Despite reforms in many states aimed at restoring ex-felons’ voting rights, an estimated 5.2 million Americans will remain disenfranchised and unable to vote in the 2020 elections.  Setbacks in some states have reversed some gains.

“The bedrock of any democracy is the right to vote,” said Amy Fettig, executive director of The Sentencing Project, in a statement introducing the study. “Laws that exclude people from voting have destabilized communities and families in America for decades by denying them a voice in determining their futures. Voting is a vital responsibility of citizenship that must be encouraged and defended.”

According to the new report released by The Sentencing Project—titled “Locked Out 2020” (pdf)—one out of every 44 U.S. adults is disenfranchised due to current or previous felony convictions. The rate of disenfranchisement is highest in Southern states, the analysis found, where ballot restrictions enacted during the Jim Crow era in order to prevent Black men from voting and holding office remain in effect. In three states—Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee—more than 8% of the adult population, or one of every 13 people, has had their right to vote taken away. In seven states—Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming—more than one in seven Black Americans is barred from the ballot box, twice the national average.

The estimated 5.17 million people are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction, represent a 15% decline since 2016 due to states enacting measures to restore voting rights. There were an estimated 1.17 million people disenfranchised in 1976, 3.34 million in 1996, 5.85 million in 2010, and 6.11 million in 2016.

One in 16 Black Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate 3.7 times greater than that of non-Blacks. Over 6.2% of the adult Black population is disenfranchised, compared to 1.7% of the non-Black population.

560,000 Latinx Americans, or over 2% of the voting eligible population, are disenfranchised.

1.2 million women are disenfranchised, comprising over 20% of the total disenfranchised population.

Only two states, Maine and Vermont, allow currently incarcerated felons to vote. Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ukraine allow convicted felons to vote, even while they are incarcerated. 

In Florida, for example, nearly 900,000 people who have completed their sentences remain unable to vote despite the passage of a 2018 referendum that restored their voting rights. The following year, Republicans undermined this historic reform by passing a law—later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court—requiring former felons to pay all their outstanding court fees in order to regain the right to vote.

https://commons.commondreams.org/t/nearly-5-2-million-americans-will-be-disenfranchised-in-2020-election-due-to-felony-convictions-study/83206/6

 American  families struggling to make ends meet during the coronavirus pandemic according to two separate poverty studies at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy and one out of the University of Chicago and Notre Dame.

The Columbia study found that eight million more Americans are now poor than were in May—signaling that the pandemic has plunged more people into poverty than before the crisis.

The University of Chicago and Notre Dame study found that six million people have fallen into poverty in the past three months.

 Both reports found that the number of children living in poverty is rising, with 2.5 million more poor children since May.

 The CARES Act has been recognized as a significant piece of anti-poverty legislation, saving 12 million people from being pushed into poverty when it was passed in March. The Columbia study found that in May, 18 million people were being kept out of poverty thanks to the direct payments and $600 per week enhanced unemployment benefits. A major shortcoming of the CARES Act, Columbia researcher Christopher Wimer told the Times, “was its temporary nature.” 

“It wasn’t perfect, but hands down it’s the most successful thing we’ve ever done in negating hardship,” H. Luke Shaefer, a researcher at the University of Michigan, told the New York Times, which reported that millions of people—including undocumented immigrants and families who don’t have large enough incomes to file tax returns—were left out of the package.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/8-million-forced-into-poverty-since-mcconnell-let-relief-expire-studies/

The 2020 New Zealand general election will be held on 17 October  

New Zealand may be noted for its many social reforms. Certain concessions were achieved in New Zealand at a very early date. As early as 1879 men had the vote, and by 1893 women were also entitled to vote. By 1894 New Zealand was the first country in the world to have established the system of compulsory state arbitration for fixing wages and settling industrial disputes. And achieving the eight-hour day in 1897. We were told New Zealand was the workers’ Mecca of “benevolent governments” and “wise labour laws.” These tended to give the New Zealander a false sense of security and the cause of a wide-spread atmosphere of expectancy and buoyancy among a large majority of the workers. Their problems were to be solved and there was no need for any further struggle

But a close examination of it provided proof that attempts at social reform cannot solve the problems of the working class — poverty amid plenty; slums and bad housing conditions. The only solution is the establishment of that class-free society.

 The World Socialist Party (New Zealand) holds that socialism is the only cure for the effects of capitalism. While capitalism continues so the workers must suffer from its effects and their condition become worse, so we ask the workers of New Zealand to join us in the work of propagating Socialism and organising for the overthrow of capitalism. Socialism is the only solution to their problems.

On October 21, 1912, “a number of Marxian students” met at Ranfurly Hall, Sydney Street, Petone, and formed the Petone Marxian Club. Optimistically, its first resolution passed that evening was: “That this club meet every Monday night at 8.00pm up to the day of the revolution.”

At its fifth meeting, it was moved: “That this club adopt the object and principles of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.” The resolution was adopted without dissent.

Although the Petone Marxian Club, in fact, had a limited existence (it held a total of 61 meetings), it did sow the seeds for further socialist organisation in New Zealand. A few former members of the Petone Marxian Club carried on with socialist propaganda, but with the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 they encountered severe restrictions on their activity.

On December 28, 19l8, a conference of socialists was held at the Trades Hall, Christchurch, at which it was moved: “That a Socialist Party of New Zealand be formed.” An amendment was then put, and carried: “That a Marxian Association be formed.” Having formed the Association, it was agreed that it adopt the Object and Declaration of Principles of the Socialist Party of Great Britain. To obtain membership, the following pledge had to be signed: “I hereby undertake to render political support to none other than a Marxian Revolutionist, endorsed by the New Zealand Marxian Association, at all elections of candidates for public office in New Zealand.”

 A number of those who helped found the NZMA were former members of the Socialist Party of Canada who, as opponents of the war, had fled that country. Others were mainly seamen and coalminers. There were soon branches in Petone, Christchurch, Millerton, Huntly, Wellington, Auckland and a number of mining centres on the South Island. A rancorous dispute over the support for the Soviet Union caused the demise of the NZMA in 1922.

 In 1930, a number of former members of the Petone Marxian Club and the New Zealand Marxian Association – formed the Socialist Party of New Zealand and adopted the Object and Declaration of Principles of the SPGB. , Branches were organised in Auckland, Petone, Wellington and elsewhere. Outdoor speaking began and debates with the Communist Party and other organisations attracted good audiences. Despite tremendous difficulties, the SPNZ managed in January 1934 to produce a short-lived journal, the Socialist Review. The SPNZ later added the word “World” to its name and it still continues the task of advocating socialism.

The problems of capitalism have not been solved and only the abolition of the cause – the profit motive system – will do that. This is what the World Socialist Party of New Zealand, and socialists elsewhere, propose and for which they are organised.  It is that we can see a greater than ever need for socialist organisation for the overthrow of capitalism. The childlike faith of the majority of the workers in the Labour Government is hard to understand. The New Zealand Labour Party in power has proved itself little different from capitalist Parties; in fact it has simply advanced new methods of extracting more surplus value from the workers, and is attempting to put them into operation. they have no mandate for socialism, while they do possess the mandate to administer capitalism. This can be done only in the interest of capital and the capitalist class. Prime Minister Ardern has passed palliative measures  but none of it will in any way alter the fundamental position of the workers of New Zealand. They will still have to sell their labouring powers in order to live, the wages, or price of these, will be determined by the value of the necessities required to produce, develop, maintain and perpetuate the labouring power, or in the event of the inability of the employee to sell ones labour power a worker will be forced to throw oneself upon the benevolence of the State to eke out an existence on sustenance.

The World Socialist Party holds that socialism is the only cure for the effects of capitalism. While capitalism continues so the workers must suffer from its effects and their condition become worse, so we ask the workers of New Zealand to join us in the work of propagating socialism and organising for the overthrow of capitalism. Socialism is the only solution to their problems. Only then can we make rational decisions concerning production and our environment without the shackles of the market system.

Ardern’s Labour Party or Collins’ National Party in power? = No Change.

 “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” – John Quincy Adams

“I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want, and get it.” – Eugene V. Debs

When a capitalist politician – be he Joe Biden or Donald Trump – assumes the role of political savior, a skeptical socialist has legitimate doubts. For how can a capitalist politician who defends the boss profit system be on the level about protecting the interests of the common people.

Biden thinks the profit system is just fine. Biden stands for capitalism. He is the latest in a very long line of the “friends of the people” and the media gobble all his promises and platitudes up as their daily fare. When he is elected ask for whose benefit will he serve? The World Socialist Party confidently predicts it will be for the benefit of his economic masters at the expense of the working people.

Both Biden and Trump have competed in disparaging Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. The two-party establishment criticize third parties are spoilers yet there has been little for the third parties to spoil. 

Instead of focusing our anger on the personality of one particular leader, we should always remember that capitalism provides an endless supply of leaders. Many come and go. What we must do is replace the capitalist system and install genuine democracy. As long as we place our democratic power into a single day, a single vote, we’re not going to get anywhere.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties refuse to accept that capitalism is causing the problems which afflict us today. Both subscribe to pro-capitalist ideas that are destructive to both America and the rest of the world. The liberals, the progressives and the left remain incapable or uninterested in identifying and confronting why the right-wing populism of Trump had arisen. Subsequently, they have only one mission that matters to them and it is Trump’s removal and replacement. Get Trump out, and all will be well with the world. Yet all the root causes for Trump’s support, the disillusionment with the political swamp, the cynicism of the media, the skepticism of science remains unaddressed, and will only re-surface again at some future occasion. And the inevitable failure of Biden’s policies to solve the ingrained problems of capitalism will only lead to the reinforcement of their prejudices and partisanship. The politicians promise all things to all people, like the quack medicine-man who will cure everything from toothache to cancer with a bottle of snake-oil. They organize in any and all ways to lure the vast majority into their ranks that will bring them nearer the throne of power. Every worker must be able to smell a rat a mile away. Workers must defend their own basic interests against a common enemy. On the political field an independent class-conscious socialist party is imperative. Workers must win the political power away from the politicians of both parties who are the lackeys of the capitalist class. 

America is not Trump, Biden or the small minority of capitalists (financiers, industrialists, CEOs), who rule this country. The millions of workers who made this country have far more right to the title, American, than the small minority of blood-sucking profiteers. Americans cannot and must not accommodate themselves to the evils of American capitalism, neither greater nor lesser.

We are entering into a new era, a world where no country is more than a few hours away from an American airport, a world where the fate of one nation is inextricably intertwined with the fate of all, as we see with the current COVID-19 pandemic. National states, the political form under which a young capitalism imposed upon the structure of feudalism, have become a most terrible obstacle to mankind, an overpowering burden with all the national armies; the passports, visas and work cards. No rational organization of economic and human resources as a whole is even conceivable under such circumstances. And immeasurable human energies are squandered daily. Under the conditions of modern science, new technology and global communications, the national state everywhere paralyzes the progress of mankind.

 The world is at a stage when men and women all the world over are looking for a way out of the hell which capitalist society has plunged us into. The World Socialist Party goes further than any other political party and calls for One World, a planetary cooperative commonwealth.

If ever the working people were called upon to unite in solidarity against the class enemy that time is now. Upon this hinges the issue of life and death of civilization itself. March together to the polls with revolutionary ballots in your hands. No compromise! No lesser evil. Freedom or wage-slavery? Which shall it be? 

Arouse ye sons and daughters of toil and rally to the red banner of your class.

Where Does the Money Go?

Imagine a hundred people who draw

From one hundred pounds from the common purse,

Some more, some less. Who does better or worse?

When all’s reckoned here’s where the monies go.

Twenty pounds of the hundred goes to one,

Who, with just nine others, take as their share

Eighty seven pounds and don’t seem to care

This leaves ninety folk to make do upon

A mere thirteen pounds, not quite fifteen pence each.

But of that ninety, fifty are much worse

Through having to bear poverty’s curse,

Losing money, comfort beyond their reach.

Meanwhile, the one whose riches grow and grow,

Has two pounds fifty paid to a big toe.

D.A.

1,800 nurses at Asheville, North Carolina-based Mission Hospital will now be represented by a union, National Nurses United, as officials finished counting votes early Thursday morning. The victory is the largest at a non-union hospital in the South since 1975, and is the first private sector hospital union win ever in North Carolina. The final vote count, at 965 to 411, was a landslide in favor of the union.

The hospital is owned by the largest hospital corporation in the country, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare. The company was previously run by Republican Rick Scott, whose ill-gotten gains from Medicare fraud helped fund his successful run in Florida for Senate. HCA has received nearly $1.5 billion in coronavirus-related CARES Act grants. HCA fiercely fought the union effort bringing in union-busting firms to intimidate nurses into voting no.  Due to recent changes in election rules made by the Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board, nurses at Mission had to wait months for an election date that previously would have come in just a few weeks, giving management extra time to pressure staff. 

NNU and NNOC Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN, said in a statement. “At a time when nurses are in a daily battle with the deadly fight for their patients and their own lives in the era of COVID-19, they have demonstrated incomparable courage and resilience that is an inspiration to all of us.”

https://theintercept.com/2020/09/17/north-carolina-nurses-union-hca-healthcare/

 Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States (1923-1929), was once asked about the functions of government. His reply was, “The business of America is business.” What he meant was that the business of government is to serve business. Coolidge was only expressing differently what was written in “The Communist Manifesto”: 

“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.”

The president is merely the CEO of the committee in charge of America Inc. The president carries out the program of the ruling class.

The Presidency, the Senate and in the House are where capitalism revealed itself in its true nature. They are the institutions for the protection of capitalist interests and for the keeping of the workers in subjection. Under capitalism, real democracy is never possible, not while the men of money own the media, control the schools and colleges buy the Washington establishment and choose the White House occupant through their economic power.

The World Socialist Party argues that there should no longer be a Congress of capitalist politicians elected by boss money – no more lobbying by big business – no more big business revolving door to the seats of government – no more commercial interests dictating to politicians.The expropriation of the capitalists and the common ownership of industry under democratic control is the fundamental solution. Who is better able to organize society for production than the producers? Who knows machinery better than the machinists? Who knows mines better than the miners? Who knows land better than working farmers? Who knows the problems of education better than teachers? Who is more competent to represent a factory than those fellow-workers chosen and elected by their colleagues and subject to the same control as any other elected representatives. Technicians, engineers and other workers indispensable to industry, have all the knowledge required for production. Manual and brain workers could thus run and control every department and phase of industry, public service, education and the whole of community life, both locally and on a global scale.

The workers suffer want and deprivation while warehouses are bursting with commodities that the unemployed and under–paid workers are unable to buy. The goal of socialism is not merely abundance, security, peace and freedom, precious as they are. Socialism is not merely the remaking of the social system and of the world – it is the remaking of mankind itself. Socialism can provide the basic needs of the population and to plan and achieve an ever higher level of civilization and culture for the people. Throughout our existence human beings have been an species sharing with all other animals one common need: the necessity of spending the greatest portion of his days and thought and energy on the job of filling our bellies so that we might be able to live to work another day. Mankind still works to eat and eats in order to work in an endless chain. Directly and indirectly, and not only during the hours of direct labor, we still live on the animal level for all our computers and science, cars and televisions. Human society can reorganize itself for the peaceful development of the gifts of nature and of the ingenuity of the human race. In a socialist world of plenty, humanity is at long last freed of the dominance of economics, the tyranny of economics. We will for the first time be free to develop the full potentialities and capacities of the human individual, and see the full flowering of mankind’s spirit. This is the only goal worth fighting for today. It is the real freedom.

 In words as well as deeds the Democrats and Republicans are clearly  ordinary capitalist parties. It is Blue Tweedledum to the Red Tweedledee.

There is a good reason for this. The “lesser evil” argument is invalid because it assumes that what a government does depends on the good or bad intentions act, and their priorities, is the workings of the capitalist system. Capitalism is based on the concentration of wealth in the hands of a privileged few. Under it production is carried on for profit. The world is divided into a number of capitalist states all of which are competing against each other to sell their goods on the world market at a profit.  This is why it does not matter which party forms the government; in the end all governments are forced by economic circumstances to pursue basically similar policies. Any party which takes on the management of capitalism is bound to act against working people.

The World Socialist Party indicts capitalism and challenges any spokesperson of capitalism to defend it.

 “Where I come from there’s no kindness happening,” says Agnes Magele, a Pacifica-origin single mother of three who lives in South Auckland, the poorest area in New Zealand’s biggest city. Ms Magele also says she doesn’t feel like she’s part of the “team of five million”- a phrase coined by New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern when referring to the population of New Zealand. “Is it kind when people don’t have enough money to buy basic essentials, such as food, for their children? Is it kind when parents have to skip meals so their kids have a bigger portion?” she asks.

Ms Magele and her family have struggled for years. She lost her job and is now on the job seeker benefits of 250 New Zealand dollars (£127; $164) a week. She says that doesn’t even cover half her rent. Like many families in her area, Ms Magele gets by on food grants. She says sometimes families go without meals for days while they wait for government assistance. This has happened to her and her children repeatedly, she says. “I’ve had to reach out to family and friends for a little bit of help but it’s hard because they’re also in the same predicament as me. It’s like asking the poor to help the poor,” she says.

Critics say Jacinda Ardern’s government has failed to tackle child poverty; one of her key promises when she came to power in 2017.

An annual report card released by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) in early September, compared the performances of 41 high-income countries on child welfare issues; from suicide rates to childhood obesity, education and environment. New Zealand is at the bottom third in 35th place.

The government doesn’t fare much better even by its own statistics. The latest data has shown only small changes.

 Walt Disney Company rewarded executives with huge payouts amid the coronavirus pandemic while laying off 28,000 employees.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked Disney’s executive chairman Robert Iger and CEO Bob Chapek. “In the years leading up to this crisis, your company prioritized the enrichment of executives and stockholders through hefty compensation packages, and billions of dollars’ worth of dividend payments and stock buybacks, all of which weakened Disney’s financial cushion and ability to retain and pay its front-line workers amid the pandemic,” 

“I would like to know whether Disney’s financial practices have impacted the company’s decision to lay off workers,” she continued, “and whether your company plans to extend healthcare or other critical benefits and protections to laid off employees.”

“It appears that—prior to, and during the pandemic—Disney took good care of its top executives and shareholders,” wrote Warren, “and now is hanging its front-line workers out to dry.”

Iger earned a total of $65.6 million in 2018 and $47 million in 2019 as a result of this compensation package; hence, his pandemic-inspired salary cut amounted to roughly 3.3% percent of his total compensation in 2019. 

Similarly, Chapek, who recently was promoted to CEO, was in line to earn up to $22.5 million in bonuses in addition to his base salary. 

Even worse, reports indicated that Disney was restoring the meager proposed cuts to executive pay in August 2020—just weeks before the announcement of the 28,000 worker layoffs.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/14/sen-warren-slams-disney-28000-fired-workers-amid-stock-buyback-spree

 Child poverty has shot up in towns and cities across the north and Midlands of England fuelled by stagnating family incomes and the spiralling cost of housing. The figures predated Covid, they showed alarming rates of child poverty even before the pandemic led to large numbers of people losing their jobs.

Although deprived inner-London boroughs such as Newham and Tower Hamlets continue to have the highest levels of child poverty in the UK, the most striking increases have been in Middlesbrough, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and parts of Birmingham.

The north-east saw the most dramatic rise in child poverty, up nine percentage points between 2014-15 and 2018-19, taking it from the English region with the joint second-lowest rate to the second highest, behind London.

Eight of the 10 UK local authorities suffering the sharpest child poverty increases over the period, which covered the peak years of austerity, were in in the north-east, headed by Middlesbrough, where 41.1% of children were in poverty in 2018-19, up from 28.6% five years earlier.

“This data reveals the true extent of the hardship experienced by families on low incomes – the majority of which were working households before the pandemic. The children affected are on a cliff edge, and the pandemic will only sweep them further into danger,” said Anna Feuchtwang, chair of End Child Poverty. Feuchtwang continued, “During the pandemic we’ve seen unexpected increases in house prices, coupled with rising unemployment and a surge in people forced to make benefit claims, and we worry that a steep rise in child poverty is on the way.”

In 2018-19, 30% of UK children were in poverty, defined as children in households with incomes after subtracting housing costs of less than 60% of the median. In England, 31% of children were below the breadline, compared with 28% in Wales, 25% in Northern Ireland and 24% in Scotland.

Tower Hamlets had the highest percentage of children in poverty in the UK, at 55.4% after housing costs, according to the analysis, followed by Newham at 50.3% and Barking and Dagenham at 49.9%. Birmingham (41.6%) had the highest child poverty rates outside London.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/14/child-poverty-increases-in-england-across-the-north-and-midlands