Alternative News
Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.
Youre coming out of the woodwork
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- Published on Wednesday, 29 April 2020 16:36
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Elders, Grassroots, and the LNG Meltdown: Ep. 3 of "We are Un-Frackable"
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- Published on Wednesday, 29 April 2020 14:02
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Read more: Elders, Grassroots, and the LNG Meltdown: Ep. 3 of "We are Un-Frackable"
The decisions we make now will define a generation
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- Published on Wednesday, 29 April 2020 04:04
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Paov,
There are so many parallels between the climate crisis and the global COVID-19 pandemic. It’s global in scope. Historically marginalized communities are the most impacted. And corporations, including Big Oil, are trying their hardest to push politicians to put profit before people.
It’s overwhelming. But over the last few weeks, my colleagues and I at 350.org have been figuring out how we can fight these two converging crises.
We came up with an ambitious, three-phase plan to respond, recover, and rebuild through the pandemic:
1. Ensure governments respond to the crisis by putting people first -- not corporations. Thanks to actions taken by people like you, we stopped Big Oil from squeezing billions from the government. But, they’re not giving up. That’s why we will continue to use all the tools available to us to oppose any bailouts for Big Oil and lift up the needs of communities who are most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis – including Indigenous peoples, racialized folks, and frontline workers.
2. Fight for a just recovery that leaves no one behind. We know that wealthy, corporate interests are pushing politicians to...
Read more: The decisions we make now will define a generation
Ecological and Social Planning and Transition
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- Published on Tuesday, 28 April 2020 23:50
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2076 ... April 29, 2020
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Ecological and Social Planning and Transition
Michael Löwy
The need for economic planning in any serious and radical process of socio-ecological transition is winning greater acceptance, in contrast to the traditional positions of the Green parties, favorable to an ecological variant of "market economy," that is, "green capitalism."
In her latest book, Naomi Klein observes that any serious reaction to the climate threat "involves recovering an art that has been relentlessly vilified during these decades of market fundamentalism: planning." This includes, in her view, industrial planning, land use planning, agricultural planning, employment planning for workers whose occupations are made obsolescent by the transition, etc. "This means bringing back the idea of planning our economies based on collective priorities rather than profitability..."
The socio-ecological transition -- toward an ecosocialist alternative -- implies public control of the principal means of production and democratic planning. Decisions concerning investment and technological change must be taken away from the banks and capitalist businesses, if we want them to serve the common good of society and respect for the...
KFC
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- Published on Tuesday, 28 April 2020 08:44
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A, in just 3 weeks we could finally stop KFC and Pizza Hut from using rainforest-wrecking palm oil.
We can't miss this chance to protect our precious forests from fast-food greed -- can you add your name now?
A,
They tried to silence us.
Yum! Brands, owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, unleashed its legal power to try to prevent us from using our power as shareholders. But we stood strong and we won’t back down until rainforests are safe from the fast-food giant’s greed.
Multi-billion dollar fast-food conglomerate Yum! Brands has one of the industry's weakest anti-deforestation policies. Its reckless sourcing of palm oil and other ingredients have horrific consequences for wildlife and the climate -- and could even spur the next global pandemic.
Now, after all the excuses, smokescreens, and greenwashing attempts, Yum! will finally have to listen...
Cuba's Unique Model of Medical Internationalism
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- Published on Tuesday, 28 April 2020 00:12
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2075 ... April 28, 2020
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Cuba's Unique Model of Medical Internationalism
In recent weeks, more than a dozen countries -- including two in Europe -- have requested and received Cuban doctors to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic.
John Kirk, a professor at the Latin America program of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, is author of Healthcare Without Borders and one of the foremost experts on Cuba’s medical internationalism. Ten years ago, he spent two months embedded with Cuba’s Henry Reeve medical emergency brigade in El Salvador after a hurricane, to observe them. In all he has interviewed 270 Cuban doctors and nurses during the course of his research. John Kirk was interviewed by Cuba Standard.
Cuba Standard (CS): What is the Henry Reeve Brigade?
John Kirk (JK): The Henry Reeve Brigade was formed in 2005. Responding to the massive problems in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Cuba offered 1,400 medical personnel and 32 tons of medicine to help in New Orleans, which was refused by the George W. Bush administration. Shortly afterwards, there was a major health problem in the...
Join Us Tomorrow for the next "We are Un-Frackable" Webinar
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- Published on Monday, 27 April 2020 15:50
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This week
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- Published on Monday, 27 April 2020 11:08
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TAKE ACTION
It’s World Immunization Week! Tell World Leaders To Support Vaccines For All.
Urgent: Beekeepers silenced
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- Published on Monday, 27 April 2020 06:18
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A, did you see this? Beekeepers are being shut out of Bayer’s virtual shareholder meeting.
If you chip in now, we’ll buy online ads to direct journalists and shareholders to an alternative Bayer AGM, where beekeepers do get to speak. But we don’t have much time, the shareholder meeting is set to start tomorrow morning.
Please, can you chip in CA$98 to hack the Bayer AGM and give beekeepers a voice?
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Donate CA$98 nowDonate CA$148 now Read more: Urgent: Beekeepers silenced
Here Comes Bourgeois Socialism -- Again
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- Published on Sunday, 26 April 2020 23:58
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2074 ... April 27, 2020
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Here Comes Bourgeois Socialism -- Again
Dimitris Fasfalis
What should we think of the recent praise of "the welfare state" and public services coming from different voices among the ruling classes in the world? Their conversion is as sudden as miraculous; they recall much better the holy history of the apostles than the secular history of societies.
The Financial Times editorial of April 3rd, entitled "Virus lays bare the frailty of the social contract," offers an exemplary case. It says:
"Radical reforms -- reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades -- will need to be put on the table. Governments will have to accept a more active role in the economy. They must see public services as investments rather than liabilities, and look for ways to make labour markets less insecure. Redistribution will again be on the agenda; the privileges of the elderly and wealthy in question. Policies until recently considered eccentric, such as basic income and wealth taxes, will have to be in the mix."
Continue reading
Read more: Here Comes Bourgeois Socialism -- Again
The Anti-Union Virus Inside the Emergency Powers: Lessons for Workers
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- Published on Sunday, 26 April 2020 01:14
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2073 ... April 26, 2020
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The Anti-Union Virus Inside the Emergency Powers: Lessons for Workers
Harry Glasbeek and Eric Tucker
While the Covid virus weakens immune systems, it fortifies the anti-union animus of right-wing governments.
When it was clear that there was no way the coronavirus was going to exempt Ontario from its ravages, Ontario had to react. The problem was that, even though Toronto had been one of the epicentres of the SARS epidemic, years of neoliberalism had created a deplorable state of unpreparedness. There were fewer hospital beds per capita than ever. Ontario had slipped to having the lowest number of beds per capita in Canada and had no stockpiles of personal protective equipment. After SARS, an effort had been made to stock some equipment but when it reached its use-by date, in true neoliberal fashion, the government decided not to replace it. The rationale? In the unlikely event the equipment would ever be needed, it would be more efficient to rely on just-in-time supply from far away countries with cheap labour. Now governments and health providers...
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Coronavirus Pandemic Brings to Light the Need for a Stronger Public Sector
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- Published on Friday, 24 April 2020 23:26
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2072 ... April 25, 2020
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Coronavirus Pandemic Brings to Light the Need for a Stronger Public Sector
Subin Dennis
It is a sign of how bad things are when the editorial board of the Financial Times (FT), the world’s leading business newspaper, carries an editorial calling for “radical reforms… reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades.” The FT editorial of April 3 has advocated, among other things, a more active role for governments in the economy, ways to make labour markets less insecure, and wealth taxes. The FT’s editorial board, increasingly concerned about saving capitalism from itself, had written about the need for “state planning” and a “worker-led economy” last year in August. But the April 3 editorial has garnered much more attention since it comes amidst a massive crisis.
By now it has become obvious that substantial state intervention in the economy -- frowned upon by the apostles of neoliberal economics -- is back to the center stage across the world.
The situation is such that the public sector, long maligned by neoliberal economists...
Read more: Coronavirus Pandemic Brings to Light the Need for a Stronger Public Sector
Petition the PM on human rights
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- Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2020 13:22
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Take Action to House the Unsheltered during COVID-19
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- Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2020 13:22
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Our Civil Liberties Matter During Crises
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- Published on Friday, 24 April 2020 12:00
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Dear friends and supporters,
As a staff lawyer at the BCCLA, I’m finding that this is such a crucial time to be working at a civil liberties organization.
We know that the COVID-19 pandemic is bringing about feelings of anxiety in our communities. Fear and uncertainty are legitimate responses to a novel virus gone viral with over 190,000 deaths worldwide.
In uncertain times, the BCCLA will stand up for civil liberties and human rights for all. Government overreach won’t go unchecked.
In our last email, we told you about how we are fighting to makes sure that no one is left behind in the response to this pandemic. Since then, we have also advocated for vigilance against the normalization of invasive surveillance, the erosion of our privacy rights, and the limiting of freedom of expression.
Here are some areas of our rights and civil liberties that we are concerned about:
Changes to Privacy Laws
British Columbia has some of...
The Viral Emergency in Palestine
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- Published on Friday, 24 April 2020 09:26
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2071 ... April 24, 2020
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The Viral Emergency in Palestine
S. C. Molavi and Eyal Weizman
Over a dozen states, including Hungary, Ethiopia, Japan, Canada, and Botswana, have recently declared a "state of emergency" giving governments sweeping powers to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Israel did not have to do so, having incorporated emergency regulations into domestic law upon its establishment in 1948. Israel’s radical response to the global pandemic were thus built upon the powers and infrastructure designed for settler-colonial expansion and military occupation.
These measures covered a full lockdown with an intercity travel ban enacted this Passover, including closure of the entire ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei-Brak near Tel Aviv that was experiencing one of the highest rates of infections; covert operations by the Mossad spy agency to obtain medical equipment; and attempts to deploy "digital techniques used in the fight against terror" -- designed to dominate and regularly violate the privacy of millions of Palestinians -- to the task of monitoring carriers of the virus.
As a sovereign power, Israel has a "legal duty" and ultimate overall...
Together, We are Un-Frackable: Join Our Upcoming Webinar
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- Published on Friday, 24 April 2020 09:02
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Musical Moments From One World: Together At Home
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- Published on Friday, 24 April 2020 04:42
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READ
Musical Moments From ‘One World: Together At Home’ You Need to Watch
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Teachers' Unions and COVID-19: Time to Step Up
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- Published on Friday, 24 April 2020 01:24
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2070 ... April 24, 2020
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Teachers’ Unions and COVID-19: Time to Step Up
Dudley Paul
It has been crystal clear from the beginning that the COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a medical crisis. The federal government alone is hurrying to send over $100-billion out its doors to prop up businesses, but also to support people who desperately need money to get through the economic crisis entangled with the pandemic. Everywhere, we’re coming to realize that market fundamentals like price competition and just-in-time supply chains don’t work when entire countries can’t get the ventilators, proper masks, gowns, gloves and other equipment they need to ensure the safety of front-line workers who face people who may be carrying the COVID-19 virus.
It’s reassuring that individuals and companies are stepping in to produce face-shield and ventilator parts on 3-D printers or to retool production lines to make hand sanitizer. However, given all we know and have learned about epidemics over the past generation, something is fundamentally wrong when we find ourselves short of supplies in the first place.
It’s been...
Do these five things to help everyone stay protected
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- Published on Thursday, 23 April 2020 11:32
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Take Action
Hi Paov,
We can all make a difference to ensure the most vulnerable don't get left behind during this global COVID-19 crisis. Stay involved with our Read more: Do these five things to help everyone stay protected
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- Podcast Episode 5 with John Borrows and Jeremy Dutcher
