Alternative News

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

Magazines for members!

Details: Published on Wednesday, 25 March 2020 12:58; Written by editor

Magazines for members! r1 ...

BCCLA update on COVID-19

Details: Published on Wednesday, 25 March 2020 08:44; Written by editor

No one should be left behind‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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How Market Reforms Made the NHS Vulnerable to Pandemics

Details: Published on Wednesday, 25 March 2020 01:52; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2031 ... March 25, 2020
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How Market Reforms Made the NHS Vulnerable to Pandemics

Colin Leys

A 2014 report warned that reforms to the National Health Service (NHS) would make it vulnerable to pandemics – by making staff redundant, undermining public health and defining spare capacity as waste. It was ignored.

The 2014 detailed report by two public health experts asked what Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Act, passed two years earlier, meant for the state’s ability to protect its citizens when (not if) the next pandemic arrived.

"The next pandemic," the authors pointed out, "could arise from H5N1 (‘bird flu’)... or come from elsewhere. When it comes, there may be only a few weeks’ warning before there are significant numbers of cases in the UK." What the report showed was that although a pandemic was at the top of the government’s civil risk register, the Lansley Act had dramatically increased this risk. Institutional memory and expert resources had been discarded, with no less than 10,000 key NHS staff made redundant. Responsibility for co-ordinating the response to...

Thank you for taking action!

Details: Published on Tuesday, 24 March 2020 22:08; Written by editor

PAOV,

Thank you for signing the petition calling on Canada to put people first and ensure good jobs for all.

We know that right now is an unprecedented time. So we’re not going to be flooding our politicians inboxes or phone lines with these messages. Instead, we’ll take this petition to social media and come up with creative, socially distant ways to drive your message home. Let's make sure that our leaders hear our call for urgent action on the climate crisis.

Will you help us spread the word?
Click here to share on Facebook.
Click here to share on Twitter.

And if you don’t use these platforms, consider e-mailing this petition to your friends.

We have plans to turn up the heat on our leaders. Stay tuned for updates on this campaign.

Thanks again for taking action,
Jennifer, on behalf of the 350.org team

350.org is building a global climate movement. You can connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and r38

Lifting the Lie of Denial: RAVEN Podcast #3

Details: Published on Tuesday, 24 March 2020 15:36; Written by editor

Lifting the Lie of Denial: RAVEN Podcast #3 r1 ...

Covid-19 – Build Capacity in Public Non-Profit Healthcare

Details: Published on Tuesday, 24 March 2020 13:32; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2030 ... March 24, 2020
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Covid-19 – Build Capacity in Public Non-Profit Healthcare

Canadian Healthcare Coalitions Joint Statement

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the extent to which our individual health is dependent on the health of everyone in our community. Public healthcare is our best defense against this crisis and others like it. However, our ability to endure crises and care for each other has been eroded through decades of austerity budgets, privatization and inadequate planning. Even during “normal times,” the healthcare system is at capacity.

While healthcare workers and communities are struggling to support each other, corporate interests are trying to profit. This must be resisted. The solution is not privatization. Instead, we should be strengthening universal healthcare and our collective ability to care for one another.

As governments ramp up efforts to address the current crisis, Health Coalitions across Canada are calling for them to resist privatization and to uphold the foundational principles of equity and compassion that underlie our public healthcare system.

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The Bio-Economic Pandemic and the Western Working Classes

Details: Published on Tuesday, 24 March 2020 03:12; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2029 ... March 24, 2020
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The Bio-Economic Pandemic and the Western Working Classes:
The Covid-19 Shock Meets an Impending Economic Recession

Ingar Solty

"Sick... guess we didn’t move quick enough after all..." --- Stephen King, The Stand.

As of March 2020, the world is back to the future. The global financial crisis of 2007-08, which escalated into a global financial meltdown in September 2008, was supposed to be the big bang crisis, a once in a lifetime event. And yet, here we are again.

The Russia-Saudi Arabia oil dispute of early March 2020, which has led to a freefall in the price of crude oil and was directed at the US fracking industry, as well as the economic shocks resulting from the globalization of the Coronavirus seem to have caused a new global recession. This has been declared by numerous mainstream economists like Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff and Pankaj Mishra who are convinced that the world has already entered a new global economic crisis. A few days later central bankers like Germany’s Bundesbank chairman Jens Weidmann announced his expectation...

Coronavirus: new system

Details: Published on Monday, 23 March 2020 11:32; Written by editor

Millions of us need help right now, and millions more can offer it. But we had no way to connect directly, until now -- check out this brand new global response system to link those who need a hand with those who can offer it. Together we can transform the world's response to this crisis!

Check it out

As Coronavirus sweeps the planet, millions of people are isolating themselves through social distancing to help stop the spread of the virus.

Now social media sites are lighting up with two kinds of messages: "How can I help those in need?" and "Can anyone help with this?"

But so far there's no organized way to find or offer assistance -- whether it’s financial, practical, or even social. We’re hoping to change that by building a centralized, global response system where people all over the world can get the support they need during this crisis.

Click below to check out this critical new...

Read more: Coronavirus: new system

24 hours to tell Trudeau to Invest in People, Not Big Oil

Details: Published on Monday, 23 March 2020 10:26; Written by editor

Friends,

Tomorrow, Parliament will resume to pass a suite of emergency legislation guiding Canada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislation includes a lot of critical pieces of support for people all across the country – but we also know it could include a massive, multi-billion dollar bailout for Big Oil.

We need to make sure that our government puts peoples’ needs first. Sign our petition calling on Justin Trudeau to accelerate a Just Transition Act to support communities.

Right now, people all across this country are pulling together to support each other. We’re picking up groceries, organizing our neighbourhoods, and building out mutual aid networks to get us through this difficult time. We need the government to have our backs as well, and that means helping people now. Tell them to put people over corporations.

We can’t get out of this crisis by making another one worse. And handing over millions of dollars to Big Oil will do just that. Our federal government has a choice to make: return to business-as-usual and bail out polluters, or build a stronger and fairer society.

Let's make sure that workers and communities are being taken care of first. Add your name to the...

Building Universal Healthcare in South Africa

Details: Published on Monday, 23 March 2020 00:42; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2028 ... March 23, 2020
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Building Universal Healthcare in South Africa

Salimah Valiani

Wittingly or unwittingly, the proposal for National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa has created two camps: pro-NHI and anti-NHI. But as I argue in a recent article in the International Journal of Health Services, there is much more to improving health and healthcare in South Africa than the NHI.

In 1939, Dr. Salvador Allende, then minister of health in Chile, contended that without improved housing, nutrition and employment for the majority, increased healthcare services would do little to reduce mortality and morbidity rates in Chile. This view has much to offer in thinking about health in South Africa today, which, according to the Indigo Wellness Index figures, is the most unhealthy nation in the world.

Drawing the links between socioeconomics and health, Hoosen Coovadia and co-authors, trace four epidemics and one social problem as key to premature death, and high rates of illness and injury in South Africa. Three of the epidemics are "diseases of poverty": infectious diseases, maternal death and malnutrition. The fourth...

Stop Big Oil's bailout

Details: Published on Sunday, 22 March 2020 13:34; Written by editor

Big Oil is begging for a bailout as oil prices plummet.

Tell Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau don't prop up the polluters, and bailout workers affected by the COVID crisis.

Sign the petition

Big Oil is begging for a bailout as oil prices tank thanks to coronavirus. And Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, wants to use fifteen billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to prop up these polluters.

These oil execs lavish themselves with astronomical bonuses, while polluting our planet, oppressing Indigenous people and leaving Alberta to clean up hundreds of thousands of abandoned wells.

Justin Trudeau shouldn’t be pouring billions of taxpayers’ dollars into bankrolling this dirty and corrupt industry so it can carry on with business as usual!

This Big Oil bailout could happen as early as next week. If thousands of us tell Trudeau no, we can stop this billion-dollar freebie for an industry that should be shut down, not propped up.

Take the Plant, Save the Planet

Details: Published on Sunday, 22 March 2020 04:04; Written by editor

Socialist Interventions Pamphlet ... No. 17 ... March 22, 2020

Take the Plant, Save the Planet

On November 26, 2018, General Motors announced a number of plant closures in North America, the largest of which was in Oshawa, Ontario. The Oshawa facility, once the largest auto complex on the continent, was to end all its assembly operations by the end of 2019.

The issue is not simply a matter of bringing the environmental movement and the labour movement together; each must be transformed if the sum is to be more than the currently limited parts. The environmental movement must raise itself to a new level by concretely engaging the working class and the labour movement must escape what for it has become an existential crisis. The threats and opportunities of the environmental crisis offer a chance for labour revival, but only if this incorporates a renewed approach to organizing, struggle, radical politics, and the maximization of informed membership participation.

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Detroit Bus Drivers Win Protections Against Virus Through Strike

Details: Published on Saturday, 21 March 2020 05:10; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2027 ... March 21, 2020
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Detroit Bus Drivers Win Protections Against Virus Through Strike

Jane Slaughter

Detroit bus drivers collectively declared Tuesday morning that they weren’t going to work without safety precautions. Bus service was canceled throughout the city because of "the driver shortage," as city officials put it.

The drivers’ union backed them up and their brief work stoppage, less than 24 hours, won all their demands. Fares will not be collected for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.

Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 26 President Glenn Tolbert spoke to Labor Notes as he drove around the city this morning checking to see whether management was living up to its commitments.

"The riders are going in and out the back doors," he said. "There is very little interacting with the drivers."

Tolbert said one trigger for the stoppage was Monday’s closure of all state restaurants, leaving drivers with no place to use bathrooms or wash their hands.

Drivers gathered at dawn yesterday at the city’s two big bus terminals. Vice President Willie Mitchell said,...

PBI responds to the coronavirus pandemic

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

We need our governments to put people first

Details: Published on Friday, 20 March 2020 12:24; Written by editor

Friends,

Last night, when I read that the federal government is considering handing $15 billion over to the oil and gas industry, it felt like a punch in the gut.1 Right now, people across the country are struggling to pay their rent and meet their most basic needs. And while the government has taken steps to care for people, this move makes it clear who they’re ultimately looking out for.

If we’re stepping up for our communities, we expect our government to do the same. Sign the petition to tell Justin Trudeau to invest in people, not Big Oil.

Earlier this week, we shared stories about how, our communities are coming together to do whatever they can to support one another during this crisis. But while we’ve been coming together to deliver groceries to our neighbours and provide childcare for our friends, our government has been spending hours on the phone with fossil fuel executives, planning a multi-billion dollar bailout for the oil and gas industry.

We can't solve one global crisis by making another worse. That’s why our government should be pouring billions into our...

NHS contractors walk out

Details: Published on Friday, 20 March 2020 11:32; Written by editor

Vital hospital staff working to protect us all from the coronavirus pandemic are being denied proper pay and vital protective equipment.

Cleaners, porters and catering staff in London were forced to walk out in protest last week.

Tell services contractor ISS to treat coronavirus frontline workers fairly!

Sign the petition

Cleaners, porters and catering staff at Lewisham hospital in London had to walk out in protest last week to be paid and given protective clothing. In the middle of a pandemic!

Their employer, ISS, rakes in billions of dollars across the globe from services contracts with public bodies like the NHS and with other wealthy corporations.

ISS’s failures at that hospital are all over local news thanks to the courageous workers and their union -- but the issue is still not resolved, and the workers can’t take it anymore. And neither can we.

Tell ISS to pay its coronavirus frontline workers fairly - right now!

These workers are at the...

Special edition: Council This Week

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

BCPRC COVID-19 Emergency Response for Justice

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

A message from Survival's Director

Details: Published on Friday, 20 March 2020 09:04; Written by editor

Dear friend,

This is obviously a difficult time for everyone, but I do hope and pray that you, your family, friends and colleagues, are not too adversely affected by the virus. I am writing to reassure you that Survival is well placed to cope. I can personally assure you that, with our 50+ years of experience, there is no risk of us passing on dangerous pathogens to tribal peoples.

Our staff continues to work undeterred, just as much as we have for nearly two generations. We are equipped for home working, using technology to communicate, act and campaign (we first computerized in 1984 and were soon emailing between our offices when international calls cost a fortune!).

Supports for Workers and Covid-19: Two Responses

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

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2026 ... March 20, 2020
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Statement from Workers in Toronto’s Travel, Hospitality, and Transportation Sectors

Our economy is built upon mobility. We all move short and long distances every day in an interconnected global economic system. The COVID-19 pandemic will affect all working people and the impact on travel, hospitality and transportation workers will be significant. These are the workers in hotels, airlines, airports, and public transit that literally keep the economy moving. As those representing travel, hospitality and transportation workers in Toronto, we ask the following of government and employers as we manage the pandemic.

1. Health and Safety First. As workers providing services and interacting directly with the public, every precaution must be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19. To maintain the health of workers and the public, we must make travel and transit safe. On March 15, 2020 a Canada Border Services Agency officer was tested positive. These workers are on the front-line of screening travellers.

Alternative News

Magazines for members!

BCCLA update on COVID-19

How Market Reforms Made the NHS Vulnerable to Pandemics