Tim Heffernan and Jim Sugiyama Cockroaches, rotten food, patients with ulcers left bed-bound, staff moving from unit to unit wearing contaminated gear, staff afraid to ask for supplies for fear of increasing the costs to the home. Those were just some of the disturbing conditions detailed in a Canadian Armed Forces report based on the […]
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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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The metaphors of war have been in abundance since the onset of COVID-19. In Britain, the Queen, in a speech, evoked the WW2 song, “We’ll Meet Again.” The Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, also invoked WW2 when he used Winston Churchill’s words to talk about Italy’s “darkest hour.” Donald Trump has described himself as a […]
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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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Canada is opening up after varying degrees of restrictions due to COVID-19. Retail stores, cafes, bars and restaurants, hairdressers and many workplaces are restarting operations. Of course, many businesses and workplaces deemed essential (some rather dubiously, like building luxury condos or pipelines) never closed. Schools in most provinces are closed, apart from provision for some […]
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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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Written by a BC teacher. After weeks of hearing about the nightmare of states in the US reopening their economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew it was coming. The reopening of the Canadian economy! Granted, the pandemic has not been as devastating in Canada as in the US, but that doesn’t say much. The […]
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Early on into the COVID-19 pandemic my mom called me from home to tell me that I should get myself a mask. I waited until the last moment to buy a mask, because I can be lazy, and was astonished at the prices. I did a little digging around online until I found some reasonably […]
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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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The word “hero” is in vogue these days. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the importance in our society of nurses, cleaners, and grocery store workers to millions. Most Canadians are rightly grateful for the labour of these workers, who are doing their best to contain the pandemic and keep the country fed, often at great […]
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