Racist statues fall everywhere as new Lenin statue rises in Germany

People’s World | June 23, 2020

The new statue of V.I. Lenin, unveiled this weekend in Gelsenkirchen by the small Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany. | via Twitter

Lenin lives again in the western German city of Gelsenkirchen, which saw a new statue of the revolutionary Communist leader erected on Saturday in the face of opposition from city authorities.

The statue is the first monument to Lenin ever in the territory that used to be West Germany and the first to rise anywhere on German soil since the fall of socialist East Germany (officially the German Democratic Republic) in 1989.

It came after a lengthy legal battle which found in favor of the small Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD). The court issued a ruling allowing the party to erect the statue on private property. The monument was originally made in Czechoslovakia in 1957.

Cuba: COVID-19 Numbers decreasing, but not responsibility

Havana, and the entire country, awoke yesterday with the good news of only one new case of COVID-19, maintaining the recent favorable trend, although the risk of setback remains high

by Yudy Castro Morales

People at a market in Havana, Cuba, June 11, 2020. | Photo: EFE

 

Havana, and the entire country, awoke yesterday with the good news of only one new case of COVID-19, maintaining the recent favorable trend in the capital province that has been the epicenter and “tail end” of the epidemic.

However encouraging the positive statistics may seem, we are at a dangerous point in this battle.

It would be foolish to forgo the discipline and responsibility that have allowed us to control the virus thus far. If we give in to euphoria and “de-escalate” on our own, the figures could be different tomorrow. There are still sick patients and a significant number of individuals under epidemiological surveillance.

U.S. coronavirus infection rate now highest since pandemic began

by John Wojcik

People’s World | June 25, 2020

In this May 14, 2020, file photo, Jerry A. Mann, center, is held by his grandmother, Sylvia Rubio, as he is tested for COVID-19 at a site in San Antonio. Public health officials have said robust testing for the coronavirus is essential to safely lifting stay-at-home orders and business closures, but the Trump administration is ending federal support for testing centers. | Eric Gay / AP

More than 45,500 new coronavirus infections were reported in the U.S. overnight, not by the federal government but by state health departments—blowing out of the water by some 11,000 the previous one-day record of 34,203 reached on April 25.

The soaring infection rate in the U.S. is being driven by out-of-control outbreaks in the nation’s three most populous states, California, Texas, and Florida, and in other states across the South and West.

The three population centers led the way in the latest resurgence of the virus, with all reporting more than 5,000 new cases each.

Hospitalization rates in Arizona are now higher than at any time in the pandemic. The state reports that ICU beds and regular beds are almost full. In Texas, a state whose governor, like Trump, was blaming the increase in cases on testing up until last week has now done an about face and ordered that hospitals stop providing elective procedures because of the shortage of beds.

Rubio, Cruz Bill Would Deem Cuba’s Medical Missions “Human Trafficking Operation”

by Raul Diego

MintPress News | June 19, 2020

In what has already become a parody of a shrinking empire’s habit of clutching at the vestiges of its Cold-War era mistakes, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and fellow war-hungry reactionaries in the United States Senate, Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ted Cruz ((R-TX) have put a bill on the Senate floor meant to undercut Cuba’s medical missions program, which sends trained medics all around the developing world to assist in general healthcare services and emergencies in more than 60 countries.

Neoliberalism provides no answers

by Oscar Sánchez Serra and Enrique Moreno Gimeranez 

Granma | June 25, 2020

A temporary parking lot shelter for the homeless in the U.S. city of Las Vegas, Nevada, with spaces marked for social distancing. Photo: Steve Marcus /Reuters

Serious questions about neoliberalism during the current pandemic are raised by Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba, and Jorge Núñez Jover, dean of the University of Havana’s Science, Technology and Society department, in an article recently published in the Cuban Academy of Sciences magazine, Anales, entitled, Gestión gubernamental y ciencia cubana en el enfrentamiento a la COVID-19 (Government management and Cuban science in confronting COVID-19).

In fact, while the new coronavirus has raised many questions in the scientific world, it has also challenged the dogmas of neoliberal policy implement in many countries, based on premises that include “minimum state, the market as a panacea, deregulation, denationalization, privatization, reduction of the public sector, destruction of public property, and weak social policies,” among other aspects that have led to significant debate.

UNESCO recognizes Cuba’s leadership in education

In a recent report, the United Nations organization recognized Cuba’s work to achieve quality, inclusive education

by Enrique Moreno Gimeranez

Granma | June 25, 2020

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recognized the results of Cuba’s work to achieve quality, inclusive education in the 2020 Global Monitoring Report on Education for All -known as the GEM report.

This global monitoring mechanism is used to evaluate progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDA) No. 4: Ensure inclusive, equitable, quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

The 2020 report emphasizes that Cuba has achieved 100% participation in early childhood education, in accordance with target 4.2 of this goal: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood care and development and preschool education, so that they are ready for primary school.”

Message to My Young Readers in Hong Kong

How we sold Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia for Plastic Shopping Bags

by Andre Vltchek

For months, this has been a story that I want to share with young readers in Hong Kong. Now it seems to be the really appropriate time when the ideological battle between the West and China is raging, and as a result of it, Hong Kong and the entire world is suffering.

I want to say that none of it is new, that the West already destabilized so many countries and territories, brainwashed tens of millions of young people.

I know, because in the past, I was one of them. If I weren’t, it would be impossible to understand what is now happening in Hong Kong.

Anti-slavery solidarity united Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx, and British workers

by John Wight

People’s World | June 25, 2020

Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln. | Hugo Gellert

On page 405 of the folio edition of the writings and speeches of Abraham Lincoln, there is a letter dated Jan. 19, 1863. It is titled “To the Workingmen of Manchester, England” and begins: “I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the address and resolutions which you have sent me on the eve of the new year.”

Lincoln here is referring to the decision of Manchester textile workers—arrived at after a tempestuous meeting at the city’s Free Trade Hall in late 1862—to continue to support the North’s blockade of the Atlantic ports of the Confederacy and to refuse to touch one bale of cotton picked by slaves in the South should Lord Palmerston, Britain’s prime minister at the time, accede to the demands of British mill owners and shipping companies that he order the Royal Navy to smash the blockade by force in order to restore the fortunes of a British textile industry that was on its knees due to the lack of the cotton it relied on from the slave states.

United Nations calls for reparations to confront legacy of slavery and colonialism

People’s World | June 19, 2020

Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, appeared before the United Nations Human Rights Council. | AP

GENEVA—Reparations should be paid and countries must confront the legacy of slavery and colonialism to better understand continuing “systematic discrimination,” according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

She was speaking at the UN session in Geneva on Wednesday in an urgent debate in response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of U.S. police nearly three weeks ago. It has triggered worldwide protests under the Black Lives Matter banner demanding action over centuries of structural racism.

Seven US States Report Record COVID-19 Hospitalisations

teleSUR | June 24, 2020

Texas and California on Tuesday eclipsed 5,000 new cases of COVID-19 over a 24-hour span. | Photo: EFE

Seven states reported new highs for current COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.

Seven U.S. states have reported their highest COVID-19 patient admissions in the pandemic, as cases surge in the country following the easing of restrictions, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.