Alternative News

Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.

A Dirty Military Incursion into Venezuela

Details: Published on Monday, 11 May 2020 04:10; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2085 ... May 11, 2020
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A Dirty Military Incursion into Venezuela

Vijay Prashad, Paola Estrada, Ana Maldonado and Zoe PC

In the early morning hours of Sunday, May 3, speedboats left the Colombian coastlines and headed toward Venezuela. These boats had no authorization to cross the maritime border. They landed on the Venezuelan coastline at La Guaira. This was clearly a hostile action, since the boats carried heavy weaponry, including assault rifles and ammunition; the people on the boats possessed satellite phones as well as uniforms and helmets with the flag of the United States of America.

The incursion was intercepted by Venezuelan authorities, who fought them off; eight of the belligerents were killed, while two were intercepted. One of those who was arrested says that he is an agent of the US government’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The DEA has not responded to calls for confirmation.

Néstor Reverol, the minister of internal affairs of Venezuela, told Venezuelan television stations hours after the thwarted incursion that the government received information about the attack from sources in Colombia and...

Palestine and the COVID Crisis

Details: Published on Sunday, 10 May 2020 00:34; Written by editor

Socialist Interventions Pamphlet ... No. 18 ... May 10, 2020

Palestine and the COVID Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic is confronting governments around the world with an emergency health situation, requiring self-isolation, population lockdowns of many economic activities and households, mass virus testing, screening and hospitalizations, and much more. In areas of the world that are in the midst of armed conflict or military occupation, or are hosting refugee camps or large pools of migrant workers, harsh living conditions are becoming spaces of extraordinary vulnerability to the pandemic and what Friedrich Engels once called “social murder.”

In this context, Socialist Project reaffirms our commitment to the longstanding international demand that Israel end its illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the brutal siege on Gaza. It is imperative that Israel restore access to water and electrical power, and immediately lift all restrictions on medicines and equipment necessary to deal with the pandemic. The global health crisis makes these needs particularly acute. We insist that primary responsibility for the suffering Palestinians face is the neo-colonial occupation, in the form of an apartheid regime, that Israel has constructed with the compliance, and indeed support, of the most powerful states in the international...

Zero to 40 in one week! Step it up for the Tar Sands Trial

Details: Published on Saturday, 09 May 2020 06:38; Written by editor

Zero to 40 in one week! Step it up for the Tar Sands Trial r1 ...

The Labour Party Machine versus Corbyn

Details: Published on Saturday, 09 May 2020 02:48; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2084 ... May 9, 2020
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The Labour Party Machine versus Corbyn

Leo Panitch and Colin Leys

In our new book Searching for Socialism, we noted the way the party’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, and his staff were involved in exploring the possibility of preventing Jeremy Corbyn from contesting the second leadership election in 2016, and we speculated that Labour might have won the 2017 election if McNicol’s officials had not withheld election funds from seats that the party came very close to winning. The recently leaked internal report on party officials’ handling of antisemitism complaints goes a long way to support this view.

It shows that some key senior officials were bitterly opposed to the leader and were concerned above all to defend the seats of Labour MPs opposed to Corbyn -- seats which, in fact, proved to be very safe, thanks to the electoral surge Corbyn’s leadership inspired -- and to withhold support for candidates they saw as supportive of him, in seats which could have been won. They expected the party to lose, and hoped it would...

Mother's Day for peace

Details: Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2020 13:22; Written by editor

There's a lot at stake right now

Details: Published on Friday, 08 May 2020 07:20; Written by editor

This is a test r1

Dear BCCLA supporter,

I’m writing to you from my kitchen table. As I write this, my colleagues are also working in their own homes. They’re creating resources and factsheets to educate the public on their rights. They are writing letters to government officials and making phone calls to community partners.

They have one goal: to make sure that no one is left behind in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and that government overreach is held to account.

Will you make an urgent donation of $30 to support this advocacy work?

In a short time, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes in government policies. We’ve been keeping a close eye on them. Many policies have been positive health measures to keep us safe. But there have also been changes to privacy laws and an increase in unnecessary policing and surveillance.

There’s a lot at stake right now. We’ve seen what happens...

Meet the 8-Year-Old Climate Activist Cleaning Up India

Details: Published on Friday, 08 May 2020 05:20; Written by editor

READ

Meet the 8-Year-Old Climate Activist Cleaning Up India

Remaking the Politics of Palestine Solidarity in Canada

Details: Published on Friday, 08 May 2020 04:00; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2083 ... May 8, 2020
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Remaking the Politics of Palestine Solidarity in Canada

Hammam Farah

A little over a year ago, Arab YouTube celebrity Nas Daily held a talk at McGill University in Montreal, hosted by the McGill Arab Student Network. The event page on Facebook quickly drew controversy, as Palestinian students from various Canadian campuses descended into a protracted back-and-forth with the event organizers. Commentators highlighted Nas’s role in whitewashing Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. For a Palestinian social media celebrity who enjoys exposure to 10 million followers, Nas presents a dangerously narrow view of the conflict that minimizes Israel’s responsibility. It was thus of little surprise that Palestinian human rights clubs at McGill and Concordia University (also in Montreal) scrambled to release statements of condemnation. Still, in the end, the event was held to a packed audience.

This episode was emblematic of the growing trend in the Canadian-Arab community to engage in cultural and professional event programming to the exclusion of politics and education. Just as Nas tries to avoid the unavoidable by turning the deeply unequal...

Practice Quarantine Self-Care with Our New Reward

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 May 2020 12:34; Written by editor

NEW REWARD

A New Way to Self-Care

Behind-the-scenes stories from our work - Quaker Concern newsletter

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 May 2020 08:32; Written by editor

The Convention on the Rights of the Child

by Joy Morris

After dinner one night, a friend of my mother’s shared a story that has stayed with me. She had been shopping at the local mall with her kids when police officers stopped her and took her in for questioning. She matched the description of a shoplifter they’d been looking for....

Keep reading ››

World Fair Trade Day!

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 May 2020 07:28; Written by editor

World Fair Trade Day! r1 ...

May the 4th Be With You

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 May 2020 05:20; Written by editor

IMPACT

May The 4th Be With You: Summit Raises Landmark €7.4 Billion To Tackle COVID-19

Struggles in the Shadow of the Pandemic

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 May 2020 00:44; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2082 ... May 7, 2020
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Struggles in the Shadow of the Pandemic

John Clarke

It is a principle of historical materialism that social consciousness reflects social being and it is, therefore, inevitable that the former will tend to lag behind the latter. At a time like the present, human societies are being buffeted by rapid and deeply disturbing changes and the thinking of hundreds of millions of people is in flux, unable to take in everything that is happening. The biomedical, economic and ecological components of the unfolding situation interact and produce new developments at every turn.

We can be sure that the solutions to these devastating developments that those in economic and political power will seek to implement will require working class people to suffer greatly increased levels of exploitation and devastating reductions in their living standards. Shocked passivity is not a viable option and there is an acute need to fan the flames of resistance to the greatest extent possible, so as to generate the conditions of mass social action, out of which a leap in social...

It started with a phone call

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 May 2020 15:14; Written by editor

It started with a phone call r1 ...

Pangolins

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 May 2020 13:48; Written by editor

Shy, cute, covered in scales -- the adorable pangolin seems like an imaginary animal. But they’re real, and they’re the most trafficked animal on the planet! Now a new report says Facebook is making it worse, letting traffickers sell pangolin parts right on their platform! This disturbing trade has to stop:

Sign the petition

Pangolins look almost like they sprung from the imagination of a small child; they’re covered in scales and roll up in a little ball when they’re scared.

But they’re real — and they’re the most trafficked animal on the planet! Up to 2.7 million of these little guys are murdered every year by poachers hoping to profit off butchering them and selling their parts to traditional medicine shops.

Now a new report says Facebook is making it worse, letting traffickers sell pangolin parts right on their platform!

This madness has to stop. Facebook is already...

An update on Global Goal Live: The Possible Dream

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 May 2020 13:48; Written by editor

Hi Paov,

In light of COVID-19, Global Citizen and Teneo are announcing that Global Goal Live: The Possible Dream, the year-long campaign and multi-city series of events meant to drive impact for the world to achieve the United Nations Global Goals, will not take place on September 26, 2020. Global Goal Live, the campaign, will extend into 2021, and the major events will be postponed to September 25, 2021.

With...

Urgent: we need a response like no other

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 May 2020 07:10; Written by editor

This is a test r1

Dear BCCLA supporter,

Unprecedented. Uncertain. Extraordinary.

I’m sure you’ve heard every adjective imaginable about COVID-19 and what it means for you, your community, and our society at large.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a new adjective to add to the list.

In a short time, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on many changes in government policies. Many of these are positive health measures to keep us safe and contain the transmission of infection.

There have also been drastic changes to privacy laws, digital privacy has been compromised, and policing and surveillance are on the rise. It’s a lot to keep up with.

But we’re determined to keep up. We’re determined to stand up for civil liberties and human rights for all. Government overreach won’t go unchecked.

Will you make an urgent gift of $30 to keep up our fight for civil liberties and human rights?

We know what happens governments are...

The Pandemic Kills the Poor: Inequality Will Kill Them Even More

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 May 2020 02:42; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2081 ... May 6, 2020
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The Pandemic Kills the Poor: Inequality Will Kill Them Even More

Joan Benach

In just over four months, COVID-19 has become the fastest-growing known global health crisis to date. Various systemic biological, political and public health factors have converged to make this happen: the contagiousness and the high mortality rate of the virus, the neoliberal weakening of national and global public health systems, the globalization of air-transport tourism, and institutional and political unwillingness to listen and react appropriately to the warnings raised by scientists and health institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) are some of them. Although no one could predict exactly when, how and where it would start, or who would be most affected, we have known that something like this could happen since at least the 1980s.

Scientists warned that global socio-ecological changes, which allow infectious diseases to emerge, were increasing at an unprecedented rate, or that, in the words of Nobel Prize-laureate microbiologist Joshua Lederberg, "the greatest threat to the continued dominance of man on the planet is the...

Normal was a crisis

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 May 2020 02:38; Written by editor

How we build back better

Art by Ricardo Levins Morales

Dear friends,

With coronavirus restrictions starting to loosen in some parts of the world, many are buoyed with hope that they might soon be able to get outside or reunite with friends and family.

But many of us are still hurting. Cases of the virus are still rising every day, and millions have no jobs to return to. The climate crisis and its impacts are still hitting hard – with reports that despite the slowdown in economic activity, 2020 still might be on track to be the warmest year on record.

These twin crises of COVID-19 and climate breakdown show us one thing: we have to use this moment to transform. We’re living through a societal shift unlike any other in recent memory – and our efforts to rebuild must continue to be bold, imaginative, and restorative.

We want you to be part of this new chapter – and help ensure that...

A strategy session with 350 Canada

Details: Published on Tuesday, 05 May 2020 10:52; Written by editor

Friends,

Big Oil and greedy corporations are on a relentless pursuit to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic and will stop at nothing to protect their profits.

On Friday, Export Development Canada greenlit a loan for Coastal GasLink pipeline, a project that lacks Indigenous peoples’ consent and would violate their lands, to the tune of half a billion dollars.1 It’s unacceptable that during a time that people across the country are struggling to pay their rent and bills, corporations continue to shamelessly receive billions in public bailouts.

Now more than ever we have to remain connected, united, and organized. That’s why 350 Canada is holding a special strategy session on building power for a Just Recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We would love for you to be a part of it. Here are the details and link to RSVP:

What: Organizing for a Just Recovery: Mass Strategy Session with the 350 Canada Team

When: Wednesday, May 13th 4 PM PT/ 5 PM MT / 6 PM CT/ 7 PM ET/ 8 PM AT

Where:...

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