The World at Crossroads

by Prabhat Patnaik

People’s Democracy | May 31, 2020

THE Financial Times of London is one of the most “respectable” bourgeois newspapers in the world. Even this newspaper has now come to recognise something which the Left has been saying for quite some time. In an editorial on April 3, 2020, it wrote: “Radical reforms in reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades will need to be put on the table. Governments will have to accept a more active role in the economy. They must see public services as investment rather than as liabilities and look for ways to make the labour market less insecure. Redistribution will again be on the agenda… Policies until recently considered eccentric such as basic income and wealth taxes will have to be in the mix.”

The Modi government’s policies, it should be noted, are the diametrical opposite of what the Financial Times is envisioning. The abrogation of labour laws in BJP-ruled states (which could not have been done without Modi’s approval) is meant to make the labour market more insecure rather than less. Some IRS officers were punished recently for even suggesting that higher taxes should be collected from the rich. In short, the Modi government in its mindlessness is still picking up the intellectual crumbs that had fallen from the High Table of the metropolitan establishment “four decades” ago, without realising that the world has moved on.

As US Protests Show, the Challenge is How to Rise Above the Violence Inherent in State Power

by Jonathan Cook

Here is one thing I can write with an unusual degree of certainty and confidence: Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin would not have been charged with the (third-degree) murder of George Floyd had the United States not been teetering on a knife edge of open revolt.

Had demonstrators not turned out in massive numbers on the streets and refused to be corralled back home by the threat of police violence, the US legal system would have simply turned a blind eye to Chauvin’s act of extreme brutality, as it has done before over countless similar acts.

State Terrorism Across America

by Joe Giambrone

In a blizzard of destruction, assaults on peaceful demonstrators, provocateurs, lies, cover-ups, and fascist proclamations, America teeters at a tipping point. The murder, by police, of George Floyd, has sparked a jaw-dropping response across America. Police in many locations have behaved as instigators and perpetrators of savage violence against citizens attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and to assemble to demand a redress of grievances.

African-Americans have over 400 years of grievances to fall back upon. The video footage is undeniable, outrageous, and the crime perpetrated with the complicity of other officers acting under color of authority. The murder of George Floyd will go down in history, but the end results remain unclear and desperately in need of political leadership to turn this into a positive push for justice reform.

As Minneapolis burns, Trump’s presidency is sinking deeper into crisis. And yet, he may still be re-elected

by Timothy J. Lynch

The Conversation | May 04, 2020

Violence has erupted across several US cities after the death of a black man, George Floyd, who was shown on video gasping for breath as a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck. The unrest poses serious challenges for President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden as each man readies his campaign for the November 3 election.

If the coronavirus had not already posed a threat to civil discourse in the US, the latest flashpoint in American racial politics makes this presidential campaign potentially one of the most incendiary in history.

U.S: Agent Provocateurs: Police at Protests All Over the Country Caught Destroying Property

by Alan Macleod

MintPress News | June 01, 2020

The United States is on fire. Since the police killing of George Floyd on May 26, millions have taken to the streets in protest, clashing with police. At least 11 people have died, and thousands have been arrested. 15 states (plus Washington, D.C.) have called in the National Guard to quash protests raging in over 100 cities. Violence has been widespread, particularly in the epicenter Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, with buildings engulfed in flames, stores looted and vehicles destroyed.

Venezuela: Government to Collaborate With Opposition Against COVID-19

teleSUR | June 03, 2020

Jorge Rodriguez helds a press brief in Miraflores palace, Caracas, Venezuela. June 2, 2020. | Photo: Youtube/Multimedio VTV

Rodriguez stressed the Bolivarian government’s effort to face the pandemic despite the Trump administration’s economic sanctions and political pressure. 

Venezuela’s Communication, Culture, and Tourism Minister Jorge Rodriguez  on Tuesday briefed about an agreement signing between Bolivarian government and the opposition coalition group G4 for a conjunct work against the Covid-19 pandemic in the South American nation.

 

Puebla Group on the Arrival of US Troops to Colombia (Statement)

Orinoco Tribune | June 01, 2020

The Puebla Group expresses its deep concern at the announcement made by the United States Embassy in Colombia and that country’s Ministry of Defense, on May 27, about the arrival of a brigade of the US Army for “force assistance” to the country, in the first days of June, whose members will settle in various conflict areas, including some located on the border between Colombia and Venezuela (Norte de Santander and Arauca).

This agreement, in addition to being illegal -because it violates the constitutional requirement of prior approval by the Senate of the Republic of Colombia- will contribute to escalation of the conflict experienced by the two governments, increase tension in their border areas, and eventually become on the launch pad of the military offensive that President Trump has announced against Venezuela, thus destabilizing hemispheric security.

New U.S. Special Force Coming to Colombia to Organize Military Operations against Venezuela

RESUMEN | May 28, 2020

In a shameless attempt of making U.S. interventionism transparent in Latin America, the government of Iván Duque is facilitating the work of his Pentagon godfathers and is opening the doors even wider for them to attack Venezuela. This time, it is the formation of a security brigade and a force and control agency that will operate alongside the Colombian military, according to the explanation of the U.S. embassy.

New US Attack Against Venezuela: This Time Against the Petro Cryptocurrency

Orinoco Tribune | June 02, 2020

The Secretary of State of the United States (USA), Mike Pompeo, reported on the social network Twitter, this Monday, June 1, that Trump’s regime again put a price on the head of another Venezuelan official working for Venezuela’s independence.

According to a statement from the State Department, the US is offering a five million dollar reward for the capture of Venezuelan Joselit de la Trinidad Ramírez Camacho, president of Venezuelan Superintendency of National Cryptoactive and Related Activities, whom they accuse of being an alleged member of an organized crime group, again, without presenting any evidence.

COVID-19 is lethal for the world’s indigenous peoples

by Abhijit Mohanty

Down To Earth | May 29, 2020

 Odisha has the largest number of particularly vulnerable tribal groups in India like the Bonda people. Photo: Vikas Choudhary

Indigenous peoples in remote areas are extremely vulnerable to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) than other communities. The pandemic may have serious effects on their well-being, livelihood and health.

Take, for instance, the situation in Brazil, where the state of Amazonas, predominantly inhabited by indigenous communities, has the most cases per capita.

“The idea that indigenous people are somehow biologically more vulnerable to new diseases is a myth,” said Carlos Coimbra, an epidemiologist at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro. According to Coimbra, when a new virus enters a population that is immunologically naïve, it spreads rapidly. We have seen that in the case of measles and the Paiter Surui.