Alternative News
Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.
Waking up to an extinction crisis
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- Published on Thursday, 13 August 2020 15:52
- Written by editor
Troubling news out of BC and Alberta
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- Published on Thursday, 13 August 2020 12:36
- Written by editor
Dear BCCLA Supporter,
150 days – that’s about how long social distancing measures have been in place and our daily lives as we knew it have changed. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic brings out feelings of anxiety in each of us. Fear and uncertainty are legitimate responses to a global pandemic with hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide.
Since the pandemic hit, the staff at the BCCLA have been closely monitoring provincial and federal government responses to the pandemic, including necessary health and safety measures.
Recently, we’ve been voicing our opposition to government measures in Alberta and BC that unnecessarily increase undemocratic government powers and limit accountability.
In BC, the government passed Bill 19, The COVID-19 Related Measures Act. Under the act, the government can temporarily change any legislation during an emergency, without any oversight from the public and without approval from the legislature. The public cannot know about the proposed changes or voice disapproval until after the law...
350.org Survey → take two minutes to let us know your priorities ahead of our fiscal year budget planning
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- Published on Thursday, 13 August 2020 10:38
- Written by editor
Paov -
We are beginning our budget planning for the upcoming fiscal year.
And since we are going to be making critical decisions around our key programs and campaigns, we thought we'd ask 350's strongest supporters what your top priorities are as we head into our budget planning.
So we designed a short survey. We hope you'll take it. We'll review the results before our next fiscal year 2021 budget planning meeting.
What do you say?
Here's the first question:
Each program and campaign organized by 350 relies on the support and involvement of people like you, PAOV. That is why your input during this critical planning stage is so important. Because as you go, we go. And that is the truth.
So your feedback is important. What you think matters. A lot.
Amazon under attack
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- Published on Thursday, 13 August 2020 04:56
- Written by editor
A, I just wanted to make sure you caught this before it’s too late.
Greedy corporate logging interests want to destroy the ancestral home of Brazil’s Tupinamba people, just to make a quick buck.
The Tupinamba are heading out on a gruelling mission to save their land, and they desperately need your help to make it a success.
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Donate CA$93 nowDonate another amount
Thanks for all that you do,
Will, Danny, and the team at SumOfUs
Here's the email I sent yesterday with more information:
The ancestral homeland of Brazil’s Indigenous Tupinamba people is under threat from greedy corporate logging interests.
The Tupinamba have a sure-fire plan to save their lands, but they need your help today to pull it off. Will you chip in to protect their Amazon homeland and way of life?
If you’ve saved your...
Extractivism and Exploitation in Peru
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- Published on Thursday, 13 August 2020 02:44
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~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2168 ... August 13, 2020
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Extractivism and Exploitation in Peru
Yanis Iqbal
Martin Vizcarra, Peru’s president, has announced that "[t]his government has taken up the challenge and has been working on the approval of a new regulation for mining procedures in order to streamline those procedures." The regulation "aims to provide certainty for investors in order to boost private investment" and will satisfy the demands of mining magnates who "have requested that the procedures be expedited in order to unlock mining projects and allow the sector to contribute to the economic reactivation."
The current government decision to elevate extractivism as the engine of economic reactivation is a blessing for extractive elites who have been pushing for deregulation, a secure investment climate and a faster economic re-opening. On 20 July 2020, Carlos Gálvez, former president of mining and energy association SNMPE, said, "To recover we have to immediately activate the portfolio of mining projects, as mining will drive the entire economy." In a similar manner, on 23 June 2020, Víctor Gobitz, the president of Peru’s Institute of Mining Engineers and...
Your Actions From #TogetherAtHome Are Already Having an Impact
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- Published on Wednesday, 12 August 2020 12:04
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One World: Together At Home
What We Did Together
Amazon under attack
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- Published on Wednesday, 12 August 2020 04:44
- Written by editor
The ancestral homeland of Brazil’s Indigenous Tupinamba people is under threat from greedy corporate logging interests.
The Tupinamba have a sure-fire plan to save their lands, but they need your help today to pull it off. Will you chip in to protect their Amazon homeland and way of life?
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Donate CA$93 nowDonate another amount
A,
For 500 years, Brazil’s Indigenous Tupinamba people have fought for their land -- but the threats they face now could finally overwhelm them.
On top of out-of-control mining and slash-and-burn agriculture on their ancestral lands, now a mega-logging company wants to clear-cut hundreds of acres of Amazon rainforest to make a quick buck.
There's only one way the Tupinamba can stop this -- if they can file a legal claim to their land with the federal government.
That means they'll be traveling across their territory, painstakingly...
Bolivias Perfect Storm: Pandemic, Economic Crisis, Repressive Coup Regime
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- Published on Wednesday, 12 August 2020 04:04
- Written by editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2167 ... August 12, 2020
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Bolivia’s Perfect Storm: Pandemic, Economic Crisis, Repressive Coup Regime
The rising toll of diseased and deceased from the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Bolivia particularly hard, in a continent that is now in the lead in global contagion rates. As of August 8, more than 100,000 cases were officially confirmed or suspected in that country, with 3,600 deaths among a total population of just over 10 million.
The coup government, installed in November, has mismanaged the crisis from the outset. Hospitals are understaffed and ill-equipped, testing is minimal, and the main response by the de facto authorities is to threaten lengthy jail terms for those who circulate "inaccurate" information about the pandemic -- in a country where only a minority of workers are employed, the vast majority eking out a living in the "informal" economy of street markets and self-employment.
Typical of its approach, the interim regime headed by President Jeanine Añez was quick to expel more than 700 Cuban healthcare workers who, under the previous government, had provided needed services in remote areas and...
Read more: Bolivias Perfect Storm: Pandemic, Economic Crisis, Repressive Coup Regime
Passing the mic to the youngest generation
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- Published on Wednesday, 12 August 2020 00:10
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In September 2019 as part of the Global Climate Strike, hundreds of students and youth joined together in the streets of New Delhi, India, to demand clean air and a sustainable city. Credit: Ritu Bhardwaj, Survival Media Agency
what we once took for granted,
became something we wish we had.
and just like a bird in a cage,
that is meant to fly in the first place,
we are instead unfree and unease.
some streets are now dead empty,
some others are filled with those who are angry.
and some people are also less lucky,
unlike those with a roof on their heads and a loving family.
...
we should be impactful to fix our reality.
work hand in hand,
for working together will bring us further.
reflect upon what’s happening,
and thus we shall recover.
— Naifah Uzlah, Youth Climate Activist, Indonesia, ‘Reflection for...
Its World Mask Week!
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- Published on Tuesday, 11 August 2020 13:08
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TAKE ACTION
Wear a Mask to Save Lives: Upload a Photo for #WorldMaskWeek
...Making your voice heard on long-term care
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- Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2020 13:22
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A, I can't believe how this turned out!
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- Published on Tuesday, 11 August 2020 07:00
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Take the “Get Good” Pledge today and join the community of thousands of SumOfUs members who understand the importance of creating a safe community!
Dear A,
The numbers and charts are getting hard to watch -- while some countries have gotten the virus under control, Covid-19 cases and deaths are skyrocketing in very vulnerable places like Brazil, the rural United States, and some of the poorest countries in the Global South.
It’s an unprecedented global challenge that requires us to be more and do more for each other than we ever imagined. That’s why SumOfUs members are setting an example--we're pledging to love each other from a distance, even though it’s hard. To act responsibly by practising social distancing, even in the face of inaction from our world's leaders.
We know music fuels movements for change, so we started with a song to reinforce our pledge. Hundreds of...
Systemic Racism in the US and Israel: Analogies and Differences
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- Published on Tuesday, 11 August 2020 02:54
- Written by editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2166 ... August 11, 2020
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Systemic Racism in the US and Israel: Analogies and Differences
Nahla Abdo
A most relevant analogy between the US and Israel lies in the principal rationale for the force of their establishment as settler-colonial states. Imperialism, which is the driving force of the settler colonial project, is inherently racist and racializing. With the establishment of the state, racialized capital becomes structural and institutional; it becomes systemic. The differences between the two regimes are also there, based on the fact that each case is historically specific.
Without going into details, it is essential to point out that the very establishment of the settler-colonial state, whether the US or Canada or Israel to name just a few, necessitates the elimination of the indigenous people. In the case of both the US and Canada, settler-colonialism began with the removal of indigenous peoples (with quite distinct histories between the two with the long period of European dependence on First Nations in the North and West in Canada) – a process that involved genocide/erasure and conquering indigenous lands by...
Read more: Systemic Racism in the US and Israel: Analogies and Differences
How You Can Help the People of Beirut
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- Published on Monday, 10 August 2020 08:34
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What you can do
Join Me in Helping the People of Beirut.
...What Would the NHS Look Like If It Took Health Promotion Seriously?
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- Published on Monday, 10 August 2020 03:02
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~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2165 ... August 10, 2020
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What Would the NHS Look Like If It Took Health Promotion Seriously?
Collective 20
On Sunday, July 5, 2020, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, wished it a happy 72nd birthday. Spitfires flew over in celebration and buildings were lit up in blue as people poured out into the streets at 5 p.m. to clap in appreciation of Britain’s favorite institution. We’re talking, of course, about the National Health Service (NHS).
The NHS, it seems, is loved by everybody. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the public have consistently shown their appreciation for the NHS staff with public displays of "thank you NHS" art and coordinated nation-wide rounds of applause. More generally and consistently, the NHS is also celebrated by the Left.
The reasons for this are both historical and ideological. The NHS was founded in 1948 by the Labour Party and based on the following three principles; (1) to meet the needs of everyone, (2) to be free at the point of delivery, (3) and to be based on clinical need, not ability to...
Read more: What Would the NHS Look Like If It Took Health Promotion Seriously?
Another World is Podable /w Tanner Mirrlees
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- Published on Sunday, 09 August 2020 03:12
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LeftStreamed:
Another World is Podable /w Tanner Mirrlees
On Socialist Media Politics, Digital Capitalism and Media Imperialism
Created and hosted by Peter Bloom, “Another World is Podable” is a podcast that explores the most radical social experiments and ideas today. Episode 23 is a discussion with Tanner Mirrlees about his coming of age as a socialist at the “end of history,” the current work of the Socialist Project, US media imperialism in the digital age, and the limits and possibilities of socialist politics on social media platforms.
Tanner Mirrlees is the author of “Socialists on Social Media Platforms: Communicating Within and Against Digital Capitalism” (forthcoming in Beyond Digital Capitalism: Socialist Register 2021, edited by Leo Panitch and Greg Albo). He is also the author of Hearts and Mines: The US Empire’s Cultural Industry (UBC Press, 2016), co-author of EdTech Inc.: Selling, Automating and Globalizing Higher Education in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2019), and co-editor of Media Imperialism: Continuity and Change (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).
Peter Bloom is a Professor of Management at the University of Essex. His research critically explores the radical...
Ikea
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- Published on Saturday, 08 August 2020 01:22
- Written by editor
Ikea's cheap chairs come at a lethal price: A shocking investigation reveals that beautiful, biodiverse forests in Ukraine are being illegally slashed to the ground to produce "sustainable" furniture for the Swedish giant.
As the world's largest wood buyer, Ikea must do better. Add your name to push the company into forest-saving action!
A, have you heard about Ikea's latest scandal?
A new investigation shows the Swedish furniture giant's relentless demand for cheap wood is destroying the habitat of lynx and brown bears. Some of Ikea's best-selling chairs have been traced to illegal logging in Ukraine's ancient Carpathian forest, one of the last sanctuaries for these and other endangered species.
Ikea responded by promising to investigate the timber companies responsible. But you and I both know that's not enough.
The problem isn't with a single supplier -- it's with Ikea's never-ending pursuit of...
Land defenders, nuclear disarmament & warplanes
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- Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2020 13:22
- Written by editor
Meet One of South Africas Leading Nuclear Physicists
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- Published on Friday, 07 August 2020 05:04
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READ
Meet One of South Africa’s Leading Nuclear Physicists
...Read more: Meet One of South Africas Leading Nuclear Physicists
From Unorganized Street Protests to Organizing Unions
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- Published on Friday, 07 August 2020 00:50
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2164 ... August 7, 2020
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From Unorganized Street Protests to Organizing Unions:
The Birth of a New Trade Union Movement in Hong Kong
Anita Chan
For several months in 2019, the world’s news media was front-paging the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill movement almost on a daily basis. However, toward the end of the year, with the street violence subsiding and the fierce battles at two universities ending in the defeat of the students and their supporters, the international media seemed to lose interest.
As global attention shifted elsewhere, one might have assumed that the movement had died a natural death. It did not. It is from here that this essay picks up the narrative. It was at that point that the movement branched off in a new direction, with activists beginning to set up trade unions and transitioning toward a nascent organized movement.
In the wake of the Umbrella Movement, which ended in 2015, a whole host of small groups and political parties of varied political persuasions emerged alongside the ‘old’ pro-democratic political parties. This mushrooming led to...
Read more: From Unorganized Street Protests to Organizing Unions
More Articles...
- Did someone say contest?
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- TD Bank + COVID prison investments
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- Oil and Alberta Politics: Whos Funding the United Conservative Party?
- Paov Stand in Solidarity with #WWOA
- Crisis
- Chubb's pipeline
- Nestlé wants to crush this town
