Author: ajohnstone

Planet of the Humans (video)

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Michael Moore, Jeff Gibbs (2020). Planet of the Humans | Full Documentary By Socialist Party of Canada







This 2020 Gibbs-Moore exposé compliments the case for non-market Socialism rather well. 




It’s fact-filled sleuthing explicitly cites the profit motive as root cause of the double-speak hypocrisy much of the ‘green movement’ suffers — a movement which is doing little if anything to mitigate climate warming or ecological collapse in authentic and meaningful ways — if what Gibbs & Moore report is correct.




This is not to denigrate the well-meaning intentions behinds the sentiments of making the earth a greener saner place; the documentary more importantly shows the obscured control by global capital usurping well-known non-profits that claim they are fighting the good fight for the environment when in fact they are naively complicit in its delay. 




The documentary further underscores what Gibbs and Moore see as the sea-change behaviour needed to move away from using incredibly wasteful amounts of energy capitalists demand to keep their profits circulating; they illustrate it is not average citizen clamouring for such energy, but rather the swindling class who currently own and monopolize the global means of life for solely their own gain.




A film worth spending the 1hr 45mins viewing, if for anything, to inform oneself on the growing debate to chuck capitalism for good — a sentiment implicitly echoed by popular groups such as ‘FridaysForFuture’ and ‘Extinction Rebellion,’ who although having fast growing global influence, appear to have cultural amnesia about the futility of reformism to chart deep and systemic improvement of society where-in equal access to the means of life — one free of the capitalist yoke — is globally generalized. 




The film is free to view until May 21, 2020 

Pygmy Lance





The Anti-Union Campaign Continues

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US corporations are cracking down on unionization efforts as workers try to organize. 



Companies, including grocery chains Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, airport concession operators, local authorities and even a furniture company owned by the billionaire Warren Buffett have moved to control efforts to unionize as workers become increasingly concerned about workplace safety during the pandemic emergency.



As workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic have organized protests and strikes, several employers have responded by stepping up attempts to oppose unionization, repeal workers’ rights won in bargaining, and fire workers en masse who had recently publicized intent to organize a union in their workplace.



 The Trader Joe’s chairman and CEO, Dan Bane, sent a  blatant anti-union letter to all employees on 31 March opposing labor unions, and calling attempts to recruit staff “a distraction”, the latest in a series of memos and actions taken by the company to suppress union organizing efforts calling for hazard pay and adequate protections for grocery store workers during the pandemic.



A Trader Joe’s employee in New Jersey said, “It’s in bad taste and shows the greed this company has instead of taking proactive measures to keep the crew and customers safe.”



Concession workers at Orlando international airport have filed official complaints against their employer, HMSHost, over the lack of coronavirus safety protections, which included continuing to hold anti-union captive audience meetings during the pandemic. A union election for workers to join Unite Here scheduled for late March was delayed and is currently being rescheduled due to the pandemic.



“I tried to refuse to go because we were short-staffed,” said Rosanny Tejeda, a Starbucks barista at Orlando international airport for about one year before recently being furloughed. Tejeda claimed the meeting did not adhere to social distancing or take into account any coronavirus safety precautions, and she was targeted throughout the meeting for wearing a union pin. “They didn’t care about our health when they sent us to those meetings,” said Tejeda. “To them, the union was a more important issue than the coronavirus. They made sure to give us papers about the union, but didn’t give us training or protective equipment for us in the stores.”
Citing the pandemic, the manager of Clark county, Nevada, unilaterally suspended all union contracts with the county. The decision affects about 9,000 workers, including hospital workers at University Medical Center of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas.
The Teamsters union has filed federal unfair labor practice charges of unlawful termination against CORT furniture, a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, accusing the furniture rental company of retaliating against workers for supporting unionization just as the pandemic broke in the US.



Anthony Salcedo, a driver at the warehouse for nearly four years who was laid off, said: “They’re telling us the reason why they terminated us is because of work reduction, but how is there work reduction if you are hiring contractors to do our work? It’s obvious why we were terminated. It wasn’t because of work reduction, it was because we were supporting a union.”
Several other companies have been accused of opposing union organizing efforts among workers during the pandemic. Amazon-owned Whole Foods is using a data-powered heat mapping tool to monitor unionization risks among its over 500 stores throughout the US, as workers have held sick-out protests in response to a lack of protections for workers during the pandemic. Workers at the online clothing retailer Everlane and the art logistics company Uovo have filed federal labor charges accusing the companies of firing workers during the pandemic for union organizing.



“It’s an absolute disgrace they would take advantage of a pandemic to frustrate workers’ ability to organize and get better representation for themselves so they’re not risking their lives to perform essential services,” said Celine McNicholas, government affairs director at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). “This is an extreme moment we’re in, but unfortunately this is the traditional employer playbook in opposing workers’ efforts to organize and collectively bargain for better pay and better health and safety provisions,” added McNicholas.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/23/labor-unions-trader-joes-workers-coronavirus-us

To CCS or not?

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How do we significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions before it’s too late?



Some say by carbon capture and storage (CCS), what is in essence the process of separating carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, or from gases produced in electricity generation and industrial processes, then injecting the captured CO2 into geological rock formations typically located several kilometers underground? 
CCS technology features in a number of government and industry proposals. But it is still not on track and is in fact far behind where it will need to be within decades to meet the necessary targets for global emission reductions.
Part of the problem is how these technologies are still very much at the developmental stage, despite using them since the 1970s. 
“In terms of the actual efficiency of carbon capture, it’s not nearly as effective as people claim it is,” said Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. His research into two CCS projects, factoring in production and processing emissions, found they trapped only between 10-11 percent of net carbon emissions averaged over 20 years. “It’s never better to capture carbon than it is to use that money to replace coal or gas,” Jacobson said.

Questions also surround just how meaningfully CCS technologies are currently contributing to carbon emission reductions. For example, CCS is being used to funnel CO2 back underground to stimulate oil fields that are running dry, in a process called enhanced oil recovery (EOR) — a way, say CCS critics, not so much of reversing course on global warming but of prolonging the life-blood of the fossil fuel industry. Strictly speaking, such technologies fall under the umbrella of carbon capture, utilization and storage, or CCUS.



“You have biofuels. Nuclear power. Coal and carbon capture. They all claim that they can do things, and all they need is another billion dollars to solve it,” said Jacobson. “It becomes a part of what people assume is working, whereas really, it’s just a pyramid scheme.”



https://truthout.org/articles/is-carbon-capture-and-storage-a-climate-solution-or-a-pyramid-scheme/

Will COVID-19 make prison a death sentence?

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The global prison population is 11 million and 102 countries have prison occupancy levels of more than 110% with 20 countries at double their capacity limit.  Bukavu prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, exceeds its capacity by 528%.  In a Sierra Leone prison for females 64 inmates live in a space designed for 18.



 Social distancing and personal infection control are almost impossible in overcrowded settings where poor ventilation and sanitation are likely increase the speed at which the virus spreads. In Bangladesh 10 doctors serve 68 prisons, while Ghana has two doctors covering 46 prisons with 15,000 inmates.



 In prisons the mortality rate is already up to 50% higher than in the outside world.



Florian Irminger, executive director of Penal Reform International (PRI), said: “Prison systems globally were at crisis point before the coronavirus pandemic. Now prisons across the world are ticking time bombs set to be devastated by this virus because of overcrowding, lack of basic healthcare, limited access to clean water … and inhumane living conditions.”



Outbreaks of Covid-19 and deaths from the virus have been recorded in prisons in numerous countries including China, Iran, Kenya, India, Belgium, Spain and the UK. There are grave concerns about the impact the pandemic will have on prisons across sub-Saharan Africa, where the full force of Covid-19 is yet to be felt.

Doreen Namyalo Kyazze, PRI’s Africa programme manager in Kampala, said: “It is frankly terrifying to think how Covid-19 will impact on prisons in the region, which are some of the most severely overcrowded in the world and are extremely lacking in healthcare services, as well as the most basic sanitary conditions.”



Sarah Belal of the Justice Project Pakistan explained that the virus has lifted the lid on existing systemic issues: “The capacity of our prisons is 63,000 but we have 74,118 prisoners … there is just no way we have the capacity to manage with the number of people that are in our prisons, neither do we have the resources. In Punjab alone, before Covid-19 there were 108 vacant posts for medical officers, there is usually one in each prison … 10% of Punjab prisons did not have ambulances, and the rate of tuberculosis and hepatitis was rampant. You are looking at a population that is already extremely vulnerable to dying of an infectious disease like Covid-19.”

he UN assistant secretary general for human rights, Ilze Brands Kehris, has called on states to reduce their prison populations, including by releasing those who are vulnerable to the virus or are low-risk offenders.
Measures have already been taken in some countries that have suffered outbreaks. In France, courts were asked to delay short-term prison sentences, while states including Iran and Kenya opted to release some people from prison early.
In the UK, where the Ministry of Justice confirmed earlier this week that 15 prisoners have died from Covid-19, the government’s temporary release scheme to combat the spread of the virus had to be suspended after six inmates were mistakenly freed. Plans to release 4,000 risk-assessed prisoners within two months of release are due to resume this week.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/23/pandemic-potentially-a-death-sentence-for-many-prison-inmates-experts-warn



Migrants’ Remittances to Home Countries Falls

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Global remittances are set to tumble by $142bn in 2020 as the coronavirus crisis curtails a lifeline for hard-pressed households in poorer countries.



The World Bank said that a drop of almost 20 percent in the money migrant workers send home would mostly be due to a fall in their wages and employment overseas.



“Remittances are a vital source of income for developing countries. The ongoing economic recession caused by COVID-19 is taking a severe toll on the ability to send money home and makes it all the more vital that we shorten the time to recovery for advanced economies,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass.



Remittances have become an integral part of the funding for governments in emerging economies, exceeding official aid by a factor of three since the mid-1990s and last year overtaking foreign direct investment flows as the main source of foreign exchange for low- and middle-income countries.



An estimated one billion migrants – about 270 million who work outside their home countries and 760 million internal migrants – each help feed, clothe and shelter up to three people “back home”, Dilip Ratha, lead author of the World Bank’s new report on the impact of COVID-19 on remittances, explained. “You’re looking at one-third of humanity.”



 Hardest hit will be countries such as Tajikistan and Nepal, where remittances account for around 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), said Ratha. Other countries that rely on payments include the Philippines, South Sudan, Tonga, and Haiti.





No good news for climate change

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The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to cause the biggest fall in carbon dioxide emissions since World War Two but it will likely be short-lived and will not stop climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.



 The WMO expects a 6% drop in carbon emissions this year, an estimate on the high end of a range given by scientists, but the U.N. agency warned that it could be followed by even higher emissions growth than before the crisis. 



“This drop of emissions by 6%, that’s unfortunately short-term good news,” WMO’s Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. “In the most likely case we will easily go back to normal next year and there might even be a boost in emissions because some industries have been stopped.”



In fact, the drop is not even enough to get the world back on track to meet the target of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims for global temperature rise of no more than 1.5 degree above pre-industrial levels, Taalas said. That would require at least a 7% annual drop in emissions, he added. Carbon dioxide remains in the air for centuries so falls in emmissions do not immediately impact climate and would need to be sustained over a period to eventually do so.



2015-2019 was the warmest five-year period on record, with the global average temperature up 1.1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.  So far this year, global temperatures on a monthly basis have been either the warmest or second warmest on record.



Taalas added that climate change was a “different magnitude of problem” compared with COVID-19 and urged governments to tackle it in the same spirit as they have the pandemic. “To be optimistic, we would learn from this example and use the same spirit to tackle the climate problem,” he said.



https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-climate/drop-in-emissions-due-to-pandemic-wont-fix-climate-wmo-says-idUKKCN2241ED

Socialism – The Solidarity Economy

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Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged the need for a post-capitalist system has been evident to anyone who cared to pay attention. Those colloquially known as the 1% are committed to protecting their own interests even when it conflicts with the well-being of society as a whole. Working people who were previously struggling to survive above water who lived from pay-packet to pay-packet had been largely ignored until the lockdowns and now it is understood who are the key essential workers that keeps society running. The old norms which many found acceptable are no longer seen as inevitable. The capitalist system has nothing to offer except increased austerity and insecurity. The coronavirus crisis has revealed what was hidden obvious to everyone. It is clear that the profit motive made COVID-19 more deadly than it would have been in a socialist system.



The Socialist Party is not trying to save this dying system. We are working with determination to put an end to it and create a new world. Cooperation and mutual aid are now seen as important aspects of humanity. People are beginning to see different ways of living our lives which depend upon sharing resources and making decisions in a truly democratic process. Socialism is a model for ecological, economic and human sustainability that builds social cohesion. It’s time working people finally let go of the blind faith they have in reforms and regulatory system. Doing so will allow them to work in more meaningful solidarity for a better world.



We need to reach people in order to counter the pro-capitalist narrative that is everywhere. To build economic democracy, to create an alternative vision of how we can organize society we must talk to as many people as possible, not just to those who already agree with us. Most people who consider themselves socialists or who dislike capitalism are fooled by appeals to support ‘their’ country, ‘their’ military, ‘their’ leaders. They are told over and over and over again that ‘we’ are the good guys and that countries ‘over there’ are the ‘bad guys’. The rich and powerful have been dividing and conquering us for an awfully long time. It won’t stop until we build a powerful enough international movement of people who understand how this oppresses us.



We are living at a time when many of the inherent problem of capitalism have come to the fore. It is our moment to present the case for fundamental change. If we don’t succeed the world will continue on its current self-destructive course. People have power. Let’s use it. The only path is for people to organise for socialism. It is time to embrace the socialist idea and not step back from it.





The Hungry Countries

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Yemen

Even before the war in Yemen began, the country was the poorest in the Arab world.
But since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in the conflict against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in 2015, the country’s humanitarian situation has deteriorated still further.
“As conflicts become longer, more and more people become vulnerable”, the WFP’s Chief Economist and Director of Research, Assessment and Monitoring Division, Arif Husain, told the BBC. “In 2016 in Yemen, we were maybe assisting three or four million people. Today that number is 12 million.”
To make matters worse, the WFP said earlier this month it would halve aid to Houthi-controlled areas, over concerns voiced by some countries that the rebels were obstructing aid deliveries.
Yemen reported its first confirmed case of coronavirus earlier this month, with aid agencies warning that the disease could quickly overwhelm the country’s weakened health systems.

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

After more than a quarter of a century of armed conflict in parts of the country, the DRC is the world’s second-largest hunger crisis, according to the WFP.
More than 15% of the country’s population are classed as “severely food insecure” – meaning that they are among 30 million people in war zones around the world who are almost completely dependent on aid. Almost $2bn is needed to secure the food supply for these populations in next three months alone, Mr Husain said.
“Those were the worst-affected people and now they’re in even more trouble,” he said.
The DRC also has 5 million internally displaced people and over half a million refugees from neighbouring countries.


In addition to the heightened risk faced by anyone living in war zones, displaced people are even more vulnerable during the coronavirus outbreak because they often lack basic hygiene facilities needed to help stop the spread of disease.
Earlier this month the spokesman for the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, warned that ongoing violence in the DRC was threatening efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus there, which has so far mainly affected the capital Kinshasa.

Venezuela

Unlike the other countries on the list, Venezuela’s hunger has not been caused by conflict or environmental factors, but rather by economic hardship.
Although Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, hyperinflation in the country reached 200% in January last year, leaving a third of its people in need of assistance.
The difficulties have been compounded by a mass exodus of health workers, according to WFP.
And the problems don’t end there – around 4.8 million people (or 15% of the population) have left Venezuela in recent years, and hundreds of thousands of these migrants are facing food insecurity in neighbouring countries.

South Sudan

The world’s youngest country only gained independence from its northern neighbour, Sudan, in 2011. The move was meant to mark the end of a long-running civil war, but the country descended into violent conflict after just two years.
The WFP warns that hunger and malnutrition in South Sudan are at the most extreme levels since 2011, with almost 60% of the population struggling to find food every day.
Making the situation worse, swarms of locusts which had destroyed crops across East Africa arrived in South Sudan earlier this year.
“If Covid-19 was not a story right now, desert locusts would be the biggest story,” according to Mr Husain.
And as one of the most oil-dependent countries in the world, the country is likely to be hit hard by falling oil prices.
The country has now recorded four cases of coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Afghanistan

Another country ravaged by conflict, Afghanistan had suffered almost two decades of war when the US invaded in 2001.
Eighteen years later, more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, and over 11 million people are classed as severely food insecure by the WFP.
According to Afghan government figures there have been over 1,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus.
While the numbers appear low, the country has limited access to testing and the health system has suffered under decades of conflict.
There are also fears that the virus could have spread after more than 150,000 Afghans returned from virus-stricken Iran during March, while tens of thousands of others returned from Pakistan.

…and the new 130 million

In addition to areas affected by war, environmental issues or economic crises, many more low- and middle-income countries are likely to be affected by job losses and other economic difficulties caused by the spread of coronavirus in the coming months.
The problem will be made worse by similar economic pressures in countries across the world, meaning that remittances, or money being sent back from relatives abroad, will fall in these countries.
“The most important thing is an affordable treatment which must be available to everyone across the world,” Mr Husain said. “But until we get to that point, we need to make sure we do everything in our power to save lives and protect livelihoods.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52379956




The struggle for socialism

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 Opponents of socialism frequently say as an objection that there are different kinds of socialists and different kinds of socialism. They say there are as many different kinds of socialists as there are different socialists. Socialism rests on one fundamental principle, the common ownership and democratic administration of production and distribution of wealth. State ownership is not considered as collectively owned and they are certainly not democratically administered.



We are living in an age of crises. Social transformation is slow. It can take decades to change hearts and minds. But that is time we no longer have. It is time to do more than simply march in the streets with placards and sign petitions? Socialists constantly ask ourselves how long will it take to implement an alternative, post-capitalist society. We hold out hope from understanding that achieving socialism need not be for future generations but that a radical social revolution can move fast and quickly win widespread support.



As our situation becomes more dire, the old economic imperatives no longer hold water.



Recent research by Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard, confirms that peaceful civil disobedience can not only be a moral choice but an effective one. She studied hundreds of grassroots resistance groups and concluded that non-violent campaigns were twice as likely to succeed as violent protests: 53 percent compared to 26 percent. 



The outcome of any struggle between them and the government will be decided in large part by public opinion. A downside to civil disobedience is the tendency of governments to increase anti-protest legislation in response. If protesters can be blamed for starting violence, that will elevate the administration and its supporters. And worse yet, it might also help legitimise harsher methods by the security forces in response. The success of non-violent resistance is partly due to strength in numbers. Such civil disobedience campaigns are more likely to be successful because they can involve people from a wider base, from all walks of life, who are not seriously risking their livelihoods or indeed their lives to participate. They can be old, young, middle and working class. They can be fence sitters.



Yet we cannot forget that despite being twice as successful as violent resistance, peaceful protest still failed 47 percent of the time. 



 Disappointment cannot lead to despondency.



Adapted from here

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/civil-disobedience-climate-revolution-200227125836559.html



Water World

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The number of people harmed by floods will double worldwide by 2030, according to a new analysis by the World Resources Institute, a global research group.
147 million people will be hit by floods from rivers and coasts annually by the end of the decade, compared with 72 million people just 10 years ago.
By 2050, a total of 221 million people will be at risk.
Floods are getting worse because of the climate crisis, decisions to populate high-risk areas and land sinkage from the overuse of groundwater.
The worst flooding will come in south and south-east Asia, including in Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and China, where large populations are vulnerable.
The effects will be less dire but still increasingly serious in the US, where the risk is highest for coastal flooding. The US ranks third among countries with the most to lose from urban coastal flooding in the next 10 years, after China and Indonesia. By 2050,  half the country’s exposed population will be in just three states – Louisiana, Massachusetts and Florida.

Once in a lifetime floods could become daily occurrences for most of the US coastline, according to a separate study. That’s because hurricanes are stronger, seas are higher and rain patterns are changing, all because of global heating caused by humans.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/23/flooding-double-number-people-worldwide-2030

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