Protests around the country to mark the start of a national campaign by different organisations to build and connect community struggles against covid-19 and government austerity took place on Saturday, 1 August. VELAPI, CHIRUME, SEHOAI, GCWABE
On Saturday, different organisations protested around the country to mark the start of a national campaign to build and connect community struggles against covid-19 and government austerity measures. ELITSHA REPORTERS
Sikelelwa Tomase lives on handouts and has not been able to receive food parcels or any covid-19 relief because she does not have an ID document. MZI VELAPI
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the world’s people. Millions have been infected by the virus and billions of workers’ livelihoods and lives have been negatively impacted. Governments have responded with lockdowns to curb and control the spread of the disease.
Transport has been deemed an essential service for transporting mainly food, equipment and people such as healthcare workers and later for most workers to travel to workplaces. The Labour Show looks at the hazards faced by drivers and by their passengers.
This essay commits to a different reading to pandemic dystopia that stops the rush of planning and forecasting, projecting and flattening. It offers collective life as an analytic that keeps the focus on the ways in which the urban majority is trying to survive and cope within structures of inequality that now bear both the new imprint of COVID-19. BHAN, GILLESPIE, CALDEIRA,,SIMONE | SOCIETY + SPACE
The historic marginalisation of mining communities has been laid bare by the ravaging impact of the coronavirus. The Benchmarks Foundation says there is an urgent need to intensify efforts to help these areas. SABC
The government’s strategy to keep public schools open has failed. This is linked to the objective conditions at public schools created by government’s neoliberal neglect and the emerging grassroots resistance. MARIA VAN DRIEL | KARIBU
What if we refused to return to normal? Every week seems to introduce a new biblical plague and unsurprisingly, the nation is turning to schools to create a sense of “normalcy” – the same normalcy that has failed BIPOC communities for decades. SHLEY MCCALL | CHIVAGO UNHEARD
Having failed to control the outbreak, Republicans Iin the U.S. are now trying to make it easier for companies to get away with putting their employees at greater risk of covid-19 infection. SARAH ANDERSON | INEQUALITY.ORG
Earlier this week, four labor leaders voted against including Medicare for All in the Democratic Party platform. Why when we need unions to fight for the physical and economic health of all working-class people, organized and unorganized?
Since the start of the pandemic, Feeding America’s food banks have seen a 50% increase in the number of people they’re serving compared to the same time last year. The food banks estimate that just under 30% of those being served are seeking charitable food assistance for the first time. DAKIN ANDONE | CNN
Every day, California farmworkers worry that the pandemic plowing through agricultural hubs will catch them and kill them. They also worry that not working will kill them. EVELYN NIEVES | INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Amazon warehouse workers shut down deliveries at an Amazon Distribution Center in the San Francisco Bay Area for several hours on Saturday, demanding the company implement more safety measures to protect workers against COVID-19 and increased pay LAUREN GURLEY | VICE
Public healthcare systems had been weakened by austerity budgets, often enforced by wealthy bondholders and the International Monetary Fund, who demanded the debt service payments and did not care that this money came out of public welfare budgets. It is a good reason to join the call to cancel the debt of the developing world. VIJAY PRASHAD | TRICONTINENTAL: INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH
Four nations outside Europe have so far managed to successfully confront, corral and contain the Covid-19 onslaught. Let’s take a summary look at both the commonalities and specifics of these cases to see what we can learn from them. DALE MCKINLEY | DAILY MAVERICK
the ANC has been forced into damage control over its reputation as a party filled with corrupt individuals, which now threatens to drive it apart. BUSINESS TECH
The Gauteng Education MEC had given an oratory at the funeral of ANC stalwart Andrew Mlangeni, where he expressed disquiet about how the movement was deviating from the values of its veterans. RAPULE TABANE | M&G
It is alleged that officials in the premier’s office connived with service providers to secure catering tenders disregarding all supply chain procedures. NCHRIS NDALISO | IOL
Human settlements, water and sanitation minister Lindiwe Sisulu told parliament on Thursday that she was working hard to root out corruption in her department. APHIWE DEKLERK | TIMES LIVE
“When tender corruption comes up some one brings up state capture. When Ace Magashule and Estina comes up another person takes a swipe and mentions Bosasa.” QAANITAH HUNTER | NEWS24
Three activists from the Assembly of the Unemployed talk to us about the challenges facing working-class communities in South Africa. SIYABULELA MAMA, AYANDA KOTA, KHOKHOMA MOTSI | AFRICA IS A COUNTRY
Nationwide mobilizations which kicked off on 28 July have been organized by Bolivian social movements and trade unions in rejection of the suspension of general elections in the country. PEOPLES DISPATCH
The revolution in the Kurdish region of Syria called Rojava has generated significant enthusiasm with images of revolutionary fighters, and particularly of armed women bravely resisting the vicious onslaught by Islamist thugs, catching the imagination of many on the so-called international left. THOMAS JEFFREY MILEY | MERIP
In war-torn Yemen, the crimes pile up. Children who bear no responsibility for governance or warfare endure the punishment. In 2018, UNICEF said the war made Yemen a living hell for children. By the end of 2020, it is expected that 23,500 children with severe acute malnutrition could die. KATHY KELLY | VOICES FOR NONVIOLENCE
But Zimbabwe does not have the money and will issue long term bonds and jointly approach international donors with the farmers to raise funding, according to the compensation agreement. REUTERS
The Trump administration wants to keep other countries from weaponizing technology the way the U.S. and its allies already have. SAM BIDDLE | THE INTERCEPT
Since 1997, when Commander Hugo Chávez Frías began to emerge in the polls as a presidential option, and until today, the United States has led the most violent media initiatives to influence Venezuelan politics. CLODOVALDO HERNANDEZ | ORINOCO TRIBUNE
Critical analysis regarding the ongoing imperialist wars waged on Africa by Western nations like the US and France with the editor of Pan African Newswire. UR WORLD NEWS
When the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz carrier strike groups recently engaged in “operations” in the South China Sea, it failed to escape cynics that the US Pacific Fleet was doing its best to turn the infantile Thucydides trap theory into a self-fulfilling prophecy. PEPE ESCOBAR | THE ALT WORLD
The African radical, anti-imperialist, internationalist movement, sees the Chinese state and the Chinese people much differently than the U.S. state and its ruling class. AJAMU BARAKA | BLACK AGENDA REPORT
A well orchestrated plan financed by the United States to launch a coup d’état in Nicaragua over the next two years was leaked in a document from the US embassy and presented July 31, 2020 by Nicaraguan journalist William Grigsby. S. BRIAN WILLSON | POPULAR RESISTANCE
Current Western human rights industry practice has nothing to do with establishing the truth. Increasingly in recent years, US and allied elites have sought to legitimize illegal aggression by exploiting human rights motifs in their attempts to recolonize the majority world. STEPHEN SEFTON | TORTILLA CON SAL
Wealth can be a sign that tremendous value has been created for investors, customers and society more broadly. But wealth can also be captured rather than created. And while that works well for the capturer, the game is zero-sum, or even value-destroying, in aggregate. OREN CASS | NEWSWEEK
The start of any progress toward resolving humankind’s nuclear predicament must come from the realization that nuclear weapons have never been legitimate instruments of state policy, but rather have always constituted illegitimate instrumentalities of internationally lawless and criminal behavior. FRANCIS BOYLE | CONSORTIUM NEWS
As long as the capitalist system remains, geopolitical rivalry and capitalist competition to enhance profit means that the threat of conventional wars, and even a regional nuclear exchange, remains a real possibility. SOCIALIST PARTY UK
Israel is exploiting the tragedy in Beirut to erase its own crimes against Lebanon, distract from military occupation and polish its image – a propaganda strategy called bluewashing. TAMARA NASSAR | ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
“A confidential highly-informed Israeli source has told me that Israel caused the massive explosion at the Beirut port earlier today which killed over 100 and injured thousands.” RICHARD SILVERSTEIN BLOG
Upon its failure to halt the ICC legal procedures regarding its investigation of war crimes, Israel began to prepare for the worst. The Israeli government compiled a list of “between 200 and 300 officials” who may be arrested abroad, should the ICC officially open the war crimes investigation. RAMZY BAROUD | COUNTERPUNCH
Apartheid Off Campus is a newly-formed student network fighting to sever the ties between UK universities and the Israeli occupation. MICHAEL ARRIA | MONDOWEISS
Every day around the world, people stand up to companies exploiting land for profit, felling trees, damming and polluting waterways, displacing ancestral homes and destroying wildlife habitats. Every week, an average of four of these defenders are killed. AMANDA SCHUPAK | HUFFINGTON POST
According to Eric Holthaus’ new book, “The Future Earth,” by 2035 the United States must have a carbon neutral economy or face utter disaster. That, folks, pretty much means the end of capitalism as we know it. EVE OTTENBERG | COUNTERPUNCH
10 out of 10 by male directors, and only one non-western movie – never trust lists. OPEN CULTURE
DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is intended to serve as a channel of special and alternative news, information and knowledge source for all those interested in issues relevant to promoting political, social and economic equality and the eradication of poverty. The articles contained herein are obtained from various electronic media platforms and do not necessarily reflect the views of WWMP.
