It was an event that had happened countless times before. General Motors had been producing cars in Oshawa for over 100 years, and the plant had been at the centre of car production in Canada. This time, though, was different. Workers at the plant crowded around the pickup truck and photographed it as it left the line. This one was the last one. The plant was closing.
Covid-19 pandemic: let’s protect our lives not their profits!
18 March 2020, byThe coronavirus pandemic is a dramatic public health problem and the human suffering caused will be enormous. Already, in Western Europe, health systems are on the edge of asphyxia. If it spreads massively in countries in the Global South whose already weak or very fragile public health systems have been terribly undermined by 40 years of neo-liberal policies, deaths will be very high.
The meeting between Conte, Confindustria and the trades unions is a sick joke
18 March 2020, byWe are not meat for slaughter! This is the hashtag the workers of many workplaces from the north to the south of Italy have used in response to the restrictive measures adopted by the Conte government to stop the spread of the Covid19 epidemic – which has already infected 13,000 people.
From health emergency to social crisis
17 March 2020, by ,The emergency that we have experienced in recent weeks in Italy has a health, economic and social nature in a broad sense, which could soon turn into a real crisis, with security implications. As we write (data updated on the afternoon of 11 March 2020) in Italy there are 12,462 infected, with 827 deaths. Unfortunately, these numbers are constantly increasing, seeming to follow an exponential trend. But to understand where we are today and where we could be in a few hours, days or weeks, it is necessary to take a step back to define the characteristics of the particular political-social phase that we are going through.
Italy in confinement, working classes suffering
16 March 2020, byThe development of the Covid-19 epidemic has been strongest in Italy, the first country to be put completely into severe quarantine. Anti-capitalists are beginning to develop demands and actions. For a broad range of articles on the topic consult ESSF (Europe Solidaires Sans Frontières) under the keyword coronavirus.
Eight theses on Covid-19
15 March 2020, by“The Covid-19 is yet another warning: capitalism, which leads humanity to barbarism, must be ended.” For a broad range of articles on the topic consult ESSF (Europe Solidaires Sans Frontières) under the keyword coronavirus.
Refugees held hostage to war-mongers and nationalisms
14 March 2020, byThe events taking place on the Greek-Turkish borders are very worrying. Following the closure of the borders decreed by Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, applauded by the European Union, those who try to cross into Greece are violently driven back (with at least one death, possibly following a Greek shooting, and a child drowning under the eyes of the Coast Guard).
An emergency social and political plan against COVID 19
13 March 2020, byThe Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic is showing up the inadequacy of capitalist governments in dealing with such a crisis, and pointing to the responsibility of their policies regarding a public health service. It also raises broader ecological questions. These all merit broad discussion on the radical anticapitalist left, This statement from Anticapitalistas in the Spanish state indicates the guidlelines to an initial response. For a broad range of articles on the topic consult ESSF (Europe Solidaires Sans Frontières) under the keyword coronavirus.
Why is Biden Winning?
12 March 2020, byJoe Biden turned out to be the big winner on Super Tuesday. While not all of the votes have been counted, Biden seems likely to end up with a majority. He is now positioned to do well in the rest of the primaries and is likely to come into the Democratic Party Convention with majority of delegates. The major media, as to be expected, are hailing him as the Democratic Party savior.
On the Delhi Pogrom
11 March 2020, byThe communal violence that erupted in the National Capital Region of Delhi on February 24th,and carried on for about a week, marks another orchestrated step in the Sangh’s strategy of deliberately polarising the Indian public along Hindu-Muslim lines. In the past such politically motivated communal assaults have been large-scale and episodic. After 2014, such targeting of Muslims by the cadres and supporters aligned to Hindutva has taken the form of attacks, sometimes fatal, on individuals or very small groups, especially in the BJP-ruled states where the perpetrators mostly get away with what they have done. This kind of ‘low-intensity violence’ makes such attacks a ‘routinised’, ‘normalised’ and ‘banal’ affair. It displaces any blame on to the failings of the local ‘law-and-order machinery’ thereby disguising the machinations of Hindutva’s hate-filled project of terrorising, inferiorising and ghettoising Muslims while deliberately spreading fears among local Hindu communities of possible Muslim retaliation.