Eighth Party Congress begins

REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

Yudy Castro Morales

Granma | April 16, 2021

Evoking the thinking of Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, who defined the Party as “the soul of the Revolution,” the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, began today in the capital’s Convention Center, presided by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Party Central Committee; José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary; and Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic; among other leaders of the Party and government.

Cuba’s socialist and democratic revolution remains undefeated

REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

Karima Oliva Bello

Granma | April 16, 2021

“Comrade workers, this is a socialist and democratic Revolution of the humble, with the humble and for the humble. And for this revolution… we are ready to give our lives.” Such were the words of Fidel on April 16, 1961, to a people deeply hurt and outraged by the imperialist aggression they had just suffered. He was not repeating a slogan, the next day he would be among the first to confront the Bay of Pigs invasion, and inflict a legendary defeat on imperialism. The people were literally giving their lives.

Cuba in Congress!

REVOLUTIONARY CUBA

Yudy Castro Morales

Granma | April 16, 2021

Photo: Granma Archives

Beginning today through the 19th, Cuba as a whole, represented by its delegates to the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, will gather in the capital’s Convention Center in historic sessions, to analyze what has been accomplished over the last five years and, above all, outline, in a sovereign manner, the country’s future.

Precisely today, on the 60th anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Revolution by Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, Cuba, in the voice of Party militants, will once again reaffirm the irrevocability of its emancipatory work and, as expressed in the Congress call, reiterate before the world its “intransigent conviction of victory.”

Lenin on the Labor Aristocracy

LENIN’S TEACHINGS 

POLITSTURM | April 13, 2021

Present-day (twentieth-century) imperialism has given a few advanced countries an exceptionally privileged position, which, everywhere in the Second International, has produced a certain type of traitor, opportunist, and social-chauvinist leaders, who champion the interests of their own craft, their own section of the labour aristocracy.

Vladimir Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder

Number of World Billionaires Increases to 2,755

INEQUALITY RISING 

POLITSTURM | April 15, 2021

Forbes released its data surrounding billionaires in 2021 whose wealth exploded amidst the pandemic. The number of billionaires increased by 660 over the past year to 2,755. The U.S. has the most billionaires at 770 followed by China at 698 (including Hong Kong and Macao).

IMF and debt: a new consensus?

TREACHERY OF IMF

Michael Roberts Blog | April 15, 2021

There is much talk among ‘progressive’ economists that the IMF and the World Bank have turned over a new leaf.  Gone are the days of supporting fiscal austerity, demanding that national governments get public debt levels down and insisting on conditions for countries borrowing IMF-WB funds that their governments privatise their state assets, deregulate markets and reduce labour rights.

Now after the experience of the unprecedented COVID pandemic slump, the old ‘Washington Consensus’ is over and has been replaced by a new ‘consensus’.  Whereas the “Washington Consensus” for international economic policies of the 1990s saw government failures as the reason for poor growth performance and advised governments ‘to get out of the way’ of market forces, now the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation’s chiefs call for more fiscal spending, more funds for lending, and measures to reduce inequality between nations and within nations through higher taxes on the rich.

Biden’s Empty Gesture: Houthis No Longer “Terrorists” but Yemen’s Suffering Only Grows

U.S IMPERIALISM 

Ahmed Abdulkareem

MintPress News | April 09, 2021

SAADA, YEMEN — In explaining a much-lauded move, President Joe Biden said that the reason the United States was removing Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement from the Foreign Terrorist Organizations list was to avoid exacerbating the humanitarian situation in the war-torn country and to allow much-needed aid to reach local residents. Yet images of children with jutting ribs, swelling bellies, and loose skin that have come to symbolize the war for the past six years can still be found all over Yemen.

Four-year-old Gharam Sha’ib stands at a bed covered with blue sheets in Hayden Rural Hospital in the northern Governorate of Saada. She is bare-boned with haunting eyes wide open and the outlines of her ribs are clearly visible through her skin. The malnourished girl arrived at the hospital this week from the Al-Sumayk village in western Saada, an area far removed from the waves of famine that have washed over Yemen in the past six years.

The BAmazon Loss and the Road Ahead

WORKERS FIGHT AGAINST AMAZON

Joe DeManuelle-Hall

Labor Notes | April 14, 2021

The election loss is a setback, but it shouldn’t be understood as a failed test of whether or not Amazon can be organized. The history of the union movement in the U.S. is full of losses that came before big wins. Photo: Joe Piette (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

What can union activists across the country take away from the high-profile defeat in the union vote at Amazon in Alabama?

The National Labor Relations Board announced April 9 that workers at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Bessemer, near Birmingham, had voted against joining the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union.

The tally was 71 percent no to 29 percent yes—though it’s possible the actual split was closer to 60-40, if you consider the large number of ballots that were cast but never counted because they were challenged by the company.

Massachusetts Nurses Face Down For-Profit Health Care Giant Tenet in Daring Strike

WORKERS STRIKE IN U.S. 

Sarah Hughes

Labour Notes | April 13, 2021

Nurses at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, have been on strike since March 8. Their number one issue: safe staffing ratios. The hospital is owned by the for-profit health care conglomerate Tenet, which made $400 million in profits in 2020. Photo: Massachusetts Nurses Association

On the same day that their employer announced it had made more than $400 million in profits during the Covid-19 pandemic, the nurses of St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, declared their intention to strike.

“St. V’s” is part of the Dallas-based Tenet Health—one of the largest and most profitable for-profit hospital corporations in the country. It is refusing to back down on the number one issue for nurses: safe staffing ratios.

As of this writing, close to 90 percent of the 800 nurses have been on strike since March 8.

Leaked Emails Reveal US Pressure on UK not to Release Venezuelan Gold

IMPERIALIST PLOT AGAINST VENEZUELA 

Orinoco Tribune | April 14, 2021

The US State Department may have pressured the British Foreign Office to retain the frozen Venezuelan gold valued at almost $2 billion, which is being held by the Bank of England.

This information was relayed by independent UK journalist, John McEvoy, who through his Twitter account, released some emails demonstrating the reality of the event. In one of these mails, for example, a response from the British Foreign Office was shown. It states that “the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) of the United States recognizes the need to protect information, which could harm relations between the UK and other states if disclosed. In this case, the disclosure of information related to the Venezuelan gold could damage our relations with the United States of America and Venezuela.”