not demand that the store stop buying products from…

_____ (2021-12-04). Backed By AFRICOM, Corporations Plunder DR Congo For "Climate-Friendly" Materials And Blame China. popularresistance.org Cobalt, A Key Metallic Element Used In Lithium Batteries And Other "Green" Technology, Is Sourced From Slave Labor In The Democratic Republic Of Congo. As The West Points The Finger At China, The US Africa Command Is Indirectly Policing Mining Operations That Profit US Corporations.

_____ (2021-12-04). Backed By AFRICOM, Corporations Plunder DR Congo. popularresistance.org Cobalt, A Key Metallic Element Used In Lithium Batteries And Other "Green" Technology, Is Sourced From Slave Labor In The Democratic Republic Of Congo. As The West Points The Finger At China, The US Africa Command Is Indirectly Policing Mining Operations That Profit US Corporations.

Middle East Monitor (2021-12-04). Even Israel's Labor Party President signals that the Occupation of Palestinians in Permanent. juancole.com By Ashraf Al-Ajrami | — ( Middle East Monitor) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog chose to celebrate the Jewish Hanukkah holiday — the "Festival of Lights" — at the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron, accompanied by a group of settler leaders. "The historical affinity of the Jewish people to Hebron, to the Cave of the …

WSWS (2021-12-04). Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), giant of American musical theater. wsws.org An inventive lyricist, a collaborator and mentor to many, he created 19 full-length musicals.

Terry Evans (2021-12-04). Workers need to use our unions to fight against the ravages of inflation. themilitant.com With no end in sight to the biggest price hikes in decades, especially on food, gas and other necessities, strikes by workers at Kellogg's cereal plants, ExxonMobil in Texas and at Warrior Met Coal in Alabama set an important example for workers everywhere. By using our unions to fight, striking workers show we can stand up to the bosses and struggle together for protection from the effects of today's crisis of capitalist production and trade. | Employers are driving hard to jack up our "productivity" — an index of the exploitation of our labor — while holding wages down and increasing speedup and ove…

WSWS (2021-12-04). Australian government in "chaos" as pandemic intensifies political disarray. wsws.org The Liberal-National government is in tatters, yet there is low popular support for the Labor Party and rising distrust in the entire parliamentary establishment.

Jonah Furman (2021-12-04). Major Union Passes Historic Reform for Democracy Years After Corruption Scandal. truthout.org This article was first published by The members of the United Auto Workers have voted overwhelmingly to move to a direct voting system for choosing their union leadership — "one member, one vote." With all votes counted as of December 2, direct elections had the support of 63.6 percent of voters. | It's a historic win for reformers in one of the nation's most important unions, whe…

In Defense of Liberation! (2021-12-04). Fight, Resist, Stand Up, and Organize! anchor.fm In this episode I go into a bit of a discussion intended to show how the class struggle takes many different forms and how active resistance to the capitalist Bourgeoisie system looks different, takes different forms, organizes itself in different ways at different points in times during the struggle. This is how a revolutionary mass movement is built, through struggle, through learning and growing, through expanding into new realms of society and organizing more people than have ever been organized for such a thing before. And we must do it on the basis of revolution, not asking for reforms as an end, but a mean…

Author Blank (2021-12-04). Build support for women's right to have an abortion! themilitant.com As the Militant goes to press, the Supreme Court was hearing arguments over a Mississippi law that poses a direct challenge to a woman's legal right to choose whether to have an abortion. | Organizing to win a strong majority of working people to support women's right to choose is crucial both for women's fight for emancipation from second-class citizenship and for the struggles of the entire working class against oppression and exploitation. | A woman's decision about whether and when to bear a child, must be hers alone. Controlling her own body is crucial if women are to plan and control their own lives. It is…

_____ (2021-12-04). UK Higher Education Workers Strike For Fair Pay, Working Conditions And Other Stories. popularresistance.org In today's episode of the Daily Round-up we look at the 3-day UCU strike by Higher Education workers across 58 universities in the UK to demand fair wages and job security; the re-imposition of the Migrant Protection Protocols by the U.S. and its implications for asylum seekers currently in Mexico and at the border; a report on rising hunger in the Latin America and the Caribbean region during the pandemic; and a Stand Earth report linking major brands like Nike and Adidas to cattle ranching operations fueling large-scale destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

_____ (2021-12-04). UK Higher Education Workers Strike For Fair Pay, Working Conditions. popularresistance.org In today's episode of the Daily Round-up we look at the 3-day UCU strike by Higher Education workers across 58 universities in the UK to demand fair wages and job security; the re-imposition of the Migrant Protection Protocols by the U.S. and its implications for asylum seekers currently in Mexico and at the border; a report on rising hunger in the Latin America and the Caribbean region during the pandemic; and a Stand Earth report linking major brands like Nike and Adidas to cattle ranching operations fueling large-scale destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

_____ (2021-12-04). What Can Organizers At Amazon Learn From Walmart? popularresistance.org Amazon is the epoch-defining corporation of the moment in a way that Walmart was two decades ago," said Howard W, an Amazon warehouse worker and organizer with Amazonians United, a grassroots movement of Amazon workers building shop-floor power. What can organizers at Amazon learn from the Walmart campaigns in the 2000s? And what can these two efforts teach us about organizing at scale? Unions haven't successfully organized an employer with more than 10,000 workers in decades, so getting to scale is one of the most pressing challenges for the social justice movements. | To explore these questions, Howard was join…

Jonah Furman (2021-12-04). Auto Workers Win Direct Democracy in Referendum. zcomm.org Tens of thousands of UAW members have just voted to upend the status quo…

WSWS (2021-12-04). The lessons of the International Committee's 1995 global struggle to defend jobs at Kellogg's. wsws.org As workers at Kellogg's plants in the US prepare to vote on the rotten tentative contract agreement being pushed by the BCTGM they should take note of the critical effort to organize workers internationally in defense of jobs and conditions at Kellogg's that was launched by the International Committee in 1995.

WSWS (2021-12-04). "We should all do this together. We could close Kaiser down!" Operating engineers speak out on two-month strike at Kaiser Permanente. wsws.org There is enormous support for engineers from nurses and other health care workers, but the strike has been systematically isolated by the health care unions.

Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman (2021-12-04). Keeping Business Alive: The Government Will Pay. indybay.org A buyer-of-last-resort program would alleviate the hardship of workers and businesses. It would maintain the cash flow for families and businesses, so that the coronavirus shock has no secondary impacts on demand — Business activity is on hold today, but with an intravenous cash flow, it can be kept alive until the health crisis is over.

WSWS (2021-12-04). UK: Striking workers at B&Q distribution centre in Worksop determined to fight pay restraint. wsws.org The Unite union, with over 1 million members, has not organised any form of solidarity action—even at the other major B&Q hubs in Swindon and Doncaster in England and Cambuslang in Scotland—in defence of their co-workers in Worksop.

WSWS (2021-12-04). At online town hall, Kaiser union officials praise "joint" approach to cost-cutting in tentative agreement. wsws.org At Wednesday's meeting, the first since the deal was announced more than two weeks ago, no rank-and-file workers were allowed to speak or ask questions, a clear indication of the unions' nervousness about opposition to the deal among health care workers.

WSWS (2021-12-04). Workers defend Lisa Diaz as UK government steps up crackdown on parents. wsws.org As many declaring their support understand, the attack on Lisa is the spearhead of a broader government crackdown on families resisting the deliberate mass infection of children.

Nilly Waiserberg, Paula Feder-Bubis (2021-12-04). [Correspondence] Enabling physical activity for people living with disabilities. thelancet.com The call for multi-level action for the promotion of participation of people living with disabilities (PLWD) in physical activity by Kathleen Martin Ginis and colleagues1 underscores the lack of structural opportunities for participation. Health-care workers might provide long-term interventions to PLWD in and throughout life-course stages, with an impact on their lives. These interventions might start early in the rehabilitation process, be they congenital, early-onset, acquired, or later-onset disabilities.

Candace Wagner (2021-12-04). Unionists march in support of Erie Strayer strikers. themilitant.com PITTSBURGH — A Nov. 18 march in support of some 40 Iron Workers Regional Shop Local 851 members on strike at Erie Strayer since Oct. 4 brought out members of seven different area unions and family members. They included members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, union roofers, Teamsters, United Electrical workers and others. | "We have had overwhelming support from this community," striker George Crawford told Erie News Now. "We've had multiple people drop us down care packages, anything from venison to canned goods to donuts." | Tracy Cutright, vice president of Local 851, told the Militan…

Jane McAlevey (2021-12-04). Organizing for Power, Part 3. zcomm.org Workers must face up to race to unite the class. Fighting for a just transition, the workers' movement is critical to any chance of having an effective climate policy…

John Steele (2021-12-04). Canada flood social disaster is a product of capitalist greed. themilitant.com MONTREAL — Tens of thousands of workers and farmers across British Columbia face widespread flooding, mud and rock slides after torrential rain hit central and southern parts of the province beginning Nov. 14. | The unfolding social catastrophe, however, is not caused by weather, but by the refusal of governments at all levels to prepare for such conditions and the fact that under capitalism working people are forced to live where housing is cheapest — on flood plains. | As of Nov. 17, six people were dead or missing. At least 17,775 people were forced out of their homes, entire towns were evacuated a…

Betsey Stone (2021-12-04). Hospital workers walk out to support striking engineers. themilitant.com OAKLAND, Calif. — The 700 members of IUOE Stationary Engineers Local 39, who are on strike at 24 Northern California Kaiser hospitals, got a boost Nov. 18 when members of other hospital unions participated in a one-day strike in support of their fight. Thousands of medical assistants, X-ray technicians, phlebotomists, lab scientists and other medical workers lined in front of Kaiser hospitals from Santa Rosa and Vacaville in the north to San Jose in the south. | Members of the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, the Office and Professional Employees Local 29 and Engineers and Scientists of California Local…

Amy Husk (2021-12-04). Back Kellogg's, Warrior Met coal mine strikers! themilitant.com BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Morale was high on the picket lines in front of the Kellogg's plant here Nov. 28 in spite of the freezing cold, wind, and snow that occasionally blasted the strikers. Some 325 workers are on strike at this plant along with over 1,000 other Kellogg's cereal workers in Omaha, Nebraska; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee. Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union members have been on strike against Kellogg's since Oct. 5. | The main issue is the divisive two-tier system, which allows the company to employ a layer of workers who make significantly lower wa…

WSWS (2021-12-04). Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand. wsws.org India: State transport workers' still on strike in Maharashtra; Doctors walk out in Karnataka and Gujarat; Australia: Sydney bus drivers hold three days of strike action; New Zealand port workers vote to strike…

WSWS (2021-12-04). Two more Minnesota teachers die of COVID-19 as cases approach record highs. wsws.org The measures necessary to stop the spread of the virus—and put a halt to the deaths of teachers and students—can only come through workers developing rank-and-file committees in every workplace and factory in the US and internationally to enforce the shutdown of unsafe facilities and the closure of schools to in-person learning.

WSWS (2021-12-04). Global vaccine inequality: "A policy decision by the rich countries" wsws.org African Union officials estimate the COVAX global vaccine distribution scheme will deliver just 470 million doses to African countries by the end of December, less than a quarter of the 2 billion needed to deliver two shots to its entire adult population.

Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla (2021-12-04). Carers of the World vs. Covid-19 Criminals. zcomm.org The Progressive International is mobilizing nurses unions around the world to take on Big Pharma and the governments they have captured…

slingshot collective (2021-12-04). Sunday 12/5: Help Mail slingshot issue #134 (inmate subscriptions). indybay.org Long Haul Infoshop – 3124 Shattuck Ave Berkeley – corner of Woolsey and Shattuck – 2 blocks from Ashby BART…

Staff (2021-12-04). US strike may have killed Syrian civilians, Pentagon says. rt.com The US military said it would open an investigation into the possibility a recent drone strike caused civilian casualties, with Pentagon officials claiming the attack had been intended to target a "senior al-Qaeda leader." | US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations across the Middle East, announced the upcoming probe on Friday, hours after an MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle bombed an unspecified location in Idlib province in what CENTCOM described as a "precision strike." | "We abhor the loss of innocent life and take all possible measures to prevent them. The possibility of a civil…

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