(2023-05-30). New Work Requirements for Food Aid Would Deepen Hunger and Poverty, Critics Warn. truthout.org Hundreds of thousands of older Americans could soon be at risk of losing federal food aid and falling deeper into poverty due to a provision of the new debt ceiling agreement that expands work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a change that comes as food banks across the United States are seeing demand surge. The deal that the Biden White House reached with House… |
(2023-05-29). Debt Ceiling Agreement Improved, But Harmful Provisions Remain. popularresistance.org While the debt ceiling agreement announced last night is a significant improvement over the radical House bill, it is not the deal the country deserves. There are a number of troubling elements, including the provision that will put at risk food assistance for very low-income older adults. This policy will increase hunger and poverty among that group, runs contrary to our nation's values, and should be rejected. The nation must pay its bills — but that shouldn't mean enacting legislation that leaves people who already struggle to afford the basics worse off. | We should never have been in this situation. We…
(2023-05-30). Inflation in the Age of Finance Capitalism. indybay.org The shift of profit-striving from the real- to the financial-economy lowered economic growth Unemployment and atypical jobs soared. The welfare state was weakened. At the same time, financial wealth grew exorbitantly (the DAX increased 14-fold since 1988). The development of financial derivatives made possible profiting from short-term changes in stocks, currencies and bonds.
(2023-05-30). Australian Rich List shows growing concentration of wealth at the very top. wsws.org The holdings of the 10 wealthiest people in Australia increased by an average of 10 percent, to over $200 billion in total, during the past 12 months.
(2023-05-29). The crowning fiasco: even the king looked embarrassed. nationofchange.org The discussion around the British monarchy, which is starting to ignite and will grow and deepen, needs to take in the wider issue of wealth and income inequality and the poisonous economic system that fuels it.
(2023-05-29). Government bid for EU membership deepens crisis in Moldova. peoplesdispatch.org On May 15, the head of the Moldovan parliament, Igor Grosu, announced the initiation of Moldova's withdrawal from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a political and economic cooperation forum founded by…
(2023-05-30). Debt Deal Raises Military Spending & OKs WV Pipeline While Introducing New Work Rules for Food Stamps. democracynow.org 
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are urging lawmakers to support a deal to suspend the debt ceiling until January 1, 2025, in order to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt for the first time in history. The two leaders reached a tentative agreement over the Memorial Day long weekend, but it must still be approved by Congress before a June 5 deadline, when the government is expected to run out of money to pay its bills. Both progressive lawmakers and members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus have expressed some opposition to the deal, which calls for nondefense discretionar…
(2023-05-30). Headlines for May 30, 2023. democracynow.org Debt Ceiling Deal Would Cap Nonmilitary Spending, Add Welfare Work Requirements, Slash IRS Funds, Sudan's Rival Military Factions Extend Shaky Truce, Drone Attacks on Moscow Follow Russian Airstrikes on Kyiv, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Wins Reelection in Presidential Runoff, Israeli Settlers Move to Reestablish Illegal Outpost in Occupied West Bank, Libyan Court Sentences 23 Men to Death over ISIS Takeover of Sirte, Ugandan President Signs Draconian Anti-LGBTQ Bill That Includes Death Penalty, Lula Welcomes Venezuelan President Maduro to Brazil, Blasts U.S. Sanctions, 16 Killed Across U.
(2023-05-30). A bipartisan "debt ceiling" charade! indybay.org
(2023-05-30). Democrat's failed losing strategy over debt ceiling negotiations to vote on Wednesday. indybay.org Millions Of People Feel Like They Are Little More Than Bargaining Chips During The Debt Ceiling Negotiations Taking Place:…
(2023-05-30). Full text of debt ceiling negotiated bill to be voted on Wednesday. indybay.org Full Text Of Debt Ceiling Negotiated House Resolution:…
(2023-05-30). The SNAP Work Requirements. peoplespolicyproject.org A debt limit deal has been
(2023-05-29). Progressives Condemn Biden-GOP Debt Ceiling Deal as 'Cruel and Shortsighted'. scheerpost.com 
(2023-05-29). Biden, McCarthy Agree on $886 Billion Military Budget. news.antiwar.com The debt ceiling agreement reached between the White House and House Republicans that was announced Sunday caps military spending at $886 billion for 2024, matching President Biden's requested budget. Republicans negotiating the debt ceiling deal only sought non-military spending cuts. The $886 billion cap for military spending represents about a 3.3% increase from 2023. The …
(2023-05-29). Climate Groups Slam Debt Ceiling Deal as "Surrender" to Big Oil. truthout.org In exchange for an increase of the United States government's arbitrary debt limit, the Biden administration "betrayed the American people," one climate campaigner said Monday, by accepting a deal that requires the approval of all remaining permits for the planet-heating Mountain Valley Pipeline and weakens the government's ability to stop further pollution-causing projects. |
(2023-05-30). Report Back From 3rd Annual May Day On The Harbor. itsgoingdown.org Report back from May Day in the Greys Harbor area in Washington. Originally posted to Sabot Media. Since 1886, May Day has been an important holiday for the global working class. This history is often repressed in this country, being one of a minority that doesn't celebrate International Worker's Day on May first, despite being…
(2023-05-30). A New Generation of Organizers Are Building Union Power in the South By: Maximillian Alvarez>. midwesternmarx.com 
Editor's Note: The following is the transcript of a special live episode of the Working People podcast. It was produced in collaboration with the Action Builder / Action Network team on March 21 in Atlanta, Georgia. In this panel discussion, Max speaks with local organizers about the specific challenges workers in the South face in their workplaces and in their efforts to organize—and how they are finding creative ways to overcome those challenges today. Panelists includ …
(2023-05-30). Science Saturday: Orthobiologics can be nature's healing agents. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org Mayo Clinic physician-scientists are working on regenerative biotherapeutics such as orthobiologics and other regenerative bioinjectables to bring advanced procedures to more patients. Orthobiologics are biological agents that stimulate healing when standard therapies don't work. Examples are platelet-rich plasma — platelets spun from a patient's blood that promote cell repair — and bone marrow aspirate concentrate that contains stem cells and many other cells that have shown potential for tissue regeneration. "Orthobiologics are like nature's drug…
(2023-05-29). Exchange rate depreciation and real wages. mronline.org 
Most people, including even trained economists, fail to appreciate the fact that an exchange rate depreciation, if it is to work in reducing the trade deficit in a capitalist economy, must necessarily hurt the working class by lowering the real wage rate…
(2023-05-29). How Some Amazon Shareholders Allied With The Labour Movement. popularresistance.org During Amazon's annual general meeting on May 24, a proposal for an independent audit on working conditions in Amazon warehouses did not pass. This was unsurprising after Amazon's Board of Directors advised their shareholders to vote against the proposal ahead of the meeting. | The Board of Directors recommended against passing the proposal because they claim that the company regularly enhances safety processes and programs, they have shared workforce incident rates, they are transparent about their commitment to improve workplace safety and because there are already "independent directors" who review workplace i…
(2023-05-29). State Department Won't Say If It's Working to Free US Citizen Detained in Ukraine. scheerpost.com 
(2023-05-29). Cuban President congratulates workers in the tobacco sector. plenglish.com The president stressed on his Twitter account that every May 29 is celebrated the day of tobacco workers in honor of the birth of Lázaro Peña, the captain of the working class in Cuba. | Peña (1911-1974) was born in Havana into a very humble family that barely managed to support his public education for two years, until the death of his father forced him, as a child, to work in various trades to ensure the family's livelihood. | At the end of 1929 he joined the ranks of the clandestine Communist Party, actively participating in the organization of workers to fight against the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado (1925…
(2023-05-29). Iran Indicates Defense Exports to Venezuela, Other Nations With 'No Restrictions'. orinocotribune.com Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani says Iran "has no restriction" on exporting military equipment to other countries, including Venezuela | The Islamic Republic will help any country that remains committed to international peace, Ashtiani told Iran's Tasnim news agency on Sunday when asked about Iran's military and defense cooperation with Venezuela and the possibility of exporting Iranian equipment to the Latin American country. | "We have no restriction on supplying equipment to [other] countries. We are in contact with all states and keep this contact with might," he said. | "We will def…
(2023-05-29). Preload rank-and-file organizing activates in Teamsters Local 455. fightbacknews.org Commerce City, CO – On Friday, May 19, rank-and-file Teamsters working at the UPS hub in Commerce City, a part of the Denver metro area, organized a parking lot meeting early in the morning before the sunrise shift. This event comes just 11 weeks before the expiration of the Teamsters contract with UPS, and it is especially significant as it was the first event at the Commerce City hub, one of the largest UPS buildings in the United States, led exclusively by rank-and-file workers. | Keegan Estrella, a Teamster present at the event states, "I think this is the first event that has been focused primarily on the pr…
(2023-05-29). DeSantis' latest attacks against the LGBT community and why all workers must reject them. liberationnews.org 
Needed r now is working class unity and organization. We make up the majority, and our collective potential is what the ruling elite fears the most.
(2023-05-29). Eurasian Heartland Rises to Challenge the West. orinocotribune.com By Pepe Escobar — May 26, 2023 | President Xi Jinping telling President Putin at the end of their summit last March in Moscow that we're now facing "great changes not seen in a century" directly applies to the new spirit reigning across the Asian Heartland. | Cue to the China-Central Asia summit last week in Xian, the former imperial capital, where Xi solidified the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Western China in Xinjiang to its western neighbors and then all the way to Iran, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. | Xi in Xian stressed the complementing aspects between BRI and the Shanghai Cooper…
(2023-05-30). The Death Penalty for Homelessness. scheerpost.com 
By Eve Ottenberg / CounterPunch You can measure the depth of a civilization by how it treats its poor, very young, elderly and mentally ill. By any such metric, ours here in the Exceptional Empire is barbaric. Take New York City mayor Eric Adams and his pronouncements on the homeless destitute. He made a name …
(2023-05-29). Is China's housing market in trouble? dongshengnews.org 
In recent years, China's housing issue has been prominently featured in the Western media. Rapid urban development, skyrocketing prices, the dependency of local governments on land revenues, and the most "shocking", the rumored bankruptcy of the real estate giant Evergrande, 13 years after the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2008 shook the world economy, aroused the attention of financial analysts everywhere. However, what is the actual situation of the real estate market in China and what is the government doing?