2021-12-24: News Headlines

_____ (2021-12-24). Amazon Warehouse Workers Walk Off The Job In Illinois. popularresistance.org On Wednesday morning, several dozen Amazon workers at two separate Chicago-area delivery stations staged a walkout to demand raises and safer working conditions, making it the first time the tech giant has seen a multi-site work stoppage in the United States. | Coming just three days before Christmas to ensure maximum impact, the action caps a year of intense organizing and protest by Amazon warehouse workers who have been on the frontlines of both the Covid-19 pandemic and extreme weather events. | Organized by the labor network Amazonians United, the walkouts occurred during the morning shifts at the company's…

WSWS (2021-12-24). An intensive care physician's report to the Global Workers' Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic. wsws.org The physician's report clearly shows the ongoing physical and psychological strains for those working in intensive care and why the path to the elimination of COVID-19 can only proceed via the independent mobilisation of the working class.

WSWS (2021-12-24). To oppose government austerity, Sri Lankan workers need to build action committees and fight for socialist policies. wsws.org The critical lesson of this year's strikes and protests is that determination and militancy is not enough. The working class cannot defend its rights without independently mobilising on a socialist program.

Jay Janson (2021-12-24). No USA Christmas Love for Afghans, Venezuelans, Cubans, Syrians, Iranians, and North Koreans. dissidentvoice.org This Christmas season, as always, CIA controlled mainstream media is filled with unctuous images of the hungry homeless in America being charitably served food by private citizens and institutions. It has long become an American tradition of kindness during the season celebrating the birth of all loving Jesus along with gift giving Santa Claus, and …

Sarah Anderson (2021-12-24). Rev. Barber: 'Our Deadline is Victory'. inequality.org

_____ (2021-12-24). Former Hunger Strikers Reflect On Their Experiences. popularresistance.org The huelga de hambre has been used for thousands of years. It has won many struggles," said Ana Ramirez, 42, who fasted for 24 days this spring to demand that undocumented people and other excluded workers in New York receive stimulus and unemployment money. "Esther the reina won a battle with the hunger strike." | Ramirez is referring to Queen Esther of the Old Testament's Book of Esther. The queen and her supporters fasted for three days in advance of going to ask her husband, Persian King Ahasuerus, for permission to have her enemies — who were trying to wipe out all Jews in the empire — killed. Sh…

Staff (2021-12-23). Pentagon Clamps Down on Extremism & White Supremacy After Dozens of Jan. 6 Rioters Had Military Ties. democracynow.org The Pentagon has announced new rules to slow the spread of extremism in the military, one of which will discipline soldiers for liking or resharing white nationalist and other extremist content on social media. The Pentagon announcement comes just two weeks before the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection, where more than 80 of the 700 individuals charged with the attack had ties to the U.S. military. Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project Susan Corke says these rule changes are welcomed by her organization but don't go far enough to stop extremism in the armed forces. "It sh…

_____ (2021-12-23). Who Actually Owns Corporations, Anyway? popularresistance.org According to elementary students of economics and Wall Street financiers alike, the answer to this question is as simple as it is intuitive: the shareholders. The standard narrative goes like this: a share is a "piece of a company." Accordingly, the holders of those shares are the company's collective owners. Shareholder ownership explains why an army of retail investors coordinating trades on Reddit could claim they "owned a piece" of the struggling video game retailer GameStop and why Warren Buffet is as certain he "owns" companies as varied as GEICO and Dairy Queen as less wealthy Americans are certain they ow…

Dana Sanchez (2021-12-23). Silicon Valley Execs Quit Good-Paying Jobs For Crypto Startups, Quick Riches. moguldom.com Some of the biggest tech companies are scrambling to retain employees as a wave of engineers and executives quit jobs that pay as much as seven-figure salaries for what's seen as a once-in-a-generation opportunity — to join crypto startups. Stories of massive crypto wealth amassed by early investors in Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptos including …

Editor2 (2021-12-23). àÅlvaro García Linera: The Central Command of the Latin American Right is the US, not Spain. orinocotribune.com The conservative command of the Latin American right is in the United States, not in Spain. Vox is small and clumsy. On the other hand, Washington promotes a series of basic values: market, individuality, institutionality against social convulsions and wealth as the goal of life, affirms àÅlvaro García Linera. | The vice president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia between 2006 and 2019 is one of the most prominent contemporary leftist intellectuals. His extensive and provocative intellectual production is the result of a political commitment that led him to imprisonment for seven years and of a solid th…

Isheka N. Harrison (2021-12-23). NAACP President Sends Message To Biden: If You Can Afford To Pause Student Loan Payments Over And Over, You Can Cancel Them. moguldom.com Some rejoiced when President Joe Biden announced that he was extending the pause on making student loan payments for three additional months while others urged Biden to go further and cancel student loan debt altogether. Among the latter group are NAACP president Derrick Johnson and renowned wealth inequality expert and economist William "Sandy" Darity. Biden …

imperial.ac.uk (2021-12-23). Working towards development and peace: Imperial and SDG 16. imperial.ac.uk Sustainable energy solutions for peacebuilding and supporting academics from at-risk areas: how Imperial is meeting Sustainable Development Goal 16.

teleSUR (2021-12-23). Venezuela To Vaccinate 90% Of Its Population To Face Omicron. telesurenglish.net On Wednesday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced that the first seven COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant were detected in citizens who traveled abroad and recently returned to the states of Miranda, Lara and Caracas. | RELATED: | "It was inevitable that Omicron would arrive in Venezuela. Therefore, we reiterate the call to reinforce biosecurity measures and vaccination. We continue working to care fo…

WSWS (2021-12-23). UK Tory government weaponises Christmas against COVID restrictions. wsws.org The government's brutal determination to keep the profits flowing at all costs is meeting widespread opposition. Workers are defying all instructions from the mass murderers in Westminster to just keep on shopping and socialising in pubs, clubs and restaurants. Millions have stopped using public transport, are working from home and are already limiting their contacts with other people.

WSWS (2021-12-23). As Omicron spreads, German intensive care workers warn of already intolerable working conditions. wsws.org An incendiary letter from intensive care nurses at a university clinic in Hamburg gives voice to the frustration and dissatisfaction widespread among nursing staff throughout Germany.

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