The “spectre of communism” haunts the world: 172 years of the Communist Manifesto

Peoples Dispatch | February 23, 2020

Across the continents on February 21, tens of thousands participated in public readings of the Communist Manifesto, organized to commemorate the 172nd anniversary of its first publication in 1848, under the title The Manifesto of the Communist Party.

The idea of hosting such a reading was jointly conceived by Leftword Books – a New Delhi-based marxist publishing house – and the International People’s Assembly, which was formed last year with delegates representing left-wing political parties, trade unions and social movements from 85 countries around the world.

FACE OF AN ECONOMY: U.S.: Debtors’ prison

A Journal of People report

[EDITORIAL NOTE: To Journal of People, information/facts are important than comments appearing sharp, but haphazard. Information/facts help to learn. And, learning about capitalism, and systems and tricks of exploitation helps dissect and discard the systems and tricks. That’s the reason JoP tries to present facts/information.]

Nearly two centuries ago, the U.S. formally abolished the incarceration of people who failed to pay off debts. Yet, recent years have witnessed the rise of modern-day debtors’ prisons — the arrest and jailing of poor people for failure to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford, through criminal justice procedures that violate their most basic rights.

Assange’s Persecution Has Exposed Media Depravity The World Over

by Caitlin Johnstone

Julian Assange started a leak outlet on the premise that corrupt and unaccountable power is a problem in our world, and that problem can be fought with the light of truth. Corrupt and unaccountable power responded by detaining, silencing and smearing him.

His persecution has proved his own thesis about the world absolutely correct.

Power is the ability to control what happens. Absolute power is controlling what people think about what happens. Humans are story-oriented creatures, so if you can control the stories that the humans are telling each other about what’s going on, you can control those humans.

Smearing Bernie Sanders

by W J Astore

Just before Tulsi Gabbard announced her candidacy for the presidency as a Democrat, NBC ran a smear piece that suggested Vladimir Putin and the Russians loved her.  This smear was then repeated and amplified by Hillary Clinton, who suggested Gabbard was being groomed by the Kremlin to run as a third-party candidate, thereby ensuring Trump’s reelection in 2020.  There was no evidence for any of these claims — none.  Yet Gabbard was put on the defensive and her campaign (still ongoing) has been essentially redlined by the mainstream media.

https://youtu.be/eXgm7rlcM5g

ABOVE: The media pack is after Sanders with the old “Russia meddling in US elections” hoax, repeating this just on the basis of some “intelligence” source saying so. Well they said So for the last thee years and no evidence or smoking gun ever came forth, not to mention that with America’s wholly manufactured paranoia about “Russian meddling” the Russians woud be fools to intervene in any way imaginable. Sanders is a fool to placate these criminals, but foreign policy has long been his most glaring deficiency. And notice who’s leading the howling mob accusing the Russians, the CIA’s own rag, The Washington Post, with the rest following in lockstep.

The World Bank, the IMF, and their Iron-clad Secrecy

by Bill Willers

Dissident Voice | February 22, 2020

The genius of the World Bank was to recognize that it’s not necessary to occupy a country in order to impose tribute, or to take over its industry, agriculture and land. Instead of bullets, it uses financial maneuvering.
— Michael Hudson, 2019

In 1944, as WWII was coming to an end, representatives from 44 countries met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to form an international exchange system. In order to foster global stability, foreign currencies were pegged to the U.S. Dollar, itself based on gold. The Bretton Woods System ended in the early 1970s when President Nixon detached the dollar from the price of gold.

U.S: Leaked document foretold secret corporate campaign to derail Medicare for All

by John Wojcik and Mark Gruenberg

People’s World | February 19, 2020

National Nurses United rally for Medicare for All | NNU.org

OAKLAND, Calif.—A document leaked two years ago by someone in a corporate front group described a secret campaign, which continues today, to derail national support for Medicare for All.

The insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and the American Hospital Association, in 2018, teamed up to form the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a fake “grassroots” lobby whose purpose was to derail what had become nationwide majority support, even among Republicans, for Medicare for All.

That support was so broad that in the early stages of the current campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination support for Medicare for All included not just Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but also several of the so-called “moderate” candidates like Kamala Harris. Since then, by backing off that position, most of the Democratic candidates are at least questioning the feasibility of the Medicare-for-All program, if not saying it will take healthcare away from many who have it or even outright opposing it – both goals of the corporate lobbying group. A glance at the group’s website shows how the health industry is making good on its plans to bash Medicare for All.

UN: Rising worldwide income inequality produces political turmoil

by Mark Gruenberg

People’s World | February 24, 2020

Source: Inequality in a Rapidly Changing World

NEW YORK—Income inequality is increasing worldwide and within specific nations, and that’s producing political turmoil, too, a recent United Nations report says.

“Rising inequality creates discontent, political dysfunction and can lead to violent conflict,” the report warns, in a statement buried deep in its 218 pages.

But the same forces that produce the widening gap between the rich and the rest of us can be harnessed, by governments and by international cooperation, to start to close the chasm, UN Secretary-General António Guterres adds. But only if they want to, he notes. So far, they don’t, he warns.

As Media Amplifies Unrest in Venezuela and Beyond, Millions Are Quietly Revolting in Colombia

by Alan Macleod and Whitney Webb

MintPress News | February 21, 2020

any of the massive anti-neoliberal protest movements that exploded across the globe last year have pressed on into 2020, especially those that rose up throughout Latin America. Many of those demonstrations — clearly newsworthy due to their enormous size, composition, and motives — were and continue to be ignored by prominent English language news outlets, essentially creating a media blackout of these movements.

This trend has been particularly magnified in Latin American countries whose current governments are closely allied with the United States, with Colombia, in particular, standing out. Despite being faced with protests from hundreds of thousands of people fueled by anger over state corruption, proposed neoliberal reforms and a spike in murders of social leaders, the unrest in Colombia has garnered remarkably little international media attention.

China Defies US Pressure and Will Continue to Cooperate with Venezuela

Orinoco Tribune | February 20, 2020

China, via its Foreign Ministry, reiterated it will not be persuaded by the United States to abandon its cooperation with Venezuela and notes that it will continue.

Spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Geng Shuang, made the remarks on Wednesday, shortly after Washington’s special envoy to Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, reported US attempts to convince China not to buy Venezuelan oil anymore.

“Regardless of the changes in Venezuela, the Chinese-Venezuelan cooperation will continue to develop,” said the Chinese spokesperson and stressed that the cooperation between the two countries is “legal and beneficial for the people of both countries, and as such should be respected and protected.”

Argentina and IMF To Advance On New Debt Payment Agreement

teleSUR | February 23, 2020

Negotiations will continue on Monday, with meetings between Guzmán and IMF technicians in Washington. | Photo: Reuters

The next steps will continue to be discussed with no details on possible goals or features of the new program.

Argentina and the IMF announced Saturday that they are making progress in the negotiation of a new agreement for the South American country’s debt, after a meeting held on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in Saudi Arabia.