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Due to Years of Austerity, Cuts to Public Health Care, And An Anti-Science and Profiteering President, The United States Now Leads the World In Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in the World!
Always Remember: That President Obama, With a Majority Democrat Legislature Supported the Wall Street Bailout and Remember, That he Established, in writing, the United States Capitalist Austerity Program. — The Race to the Bottom/Pauperization of the 99%!
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%, Only the 1% Voted For Austerity! The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who, Profit From Austerity!! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.! Socialism Means True Democracy, that the 99% Will Rule, Not the Few!
Image of the Day:
Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor. — James Baldwin
Before Bernie decided to run, Socialist Alternative had called on Sanders to run as an independent. We warned that while running in the Democratic Party primary might seem a simpler way forward, the Democratic Party is a corporate party. Despite its progressive appearance, it has consistently betrayed every major social movement by first, attracting them, and then sanitizing them to the needs of its corporate agenda. That is why it has been nick-named “the graveyard of social movements.” Its historical roots are as a party of the oppressing class. First, as the party of the slave-owning class, then, after the abolition of slavery, as a political party funded and dominated by big business. Beginning in the 1930s it came to be seen as the party most tied to the interests of organized labor, black people, and women. But all the way through the ‘60s it still had a “Dixiecrat” wing that fiercely defended Jim Crow segregation in the South. At every point in its history, on every essential issue whenever the class interests of the corporate elite was at stake, it has taken the side of that class against the interests of the 99%. — Can the Democratic Party Be Reformed?
Videos of the Day:
United States:
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Reublicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace. — The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace! The United States takes from the poor and gives to the Rich. Rax the Rich! — They Can Afford To Pay
Now Is the Time to Really Prosecute the Case Against Trump—By Pivoting to Real Democratic Reform “The challenge ahead is not simply to advance democratic reforms in the face of obstruction, but to advance them in the face of determined ideological opposition.” Any approach to moving forward must reckon with the fact that one of this country’s two major parties is no longer committed to multiracial democracy. By Jeffrey C. Isaac
Envoronment:
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it’s more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody’s blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, then capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It’s only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely. Malcolm X
Chris Hedges: Cancel Culture, Where Liberalism Goes to Die The Rev. Will Campbell was forced out of his position as director of religious life at the University of Mississippi in 1956 because of his calls for integration. He escorted Black children through a hostile mob in 1957 to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. He was the only white person that was invited to be part of the group that founded Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He helped integrate Nashville’s lunch counters and organize the Freedom Rides. But Campbell was also, despite a slew of death threats he received from white segregationists, an unofficial chaplain to the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. He denounced and publicly fought the Klan’s racism, acts of terror and violence and marched with Black civil rights protestors in his native Mississippi, but he steadfastly refused to “cancel” white racists out of his life. He refused to demonize them as less than human. He insisted that this form of racism, while evil, was not as insidious as a capitalist system that perpetuated the economic misery and instability that pushed whites into the ranks of violent, racist organizations.
Labor:
MinimumWage
The Fall of the Trade Unions: U.S. is Worst Among Developed Nations For Worker Benefits The U.S. ranks last among industrialized countries relative to employee benefits like healthcare, paid leave, vacation days, unemployment and retirement, according to Zenefits. Americans have it worse than all other developed nations when it comes to benefits for workers, according to a new ranking. The U.S. places last relative to its national policies around healthcare, unemployment, retirement, parental leave, and paid vacation and sick days, according to Zenefits, a human resources firm. By Greg Iacurci
Economy:
The Centers of Global Capitalism Are Migrating Away From the U.S., Europe and Japan Modern capitalism began in England in the 17th century and spread eventually throughout the world. Its particular evolution produced a global economy organized around centers and a periphery (colonized economically and often politically as well). In those centers—chiefly Western Europe, North America, and Japan—capitalism concentrated its accumulating assets. Factories, offices, stores, distribution centers, and transport networks built fast-growing cities. Supporting institutions of government, schools and universities, and hospitals likewise grew into the centers of urban capitalism especially in the 19th and most of the 20th century. — However, new centers of capitalism have emerged and grown especially quickly over the last half-century. China, India, and Brazil are leading examples where jobs, real wages, consumption, profits, and investments are growing. By Richard D. Wolff
World:
Putin’s Majority? “The composition of the recent protests – which have drawn in a large number of new participants whose main demand is social justice – opens up a space for socialist ideas.” On 2 February, Alexey Navalny was sent to prison for two years and eight months. Legally, the verdict makes no sense: the court replaced his suspended sentence with a real one for failing to check in with the authorities in Russia – while he was recovering from the novichok poisoning in Germany. Politically, Navalny’s imprisonment looks even worse: since it came right after the failed assassination attempt, how else to interpret it other than the ‘second best option’ for the regime? This disregard for optics suggests that the Kremlin is simply unwilling to tolerate Navalny’s activities any longer. He must either be imprisoned or assassinated, regardless of the backlash. The authorities adopted the same stance of open confrontation towards the protests that followed Navalny’s arrest. Russian cities were instantly flooded with riot police, the National Guard, plainclothes ‘anti-extremist’ officers and countless other forces. Central Moscow and St Petersburg were completely shut down: armored vehicles blockaded the streets; metro stations were closed for ‘technical reasons’. The 23 January protests set a record, as at least 4,000 people were detained across the country. On 31 January that figure climbed to 5,700. With normal holding facilities chock-full of protesters, new detainees were brought to a migrant detention centre on the outskirts of Moscow. The lack of holding cells is so severe that hundreds of people spent days in police vehicles, prevented from eating or sleeping. By Ilya Budraitskis and Ilya Matveev
Ukraine: Zelenskiy Shuts Down Opposition Media On 2 February, the Ukrainian president issued sanctions on three of the most popular television news channels in the country. Media outlets getting shut down is nothing new in Ukraine, ever since the Euromaidan brought a right-wing government to power in 2014. However, the recent events represent the most concerted move to shut down opposition media in Ukraine’s history. By Peter Mikhailenko
What is Happening in Myanmar and Why? The military coup that was carried out in Myanmar by Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the army, on 31 January has unleashed a movement that the military were clearly not expecting. Their coup took many by surprise. No one in Myanmar was expecting it, and it also does not seem to fit with the needs of the moment. So why did it take place? In this article, we attempt to outline some of the factors that led to this sudden and sharp change in the situation. It is an established norm of bourgeois strategy that a military coup is usually a measure of last resort. And, more importantly, in order for a coup to be successful, it is a step that you take only when the movement of workers, peasants and youth has been already demoralised by their own leaders. By Fred Weston
Education, Health, Science, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of Wall Street and the bankers. Yet, those who pass universal healthcare for themselves, but cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers to be, a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let the People Vote on Healthcare
Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Profiteers
Big Pharma Must Share Their Vaccine Knowledge and Technology With the World—Now To stop the global pandemic, rich countries need to stop hoarding vaccines. Just over a year ago, the world looked on in shock as the Chinese city of Wuhan imposed the first coronavirus lockdown. Since then, people around the world have made extraordinary sacrifices and have shown great solidarity in containing the spread of the virus. Yet, when it comes to rolling out vaccines, the world’s political leaders seem to have forgotten that we are all in it together. By Stephen Cockburn
Coronavirus Variants and Mutations Each coronavirus contains nearly 30,000 letters of RNA. This genetic information allows the virus to infect cells and hijack them to make new viruses. As an infected cell builds new coronaviruses, it occasionally makes tiny copying errors called mutations. Scientists can track mutations as they are passed down through a lineage, which is a branch of the viral family tree. A group of coronaviruses that share the same inherited set of distinctive mutations is called a variant. If enough mutations accumulate in a lineage, the viruses may evolve clear-cut differences in how they function. These lineages come to be known as strains. Covid-19 is caused by a coronavirus strain known as SARS-CoV-2.Over the course of the pandemic, a number of variants of SARS-CoV-2 have arisen. Some of them are raising worries that they may draw out the pandemic or make vaccines less effective. By Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer
Since World War I, ‘the war to end all wars’, there have been perpetual wars for perpetual peace, this Laura Gray’s cartoon from the front page of The Militant August 18, 1945, Under the Banner Headline: “There Is No Peace”
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three-Point Political Program: 1.Austerity,2. Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel! For Decades, Blacks Have Been Subjected to The Iron Heel! Currently, the US Capitalist Class is Divided Over When — Not If, to Apply It to Everyone!
Quotes 0f the Day: