USAID and the Deep Pockets of the Counterrevolution

U.S. IMPERIALISM

Raúl Antonio Capote

Granma | November 12, 2020

On November 3, 1961, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was created, supposedly to collaborate with the economic and social development of Latin America.

But in reality the funds managed by that organization have been used for repression against countries, organizations, movements and people with ideas of the left, or simply progressive.

Against Cuba, USAID, together with the NED, have served as a front for the actions of the CIA, and as a channel for the funds that finance the counterrevolution.

Evo Morales: ‘We Are Now Millions’

EVO MORALES RETURNS HOME

teleSUR | November 11, 2020

Bolivia’s Former President Evo Morales delivers his speech in Chimore, Bolivia, Nov. 11, 2020 | Photo: Prensa Evo

Former Bolivia’s President Evo Morales arrived in the city of Chimore in the department of Cochabamba this Wednesday, where just one year ago he was forced into exile by coup forces of the Bolivian right.

Capitalism and Inheritance

DISCUSSIONS ON CAPITALISM

Prabhat Patnaik

People’s Demcoracy | November 09, 2020

It is often believed that the ability to pass on property to one’s progeny is an essential element of capitalism, without which the capitalists’ incentives will dry up and the system will lose its dynamism. Nothing could be further from the truth; indeed the acquisition of property through inheritance is contrary to the bourgeois justification for capitalist property.

This justification lies in the claim that the capitalists have some special quality that is rare, whose employment makes the nation prosperous and for which they must be rewarded; but there is no unanimity among bourgeois spokesmen on what exactly this special quality is. This quality cannot consist in their supervising the process of production, for such supervision is typically exercised by salaried personnel who are at best superior workers; they get a salary and not profits (unless they also happen to own some property in the form of shares). It is in recognition of this fact that John Kenneth Galbraith had talked of firms being run not the capitalists but by what he called the “technostructure”.

Is Peru Witnessing A Parliamentary Coup?

PERU

Zoe PC

People’s Dispatch | November 13, 2020

Members of the progressive New Peru Party on the streets on November 9 to protest the coup d’etat against Martín Vizcarra. Photo: Nuevo Perú

Peruvians have  been taking to the streets to reject the impeachment and removal of Martín Vizcarra from the office of president on Monday, November 9. After a four-hour debate in the Peruvian Congress on Monday evening, Vizcarra was impeached with 105 members of Congress voting to remove him on account of “moral incapacity” due to his alleged involvement in acts of corruption. The impeachment is the tipping point in a conflict between the legislative and executive branches of government of Peru which had intensified in the last two years.

Congressional leader Manuel Merino of the center-right Popular Action party was sworn in as president on Tuesday. Merino’s party had been in the forefront of the impeachment.

No Holding Back: A Report Key to Understanding and Reversing Labour’s Decline

UK POLITICS OF LABOUR

A Morning Star Editorial | November 11, 2020

THE No Holding Back report on reasons for Labour’s loss of support among working-class communities merits serious attention.

While Brexit looms large, it looks at the longer-term alienation from Labour in many regions and forces socialists to confront the disconcerting reality that the Tories lead Labour among the poorest socio-economic categories.

Most of Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine Already Promised to Richest, Campaigners Warn

COVID-19 VACCINE

Morning Star | November 11, 2020

A digital advertising board in Glasgow displaying a news article about the possibility of a vaccine being found

MORE than 80 per cent of global supplies of the breakthrough Covid-19 vaccine have already been bought up by the world’s wealthiest countries, campaigners warned yesterday.

Although they represent only 14 per cent of the world’s population, the richest nations have snapped up more than one billion doses of the Pfizer vaccine, out of the 1.35 billion that the US pharmaceutical transnational says it can produce by the end of next year.

Leftovers Virtual: Reading Marx and Marxism in the Age of Uprisings and Pandemics

MARXISM IN 21ST CENTURY 

Haymarket Books

Locust Review: Irrealism as Socialist Cultural Strategy

SOCIALIST CULTURE

Haymarket Books

Why do COVID Death Rates Seem to be Falling?

COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Heidi Ledford

Nature | November 11, 2020

More individuals treated for severe COVID-19 seem to be surviving now than in the early weeks of the pandemic. Credit: Diego Vara/Reuters

Many regions of the world have experienced the pandemic in punishing waves, but Chennai in India endured a six-month flood, according to Bharath Kumar Tirupakuzhi Vijayaraghavan. The Apollo Main Hospital, where Vijayaraghavan works as an intensive-care specialist, was never overwhelmed, but it was relentlessly busy. And although the numbers of people with COVID-19 finally began to fall in mid-October, Vijayaraghavan worries about the possible impact of the festival season, which began on 20 October, and the public’s waning compliance with health measures. “Everybody is exhausted,” he says. “It’s become a never-ending health-care problem.”

Vital Signs: A Global Carbon Price could Soon be A Reality – Australia should Prepare

CARBON PRICE

Richard Holden

The Conversation | November 13, 2020

As well as restoring dignity to the Oval Office, another thing that will definitely change under a Biden presidency is US policy on the environment.

Biden’s plan for “a clean energy revolution and environmental justice” includes rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, investing US$1.7 trillion over the next decade in “green energy” and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.