facebook

The Futility of Capitalist Planning for a Global Coronavirus Pandemic

by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-L.A. The videos linked to here are from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation/Bloomberg School of Public Health "table-top" exercise planning for a novel corona-virus global pandemic (Center for Health Security planning exercise that took place in October 2019), urging governments and private businesses to work together to allocate and distribute medical supplies and treatments and deal with other aspects of such a pandemic. https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/videos.html These videos illustrate the impossibility of real planning under capitalism. They talked endlessly about how only private global [...]

By |2020-03-29T03:07:11-05:00March 29th, 2020|Anti-capitalism, Capitalism, China, Commentary, COVID-19, Economy, Economy, Europe, Health, Health, Health Care, Healthcare, Internet, Michael Novick, News, Politics, Socialism, Wall Street|0 Comments
Read More

IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

Donald Trump Minimizing and Sugarcoating Coronavirus Perils! By Ralph Nader Donald Trump can’t fake his way through the coronavirus. It’s spreading and doesn’t respond to his delusions. Donald is flailing, failing, fibbing, stumbling, and scapegoating. With the stock market collapsing and the economy shaking, Donald fears defeat in November. Trump is a daily clear and present danger and he is the worst person to handle the COVID-19 crisis. Last weekend, Trump and Mike Pence met with Brazilian officials at Mar-a-Lago, after which Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s press secretary [...]

By |2020-03-28T18:39:20-05:00March 28th, 2020|Activism, Banks, Bernie Sanders, Big Business, Capitalism, Commentary, Donald Trump, Economy, Economy, Health, Health, Health Care, Healthcare, Justice/Injustice, Movements, National Security, News, Politics, Ralph Nader, Socialism, United States|0 Comments
Read More

Solidarity Forever: Social Cohesion as the Antidote to Social Distancing

Social Cohesion and Social Solidarity as the Antidote to Social Distancing by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles I think we should try to rename "Social Distancing." People in the U.S. are already far too socially distanced from each other, driving in our steel cocoons, riding the buses and trains in unreceptive, unresponsive isolation, each glued to our own screen, ears filled with our own soundtrack. Let's call it socially responsible distancing, adopting it as a sacrifice, and thereby acknowledging our social connection to, interaction with, and responsibility [...]

By |2020-03-26T01:11:39-05:00March 26th, 2020|Activism, Anti-capitalism, Anti-Racism/Racism, Commentary, Democracy, Ecology, Economy, Health, Health, Health Care, Healthcare, Homelessness, Human Rights, Immigration/Migrant rights, Indigenous Nations, Jails, Justice/Injustice, Labor, Michael Novick, Movements, News, Non-violence, Palestine, Peace, Poverty, Prisons, Protests and Rallies, Socialism, Solidarity, Unions, Volunteer|0 Comments
Read More

Global Pandemic: Notes From Italy’s ‘Red Zone’

Notes From Italy's 'Red Zone' by Anthony Cristofani, Special to Change Links I moved to Italy two months ago because I thought it would be a more reasonable government under which to live and work for change.  After the COVID-19 outbreak friends and family started writing and calling me with great worry in their voices, asking how bad it was here.  In truth, I’m all the more grateful I moved here, and far more worried about my old home, the USA.       Let’s start with the government’s response [...]

By |2020-03-25T17:09:42-05:00March 25th, 2020|Beyond Capitalism, COVID-19, Economy, Europe, Health, Health, Health Care, Healthcare, Homelessness, Independent Journalism, Italy, Jails, Labor, News|0 Comments
Read More

Earth Day 2020: Planet on the Brink

Earth Day 2020: Planet on the Brink by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action L.A. April 22, 2020 will mark the 50th anniversary of the original "Earth Day" in 1970. It is a sad commentary that 50 years on, the earth system, and the lives of hundreds of millions of people, particularly people in the global South, people of  color, and poor and working people generally, are at greater risk and in greater peril than ever before in human history. Gains in environmental regulation to insure safe water, air [...]

By |2019-12-30T22:51:37-05:00December 30th, 2019|Activism, Anti-capitalism, Anti-Racism/Racism, Climate Change, Ecology, Economy, Energy, Environment, Historical, Indigenous Nations, Labor, Movements|0 Comments
Read More

The World is in Flames, and the US is Barely Smoldering

by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action-L.A. httpss://antiracist.org/the-world-is-in-flames-and-the-us-is-barely-smoldering/ There are simultaneous protests going on around the world on a scale perhaps not seen globally since the uprisings of 1968 shook the imperialist system to its foundations. Massive demonstrations in Ecuador nearly toppled the government and forced a roll back of exploitative policies. In Chile, protests against a rise in Metro fares have led to the government announcing a state of emergency in two provinces, including the capital. In Haiti resistance to the US-imposed government is growing steadily despite repression. [...]

By |2019-11-05T03:51:39-05:00November 5th, 2019|Activism, Africa, Anti-Racism/Racism, Banking Reform, Big Business, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change, Economy, Gentrification/Displacement, Immigration/Migrant rights, Indigenous Nations, Justice/Injustice, Los Angeles, Movements, Puerto Rico|0 Comments
Read More

100,000 Angelenos Forced to Work for Free or Go to Jail

Work, Pay, Or Go To Jail: Court-Ordered Community Service In Los Angeles by Lucero Herrera, Tia Koonse, Melanie Sonsteng-Person, Noah Zatz, UCLA Labor Center [excerpts] httpss://www.labor.ucla.edu/publication/communityservice/ This is the first study to analyze a large-scale system of court-ordered community service in the US. It finds that court-ordered community service functions as a system of unregulated and coercive labor, which worsens the effects of criminal justice debt and displaces paid jobs. Among other discoveries, the report finds: Over 100,000 people in LA County register to perform mandated community [...]

By |2019-11-05T03:52:31-05:00November 5th, 2019|Anti-capitalism, Anti-Racism/Racism, California, Economy, Economy, Human Rights, Jails, Justice/Injustice, Labor, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Movements, Police, Politics, Poverty|0 Comments
Read More

Excesses of Capitalism

How Capitalist Excesses Discredit the Market Economy by Gerd Zeitler An article in the Compendium of Market-Based Social-Ecological Economics httpss://gerdzeitler.wordpress.com/excesses-of-capitalism/ httpss://gerdzeitler.wordpress.com/excesses-of-capitalism/ Key issues in view of the neoliberal crisis:   How can we guarantee employment and fair income? How can we protect the environment effectively? How should we shape the economic globalization? What should the economic sciences contribute? What must be the vital tasks of economic policy? How can we legitimize economic policy democratically?   Search here for the list of all articles: Compendium: httpss://gerdzeitler.wordpress.com/compendium-of-social-ecological-economics/    

By |2019-11-05T03:43:41-05:00November 5th, 2019|Beyond Capitalism, Capitalism, Ecology, Economy, Justice/Injustice|0 Comments
Read More

Death Rate Soars for Unhoused People in L.A.

Alarming Death Rate Among Unhoused People in LA County Homeless Mortality Prevention Initiative Launched The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released a mortality study that provides new and alarming data on deaths among people experiencing homelessness in LA County. Not only have the number of homeless deaths doubled, from 536 in 2013 to 1,047 in 2018, but the death rate, which accounts for increases in the total number of homeless people, increased by over a third during that same period. Drug and alcohol overdose was [...]

By |2019-11-05T03:35:24-05:00November 5th, 2019|California, California, Disability issues, Economy, Health, Health, Homelessness, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, News, People, Poverty, Reports|0 Comments
Read More

Cuba – Que Linda Es Cuba!

Cuba, Que Linda Es Cuba by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action LA I went to Cuba for the first time, as part of the 50th Venceremos Brigade, for two weeks in July and August, along with over 150 others, the largest solidarity delegation in many years. The visit was eye-opening about the on-going revolutionary process and humanitarian values of their socialist society. It inspired us to oppose the US embargo/blockade against Cuba, and to organize to demand that the US recognize and respect Cuban sovereignty and dignity, stop [...]

By |2019-09-19T12:24:33-05:00September 5th, 2019|Activism, Africa, Anti-capitalism, Anti-Racism/Racism, Beyond Capitalism, Capitalism, Climate Change, Commentary, Cuba, Donald Trump, Ecology, Economy, Health, Health Care, Healthcare, Heroes and Whistleblowers, Historical, Human Rights, Jails, Labor, Latin America, Los Angeles, Michael Novick, Movements, News, Peace, Peace and War, People, Politics, Reports, Socialism, Solidarity|0 Comments
Read More

Amazon’s Collaboration with ICE Must Be Stopped

We're Whole Foods aka Amazon Employees: Amazon's Collaboration with ICE Must Be Stopped      We're a group of current and former Whole Foods employees, known as Whole Worker, attempting to organize and unionize under the dystopian rule of Amazon. Now we're here to show solidarity with our undocumented sisters, brothers, and siblings. Recently we leaked Amazon's union-busting training video which was just featured on Last Week Tonight. Clips and variations of the video have been viewed by many, exposing Amazon's disturbingly authoritarian views on our rights [...]

By |2019-09-05T17:01:44-05:00September 5th, 2019|Activism, Anti-capitalism, Capitalism, Economy, Immigration/Migrant rights, Labor|0 Comments
Read More