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The fierce determination of ordinary people to build an extraordinary world: The Forty-Ninth Newsletter (2021)
United States President Joe Biden has suborned 111 countries to attend his Summit for Democracy on December 9–10, ending on Human Rights Day.
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Super serious news reporting: notes from the Edge of The Narrative Matrix
Hi I’m a very serious news reporter. The Russians are controlling our thoughts with Facebook memes and scrambling our brains with invisible ray gun attacks. In other news, capitalism is working fine and our wars defend freedom and democracy. The government never lies. Here’s Bob with the weather.
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Biden’s Summit for Democracy: International NGOs express concern that Summit will ignore India’s descent to fascism
Groups extend offer to Biden to provide input to help make the summit a success.
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U.S. shouldn’t be invited to Summit for Democracy, let alone be its host
In every one of the countries the United States has intervened in over the past decades, anti-democratic means are almost always used towards anti-democratic ends, all in the name of promoting democracy.
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‘People’s Lawyer’ Sudha Bharadwaj released after three years in jail
The activist-lawyer was granted default bail on December 1 following more than three years of her incarceration without trial in the Bhima Koregaon case in which a number of other activists were also implicated.
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People centered human rights and the Black radical tradition
International Human Rights Day is December 10. On that day in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was promulgated as the first in a series of covenants, treaties, and legal interpretations that would make up the post-war human rights framework.
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COVID Omicron: The case for vaccine justice
Britain is one of the main countries to have blocked the global dropping of patents for coronavirus vaccines. If there is a major outbreak of the new Omicron variant in Britain, it will be directly due to the racist and profiteering policy of the Tory government, writes rs21 member Graham Checkley.
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GM ‘designer babies’: breakthrough or nightmare?
Only a global ban on human genetic engineering can prevent a new era of eugenics from emerging, writes Dave King.
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OTF – The “independent” internet freedom organization that makes all your favorite privacy apps–is staffed full of spies
While the OTF presents itself as independent internet freedom activists, their funding, staff, history and choice of targets all point to the conclusion that they are a digital weapon being used against Washington’s enemies.
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Climate change: Adapt for the future, not the past
Funding for developing countries to address global warming is grossly inadequate. Very little finance is for adaptation to climate change, the urgent need of countries most adversely affected. Also, adaptation needs to be forward-looking rather than only addressing accumulated problems.
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Unapologetic support for abortion rights must be a pillar of the Left
This week the Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization–the case that will determine the fate of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, and more broadly, the fate of Roe v. Wade.
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Watch “Marx is Back”, Episode 1: Bourgeois and Proletarians
“Marx is Back” a mini-series about the Communist Manifesto is now on youtube. Subtitles available.
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Why Amazon is terrified of Its U.S. workers unionizing
Amazon continues to abuse its warehouse workers, both in its day-to-day treatment of them and in its thuggish, law-breaking campaign to prevent unionization in the U.S.
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Cornel West on Frantz Fanon, one of the great revolutionary intellectuals of the 20th century
“Decolonization implies the urgent need to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation.”
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The United States pushes Russia to the brink of war, then cries “wolf”
The Russians have plainly said that they deem the Ukrainian government to be U.S-controlled, not a free agent, and they hold Washington directly responsible for whatever may happen on the ground in their neighborhood.
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The age of imperialism is not over—but we can end it
Capitalist accumulation has always depended on cheap labor and resources extracted from the Global South. To end this violence we need a post-capitalist transition—otherwise, as climate breakdown accelerates, the ceaseless search for profit will drive us further into barbarism.
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#NoMore censorship of Africa’s roving digital Army of Peace
The removal of Twitter accounts advocating for peace in the Horn of Africa shows the connection between the state and big tech companies. Freedom of speech is an illusion when communications are controlled by corporations which follow governmental dictates.
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Vaccine imperialism: a global threat
Leaving a vast section of the world’s population unvaccinated can only create the basis for the virus to spread and mutate, argues John Clarke
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Views on China
What is the experience and future for China and its Communist party rule? It seems appropriate to consider a number of new books on China that have been published that try to answer this question.
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The Ukraine: The USA is responsible of the escalation, and must stop it before provoking a world war
Today, the Ukraine is not only the epicenter of a new cold war, but also one of the three most dangerous points on Earth, along with Iran and Taiwan, where a nuclear conflict could be ignited, leading to the end of mankind.