(2021-12-11). Assange extradition 'an attack on us all'. greenleft.org.au The British decision to extradite Julian Assange is an attack on us all, argues Socialist Alliance Senate candidate Kamala Emanuel.
(2021-12-11). Much More Than Just Ukraine. moderndiplomacy.eu A war scare in Ukraine is a pivotal moment for the West. It tests transatlantic resolve, unity, and the very foundations of NATO. Failure to prevent potential Russian military advances or an unwillingness to respond if such a move occurs will likely cause an accentuation of internal divisions within NATO and the European Union (EU.) …
(2021-12-11). Public-Private Collaboration Will Define New Era for Cities. moderndiplomacy.eu At the World Economic Forum's inaugural Urban Transformation Summit, which closed on Wednesday, global leaders underscored the need for increased public-private collaboration to capitalize on new infrastructure funding and tackle growing urban challenges around the globe. "Our cities and our communities are changing right before our eyes. Digitization is transforming urban economies, public health and …
(2021-12-11). India's community health workers' struggle for recognition. roarmag.org 
Asha worker marking the finger of a baby girl after administering a polio vaccine in Delhi, India. June 28, 2021. Photo: PradeepGaurs / Shutterstock.com | This essay is published in collaboration with Public Services International | | Over the last year-and-a-half, one of the most visible groups of workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in India have been the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), a cadre of community health workers appointed by the National Health Mission (NHM). These hitherto invisible women were seen not only going hou…
(2021-12-11). Fifty-five immigrants killed, over 100 injured in Mexico truck crash. wsws.org The catastrophic accident in southern Mexico came as Washington renews its "stay in Mexico" policy and the Mexican government collaborates in the repression of migrants.
(2021-12-11). Meeting of the Network of Action Committees for Safe Education in Germany: "We are at the beginning of great mass struggles of the working class" wsws.org At the meeting, nurses, educators, workers and students presented a terrible picture of the consequences of the official coronavirus policies.
(2021-12-11). Threat to fire striking Kellogg's workers prompts nervous statement from Biden administration. wsws.org The short, eight-sentence statement is a clear sign of the nervousness within ruling circles that the move by Kellogg's could trigger a social explosion within the working class.
(2021-12-11). Rank-and-file democracy wins in the UAW. workers.org 
From Oct. 19 through Nov. 29, working and retired members of the United Auto Workers participated in a referendum vote on how they would elect their union's International Executive Board officers. The two choices were whether to continue the current delegate voting system, where the IEB is chosen by delegates . . . |
(2021-12-11). Baseball players union blasts owners for lockout. workers.org 
At midnight Dec. 2, immediately after the contract between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association expired, team owners locked out all members of the MLBPA. The union issued the following statement on Twitter 20 minutes after the lockout was imposed. In two days the statement received . . . |
(2021-12-11). Family and coworkers cope with tragic suicide death of Stellantis autoworker in Toledo. wsws.org The shocking tragedy occurred shortly before the start of the evening shift on Monday, leading to cancellation of production on the Jeep Gladiator line.
(2021-12-11). [Perspectives] The healer as the enemy: attacking health care in war. thelancet.com Violence against health care in war has shocked the global public conscience over the past decade. Images of attacks on hospitals from my home country, Syria, have been especially disturbing. Documentaries such as The New Barbarianism, For Sama, and The Cave, the latter two from Syria, provide gripping accounts of the plight of hospitals and health workers under attack. Scholarship on health-care attacks has not been extensive. For instance, three fairly recent authoritative edited volumes on conflict and health—Ilkka Taipale's 2001 War or Health: A Reader, Barry Levy and Victor Sidel's 2007 War and Public…
(2021-12-11). Starbucks workers win historic first union. zcomm.org "If we can do this here, you can do this too"
(2021-12-11). Health care workers skeptical about margin of contract ratification at Kaiser Permanente. wsws.org Whatever the case may be with the outcome of the vote, the process itself made a mockery of democratic process.
(2021-12-11). Unions ram through extension at Ingalls shipyard, stall for time at Newport News. wsws.org While the IBEW had until March 2022 to negotiate before the expiration of the contract, they opted instead to call a snap vote on the exact same contract workers rejected last week.
(2021-12-11). UK: Unite leader Sharon Graham wins chorus of approval from the corporate media. wsws.org If Unite's presentation that it is waging a "pushback" on behalf of workers had any element of truth, the Johnson government would by now be confronting an unprecedented strike wave with Graham the subject of a corporate media witch-hunt.
(2021-12-11). Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand. wsws.org Indian ordnance factory workers hold national strike; Odisha state childcare workers demand higher wages; Australian plasterboard workers locked out; New Zealand rail union calls off strike.
(2021-12-11). Socialist Equality Party to continue campaign against Australia's anti-democratic electoral laws. wsws.org Whether the SEP is registered or not, the party will stand candidates in the looming federal election to take out to the broadest possible audience the fight for socialism and the overturn of capitalism.
(2021-12-11). "They are killing us": More flight attendants speak out about poisoned job uniforms. wsws.org Flight attendants from a number of airlines spoke about the toxic working conditions that they have been subjected to by their employers and the airline unions.
(2021-12-11). School strikers protest NAB's support for fossil fuel corporations. greenleft.org.au School students protested outside National Australia Bank headquarters calling on it to stop funding fossil fuels. Coral Wynter reports.
(2021-12-11). [Perspectives] Something in the water. thelancet.com Rare Earth Mettle at London's Royal Court Theatre concerns rival missions to extract lithium from the Bolivian salt flats. Henry Finn (Arthur Darvill), billionaire founder of Edison Motors, needs copious quantities for the batteries of the electric vehicles he's developing. They'll help save the climate and sales will enrich him—not inconsiderably—in the process. But lithium has other uses too. In the play, Anna Carter (Genevieve O'Reilly), a British doctor, argues that communities who drink naturally lithium-rich water have improved mental health.
(2021-12-10). Ethiopian community rallies in Dallas against U.S. intervention. fightbacknews.org Dallas, TX – Hundreds of members of Dallas's large Ethiopian community rallied outside Dallas City Hall on November 21 against U.S. intervention in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The protest was associated with the nationwide #NoMore movement and was called by community members, though the rally was also attended by members of the All African People's Revolutionary Party and the Dallas Anti-War Committee. | A community spokeswoman talked about the sanctions and diplomatic moves that the Biden administration has taken against Ethiopia in recent weeks, stating, "The Biden administration actions are a pretext to ge…
(2021-12-10). Super serious news reporting: notes from the Edge of The Narrative Matrix. mronline.org 
Hi I'm a very serious news reporter. The Russians are controlling our thoughts with Facebook memes and scrambling our brains with invisible ray gun attacks. In other news, capitalism is working fine and our wars defend freedom and democracy. The government never lies. Here's Bob with the weather.
(2021-12-10). Inside The Secretive World Of Union Busting. popularresistance.org While union membership has risen slightly since 2018 thanks to some major organizing wins, and public approval of unions is at its highest level since 1965, labor has a lot of ground to make up. Union membership plummeted from 20.1% of American wage and salary workers in 1983 to just 10.8% in 2020. One of the biggest reasons for that decline is the use of well-funded, aggressive campaigns by employers to fight off unions, conducted largely through expensive union avoidance consultants and lawyers. In 2019, it was estimated that companies spend at least $340 million per year on such consultants and often engage in…
(2021-12-10). Starbucks Workers United scores first-ever union win at big coffee chain. peoplesworld.org 
BUFFALO, N.Y.—Starbucks Workers United broke a significant barrier on December 9 with the first-ever worker win at the big retail coffee chain. Workers at the Elmwood store in Buffalo voted 19-8 to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, the National Labor Relations Board officer announced. The union also won 15-9 at a second store, but there …
(2021-12-10). Australian Labor Party helps government ram through another anti-democratic electoral law. wsws.org The latest bipartisan bill deepens the attack on basic democratic rights made when the two ruling parties joined hands in August to rush through party deregistration laws.
(2021-12-10). Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez Celebrate Starbucks Workers' Historic Union Victory. truthout.org 
Progressive lawmakers are celebrating after Starbucks workers in Buffalo triumphed over nearly insurmountable odds to form the company's first-ever union on Thursday, a sign that the reawakening U.S. labor movement is growing stronger. | Workers at
(2021-12-10). Growth of the class struggle in Australia highlights need for rank-and-file committees. wsws.org A small but significant increase in industrial action points to mounting social and political opposition in the working class.
(2021-12-10). Mobilize the working class to stop the pandemic and the Omicron surge! wsws.org As the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreads globally, the Biden administration in the US and capitalist governments globally are approaching the pandemic with criminal recklessness.
(2021-12-10). Starbucks workers win historic first union: "If we can do this here, you can do this too" liberationnews.org 
After experiencing months of harassment, intimidation and stalling by executives, Buffalo baristas have successfully formed the first Starbucks union in the United States.
(2021-12-10). Corporate monopoly, other factors hamper workers economically. peoplesworld.org 
WASHINGTON—Why can't workers get ahead? Economically, that is. Median wages for the broad U.S. middle class have been virtually stagnant for at least 40 years, adjusted for inflation, even as productivity has galloped ahead. The median for the bottom 20% has actually dropped. Meanwhile, the rich, especially the top tenth, have reaped the rewards. That …
(2021-12-10). Kellogg's workers win wide support for defying union sellout and strikebreaking threats. wsws.org Workers across the country have expressed their support for Kellogg's workers on strike against the sellout agreement brought by the company and the BCTGM union…
(2021-12-10). People's Covid Inquiry in the UK merely calls on Johnson government to make amends. wsws.org Last month, the WSWS initiated a Global Workers' Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is diametrically opposed to the political orientation of the People's Covid Inquiry.
(2021-12-10). Workers Struggles: Europe, Middle East & Africa. wsws.org Workers' strikes spread at Tiger Brands and Clover food manufacturers, South Africa as Sibanye-Stillwater gold miners close to strike over pay and work fatalities; national strike over three days by healthcare workers in Turkey over pay; sailors begin 48-hour pay strike in Greek ports; health and social care workers strike and demonstrate throughout France against exclusion from pay review…
(2021-12-10). Striking Quebec child care workers should oppose union efforts to sabotage their struggle. wsws.org In an effort to divide workers, the unions have accepted "differentiated" offers for day care support staff that would provide them with wage increases about half those offered to those tasked with directly providing child care.
(2021-12-10). Organizing isn't Just Some Romantic Idea, it's Practical Steps and Action! anchor.fm In this episode I talk about the fact that what we need today across the world has already been tried, built, and able to grow in many places around the world; we need to only learn. Communists, socialists, and Marxists all over the world have been building revolutions and mass organizations for centuries. Our objective? Organize the people. But that's not just some slogan, that is a necessary step towards building a New World. If the people are an educated as to what's oppressing them, that they're exploited and HOW, and if they don't learn who their comrades in that fight are, then they lose time and time again…
(2021-12-10). The Kathleen Stock affair: Identity politics versus socialist politics and democratic rights. wsws.org After dominating life on campus for years, identity politics has produced two results: the machinery for anti-democratic crackdowns which can now be taken over by the government and the right, and a growing resentment against what calls itself "progressive" politics that greases the right's wheels.
(2021-12-10). Vienna Talks: Iran Says no Interactive, Flexible Attitude Seen on Other Side. orinocotribune.com The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry has said that while Iran entered talks in Vienna on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal with an interactive and flexible attitude, "this was not the case for the other side." | Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks at a weekly presser on Monday, adding that the Vienna talks have not been halted and that the next round will kick off later this week. | The exact date will be determined by Iran's chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and the European Union's Deputy Secretary General Enrique Mora soon, the spokesman said. | The seventh round of high-level talks between Iran and…
(2021-12-10). Braeswood Tenants Unite To Fight Extreme Rent Hike By New Landlord in Houston, TX. itsgoingdown.org Report on tenants in Houston delivering their demands to Fat Property, their landlord, who is hiking rent substantially after taking over the complex earlier this year. Originally posted by Houston Tenants Union. HOUSTON, TEXAS — The tenants of The Terraces on Brompton united under the banner of Brompton Mutual Aid, to deliver a demand letter…
(2021-12-10). Amazon Can't Bust Unions Forever. inequality.org
(2021-12-10). "Wipe the Soviet Union Off the Map", 204 Atomic Bombs against 66 Major Cities, US Nuclear Attack against USSR Planned During World War II. globalresearch.ca According to a secret document dated September 15, 1945, "the Pentagon had envisaged blowing up the Soviet Union with a coordinated nuclear attack directed against 66 major urban areas.
(2021-12-10). AFT President Randi Weingarten sabotages "safe schools" town hall. wsws.org Parent advocacy group PRESS NYC cancels AFT co-event about school safety following right-wing attacks on panelists, which union president Randi Weingarten sought to appease.
(2021-12-10). CEPR Spotlight: Special Drawing Rights. cepr.net CEPR has played a leading role in educating policymakers and the general public on the importance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and in organizing a successful campaign for a major allocation of SDRs by the International Monetary Fund.
(2021-12-10). "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset": Calls Grow to Keep Student Loan Moratorium. truthout.org 
Image Credit: The Intercept | As calls grow for Biden to extend the moratorium on student debt, we speak with the Debt Collective's Astra Taylor and feature her new film for The Intercept, "Your Debt Is Someone Else's Asset," animated by artist Molly Crabapple. The $15 trillion in U.S. household debt is "a form of wealth transfer" from the poor to the rich, Taylor says. "People are in debt by design." | TRANSCRIPT: | This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. | AMY GOOD…
(2021-12-10). La cumbre de democracia de Biden es un buen momento para debatir la 'Bill of Rights Socialism'. peoplesworld.org 
La democracia estadounidense está en peligro. Solo hay que seguir las noticias de los últimos años para darse cuenta de la peligrosa situación en la que se encuentra este país. El ejemplo más obvio y dramático fue la insurrección del 6 de enero, cuando una turba de partidarios de Donald Trump irrumpió en el Capitolio …
(2021-12-10). Staff at Springfield, Oregon medical center launch five-day strike. wsws.org Over 300 hospital support staff at the hospital are seeking adequate compensation and resisting management plans to outsource 100 jobs, a quarter of the bargaining unit.
(2021-12-10). Minister Plasencia: Capitalism is in Crisis and We are Called to Change Course. orinocotribune.com 
This Thursday, December 9, Venezuela's Minister for Foreign Affairs Félix Plasencia inaugurated the World People's Congress for Peace, which was organized to present proposals that can counteract the current challenges facing humanity and the planet in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. | "We met to discuss the need to deepen the guarantee of political, economic and social rights of humanity, for the welfare of the peoples," said Venezuela's top diplomat at the beginning of the conference, which is held online. | Plasencia stated that it is necessary to "change course" in the face of the new challenges arising i…
(2021-12-10). Report-Back From A Rail Blockade In Saint-Lambert. popularresistance.org On Saturday, more than sixty people acting in solidarity with Wet'suwet'en land defenders blocked the CN main line in Saint-Lambert south of Montreal for over six hours. It was the longest rail blockade in Quebec since the winter of 2020, interrupting Via Rail service and immobilizing six freight trains. These notes reflect the experience of a couple participants in Saturday's blockade. | Nostalgia mixed with anticipation as we arrived at the tracks where they cross rue Saint-Georges, with banners ready to hang across the rail crossing and no police in sight. It was a bright morning, temperatures just below freez…
(2021-12-10). 60 Years After His Death, Fanon's Ideas Remain The Weapons Of The Oppressed. popularresistance.org Today marks the 60th anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest thinkers to have emerged from the ranks of the oppressed, Frantz Fanon (1925-1961). Fanon's contributions are timeless. As long as white supremacy and neocolonialism remain in the driver's seat of human relations, Fanon's thought will continue to arm the colonized in the Battle of Ideas.
(2021-12-10). Venezuela Incorporates 9 Urutu Armored Vehicles into its Defense System (Video). orinocotribune.com The Strategic Operational Command (CEOFANB) of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB), reported this Thursday, December 9, via its commander Domingo Hernández, that nine Urutu "wheeled tanks" joined its combat system. | Through a post published on Twitter, Hernández explained that they were added to increase the security of the Caribbean nation. The announcement follows reports that Colombia received 20 armored vehicles donated by the United States to continue their destabilization attempts against Venezuela. The US donation is part of a total of more than 140 armored vehicles to be received by Colombian mili…
(2021-12-10). Uruguayans Reject Home Prison For Genocides. telesurenglish.net On Thursday, thousands of Uruguayans took to the streets to reject a bill that seeks to grant house arrest to those who violate human rights and committed crimes against humanity during the last dictatorship (1973-1985). | RELATED: | "This bill would immediately benefit some 20 state terrorists," said Nilo Patiño, a spokesperson for Mothers and Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (MFDD), an organization that brings toget…