We Are Not Submissive: Venezuela Marks 206 Year of Independence

teleSUR | July 05, 2017

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a security plan this Wednesday for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) convened for July 30. | Photo: AVN

Several events took place around the country’s capital marking Venezuela’s 206 years of Independence with officials accusing sections of the right-wing of wanting to hand over “the Homeland to imperialism.”

“We are not submissive, we do not genuflect, we are not surrenderers,” shouted Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez at a flag raising event with the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.

Padrino Lopez specifically mentioned the opposition leader’s recent attempts to invite the Organization of American States and its Secretary General Luis Almagro to the situation.

Caracas Hospital Attacked During Opposition Protest

teleSUR | July 05, 2017

A demonstrator throws a bomb to police forces during an opposition rally in Caracas | Photo: Reuters

During an opposition protest in the capital city of Caracas on Tuesday, a group of armed men attacked a hospital, wounding at least five who were close to the medical center.

The attack occurred as some of the hospital’s doctors participated in a protest against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, and the Constitutional Assembly, according to EFE.

The assailants destroyed the entrance to the Hospital Clinico, in the central district of Libertador, and damaged several of its windows.

The Attorney General’s office said it had launched an investigation into the attack.

New products launched in honor of Pinar del Río’s 150th anniversary

by  Ronald Suárez Rivas

Granma | July 05, 2017

Pinar del Río.– While construction works underway in the city of Pinar del Río have made news, new products manufactured in the province have also been launched during recent months.
The aim of such efforts, in addition to reviving retail, food, and service facilities, is to provide the population with more offers.
Wicher Rivera, director of Pinar del Río’s Dairy and Confectionary Enterprise, explained to Granma, that as part of activities taking place in honor of the city’s 150th anniversary, all entities linked to the Ministry of Food Industry were called upon by the province’s most senior officials to get creative and revive certain lines that had been lost, and increase with a limited presence in stores. 

Bolivia denounces death threats against Evo Morales

Granma | July 04, 2017

LA PAZ.— Bolivian Minister of Communications Gisela López, on July 3, denounced death threats against President Evo Morales, posted on the social network Twitter.

During a press conference, López condemned the offensive and racist texts recently posted on the @evoespueblo account by a user named Exorcismo Bebé.

The Minister also criticized a message by an individual named Saimon which contained the following warning: “Evo, watch out, you’re dead.”

Koch brothers behind the push to kill healthcare in U.S.

by LARRY RUBIN

People’s World | June 27, 2017

Union members in Los Angeles protest against Koch brothers /Damian Dovarganes/ AP

WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office yesterday released a report saying that if the so-called “healthcare” bill now before the Senate becomes law, some 22 million people would be stripped of Medicaid benefits.

This number is not high enough to satisfy Charles and David Koch, the billionaire oil magnates.

They are now using the power and money of Americans For Prosperity (AFP), and the Freedom Partners network, to pressure Senators into ending Medicaid altogether and using the money that’s saved to give tax breaks to the richest people in the country; people like themselves.

US: Chris Christie sunbathes after fleecing New Jersey’s residents

by PAI

People’s World | July 05, 2017

The Star-Ledger of New Jersey posted aerial photos of GOP Gov. Chris Christie and his family on the beach at Island Beach State Park in New Jersey. The beach was closed to the public because the governor ordered a government shutdown in New Jersey over a budget impasse. Andrew Mills/NJ Advance Media via AP

TRENTON, N.J. (PAI) — New Jersey unions, led by the Office and Professional Employees and the New Jersey Education Association, are hitting GOP Gov. Chris Christie’s budget shuffling, including his attempt to grab $300 million from the state’s Blue Cross-Blue Shield (BCBS) system’s financial reserves.

That budget shuffling and money grab could endanger workers’ jobs and state residents’ insurance coverage, the unions and the state’s Working Families Alliance say.

US: Pipeline judge’s decision shows limits of capitalist jurisprudence

by ALBERT BENDER

People’s World | July 05, 2017

Judge Boasberg. | Diego M. Radzinschi/AP

Judge Boasberg is sending mixed signals. The now enigmatic jurist, in a verbose 91-page opinion, has ruled that some parts of the approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) did not meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and that there needs to be further environmental review. The wily jurist, with oh so many tricks up his sleeve, still will not shut down DAPL in the interim. This begs the question- what kind of sense does that make? A lot if you are a judge who favors powerful oil corporations.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: Austerity and Poverty in Greece

A Journal of People report

Austerity and poverty now dominate Greek life. Poverty in the country is not much different than the un-developed South. Greece, a capitalist economy, also faces serious income inequality

A report in The Washington Post said:

“Over the past seven years, austerity has left visible scars in Greece’s capital.

“A walk around Athens reveals more homeless people than ever despite some signs of a rosier economic outlook. Thousands of shops, mostly small businesses, are shuttered here and across the country. In what used to be a busy shopping arcade, closed stores are padlocked against a backdrop of hanging Greek flags.

India: Uncrowding Our Big Cities

The Smart Way to Smart Cities

by Mohan Guruswamy

Frontier | July 06, 2017

One of the early text books I read on Political Economy started with a scenario set in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a city with huge traffic problems in the 70’s and 80’s, with a traffic jam at a major crossing on a hot summers day, that turns into a gridlock, and then leads to people abandoning their cars unable to bear the severe heat, only aggravating the problems. This then leads to outbreaks of road rage, fistfights and soon into a welter of riots and inflicting a severe breakdown of law and order, that then spreads to others parts of Brazil. Brazil tackled the problem with its characteristic simple out of the box thinking. Sao Paulo still functions. I think India is now a better candidate to revolution coming out of a traffic jam.

Most capital cities have a concentration of government offices of various tiers and responsibilities crowded in as close as possible to the real and imagined corridors of power. In India apart from the ministries, departments and agencies, we also have a concentration of PSU corporate offices in New Delhi. Many of these actually need not be here.

Coporate Society And Its Perils

by Editor

Countercurrents.org | July 06, 2017

In this blistering, nuanced, and timely critique of work culture and society, Romi Mahajan argues in his new book ” Coporate Society And Its Perils” that young people can (and must) forge a career path based on freedom, creativity, and citizenship. Mahajan argues that the pressure from almost all quarters for young people to succumb to the blandishments and enticements of corporate culture is destructive to soul and, further, that possibilities exist to avoid the trap.