Coronavirus and Factory Farming

Eleni Mitsou is a member of Xekinima (ISA in Greece). The Destruction of Nature and Intensive Farming Leads to Pandemics The pandemic of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2), didn’t take everyone by surprise. For more than a decade, dozens of scientists around the world have been warning of the outbreak of pandemics, due […]

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Governments Seize On COVID-19 to Extend State Powers

Stephen Boyd is a member of ISA’s International Executive. The Economist (3/28/2020) has described it as “the most dramatic extension of state powers since the second world war.” Across the globe governments have implemented draconian legislation akin to that of police states under the pretext of protecting society from the COVID-19 virus. For many the global lockdown […]

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Oil Prices Collapse

Tony Wilsdon is a member of Socialist Alternative in the US. The Spectre of Deflation The collapse in oil prices in the second quarter of 2020 will be a further accelerator of the deepening world economic depression. The New York Times writes: “Just a few months ago, the American oil industry was triumphant in its […]

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It’s the End of the European Union as We Know It

Sonja Grusch is a member of Sozialistische LinksPartei (ISA in Austria). Nearly 70 years after its birth the EU seems to be in its biggest crisis ever. Former President of the EU-Commission, Jacques Delors, spoke back in March about a “deadly danger for the European Union.” This is expressed in the battle over resources such […]

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Lebanon: Economic Crisis, Covid-19, and the Rebellion of the Hungry

Christian Pistor is a member of Linkse Socialistiche Partij / Parti Socialiste de Lutte (ISA in Belgium). The lockdowns across much of the planet put an end to the wave of massive street protests in countries such as Iraq, Algeria, Chile, France and Hong Kong in 2019. Lebanon’s lockdown  began in mid-March ending a wave […]

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A Deadly Cocktail: COVID-19, Race, and Capitalism

Eljeer Hawkins is a member of Socialist Alternative in the US. In early March, the first known cases of COVID-19 began to emerge in the United States. It has taken the lives of over 75,000 people across the nation. The deadly combination of COVID-19 and the economic recession has led to a deep crisis for […]

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The Backlash Against Capitalism

Before COVID-19 had become the all-consuming news story it is today, the elites of world capitalism, under the name of the World Economic Forum, were meeting in January in Davos, Switzerland. According to the WEF pronouncements, the key issues facing capitalism, in the year ahead, would be that: 1) The global economy is under pressure, […]

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Neoliberalism Causes “Social Murder” on a Global Scale

Katya Raetz and Marty Harrison are frontline health workers and ISA members. The figures for those infected and deceased are outdated as soon as they are reported. More than 3.5 million have been infected so far and about 240,000 have died (4 May). These figures are not reliable because standards differ between countries and testing […]

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Capitalism: Eco-destruction and Plagues

Locusts and Fires   Raging fires in Australia and a plague of locusts in east Africa dominated global news at the start of 2020. These rapidly receded in consciousness as the COVID-19 pandemic erupted onto the world, already made dangerously vulnerable by capitalism. The climate devastation was mounting around the world. The world’s economy was […]

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Latin America: Plunged into COVID-19 Crisis

Alan Rivas is a member of Socialist Alternative in the US. From Lackluster to Calamitous “With bodies abandoned on sidewalks, slumped in wheelchairs, packed into cardboard coffins and stacked by the hundreds in morgues, it is clear that Ecuador has been devastated by the coronavirus.” New York Times 4/24/2020 The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic […]

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