2020-06-22: News Headlines

Mark Gruenberg (2020-06-22). Hundreds of thousands join the New Poor People's Campaign virtual March. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—From eradication of poverty, an end to U.S. racism, to dismantling the war machine and creating a Green New Deal with thousands of well-paying jobs — especially union jobs — hundreds of thousands of people demanded a complete reversal and creation of a better society in three virtual mass marches on D.C. the weekend of …

Alan Macleod (2020-06-22). Study: COVID-19 Exacerbating America's Massive Wealth Inequality and Racial Divide. mintpressnews.com Black Americans are dying at almost three times the rate whites are, with Latinos and Native Americans also dying at elevated levels to the rest of the population.

Sarah Anderson (2020-06-22). Virtual Poor People's Campaign Rally Draws Crowd of More Than a Million. commondreams.org The virtual rallies over the weekend organized by the Poor People's Campaign "lifted up people who are living the interconnected injustices that have been the campaign's focus for the past two years: systemic racism, poverty and inequality, ecological devastation, and militarism and the war economy. Many spoke of how the Covid-19 pandemic has only deepened existing inequalities." (Photo: Poor People's Campaign) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/screen_shot_2020-06-22_at_11.38.50_am.png

Fight Back (2020-06-22). Michigan stagehands to rally June 24 for unemployment extension. fightbacknews.org Grand Rapids, MI – Union stagehands and gig workers are rallying to extend unemployment at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on June 24 at 10 a.m. | "We need unemployment to 'Extend to the end!'" said one of the organizers, Walter Shink, a union stagehand. Shink is worried that there is no end date for the COVID-19 crisis. For stagehands who work at large concert arenas, inside theaters or at corporate shows, there is no return to work. Most events are not set to come back until 2021. | "Workers are the ones who pay into unemployment. That money belongs to us. In this crisis it should be paid out to those w…

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-06-21). Video: The Closing Down of the Global Economy and the Corona Crisis. Poverty is Worldwide. globalresearch.ca This video featuring Prof. Michel Chossudovsky was first released on April 20, 2020 | Scroll down | *** | Millions of people have lost their jobs, and their lifelong savings. In developing countries, poverty and despair prevail. | While the lockdown is presented to …

Maggie Gordon-Walker (2020-06-21). Universal basic income would revolutionise mothers' lives, whose unpaid work keeps society going. thecanary.co There's no doubt a Yes, I do know fathers are immensely important too, many working equally hard and needing support, but i…

RT (2020-06-20). Head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund volunteers to test experimental Covid-19 vaccine on himself. rt.com The head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund Kirill Dmitriev was one of the first to step forward to get the home-grown Russian coronavirus vaccine. The injection is currently in the trial phase, human testing began just days ago. | Speaking to Moscow business daily RBK, Dmitriev "Well, for now, you see, everything is fine. I will keep you posted. A vaccine is, of course, the most important element, but…

Guo Yingzhe (2020-06-20). China's Economic Rebound Continues, but Slower Than Expected. Might Hit 2% Growth for 2020. anti-empire.com China's economy continued its gradual recovery from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic in May, as major indicators released Monday showed investment, consumption and industrial output all improved from the previous month. But the recovery wasn't as fast as economists expected, as the surveyed unemployment rate in big cities hit a record high. | More economic activity resumed last month as China brought its domestic outbreak under control. The economy also got a boost from government policies that expanded infrastructure investment and measures that offered relief to hard-hit businesses. The central governmen…

Stephen Lendman (2020-06-20). America's Dysfunctional Economy. Massive Unemployment. Economic Collapse. globalresearch.ca The US ruling class bears full responsibility for the economy's unprecedented dysfunctional state. What was unimaginable long ago is reality today, redefining what house of cards economic conditions are all about. | It's an unsustainable situation certain to implode ahead with …

Julian Agyeman, Kofi Boone (2020-06-20). Land Loss Has Plagued Black America Since Emancipation—Is It Time to Look Again at 'Black Commons' and Collective Ownership? commondreams.org Society is facing "an unrivaled opportunity to look again at the idea of collective black action and ownership," the authors write. (Image: Inequality.org / Institute for Policy Studies) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/commons-land.jpg

WSWS (2020-06-20). Joblessness reaches Great Depression levels in Australia. wsws.org The rate of youth unemployment and underemployment would be a staggering 48 percent if everyone who had lost their job was counted.

WSWS (2020-06-20). OECD warns of deep recession in Britain and Europe due to pandemic. wsws.org The OECD envisages no "return to normal" in the world economy, predicting instead mass unemployment and instability.

_____ (2020-06-20). US Racism's $13 Trillion Legacy Is Just The Start. popularresistance.org New York – Around the time the United States formally abolished slavery in 1865, African Americans owned 0.5% of the United States' wealth. Today they own under 3%, even though around 13% of the population is defined by the U.S. census as "black or African American." This isn't an accident of history — it's a result of government policies and institutional bias. The interest keeps compounding. | The value of income lost during slavery is staggering. The U.S. practice lasted for nearly 250 years — almost equivalent to the time from the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 until today. Uni…

Norbert Trenkle (2020-06-20). Climate crisis and social transformation in the age of Corona. indybay.org Material wealth in the form of useful things and utilities is only a means subordinated to the objective of capital accumulation and is sacrificed when that objective can no longer be achieved… Without the state, capitalist society would fly apart immediately. The state, however, is an essential precondition for abstract wealth production and dependent on it.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-06-19). Communist Party of India (Marxist) stages protest against government's anti-people policies. peoplesdispatch.org The CPI(M) has demanded cash and grain transfers, 200 days of work under the rural employment scheme, an unemployment allowance and an end to the privatization of state enterprises…

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-06-19). Poor People's Campaign to Host Weekend Digital Gathering to 'Challenge Poverty and Revive Democracy'. commondreams.org Low-income people and economic justice advocates from across the United States will unite on Saturday and Sunday "to challenge poverty and revive democracy amidst recession, pandemic, and protests" with a historic digital assembly and march sponsored by the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/ppc_0.jpg

Pete Dolack (2020-06-19). The Political Economy of Covid-19. counterpunch.org Governments around the world are attempting to prop up a failing capitalist system by — surprise! — throwing money at wealthy individuals and corporations, especially in the financial industry. In other words, in this time of unprecedented crisis and economic difficulty, it's business as usual. We were here not much more than a decade ago,

W. T. Whitney Jr. (2020-06-19). Economic collapse and unemployment councils — then and now. peoplesworld.org Hunger, homelessness, and evictions were features of the Great Depression in the United States. Jobs disappeared and working conditions deteriorated. Some "250,000 teenagers were on the road." And how many others? By 1933, one-third of farm families had lost their farms. Unemployment that year was 25%. The lives of working people were devastated. The federal …

WSWS (2020-06-19). US jobless disaster intensifies as 1.5 million filed for unemployment last week. wsws.org Mass joblessness in the US is unlike anything seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Fight Back (2020-06-19). July 31 cutoff looms for unemployed. fightbacknews.org San José, CA – In six weeks, tens of millions of unemployed people face the end of the additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance benefits. This additional benefit that helps low income workers the most is set to expire due to its being opposed by the Republican-controlled Senate. These same workers were hardest hit by the pandemic recession, and many face the prospect of their jobs not coming back. This is just another example of how the economic relief has helped large corporations, which can aided by the Federal Reserve, while low-income workers are subject to punishment by republicans who see the aid as…

Staff (2020-06-18). Why You Should Give a F*ck | Ep. 2 | Unemployment. therealnews.com We take a look at what it means to be unemployed, while diving deeper into the impact unemployment can have on daily life.

Heidi Shierholz (2020-06-18). Over Three Months Into Pandemic and Job Losses Remain at Historic Levels. commondreams.org "Things are slowly improving, but remain at historic levels," writes Shierholz. (Photo: Russ Allison Loar / flickr / cc) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/unemployment_5.jpg

yenisafak (2020-06-18). Merkel urges EU compromise on COVID-19 recovery package. yenisafak.com German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on EU member states to reach a quick compromise on the COVID-19 economic recovery package, and warned that the bloc is facing the biggest challenge since its foundation.Addressing lawmakers in parliament on Thursday, a day before a key summit of European leaders via videoconference, Merkel said the coronavirus crisis has deepened inequality within the EU, indicating the bloc was vulnerable."Cohesion and solidarity in Europe have never been as important as they are now," she stressed, adding that no country can withstand this crisis alone.Merkel urged EU members, which ex…