Possibly 'deepest since Great Depression': UN chief Guterres warns about pandemic-induced economic downturn
rt.com | 2020-04-18
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will massively increase poverty worldwide, as the number of confirmed cases continues to grow. | Guterres has held a virtual meeting with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For the teleconference, the UN presented the secretary-general's policy brief, in which he said the depth of the current global recession could be "the deepest since the Great Depression." | In his brief, Guterres cited a grim report from the IMF from earlier this week, which noted that the worldwide economic downturn makes the "G…
rt.com/news/486201-un-covid-great-depression/
The pandemic, profits and the capitalist justification of suffering and death
wsws.org | 2020-04-18
For the financial-corporate oligarchy, the pandemic has been viewed, above all else, as an economic crisis. Its principal concern from the start was not the potential loss of life but the destabilization of the financial markets, the disruption of the process of profit extraction, and, of course, a substantial decline in the personal wealth of the members of the oligarchy.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/04/18/pers-a18.html
Alicia Garza in conversation w/ Linda Sarsour, author We are Not Here To Be Bystanders
The Commonwealth Club | indybay.org | 2020-04-18
Online via livestream…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/04/16/18832425.php
COVID-19 Exposes the Delicate Economic Balance We All Live in Under Capitalism
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-04-18
We live on a crisis-struck planet where surplus lives are struggling to survive in the wastelands of a rapidly shrinking economic order. The specter of a wageless life now befalls the billions. | COVID-19, just beginning its rampage, is battering our feeble institutions, revealing and exacerbating preexisting social and racial vulnerabilities, and laying bare the inadequacies of even the most robust social safety nets. The U.S. is staring at its sharpest unemployment rise in history. | As
truthout.org/articles/covid-19-exposes-the-delicate-economic-balance-we-all-live-in-under-capitalism/
Towards A New World Order? The Global Debt Crisis and the Privatization of the State
Prof Michel Chossudovsky | globalresearch.ca | 2020-04-17
This is the true picture of what is happening. Poverty is Worldwide. While famines are erupting in Third World countries, closer to home, in the richest country on earth, "millions of desperate Americans wait in long crowded lines for handouts"
globalresearch.ca/towards-a-new-world-order-the-global-debt-crisis-and-the-privatization-of-the-state/5709755
US must improve COVID-19 strategy to keep tens of millions from falling into poverty, urges rights expert
news.un.org | 2020-04-17
The United States must take urgent additional steps to prevent tens of millions of middle-class Americans hit by the COVID-19 pandemic from being "plunged into poverty", according to an independent UN human rights expert.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/04/1061982
Canceling Student Loan Debt Isn't Just the Right Thing to Do—It Makes Economic Sense
Remington A. Gregg | commondreams.org | 2020-04-17
Even before the coronavirus crisis upended our economy and sent millions all at once into unemployment, student loan debt threatened the economic security of every borrower.(Photo: YouTube/screenshot) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/studentdebt.jpg …
commondreams.org/views/2020/04/17/canceling-student-loan-debt-isnt-just-right-thing-do-it-makes-economic-sense?cd-origin=rss
More than 5 million new claims for unemployment
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-17
San José, CA – On Thursday, April 16, the U.S. Department of Labor released their latest report on new claims for unemployment insurance, or UI, benefits showing 5.2 million more people applied. This means that more than 22 million people have lost their livelihood in the last four weeks. The number of people actually collecting unemployment insurance benefits soared to 12 million, the highest ever. | While the number of new applications did fall by about 1 million from the previous two weeks, the current figure still understates the number of people who lost their jobs and weren't able to file, as states still s…
fightbacknews.org/2020/4/17/more-5-million-new-claims-unemployment
GOP Tax Cuts in Coronavirus Relief Bill Give 82% of Benefits to Millionaires and Billionaires
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-15
A new report suggests that a tax cut quietly inserted into the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act will add almost $170 billion to the deficit over the next ten years and overwhelmingly benefit the ultra-wealthy.
mintpressnews.com/82-percent-benefits-coronavirus-relief-fund-go-to-millionaires-billionaires/266674/
Trump Cuts Funds for World Health Org as Oxfam Warns Pandemic Could Push Half a Billion into Poverty
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-15
As the confirmed cases of coronavirus surpass 2 million around the world, President Donald Trump says he will cut U.S. support for the World Health Organization. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet medical journal, called it a "crime against humanity." Oxfam America said the cuts slash "any hopes for the responsible international cooperation and solidarity that is critical to save lives and restore the global economy." This comes as a new Oxfam report estimates the pandemic's economic fallout could push more than half a billion more people into poverty. We get response from Paul O'Brien, vice president…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/15/oxfam_coronavirus
COVID-19's impact on the Bronx
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-04-15
New York, NY – As of April 14, the death toll from COVID-19 jumped by 3700, up to 10,000 in New York City. While the Bronx's confirmed infection rate is in line with the city's, the borough has the highest per-case fatality rate in NYC. There are various conditions that make the people of the Bronx especially vulnerable to the virus. | The Bronx is predominantly Black and Latino and has higher rates of poverty compared to the rest of the city. The poverty rate is at 28.4%, 10% higher than the citywide average, and makes up for 60% of the city's low-income residents. One in four of the city's 400,000 New York Cit…
fightbacknews.org/2020/4/15/covid-19s-impact-bronx
Systemic Healthcare And Income Inequality Are Why COVID-19 Is Killing Black People
Staff | therealnews.com | 2020-04-15
What good are drive-up testing sites if you don't have a car? Dr. Leon McDougle explains how successful health outcomes are tilted against black and brown communities.
therealnews.com/stories/healthcare-income-inequality-coronavirus-killing-black-people
Essential or Expendable? Farmworkers Condemn Lack of Protection and Economic Help During Pandemic
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-14
As the coronavirus sweeps through the United States, the country's 2.5 million farmworkers are continuing to go to work every day, often facing crowded and unsanitary conditions without personal protective equipment, for poverty wages. We speak with Gerardo Reyes Chávez, a farmworker leader with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who describes the conditions farmworkers in Florida are facing and how they are calling on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to protect farmworkers during the COVID-19 crisis, and with Mónica Ramírez, president and founder of Justice for Migrant Women and co-founder of the National Farmwork…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/14/us_farmworkers_coronavirus
SPLC condemns attack on Alabama synagogue
splcenter.org | 2020-04-11
The Southern Poverty Law Center condemns the antisemitic attacks that took place during Passover at the Etz Chayim Synagogue in Huntsville, Alabama.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/10/splc-condemns-attack-alabama-synagogue
SPLC condemns attack on Alabama synagogue
splcenter.org | 2020-04-11
The Southern Poverty Law Center condemns the antisemitic attacks that took place during Passover at the Etz Chayim Synagogue in Huntsville, Alabama.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/10/splc-condemns-attack-alabama-synagogue
'Please Call Back Later': Filing for Unemployment During a Pandemic
Gunar Olsen | progressive.org | 2020-04-10
After being laid off from a restaurant in NYC, I spent seven days on hold–but for the millions now out of work, waiting isn't an option.
progressive.org/covid-19/filing-for-unemployment-olsen-200410/
"Exposing U.S. Racism in a Stark New Way": COVID-19 Kills Disproportionate Number of Black Americans
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-04-09
We speak with family physician and epidemiologist Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones about how the coronavirus is taking a devastating toll on black Americans, who are disproportionately dying from the virus across the country as a result of entrenched racial inequality. Black Americans are more likely to have chronic health problems and less likely to have insurance. They also make up significant numbers of frontline workers that are still going to work amid the pandemic. Jones is the former president of the American Public Health Association. Her recent piece for Newsweek magazine is headlined "Coronavirus Disease Discri…
www.democracynow.org/2020/4/9/camara_phyllis_jones_coronavirus_race_disparities
Why is Alliance Defending Freedom a Hate Group?
splcenter.org | 2020-04-08
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) first listed Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) as an anti-LGBTQ hate group in 2016.
splcenter.org/news/2020/04/10/why-alliance-defending-freedom-hate-group
Politicians fear the people: Workers win unemployment benefit expansion
Sunil Freeman | liberationnews.org | 2020-04-06
This initial wave of struggle hints at the power that could be unleashed in the form of work stoppages, rent strikes, and other responses, and it has nervous politicians scrambling to make concessions.
liberationnews.org/politicians-fear-the-people-workers-win-unemployment-benefit-expansion/
Mainstream Canadian LGBTQ Organizations Fail to Address Poverty, Homelessness
VINS | projectcensored.org | 2020-04-03
The number of homeless LGBTQ people in Toronto, Ontario is staggering. More than eleven percent of Toronto residents who identify as LGBTQ are homeless. The rate is even worse for…
projectcensored.org/mainstream-canadian-lgbtq-organizations-fail-to-address-poverty-homelessness/
The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery played key role in launching SPLC's legal battle against Ku Klux Klan
splcenter.org | 2020-03-30
The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, who died on Friday at 98 years old, was a longtime friend of the Southern Poverty Law Center and played a leading role in the SPLC's first lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan in 1980.
splcenter.org/news/2020/03/30/rev-dr-joseph-e-lowery-played-key-role-launching-splcs-legal-battle-against-ku-klux-klan