As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, Maeve McGrath takes a look at how artists have depicted plagues and epidemics in times gone past.
Archive | Newswire
How online learning companies are using the Pandemic to take over classroom teaching
Experts warn the rush to outsource teaching to private companies is bad for students, teachers, and taxpayers.
Chart of the day
U.S. billionaires have recouped all of their wealth—and more—during the Pandemic Depression. Meanwhile, since May, the number of poor Americans has grown by about 8 million.
Bullets are not the seeds of life
Bullets, as Mahjoub sang in prison, are not the seeds of life. The answers to our misery are so obvious, but they would cost the minority who control power, privilege, and property; they have a lot to lose, which is why they hold on so desperately.
No, China didn’t ‘stall’ critical Covid information at outbreak’s start
Now that some time has passed since the beginning of the outbreak, it’s worth revisiting the less-conspiratorial corporate media narrative that the Chinese government maliciously or incompetently delayed the release of critical information early on, thereby causing many unnecessary deaths.
American Science: Triumph or Tragedy?
A historian of science himself, Conner is fully cognizant of the accomplishments of American science and technology. In an earlier book, A People’s History of Science: Miners, Midwives and “Low Mechanicks” (2005), he demonstrated the contributions of ordinary citizens to science, but he also warned of the corruptive potential of corporate money and military power.
Mainstream economics then: classical political economy
Marxian economists have been quite critical of contemporary mainstream economics. As we saw in Chapter 1, and will continue to explore in the remainder of this book, Marxian economists have challenged the general approach as well as all of the major conclusions of both neoclassical and Keynesian economics.
Anti-Chinese racism sets stage for New McCarthyism
More than a dozen young visiting scholars from China had their visas abruptly terminated in a letter from administration of the University of North Texas (UNT), Denton, on August 26, in a letter dated …August 26!
OPCW Syria whistleblower and ex-director attacked by U.S., UK, France at UN
Ian Henderson, a veteran OPCW inspector who challenged a cover-up of his organization’s investigation of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, recently testified before the United Nations Security Council.
Frei Betto: “It is Totally Naive to Want to Humanize Capitalism”
Carlos Alberto Libanio Christo, better known as Frei Betto, is a recognized Latin American progressive reference and one of the main figures of the Theology of Liberation.
Kill the Bill, or it will kill us all
Indonesia’s trade unions and social movements are taking to the streets against anti-worker legislation.
Exposing Trump’s deadly sanctions on Venezuela
KEN LIVINGSTONE looks in-depth at the story of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela.
In Afghanistan, American Troops patrol the same routes their fathers did
Thousands of U.S. soldiers continue to pace and patrol exactly the same routes as their predecessors did in 2001, fighting a seemingly endless conflict that both the American and Afghan public have long since soured on.
Socialism’s increasing popularity doesn’t bring media out of McCarthy era
Ever since the Great Recession in 2008, and accelerating with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential run, there has been a resurgence of popularity and interest in socialism in the U.S., and an increasing skepticism of capitalism.
A response to McAfee: No, the “Environmental Kuznets Curve” won’t save us
A number of people have asked me to respond to a piece that Andrew McAfee wrote for Wired, promoting his book, which claims that rich countries – and specifically the United States – have accomplished the miracle of “green growth” and “dematerialization”, absolutely decoupling GDP from resource use.
Limits of mainstream economics today
Keynes’s criticisms of neoclassical economics set off a wide-ranging debate that came to define the terms of—and, ultimately, the limits of debate within—mainstream economics.
Colonizing the future
Working people are forever kept on the brink of going broke. More than higher wages and better job security, a just economy requires giving them the power to choose and create their own futures.
Blacks in LA nearly four times as likely to be cited by police
The Los Angeles police department (LAPD) gave 63% of its citations for “loitering while standing” to Black residents in recent years, despite African Americans making up just 7% of the city’s population, a new analysis of public records has revealed.
Amidst pandemic, while billions struggle for survival, billionaires’ wealth tops $10 trillion
Billionaires are “smart” enough. Their wealth now, in this pandemic, tops trillions of dollars.
Protests rage in Indonesia against anti-worker “omnibus law”, hundreds arrested
An alliance of trade unions, environmental groups and students’ movements have launched an indefinite protest across against the sweeping changes to labor and environmental laws.
