(2021-12-21). New Program Is Secretly Privatizing Medicare. popularresistance.org A new program is placing Medicare recipients into private health insurance plans without their knowledge or consent in a final effort to fully privatize our national Medicare system. Known as "Direct Contract Entities (DCEs)," this program is putting more of our healthcare system into the hands of private equity to generate enormous profits at the expense of our health. Clearing the FOG speaks about this with Kay Tillow, a long time health care, civil rights and union activist. Tillow explains what these entities are, why they threaten the future of our entire healthcare system and how they block our ability to a…
(2021-12-21). Want to Know How to Beat COVID? Look at China. orinocotribune.com By Scott Scheffer — Dec 17, 2021 | The world is now nearing the end of the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States has the highest death toll in the world — 823,390 as of Dec. 16. | With all the scientific resources available, and billions of dollars in the vaults of the richest capitalist class in history, the U.S. should have been able to succeed in a vaccination campaign and treat everyone before they were infected. Vaccines should have made their way throughout the world, including the global south where the challenges of poverty magnify the horrors of the pandemic. | Instead, the W…
(2021-12-21). Retail pharmacy workers speaking out after nationwide walkout action to oppose unsafe working conditions. wsws.org While it is unknown how many total pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy clerks walked off the job, social media postings make clear a determination to fight against intolerable conditions.
(2021-12-21). Displaying 'inhuman disdain' for working families, Manchin said child tax credit would be used for drugs. nationofchange.org "Sen. Joe Manchin—who is a multimillionaire—doesn't think his poor constituents can be trusted with a little help."
(2021-12-21). Cyprus: Turkish Occupation and Unpunished Crimes Against Women and Children. moderndiplomacy.eu On December 16 and 17, Democracy Today, an NGO that focuses on human rights issues, organized its annual international conference in Armenia's capital of Yerevan. This was part of a cooperation with the Working Group (WG) on women and gender realities in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) region. This year's agenda …
(2021-12-21). U of MN AFSCME reaches tentative agreement including essential worker bonuses, worksite flexibility. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN – On December 16, around 2500 hundred clerical, technical and healthcare workers at the University of Minnesota reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. The workers are members of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Locals 3800, 3801, 3260 and 3937 and have been working with an expired contract since July 1. The agreement is for a one-year contract, which means even as this long round of negotiations and contract campaign actions wraps up, the locals are already gearing up to begin bargaining their next contract. | At the start of negotiations, the loca…
(2021-12-21). A Climate Change Solution Direct from the Congo. moderndiplomacy.eu A revealing account authored by former US Diplomat and World Bank Group (IFC) official Oliver Griffith provides a compelling perspective on a scalable solution for climate change. Investigating the impact of UN backed projects that work to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), Griffith makes his case for listening to the people on the …
(2021-12-21). Joe Manchin's War Against Workers. liberationnews.org 
After months of talking, begging and offering concessions the Biden administration's dead-end strategy of appeasing right wing Democrat Joe Manchin has gone up in flames.
(2021-12-20). Yemen and Afghanistan Face Unprecedented Famine — Crimes of Mass Starvation. journal-neo.org 
Sounding the alarm this December Nicholas Papachrysostomou, MSF head of mission in Yemen made clear that well beyond the many casualties War claimed over the past seven years, famine weighs much heavier on the war-torn nation, a fate Afghanistan unfortunately shares. "A nearly seven-year long conflict has badly affected the country's economy and weakened an …
(2021-12-20). VIDEO: Assange's life is in danger. Attend emergency online meeting to demand his immediate release. wsws.org "The campaign for Assange's freedom must turn to the emerging struggles of the working class against social inequality and the murderous policies of mass infection."
(2021-12-20). Low Wages And Exploitative Conditions Are Sparking Graduate Student Strikes. popularresistance.org Many graduate students find themselves caught between these multiple fronts: burdened with past student debt, earning sub-living-wage pay in their present work and facing dwindling future opportunities. Universities have grown over-reliant on graduate students and other contingent faculty to maintain a pool of low-cost labor. But an upswell of organizing activity in the last year indicates that graduate students have been emboldened to take a collective stand against the precarity and untenable conditions that mar the academic experience in the U.S.
(2021-12-20). The Working Class is Not Voting Against Its Interests. zcomm.org America needs a labor party. A party of the working class. But right now it has nothing that even vaguely resembles either one…
(2021-12-20). Black Women Launch New Organization In Detroit For 'Reparations Transfers' To Go Towards Homeownership. moguldom.com Reparation Generation, a national organization providing direct reparative money transfers to Black Americans for wealth-building pursuits, launched a new program that takes a citizen-driven approach to restoration for disenfranchised descendants of American slavery. "Our vision is for this country that we love to become the 'more perfect union' our nation's founders promised. Equity for Black …
(2021-12-20). Special Privilege in Admission to Elite U.S. Colleges. dissidentvoice.org 
Although a major scandal erupted in 2019 over bribery and other fraudulent practices used by wealthy Americans to secure their children's admission to elite colleges, the affluent continue to benefit from other kinds of special admission policies that are perfectly legal. Consider the fact that, according to a recent study, only about 57 percent of …
(2021-12-20). Leftist candidate Gabriel Boric emerges victorious in Chilean elections. peoplesdispatch.org Boric has promised to deliver on key demands raised during the 2019 protests which includes an increase in state spending on social services, progressive taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals.
(2021-12-20). Russian Debt and Sanctions. Amended Again. moderndiplomacy.eu In the United States, there is a renewed discussion about the advisability of expanding sanctions on Russian sovereign debt. Similar sanctions already exist: they were introduced sequentially by Donald Trump and Joseph Biden. There is an opinion in Congress that the existing sanctions are insufficient and need further expansion. The proposed amendment on tougher sanctions …
(2021-12-20). Karachi climate march 2021 demands end of forced displacement. peoplesdispatch.org Residents of Karachi's working-class neighborhoods organized the People's Climate March to protest against the eco-fascist policies of the government and the upper class which have led to the systematic eviction of the city's marginalized communities…
(2021-12-20). Support the #pizzaisnotworking walkouts by pharmacy workers! Trillions for public health, not pandemic profiteering! wsws.org The actions taken by pharmacists in the US are an early sign of a new phase in the growth of working-class resistance, driven by the deadly winter surge and the emergence of the hyper-infectious Omicron variant.
(2021-12-20). bell hooks's Trailblazing Critique of "Imperialist White Supremacist Heteropatriarchy" zcomm.org Working in the tradition of intersectionality and Black radical feminism, hooks's critiques of "imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy" called attention to the interlocking systems of oppression in hopes of eradicating them…
(2021-12-20). Kevin Kàºhnert: From "party rebel" to SPD secretary-general. wsws.org The coalition agreement Kàºhnert wants to push through as SPD leader is a declaration of war on the working population and a firm commitment to militarism.
(2021-12-20). Italian working class mobilizes for worker-friendly budget, pension reforms and job security. peoplesdispatch.org National trade unions in Italy organized a general strike protesting the 2022 budget plan of the Mario Draghi government for not meeting the expectations of the working class, particularly on tax cuts, pension reforms and preventing the relocation of industries…
(2021-12-20). Prisoners Sue California Prison System Following Targeted Raid Against Black People. scheerpost.com 
Talib Williams performing one of his spoken word poems at his Defy Ventures graduation in 2019. | By Claude Marks / Original to ScheerPost | California prisoner, Talib Williams, is bringing a class action lawsuit on his behalf as well as other Black incarcerated people who were targeted by a July 20, 2020 raid at Soledad, California's Correctional Training Facility (CTF). The suit seeks a reprieve from the state-sponsored terror that is their norm. Injunctive and declaratory relief, among other remedies, are necessary to stop the violence, change CDCR policy, and compensate the prisoners for the degradation t…
(2021-12-20). Inmate Sues California Prison System Following Targeted Raid Against Black People. scheerpost.com Talib Williams performing one of his spoken word poems at his Defy Ventures graduation in 2019. | By Claude Marks / Original to ScheerPost | California prisoner, Talib Williams, is bringing a class action lawsuit on his behalf as well as other Black incarcerated people who were targeted by a July 20, 2020 raid at Soledad, California's Correctional Training Facility (CTF). The suit seeks a reprieve from the state-sponsored terror that is their norm. Injunctive and declaratory relief, among other remedies, are necessary to stop the violence, change CDCR policy, and compensate the prisoners for the degradation t…
(2021-12-20). 'The Dawn of Everything' gets human history wrong. mronline.org 
Is inequality inevitable? Is freedom just a choice? Two materialist critiques of a widely-praised book.
(2021-12-20). Israeli court rejects appeal to release administrative detainee on hunger strike. peoplesdispatch.org Palestinian detainee Hisham Abu Hawwash has been on hunger strike for 125 days now to protest his illegal administrative detention by Israel. His release has been rejected despite serious life-threatening health issues…