(2022-02-17). Canada's ruling elite applauds Trudeau's use of emergency powers against far-right Freedom Convoy. wsws.org If the ruling class is ready to use emergency powers to supress small far-right protests, how will it respond to the eruption of mass working class opposition to its criminal pandemic policy or a new round of capitalist austerity?
(2022-02-17). The Gains of Nicaraguan Women During the Second Sandinista Government. orinocotribune.com By Stansfield Smith — Feb 14, 2022 | Women, particularly those in the Third World, often find themselves with limited ability to participate in community organizations and political life because of the bondage poverty and their traditional sex role imposes on them. On them falls sole responsibility to care for their children and other family members, especially when sick; they maintain the home, cook the meals, wash the dishes, the clothes, bathe the children, clean the house, mend the clothes. This labor becomes unending manual labor when households have no electricity (consequently, no lights, no refrigera…
(2022-02-17). Father sentenced in college admissions scandal, ordered to pay $200,000. rt.com 
A wealthy parent arrested as part of Operation Varsity Blues was convicted of bribing US schools with $1.2 million | The head of a private equity firm in Massachusetts was sentenced on Wednesday to 15 months in federal prison for his involvement in a US college admissions scandal that also saw high-profile Hollywood celebrities including Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman face time behind bars. | John Wilson was charged with using $1.2 million to bribe his three kids' way into college as Division I athletes, despite the fact that they were not athletes competing at such a high division. Wilson's arrest was par…
(2022-02-17). AOC warns failure to cancel student debt has 'demoralized' critical voters. mronline.org 
"This really isn't a conversation about providing relief to a small, niche group of people," said the congresswoman. "It's very much a keystone action politically." —AOC…
(2022-02-17). Mortgage Servicer Accused Of Pushing Homeowners Onto Its Auction Site. popularresistance.org When Benita Guzman moved from the San Joaquin Valley to Southern California to be closer to family, she was confident that her husband, Alfonso, would find work as a carpenter. The couple bought a $370,000 home in San Jacinto, California, in 2006 with $50,000 in savings, including money withdrawn from Alfonso's retirement account. | But the housing bubble burst the following year. "Nobody was building houses anymore," remembers Benita, 66. She took various jobs working in payroll, including on Native American reservations, but the couple was ultimately unable to keep up with mortgage payments. The Guzmans managed…
(2022-02-17). Inquest into deadly construction accident convenes 12 years after four workers fell to their deaths in Toronto. wsws.org The interminable delay in the hearings reflects the perennially low priority assigned to cases of unsafe working conditions in Canadian labour jurisprudence.
(2022-02-17). Ingenious Venezuelan Inventor Proposes to Make Biofuel from Poisonous Tuber Waste. orinocotribune.com 
For more than a decade, the technologist José Gregorio Jiménez has been working on this alternative that could reduce the costs of gasoline production by up to 70%, in the midst of the privations caused by the economic blockade. | Curiosity led a Venezuelan to become interested in a fetid and poisonous liquid that emerged from the pressing of cassava, a tuber native to South America and popular in traditional cuisine. After experimenting in his laboratory, Jiménez verified that he could obtain biofuel from this substance, which is usually discarded. | José Gregorio Jiménez is a grassroots inventor who was born in…
(2022-02-17). Sunday 2/27: Dangerous Truths. indybay.org
(2022-02-17). £2.1 million grant for research into brain activity 'avalanches'. imperial.ac.uk Researchers working to understand how the brain functions in various states of health have received a £2.1 million grant for their project.
(2022-02-17). Leaked Audio Shows Amazon Official Threatening Workers Over Union Election – Reports. sputniknews.com MOSCOW (Sputnik) – An Amazon union avoidance official threatened workers with minimum wage and warned that things might get worse if they unionize and enter negotiations with the company, Vice reported on Thursday, citing a leaked audio from an Amazon meeting that it obtained.
(2022-02-17). Homeless community in San Diego resists police terror and demands safe housing. liberationnews.org 
Early on the morning of February 14, several dozen advocates including the San Diego County Homeless Union and the Poor Peoples' Campaign gathered in defense of an encampment of unhoused community members in the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego.
(2022-02-17). Biden's multi-Billion Afghan theft gets scant mention on TV News. mronline.org 
Two months ago (FAIR.org, 12/21/21), I noted the striking contrast between vocal media outrage—ostensibly grounded in concern for Afghan people—over President Joe Biden's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and the relative silence over the growing humanitarian crisis in that country, which threatens millions with life-threatening levels of famine.
(2022-02-17). From the Kingpins of Private Equity, A New Dagger to Democracy. inequality.org
(2022-02-16). Russia: Defense Chief Visiting Syria Warns US and NATO. telesurenglish.net According to a Lebanese expert on military strategy, General Charles Abi Nader, the U.S. and NATO were surprised by the working visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu's visit to Syria, as it was linked to the current tensions between Moscow and Washington over the Ukraine crisis. | RELATED: | "In the conditions when the United States and Western countries are deliberately escalating the international situation, exploiting…
(2022-02-16). As Poverty in Gaza Continues to Soar, Hamas Official Explains Origins of the Crisis. sputniknews.com Poverty has always been an issue in the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million people. Yet, in recent years the coastal enclave has seen an additional spike in numbers. According to reports, poverty rates have skyrocketed, from the 43 percent registered in 2016 to 53 percent in 2021, with unemployment levels exceeding 50 percent in the area.
(2022-02-16). O poder e a revolta no Cazaquistà£o. globalresearch.ca Após um mês do início dos protestos no Cazaquistà£o, que teve por consequência a prisà£o de centenas de manifestantes, a implementaàßà£o de reformas na cúpula do poder cazaque e promessas futuras de maior aàßà£o estatal contra a pobreza e a …
(2022-02-16). Ex-President Arrested In Honduras As US Requests Extradition. popularresistance.org Former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández has been arrested, a day after the US Department of Justice requested his extradition over drug trafficking and weapons charges, culminating a spectacular fall from grace for a man who was once considered one of Washington's top allies in Central America. | On Tuesday afternoon Hernández left his home in a wealthy neighborhood in the country's capital, Tegucigalpa, where he was cuffed at the hands and feet and provided a bullet-proof vest before being taken away in a police caravan to a special forces base. He will appear before a judge for his first hearing within…
(2022-02-16). Democrats, The More Effective Evil. popularresistance.org When all else fails, when you are clueless about how to halt a 7.5% inflation rate, when your Build Back Better bill is gutted, when you renege on your promise to raise the minimum wage or forgive student debt, when you can't halt the Republican suppression of voting rights, when you have no idea how to handle the pandemic which has claimed 900,000 lives — 16% of the world's total deaths although we are less than 5% of the world's population — when the stock market fluctuates on wild rollercoaster rides of highs and lows, when what little help the government offered to the labor force — half of…
(2022-02-16). Saturday 3/19: Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: The Dawn of Everything… by David Graeber et al. indybay.org Online. | Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the the online invite.
(2022-02-16). Georg Weerth, first poet of the German working class, on his bicentennial. peoplesworld.org 
"Weerth, the German proletariat's first and most important poet, the son of Rhineland parents, was born in Detmold, where his father was church superintendent." So wrote Frederick Engels in 1883 of his friend Georg Weerth, who came into the world 200 years ago on February 17, 1822. "In 1843, when I was in Manchester, Weerth …
(2022-02-16). FRSO members meeting set for Feb. 17. fightbacknews.org Grand Rapids, MI – The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is hosting another online meeting for the growing numbers of members on Thursday, February 17 at 8 p.m. Eastern time. We will use Zoom to welcome our new members who joined since the last meeting on capitalism destroying the environment. | Tom Burke, the organizational secretary of the FRSO, will speak about the growth of the FRSO, the importance of union solidarity with the George Floyd rebellion, the recent uptick in strikes, and how we can lead the American working class toward revolution. | Emily Butt, a union steward, will speak on the victories of t…
(2022-02-16). Ruling elite celebrate UK economy's "rebound" at workers' expense. wsws.org It is the removal of all restrictions that might hamper profits and the ever more brutal exploitation of the working class that accounts for the UK economy's rebound, one paid for with the loss of 180,000 lives.
(2022-02-16). Defying management reprisals and state repression, Maharashtra public transport workers' strike surpasses 100th day. wsws.org To foil the attempts of management, aided by the corrupt unions, to starve them into submission, the MSRTC workers must make their strike the spearhead of a working-class counter-offensive against privatization and precarious contract labour jobs.
(2022-02-16). Spain's PSOE-Podemos government approve anti-working class labor law. wsws.org In exchange for EU bailouts showering the banks with billions, the PSOE-Podemos government passed an anti-working class labour reform backed by the trade unions.
(2022-02-16). Canadian Goverment Outlines Steps to End Anti-Vax Protests. telesurenglish.net One day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared a public order emergency, the government on Tuesday outlined further steps to end the trucker protests and blockades. Anyone participating in the blockades is urged to return to their communities immediately. | RELATED: | "These blockades must be brought to an end, and the federal government will continue working on every option to end them," Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said, assuring Ottawa resi…
(2022-02-16). The Workings of Commodified Education. orinocotribune.com By Yanis Iqbal — Feb 11, 2022 | Under the neoliberal accumulation
(2022-02-16). Spain's PSOE-Podemos government approve anti-working class labor law. wsws.org In exchange for EU bailouts showering the banks with billions, the PSOE-Podemos government passed an anti-working class labour reform backed by the trade unions.
(2022-02-16). Inside the Campaign to Abolish the Subminimum Wage in 25 States by 2026. inequality.org
(2022-02-16). Rains Leave Dozens Of Brazilians Dead In Petropolis. telesurenglish.net Petropolis, a city located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, woke up on Wednesday involved in the tragedy. So far the intense rains have left 54 Brazilians dead, thousands of citizens homeless, and an unknown number of people missing. | RELATED: | During Tuesday night, a record 258.8 mm of rainfall fell in less than six hours, causing 200 landslides in various places, including the residential…
(2022-02-16). Regime Change: Up Close and Personal. dissidentvoice.org 
Let me start out by openly and unequivocally stating that most of the individuals who are in the decision-making and decision-influencing positions which determine U.S. foreign policy and drive its recklessness are a truly shameful bunch. They are morally bankrupt, ignorant, myopic, barbaric, drunk on power, and as far as I can tell, without any …
(2022-02-16). Pandemic and vaccine inequality have exacerbated global inequality. wsws.org While it does not say so explicitly, an International Labour Organisation report makes clear that the refusal to implement an elimination strategy, using both vaccines and stringent public health measures on the basis that it would cost too much, has worsened economic prospects.
(2022-02-16). Valentines Day Vigil To Promote Aid To Afghanistan. popularresistance.org With the UN reporting that hunger in Afghanistan could kill more civilians than the 20-year Afghanistan war, an international debate is raging over the policy by the U.S. and other governments about getting aid to that country. The president just announced a plan to confiscate $7 Billion in Afghan funds and set aside half of it for families of 9/11 victims and to create a "third-party trust fund" to pay for humanitarian aid with the other half. Critics of the decision, including those who worked for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, lambasted Biden's decision saying that the currency reserves belong to th…
(2022-02-16). Report: UK counterterrorism policy Islamaphobic, violates child rights and other stories. peoplesdispatch.org In today's episode of the Daily Round-up we look at the People's Review of Prevent report on the U.K.'s notorious counter-terrorism Prevent strategy and its impact on children and Muslim communities; statements by former president Evo Morales on a destabilization plan by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration against coca growers in Bolivia; a Human Rights Watch report on the indefinite and arbitrary detention of refugees and asylum-seekers in Australia; and a hunger strike launched by Egyptian political prisoner Walid Shawky to protest systemic medical negligence and other rights abuses in the country's prison…