After 17 years without a federal execution, the Trump administration has executed nine inmates since July, and plans five more executions before Joe Biden takes office on 20 January. 

Biden has pledged to eliminate the death penalty.

On Thursday night, Brandon Bernard, was executed by lethal injection at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, after the US supreme court rejected a last-minute appeal to stay the execution. Five jurors and a former prosecutor have said they don’t support the death penalty in his case, including two lawyers who defended Trump at his impeachment trial this year in the US Senate and who filed briefs in the supreme court appeal, Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr.

One of his victims mother, Todd Bagley’s mother, Georgia,  became emotional when she spoke about the apologies from Bernard before he died and from Vialva, who was executed in September.

“The apology and remorse … helped very much heal my heart,” she said, beginning to cry and then recomposing herself. “I can very much say: I forgive them.”

‘Abolish the death penalty’: Brandon Bernard execution prompts wave of anger | Capital punishment | The Guardian

The Democratic Party joined the Republicans to ensure the passing of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act—a behemoth bill authorizing $740 billion in U.S. military expenditures.

 Erica Fein, advocacy director at the peace advocacy group Win Without War, said in a statement:

“First and foremost, the FY21 NDAA authorizes nearly three-quarters of a trillion dollars in Pentagon spending. As people across the world reel from a devastating pandemic, as families struggle to pay their bills, as communities of color go starved for resources, funneling billions more into an overpowered war machine is an act of utter inhumanity.”

The women-led anti-war group CodePink said the military budget “out of control…the Pentagon is asking for a whopping $740.5 billion—more than half of the country’s discretionary spending, the majority of this money goes directly to perpetuating violence, destruction, and endless war.” It continued:

 “The Pentagon’s absurd budget harms Americans at home as well, by diverting funds that should be used to benefit the American people such as universal healthcare and welfare programs, and by fueling violence on our streets. Even the modest 10% budget cut many congress-people are calling for could vastly improve the lives of millions of Americans and lessen our country’s damage abroad.”

Bernie Sanders commented, “Endless money for wars? No problem. Endless money for tax breaks for the rich? No problem. Endless money for corporate welfare? No problem. But when it comes to providing a $1,200 direct payment to the working class during a pandemic, somehow we can’t afford it. Not acceptable.”

With Endless War Abroad and Endless Suffering at Home, Peace Group Warns Against Making NDAA Fight All About Trump | Common Dreams News

But it is perfectly acceptable to the political duo-poly and you have always known this, Bernie.

 Receiving less attention than the widespread farmers strikes and protests in India is the similar campaign being carried out in Peru, by its farming communities.

Farm workers in various regions of Peru- such as Ica, Viru La Libertad and Piurahad – went on a strike in the first week of December, 2020, blocking the strategic Pan-American motorway to demand wage increases, basic social security benefits and the repeal of the Agrarian Promotion Law, enacted in 2000,  a mechanism which maintains the power of corporations in the agro-export sector. 

 The law authorizes the hiring of personnel for the agricultural industry through intermediary companies. These third-party contractors avoid statutory labor regulations and pay workers extremely low wages.

Farm workers complain they are paid about $10 for a 12-14 hour workday. They also don’t receive benefits given to other workers, including annual bonuses and vacations.

This law was extended until 2031 by the government of Martín Vizcarra and strikes ensued this decision, with the state deploying police violence to quell mass protests.   the police showed all their violent methods against peaceful protesters. They excessively used tear gas bombs, shot pellets into peoples’  directly at faces and clubbed people with batons. The police had free rein with no restrictions or regulations on their violence since the government supported them, so they also began arbitrary arrests of anyone who was participating or contributing to the protest. On December 3, 2020, Peru’s National Police officers shot dead young farmer Jorge Muñoz during a peaceful protest called by farmworkers in Viru city.  During earlier protests Bryan Pintado and Inti Sotelo died at the hands of the Peruvian police and then on Nov. 14, the police shot Brian Pintado Sanchez, who died immediately by bullet wounds to his head, face, neck, arm and thorax. Manuel Merino resigned from the government.  Francisco Sagasti was appointed as interim president of Peru

President Francisco Sagasti sent a bill to congress to repeal the law and it passed by a vote of 114 in favor, two against and seven abstentions.

The protesters expressed joy and immediately began lifting the blockades that had choked many stretches of the north-south Pan-American Highway. “We did it!” protesters chanted. However, the anger and discontent has not disappeared. The parliamentary and constitutional situation remains unstable’

Building workers and miners have now marched through the streets of Peru’s capital, Lima, to demand various labor improvements including an increase in their salaries.

Cracks Appear in Peru’s Neoliberal Agriculture | Dissident Voice

 In rural India, a nationwide lockdown imposed in March pushed millions of people into poverty, encouraging trafficking of children from villages into cities for cheap labor. The pandemic is hampering enforcement of anti-child labor laws, with fewer workplace inspections and less vigorous pursuit of human traffickers.

“The situation is unprecedented,” said Dhananjay Tingal, executive director of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a children’s rights group whose founder, Kailash Satyarthi, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. “These children are made to work 14-16 hours a day and if they refuse to work they are beaten. One beating sends the message down the group, which suits the owner.” 

Tingal’s organization has rescued at least 1,197 children between April and September across India. In the same period last year, it helped 613. Childline, a nationwide helpline for children in distress, received 192,000 distress calls between March and August, most of them related to cases of child labor. It handled 170,000 such calls in the same period of 2019.

In India, children under 14 are not allowed to work except in family businesses and farms. They are also barred from dangerous workplaces such as construction sites, brick kilns and chemical factories. The country has made serious gains in combatting child labor, but more than 10 million Indian children are still in some form of servitude, according to UNICEF. In July, India’s Home Ministry redoubled its fight against the resurgence of child labor, issuing guidelines for urgently setting up Anti Human Trafficking Units in every district. Many Indian states have flouted that advisory. 

Most of India’s elementary and middle schools are still closed because of the pandemic, affecting more than 200 million children. Teachers visit families to check in with students, but online learning is beyond the reach of millions of families that can’t afford smartphones or laptops.

Pandemic threatens India’s children with child labor rising (apnews.com)

 Socialists have always been skeptical of the over-optimism of the politicians in regards to effective solutions to the climate crises and we have always questioned the over-confidence of the scientists in their hope that the politicians would follow their advice with accompanying legislation and regulation.  We were indeed the nay-sayers but unfortunately for all and for the planet, the socialists are proving to be correct. Too little is being done too late because it is the same old story, the interests of the capitalists and the corporations has to be primary. 

The commitments to reduce emissions that countries made at Paris were insufficient, and would result in catastrophic heating of more than 3C.

The world is still not on track to fulfil the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the UK’s business secretary Alok Sharma warned, after a summit of more than 70 world leaders on the climate crisis ended with few new commitments on greenhouse gas emissions.

Sharma said: “[People] will ask ‘Have we done enough to put the world on track to limit warming to 1.5C and protect people and nature from the effects of climate change?’ We must be honest with ourselves – the answer to that is currently no.”

More than 80 world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping, the European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and Pope Francis urged swifter action on the climate crisis.  António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, called on all world leaders to declare a state of climate emergency.

Guterres pointed out that many countries are also pouring money into high-carbon activities as they strive to recover from the coronavirus crisis, with G20 countries spending 50% more in stimulus packages on fossil fuels than low-carbon energy.

 “This is unacceptable,” he said. “The trillions of dollars needed for Covid recovery is money that we are borrowing from future generations. We cannot use these resources to lock in policies that burden future generations with a mountain of debt on a broken planet.”

Tim Gore, head of climate policy at Oxfam, said: “The Climate Ambition Summit lacked real ambition. World leaders must step up in the next 12 critical months to pull the world back from the brink of catastrophic climate change. Commitments to near-term emissions cuts are still insufficient to limit warming to the 1.5C Paris goal… We must not stumble from Covid-19 disaster into climate calaimity.”

Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy thinktank Power Shift Africa, said,  More and more countries are setting net-zero emission dates. But it’s one thing to set a net-zero date for decades into the future and another thing to enact policies right now that will get us there.”

Kat Kramer, climate policy lead at the charity Christian Aid, said: “Although we saw more than 70 world leaders making new commitments that still leaves many more that are yet to do so. It’s shameful that countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Australia have so far failed to come forward with new pledges and risk catastrophe for themselves and vulnerable communities around the world.”

World is in danger of missing Paris climate target, summit is warned | Climate change | The Guardian

15,000 children die each day from conditions which are avoidable or preventable. 

2.4 million babies died within the first month of life in 2019.

 Cutting the UK’s overseas aid budget will result in a significant number of children dying “with negative impacts lasting generations”, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said.

 The RCPCH said the evidence was overwhelming that aid helped children’s health and the reduction of overseas aid funding from 0.7% to 0.5% of Britain’s gross national income, would have far-reaching consequences.

The International Child Health Group, a speciality group within the RCPCH, explained, “The collateral impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is causing severe disruption to preventive and curative health services in the poorest settings, particularly for children. Estimates suggest that more than a million excess child deaths could occur as a result. To reduce our commitment further, just as global needs intensify, will result in significant further loss of life, with negative impacts lasting generations.”

The RCPCH said: “In the rich world, we are largely insulated from the horror of children dying needlessly. These rates of death are neither inevitable nor natural.”

The positive impact aid could have was demonstrated by research showing that a 1% increase in health aid reduces infant deaths by 2.6% in sub-Saharan Africa, and that for every additional aid dollar allocated to malaria control, the rate of child infection and death falls, the RCPCH said.

“Put simply, aid saves children’s lives and can set them on a path to life-long health,” the statement said.

Children will die due to UK overseas aid cuts, paediatricians say | Foreign policy | The Guardian

The World Food Programme executive director David Beasley accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, warning that the combination of conflict, climate crisis and COVID-19 could push 270 million people to the brink of starvation.

 In his acceptance speech, Beasley said:

 “…Because of so many wars, climate change, the widespread use of hunger as a political and military weapon, and a global health pandemic that makes all of that exponentially worse, 270 million people are marching toward starvation. Failure to address their needs will cause a hunger pandemic which will dwarf the impact of COVID.”

“…What tears me up inside is this. This coming year, millions and millions and millions of my equals, my neighbors, your neighbors, are marching to the brink of starvation…today those 200 million of our neighbors are on the brink of starvation. That’s more than the entire population of Western Europe. On the other hand, there is $400 trillion of wealth in our world today. Even at the height of the COVID pandemic, in just 90 days, an additional $2.7 trillion of wealth was created. And we only need $5 billion to save 30 million lives from famine. What am I missing here?”

“…I don’t go to bed at night thinking about the children we saved; I go to bed weeping over the children we could not save. And when we don’t have enough money nor the access we need, we have to decide which children eat and which children do not eat, which children live, which children die. How would you like that job? Please, don’t ask us to choose who lives and who dies.”

Hunger Pandemic Will Surpass COVID Impact, Warns World Food Programme (truthout.org)

 For nearly 20 years, the Taliban’s wealth has financed mayhem, destruction and death in Afghanistan. In the fiscal year that ended in March 2020, the Taliban brought in revenues of $1.6 billion. In comparison, the Afghan government brought in $5.55 billion during the same period.

1. Drugs – $416 million

Afghanistan accounted for approximately 84 percent of global opium production over the past five years. Much of those illicit drug profits go to the Taliban, which manage opium in areas under their control. The group imposes a 10 percent tax on every link in the drug production chain. That includes the Afghan farmers who cultivate poppy, the main ingredient in opium, the labs that convert it into a drug and the traders who move the final product out of country.

2. Mining – $400 Million to $464 Million

Mining iron ore, marble, copper, gold, zinc and other metals and rare-earth minerals in mountainous Afghanistan is an increasingly lucrative business for the Taliban. Both small-scale mineral-extraction operations and big Afghan mining companies pay Taliban militants to allow them to keep their businesses running.

3. Extortion & Taxes – $160 Million

Like a government, the Taliban tax people and industries in the growing swath of Afghanistan under their control. They even issue official receipts of tax payment.

“Taxed” industries include mining operations, media, telecommunications and development projects funded by international aid. Drivers are also charged for using highways in Taliban-controlled regions, and shopkeepers pay the Taliban for the right to do business.

The group also imposes a traditional Islamic form of taxation called “ushr” – which is a 10 percent tax on a farmer’s harvest – and “zakat,” a 2.5 percent wealth tax.

4. Charitable Donations – $240 million

The Taliban receive covert financial contributions from private donors and international institutions across the globe.

Many Taliban donations are from charities and private trusts located in Persian Gulf countries, a region historically sympathetic to the group’s religious insurgency. 

5. Exports – $240 Million

In part to launder illicit money, the Taliban import and export various everyday consumer goods, according to the United Nations Security Council. Known business affiliates include the multinational Noorzai Brothers Limited, which imports auto parts and sells reassembled vehicles and spare automobile parts.

6. Real Estate – $80 Million

The Taliban own real estate in Afghanistan, Pakistan and potentially other countries.

7. Foreign Financing – $500 Million?

In 2008 the Taliban had received $106 million from foreign sources, in particular from the Gulf states.

Today, the governments of Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are all believed to bankroll the Taliban, according to numerous U.S. and international sources. Experts say these funds could amount to as much as $500 million a year, but it is difficult to put an exact figure on this income stream.

Taliban Are Megarich – Here’s Where They Get the Money – Consortiumnews

In 2018, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon took home more than $23 million. By contrast, McDonalds’s Chris Kempczinski was paid a mere $18 million last year — falling just short of making two thousand times the median wage for workers at his company.

As many businesses across the country struggle to stay afloat amid rolling pandemic lockdowns, many of America’s largest corporations are doing just fine. Better than fine, in fact: it emerged this week that Walmart’s profits surged during the third quarter of 2020, exceeding $5 billion with McDonalds’s profits jumping almost 5 percent to just under $2 billion. The pandemic has proven especially lucrative for big retailers, the largest fifteen (including Walmart) collectively making $60.8 billion in profits in 2020 so far — an increase of $14.6 billion from last year.

Walmart and McDonald’s, perhaps unsurprisingly, earned the singular distinction of being the two leading companies with workers forced to turn to Medicaid and SNAP — the former ranking among the top four employers of SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries in every state.

. In some areas of the country, workers at Walmart and McDonald’s alone account for non-negligible percentages of those receiving aid from the two federal programs. Georgia, for example, had 136,130 working age recipients of SNAP in February (excluding the self-employed) with nearly six thousand, or 4.4 percent, employed at either McDonald’s or Walmart.

 70 percent of the 21 million workers receiving Medicaid or SNAP (twelve and nine million respectively) work full-time schedules of thirty-five hours a week or more. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority are employed in service jobs at businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, and big retailers.  A 2015 study by Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education found that nearly three-quarters of those assisted by programs designed to aid the poor belong to families with at least one member who is working.  As the study noted, the real hourly wages of the median American worker were a mere 5 percent higher in 2013 than they were in 1979, with wages for the lowest paid decile of workers 5 percent lower. “Inflation-adjusted wage growth from 2003 to 2013,” its authors went on to observe, “was either flat or negative for the entire bottom 70 percent of the wage distribution.”

 Millions of those employed at some of the nation’s largest and most profitable companies are paid less than what’s needed to afford the necessities of life, let alone dignity or comfort. A bargain basement economy so exploitative that CEOs make millions while literally relying on government subsidies to stop workers from starving or dying? The roulette wheel of American capitalism could hardly look any more rigged if it tried.

The Class War at Walmart (jacobinmag.com)

85% of China’s impoverished citizens live in rural areas and leave the countryside to seek employment within urban areas. This has resulted in migrant workers making up the vast majority of factory-based workers. There are about 150 million migrant workers that do not receive any state benefits or provisions. In the hope of escaping poverty in these rural areas, migrant workers find themselves enduring harsh conditions. Female migrant workers face discrimination as the national law of hukou prevented rural individuals from permanently migrating to urbanized cities. Once this law had been lifted in the 1980s, it granted the freedom for rural workers to migrate to urban areas even though they are faced with harsh conditions. The rapid economic development of Shenzhen and the advancement of its position in the global economy depends greatly on female rural to urban and job sector movement.

The inequalities remain existent within all aspects of life for Chinese women. However, these inequalities are particularly prominent within the factory. The feminization of industrial work in developing countries can be argued as a primary result of women being the cheapest source of labour within the global economy. As China moved towards a market economy, cheap rural labour became extremely helpful in terms of continuing to develop the country and fuel its growth. Furthermore, this led to the use of women being the most easily accessible and cheapest and form of labour available. But also the most pliant to control. 

In 2017, 61.5% of Chinese women participated in China’s labour force, making China have one of Asia-Pacific’s highest labour participation by females. Although such a significant number of women play a  vital role in Chinese employment, this is often in poorly paid roles and as a result are marginalized and oppressed.

Gender plays a significant role in determining who is able to complete certain jobs and tasks. For example, low-wage female factory workers have limited access to employment opportunities that will improve their skills within the political economy. Cultural formalities placed within China are placed at a disadvantage for women. 

Most advertisements targeting females include specific requirements they must meet, such as height and weight. These requirements put women in an exploitative state before they have even begun work in the factory. This can relate to the emergence of the ‘third world women’ being the most ideal workers. For example, in East Asia, this term can be described as the ‘Oriental Girls’. A Malaysian government advertisement states “her hands are small, and she works fast with extreme care… Who, therefore, could not be better qualified by nature and inheritance to contribute to the efficiency of a bench-assembly line than the oriental girl.”

On a social level, the stress of the low status of Chinese women is deeply rooted in the traditional Chinese family system, which is profoundly patriarchal. In Chinese society, women have been traditionally deprived in all areas of their lives. The female gender as a whole has been submerged under male authority.  Through China’s patriarchal society, men are placed in a position of power in these factories and leaves women in a vulnerable state. Women were, and still to this day, are born into a powerless and patriarchal system that carries out through labour in factory work.  As a result, this becomes normalized for women from a young age and harms future generations. This creates a cycle of intergenerational poverty, as an impoverished lifestyle is induced by the socially challenged background of previous generations.

The dormitory regime is also a prominent proponent of gender inequalities. Foreign-invested firms are building dorms to suit their needs and are placed within the compound of the factory. As a result, those in a position of authority are able to have significantly more control over the worker’s daily lives. This includes their wages, what they eat, how long and often they work. Through this regime, most of their workers are young females and are working long and demanding days while earning next to no wage. Dormitory regimes are perceived to be serving global production but generate hidden costs which are taken on by female workers. This is shown in the documentary, ‘China Blue’ which follows the life within a dormitory regime alongside factory-based workers. Throughout the documentary, the audience is able to see first-hand the intense conditions faced by millions daily. A young female migrant worker is followed throughout her journey in a jean cutting factory. The intense exploitation and isolation faced are explained through the use of dormitory regimes.

The role that technology plays within work is substantial. Through the advancement of technology, the cruel jobs that women have been placed in through factory-based work on a daily basis have been replaced with various pieces of technology. The application of technology allows for a vast number of jobs to be at risk. For example, an Apple and Samsung supplier, Foxconn has replaced approximately 60, 000 workers with robots. Through the implementation of a robot workforce, this is not only placing females at an extreme disadvantage. Also, the advancement of technology and mechanization is diminishing a larger variety of employment opportunities for women.  New technologies tend to employ men. This is due to the perceived inability of women upgrading their skills and investment in capital intensive industries.

The diminishment of employment opportunities for women results is not only rapidly increasing, but follows the wider pattern of normalized oppression. 

Gender Inequality In Factory Based-Work In China – The Organization for World Peace (theowp.org)