(2022-01-11). SEIU1021 Leaders "Ludwig Did Not Have To Die" STOP Privatization & Zero Covid NOW! indybay.org San Francisco SEIU 1021 local leaders reported on the death of SEIU 1021 CCSF worker Ludwig Leota who was coerced back to the job where he contacted covid and passed away. They also talk about the privatization, union busting and fight for democracy in the union.
(2022-01-11). The Continuing Phony Debate on "Free Trade" cepr.net The national debate on free trade is one where honesty has no place. The purpose of our trade agreements, which were not free trade, was to reduce the pay of manufacturing workers, and non-college educated workers more generally, to the benefit of more highly educated workers and corporations. This was the predicted (by standard economics) …
(2022-01-11). Home care workers in Spain call for better wages and end of subcontracting. peoplesdispatch.org The committee of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) in Andalusia has demanded recognition and adequate pay for home care workers and an end to privatization and subcontracting of services…
(2022-01-11). Calls for Paid Leave Grow as Workers Face 'Vicious Cycle': Their Jobs or COVID Safety. scheerpost.com 
A waiter serves food to customers dining indoors at Langer's Deli in Los Angeles, California on August 7, 2021. (Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) | By Brett Wilkins / Common Dreams | As U.S. workers ill with Covid-19 during the Omicron surge face the stark choice of staying home without pay at the risk of losing their jobs or reporting to work and possibly infecting colleagues and customers, progressives on Monday renewed calls for the implementation of paid sick leave at the national level. | "In the midst of a horrific pandemic, two-thirds of low-wage workers still lack access to paid sick leav…
(2022-01-11). Second Starbucks Location Unionizes as Union Wave Sweeps Stores Across the US. truthout.org 
Starbucks workers successfully unionized another store on Monday, making the Genesee Street store in Buffalo, New York, the second corporate-owned Starbucks location in the U.S. to form a union. | The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certified the results for the Genesee Street store in Buffalo after reviewing ballots that had been disputed by the union. The final count
(2022-01-11). Another autoworker denounces conditions at Warren Truck Plant. wsws.org A worker at the Stellantis Warren Truck Plant describes the impossible situation workers face as they battle both COVID and increasingly intolerable working conditions.
(2022-01-11). Workers' safety should not be sacrificed for the sake of the economy. greenleft.org.au The new exemptions to Public Health Orders which can force sick workers to work represent a serious attack on workers' rights and their health and safety. Sarah Hathway argues that workers and their unions need to draw a line.
(2022-01-11). Australia Post workers oppose criminal "let it rip" COVID-19 policies. wsws.org The PWRFC calls on postal workers to reject the "opening up" drive by governments, both Coalition and Labor, backed by the unions, which puts working people at risk of infection every day.
(2022-01-11). New California guidelines push COVID-infected health care workers back to work. wsws.org Updated emergency guidelines by the California Department of Public Health state that asymptomatic COVID-19-positive workers or those exposed to COVID-19 must return to work immediately without quarantine or repeat testing.
(2022-01-11). Auto factories are not safe! Stop production to halt spread of Omicron! wsws.org The Autoworkers Rank-and-File Committee calls for the shutdown of auto plants and nonessential production, with full compensation to workers, until the virus is contained and workers aided by scientists determine it safe to return.
(2022-01-11). Workers Struggles: The Americas. wsws.org Social and indigenous groups have called protests against the right-wing government of Lenin Moreno while the courts handed a partial victory to families suing US food Giant Tyson over worker deaths due to COVID.
(2022-01-11). "There are zero safety protocols to keep us safe from COVID": Autoworker denounces conditions at Warren Truck Plant. wsws.org A worker at the Stellantis Warren Truck Plant describes the impossible situation workers face as they battle both COVID and increasingly intolerable working conditions.
(2022-01-11). Mega merger in peril over EU energy fears. rt.com 
Brussels concerned that $2 billion shipbuilders' tie-up will drive up LNG prices in Europe | The European Union's antitrust regulator is getting ready to stop a $2 billion merger between two of the world's leading LNG cargo shipbuilders, citing anti-competitive behavior. | The decision on the proposed merger between Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries is likely to be announced this week, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. The two South Korean companies dominate the market for making ships that carry super-chilled liquified natural gas. They are significa…
(2022-01-11). Vote "No" on the CTU-CPS deal to reopen infected schools and spread COVID-19! Educators must launch a walkout now to save lives! wsws.org The move by the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union to end the remote work action is an utter surrender to Mayor Lightfoot and the homicidal campaign by the Biden administration to send educators and students back into infected schools.
(2022-01-11). Chicago Teachers Union attempts to ram through agreement to reopen schools as Omicron surges. wsws.org The deal reached with Chicago Public Schools and Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot would send over 300,000 students back into overcrowded, poorly-ventilated classrooms, setting the stage for a massive surge of infections.
(2022-01-11). Wednesday 1/12: Protest Amazon Union Busting. indybay.org Whole Foods | 774 Emerson St. | Downtown Palo Alto…
(2022-01-11). The US Drops an Average of 46 Bombs a Day While Grandstanding for Peace. truthout.org 
The Pentagon has finally published its first Over…
(2022-01-11). Winter of death: Two deadly housing fires in less than a week expose the reality of American capitalism. wsws.org New York City and Philadelphia saw their deadliest housing fires in decades amid a climate of official indifference to death as the COVID-19 pandemic has been allowed to rage out of control.
(2022-01-11). Millionaire murderer caught on hot mic dies in prison. rt.com 
Robert Durst's death, months after he was indicted for murder, was announced by the lawyer who represented him during the trial | The disgraced multimillionaire real-estate heir and convicted murderer died at 78 in a California hospital of natural causes "associated with the litany of medical issues" that had previously been reported. | Durst died at the San Joaquin General Hospital, where he was being treated in the custody of California's Department of Corrections, after suffering "difficulty breathing" and "difficulty communicating." | "We understand that his death was due to natural causes associated with…
(2022-01-11). Crypto CEO is now one of world's richest. rt.com 
The Binance exchange chief has entered the ranks of the richest people on Earth, and the tally doesn't even count his crypto holdings | Changpeng Zhao, the man behind the major crypto exchange Binance, has a net worth of nearly $100 billion, but plans to give most of it away. | According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index calculations published on Monday, Zhao has an estimated net worth of at least $96 billion. Moreover, Bloomberg's findings do not take into account Zhao's personal crypto holdings, which means his actual fortune may be much bigger. | In any case, Zhao's estimated fortune now rivals those of F…
(2022-01-11). Cuba shows an alternative to Big Pharma hegemony through global solidarity. mronline.org 
Cuba puts people before profits — showing the world an alternative to the monopolistic practices of Big Pharma. It promotes a public health system, state-funded research and shows global solidarity through tech transfer and vaccine delivery to developing countries.
(2022-01-11). Presidential hopeful says no to 'politically correct propaganda' in schools. rt.com 
French far-right figure Eric Zemmour wants to rid schools of 'feminist, LGBT ideologies' | Eric Zemmour, who is running in the 2022 French presidential election, has vowed to stop the "brainwashing" of school students and focus on academic excellence instead. | "Over the past 40 years, our children have been indoctrinated," Zemmour, an essayist and a political pundit, said on Monday. | "Schools can't be a place where feminist, LGBT and decolonial ideologies brainwash our children." | "There's no prosperous nation without a school that transmits knowledge, and without a school that makes it possible to strive f…
(2022-01-11). 20 years of Gitmo an affront to 'all humanity,' never-charged ex-prisoner tells RT. rt.com 
Yemeni man who was thrown into notorious US prison in his late teens and spent over 14 years there pleads for its belated shutdown | The abuses and injustices committed at Guantanamo Bay military prison hurt not only people locked up there, but the world in general, former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi believes. He spoke to RT as the jail turned 20. | Adayfi was one of hundreds of Muslim men sent to the infamous US offshore detention facility under the George W. Bush administration only to be held for years without trial and subjected to torture and other forms of degrading treatment. | "As prisoners, we lost years…
(2022-01-10). US War Lobby Fuels Conflict In Russia, Ukraine, And Syria. popularresistance.org Douglas Macgregor, a retired US Army Colonel and former Pentagon senior advisor, analyzes the US-Russia standoff in Ukraine; the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan; Trump's failure to act on 2016 campaign anti-interventionist rhetoric, only to surround himself with neocons; and the ongoing, overlooked US military occupation of Syria after the decade-long CIA dirty war. | "The Military Industrial Congressional Complex," Macgregor says, "seems to be more powerful than anyone who occupies the office of the presidency."ffice of the presidency."
(2022-01-10). Kazakhstan crisis attempt to copy 2014 Ukrainian 'Maidan' — Putin. rt.com 
Troops from a number of former Soviet republics have been deployed in the wake of mass protests | Violent and bloody clashes in Kazakhstan are a form of aggression leveled against the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, claiming the same tactics used in Ukraine in 2014 were deployed to coordinate protests. | Speaking as part of a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on Monday, Putin said that the mutual defense pact's troops were working to secure the Central Asian nation after armed groups captured a number of key facilities and effectively took control of its largest…
(2022-01-10). Breaking Point: Ed Yong Says Omicron Is Straining Hospitals & Schools Amid Vaccine Mandate Pushback. democracynow.org 
The Omicron variant's transmission rate is exponentially higher than Delta, leaving healthcare workers across the U.S. in dire straits. Waves of doctors, nurses and other health professionals are unionizing, and some have quit the profession over exploitative conditions. The staffing shortage has added on to the strains of increasing hospitalizations due to COVID-19, limited availability of necessary equipment and lack of federal support for preventative measures such as paid medical leave. "This is the cost of two years spent pushing prematurely for a return to normal," says Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning repor…
(2022-01-10). Headlines for January 10, 2022. democracynow.org Bronx Building Blaze Kills 19 People, Including 9 Children, Injures Dozens, Judge Sentences Men Who Murdered Ahmaud Arbery to Life in Prison, 25% of U.S. Hospitals Face Critical Staff Shortages; Chicago Schools Remain Closed Amid Omicron Surge, Airstrike Kills 56 Displaced People in Tigray as Region's Humanitarian Situation Worsens, Military Court Sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to 4 More Years in Prison, Fire in Cox's Bazar Destroys Homes of 5,000 Rohingya Refugees, Reprisal Attacks in Nigeria's Zamfara State Kill 200 Civilians, Tennis Star Novak Djokovic Released from Immigration Detention as Australian Visa Reinsta…
(2022-01-10). Repercussions of Rightwing Extremism Rise in the Military on US Democracy. libya360.wordpress.com Al Mayadeen Retired US generals have warned of the possibility of a coup during the 2024 election. Experts are concerned that the emergence of right-wing extremism in the US military would endanger democracy in the US. The Department of Defense is implementing new procedures to combat extremism inside its forces; however, experts are concerned that…
(2022-01-10). 'Maidan Methods' Have Been Used in Kazakhstan, Putin Says, as Country Faced Threat to Its Statehood. sputniknews.com Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, addressing a meeting of heads of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), said that the main goal of the terrorists was undermining constitutional order, the seizure of power and an attempted coup, as he spoke of the wave of protests that swept across Kazakhstan earlier in January.
(2022-01-10). Kazakhstan Has Weathered an Attempted Coup D'Etat, President Tokayev Says at CSTO Summit. sputniknews.com Speaking at an extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Monday that the recent unrest in the Central Asian country had been prepared for a long time.
(2022-01-10). Kazakhstan crisis 'attempted coup' — President. rt.com 
Tokayev thanks Russia for assistance in dealing with worst incident "in the history of the country" | Last week's unrest throughout Kazakhstan was an attempted coup that had been planned in advance, and was not simply a spontaneous protest against rising fuel prices, the country's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev claimed on Monday. | Speaking to an online meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), made up of six former Soviet republics, Tokayev also stated that constitutional order had been restored. | "Kazakhstan has experienced the worst crisis in the history of its 30-year independence,"
(2022-01-10). Behind the protests in Kazakhstan. greenleft.org.au What's behind the protests in Kazakhstan? Aynur Kurmanov, a leader of Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, discussed the situation in this interview.
(2022-01-10). CSTO Peacekeepers to Leave Kazakhstan at First Request, Once Situation Stabilizes, Ministry Says. sputniknews.com NUR-SULTAN (Sputnik) – The peacekeeping contingent of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) sent to Kazakhstan to help protect vital facilities amid mass riots will leave the country once the situation stabilizes, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry informs.
(2022-01-10). Piketty says it's 'Time for Socialism,' but has no time for class struggle. peoplesworld.org 
Thomas Piketty has a new collection of essays, entitled, Time for Socialism: Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021. It is not possible to understate the positive impact that the French author's masterwork, Capital in the 21st Century, has had on the economics profession. The book, and the massive data collection projects on global and …
(2022-01-10). Degrowth is about global justice. zcomm.org Green parties sometimes think that the battle is to get the working class on board. This illustrates a real problem: the working class is not on board because green policies don't speak to them…
(2022-01-10). Ralph Nader: Think Big to Overcome Losing Big to Corporatism. scheerpost.com 
[ By Ralph Nader | The progressive citizen groups, that in the sixties and seventies, drove through Congress the key environmental, worker, and consumer legislation, since unmatched, must feel nostalgic. Those were the years when legislation throwing cruel companies on the defensive was signed by arch-corporatist, President Richard Nixon, because he read the political tea leaves. | These bills included the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and environmental laws, the establishment of the Occupational Safety…
(2022-01-10). The Revolution Against Low-Wage Work. zcomm.org Workers used the additional resources of the past year to demand better pay and conditions…
(2022-01-10). NYC Enacts Law Allowing Over 800,000 Immigrants to Vote in Local Elections. scheerpost.com 
Electoral workers wait inside a school in Manhattan during early voting in the New York City mayoral election on October 23, 2021. (Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images) | By Jessica Corbett / A New York City law granting more than 800,000 lawful permanent residents the right to vote in local elections took effect Sunday after the recently elected mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, declined to veto it. | The New York City Council had voted 33-14—with two abstentions…
(2022-01-10). Cruise ship doctor exposes shipboard conditions amid Omicron crisis. wsws.org The World Socialist Web Site has closely followed the crisis facing thousands of cruise ship workers and passengers across the world in the wake of the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
(2022-01-10). US autoworkers call for shutdown of production as Omicron spreads. wsws.org In response to the publication of a letter on workplace conditions by a temporary worker, autoworkers have flooded the WSWS with comments denouncing conditions in their own factories.
(2022-01-10). NYC Public High School Student: 'The Situation Is Beyond Control'. popularresistance.org As the Omicron variant continues to surge, despite 90,132 new positive cases reported in New York on Saturday and one in three Covid-19 tests coming back positive in New York City, schools have been forced to stay open with insufficient safety measures as many students, and staff continue to test positive. Eleven members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Solidarity Caucus filed a lawsuit seeking mandatory remote learning until all students and workers can be tested, but Mayor Eric Adams continues to insist that schools must stay open at all costs, and even that schools are the safest place for students t…
(2022-01-10). India to Administer 'Precautionary Dose' to Frontline Workers, Senior Citizens as COVID Cases Rise. sputniknews.com As of now, India has administered 1.51 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to people, of whom 627 million have been fully vaccinated. In his address to the nation on 25 December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the need for booster doses for healthcare and frontline workers and people aged above 60 with comorbidities.
(2022-01-10). Nothing natural about this disaster. mronline.org 
Profit over people kills workers in the Midwest.
(2022-01-10). The U.S. is intentionally strangling Venezuela. mronline.org 
The consequences of the current U.S. sanctions regime, and collusion with the Venezuelan opposition, have been devastating for the Venezuelan people. Against a suffocating embargo and corrupt bureaucracy, the revolution will survive only if the grassroots reinvent it.
(2022-01-10). What Happened in Barinas on 9-E? Analysis by La Corriente. libya360.wordpress.com The adverse electoral result obtained in Barinas is undoubtedly painful. However, as any defeat, it is also sobering. We know that this spirit of changes within the revolution, of updating within what President Maduro has called the new beginning, will allow a deep reflection on what happened in Barinas, which is, to some extent, an…
(2022-01-10). New £10m centre to explore links between organisms and their microbiomes. imperial.ac.uk The £10m Leverhulme Centre for the Holobiont aims to create a green revolution in agriculture, rescue threatened species, and restore habitats.
(2022-01-10). Women in the Haitian Revolution. mronline.org 
Black women in the French-speaking world have been marginalized throughout history and even if they did not lack autonomy within the family unit (which often they did), they certainly suffered as a result of their colonial status. This often created double oppression.
(2022-01-10). Chicago's COVID-19 Fight With Teachers Hangs Over A Second Week. popularresistance.org Disputed issues included testing and metrics to close schools. The Chicago Teachers Union wants the option to revert to districtwide remote instruction, and most members have refused to teach in-person until there's an agreement, or the latest COVID-19 spike subsides. But Chicago leaders reject districtwide remote learning, saying it's detrimental and schools are safe. Instead, Chicago opted to cancel classes as a whole two days after students returned from winter break. | Chicago Public Schools face the same pandemic issues as other districts nationwide, with more reverting to remote learning as infections soar…
(2022-01-10). Rusia afirma que no hará concesiones en reunión con EE.UU. telesurtv.net Una delegación oficial rusa llegó a Ginebra para negociaciones bilaterales con Estados Unidos sobre garantías de seguridad.
(2022-01-10). Blinken on CNN: Unrelenting bellicosity, full-court offensive for control of former Soviet territory. antibellum679354512.wordpress.com Based on the transcript of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union show on January 9, below, as posted on the State Department website. Much of what has been excised is standard diplomatic verbiage along the lines of we'd prefer a diplomatic solution but….We'd like to think …