The people on battle footing, challenging all walls

People of Cuba  

History is full of obstacles and none have been able to detain us. Let the walls of the Moncada tell the story – walls that prided themselves on their strength, believing themselves invincible they cradled barbarity and torture in their entrails, witnessed the shedding of young blood at the hands of hired killers, and yet the Revolution advanced triumphantly over that rottenness and buried it forever

by Leidys Maria Labrador Herrera

Granma | July 24, 2020

Photo: Fidel, by Raúl Martínez.

Here is the people of a thousand battles, the people of a blazing history, the tireless defender of justice and truth.

Here we are, not battered, not subjugated, not tired. Scars, yes, there will always be scars, because to conquer rights you must face the bullets, and your skin suffers, and even your soul, but if you survive, as we have done, there is no power on earth that can extinguish the inexhaustible brilliance of a dignified life when you know you are free.

Bolivians reject postponement of elections with massive mobilizations

Nationwide mobilizations which kicked off today have been organized by Bolivian social movements and trade unions in rejection of the suspension of general elections in the country

Peoples Dispatch | July 28, 2020

Thousands of Bolivians mobilized in the Cochabamba city on July 28, demanding general elections in response to the TSE’s decision to postpone them. Photo: Kawsachun News

Organizations and trade unions from diverse sectors in Bolivia joined the call to mobilize today, on July 28, against the postponement of the general elections in Bolivia. The call for nationwide mobilizations was given by the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), Bolivia’s trade union center, and the Pact of Unity, a national alliance of grassroots organizations in Bolivia.

On July 23, the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), which is under the direct control of the coup-installed government, postponed the elections scheduled for September 6 to October 18, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The following day, the COB and the Pact of Unity released a video announcing their rejection of the coup regime’s decision to further suspend the elections and called on citizens and workers to mobilize to demand the restoration of democracy and compliance with the decision to hold elections on September 6.

What Could Be Wrong with a Fiscal Deficit?

If wealth inequality is to be prevented from becoming worse than the horrendous level it has already attained, then the only way this can be done is by larger government spending that is financed by a tax on the rich, either a profit tax or a wealth tax.

by Prabhat Patnaik

News Click | July 25, 2020

I have written about this in the past, but since bad economics comes thick and fast from the representatives of finance capital, especially the Bretton Woods institutions located in Washington DC, there is no harm in repeating myself.

The issue relates to a fiscal deficit and has acquired urgency at present because revenues of governments everywhere in the world, including India, have declined owing to the pandemic-induced lockdown, while the need for government spending on relief and healthcare has escalated steeply, necessitating large fiscal deficits.

How Vietnam’s socialist approach is winning the battle against COVID-19

Vietnam, with a population of 100 million people, has not recorded a single death from COVID-19. There has not been a single local case of the virus in the last three months.

Peoples Dispatch | July 26, 2020

Vietnam, with a population of 100 million people, has not recorded a single death from COVID-19. There has not been a single local case of the virus in the last three months. How has Vietnam been so successful in combating the virus where many richer and more powerful countries have failed?

Who benefits from the US escalation against Huawei?

The UK ban on Huawei is a direct result of US pressure on its allies to not allow the Chinese company into their markets.

Peoples Dispatch | July 21, 2020

 

 

The Chinese tech giant Huawei is increasingly being pushed out of Western markets. The most recent blow came last week, when the United Kingdom banned the use of Huawei manufactured components from its 5G networks. This move against Huawei is a direct result of US pressure on its allies to not allow the Chinese company into their markets.

Leftist leaders call for cancellation of debts owed by developing countries

A statement signed by former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and Indian Kerala State’s finance minister Thomas Isaac, among others, highlights the inadequacy of the measures announced recently by the G20 and IMF to postpone debt repayment

Peoples Dispatch | July 24, 2020

Prominent left-wing politicians and journalists from across the world have issued a joint statement demanding the cancellation of all debts incurred by the developing countries. The signatories to the statement include former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, foreign minister of Venezuela Jorge Arreaza and the finance minister of the Indian State of Kerala, Thomas Isaac. They reminded global leaders that “debt suspension or postponement does not provide a foundation for the necessary development” but “merely puts off the reckoning.

United Tesla Company: Widespread Condemnation of Elon Musk’s Bolivia Coup Comments

Telsa CEO Elon Musk is once again under fire, this time for tweeting “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.” in reference to the 2019 US-backed coup in Bolivia.

by Alan Macleod

MintPress News | July 27, 2020

Multibillionaire Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk once again proved that he does not know how to keep silent. After being challenged on Twitter about his alleged involvement in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Evo Morales in Bolivia last November, Musk responded, “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”

An inside look at Nicaragua’s Sandinista Revolution on its 41st anniversary

by Ben Norton

The Grayzone | July 23, 2020

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA – Since the 1823 declaration of the Monroe Doctrine, the US government has portrayed all of Latin America as its own imperial “backyard.” Among the most enticing prizes for US political leaders and corporate oligarchs over the decades has been Nicaragua.

A North American colonialist and mercenary named William Walker declared himself the dictatorial president of Nicaragua in 1856, touching off a war across Central America that left thousands dead. In 1909, the US military invaded Nicaragua and overthrew its progressive president, José Santos Zelaya, a nationalist who sought to reunify Central America in a federal republic, and who had canal plans of his own. This set the stage for decades of continuous US military interventions, interference, and occupation of the country.

‘Our epidemic could exceed a million cases’ — South Africa’s top coronavirus adviser

by Linda Nordling

Nature | July 24, 2020

Salim Abdool Karim: “The best protection we have from this virus is ubuntu — a South African word that means ‘I am because you are’. I am safe because you are safe.”Credit: Dean Demos

From the coronavirus pandemic’s first months, the World Health Organization warned that Africa’s health systems would struggle to cope if the virus began to spread on the continent. That prediction is starting to be realized, as Nature has reported from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But more than half of the continent’s 780,000 reported cases are in South Africa.

Initially, a hard five-week lockdown from 27 March helped to keep numbers low, but that became economically ruinous as 3 million South Africans lost their jobs. The official death toll stands at 6,000, but as with other countries, this is likely to be an undercount, according to the South African Medical Research Council.

India: The plight of Darjeeling tea garden workers and the strike at the Happy Valley Tea Estate

by Sumendra Tamang

groundxero | July 24, 2020

Happy Valley Tea Estate is a small tea estate, just near the main town of Darjeeling. It was first established in 1854 by David Wilson, and later in 1929, when Mr Tarapada Banerjee from Hooghly bought it and merged it with another adjacent tea-garden, he named it Happy Valley tea estate. Since then, it has changed multiple hands and is currently owned by Mr Sanjay Bansal.

During this trying times of the pandemic, when a state of paranoia and fear is looming large globally, and the spectre of death is almost always upon us, tea-gardens from Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars area were ordered to resume ‘operations limited to spraying and irrigation’, with not more than five persons in a squad, while maintaining ‘social distancing and proper hygiene practices’. This order was issued by the West Bengal TMC government on 28/03/2020 (memo no – 58-CS/2020). However, with increasing pressure from tea garden owners and it’s  organisations lobbying for resuming full production, during the advent of ‘first flush’, the state government issued another order dated 11/04/2020 (memo no- 77-CS/2020), to resume’ operations including plucking with up to 25% workforce,’ while maintaining ‘strict health protocols of social distancing and proper hygiene practices’.