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June 2019

Popular Movements Are The Invisible Hand Of Social Change

The political consensus in the United States is changing rapidly. While the corporate media is focused on the Democratic Party presidential debates and Trump's tweets in response, the issues that have been advanced by the movement for economic, racial and environmental justice as well as peace are becoming central to the political dialogue. There is no reason to rejoice yet, as we still have work to do to win the transformation that people and planet need, but the consensus is moving in our direction. Before we further elaborate on this, we want to remind you that today is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion and the ten-year anniversary of the US-led coup in the Honduras. The Honduran coup has led to severe austerity, violence and repression.

Embassy Protectors Defense Committee Forms, Urges Support For Embassy Protectors

The Embassy Protectors Defense Committee finds it imperative to organize and carry out an effective national campaign in support of the Embassy Protectors in the following three areas: To organize a nationwide fundraising campaign to raise the necessary funds to cover the legal expenses for the four Embassy Protectors. This will require soliciting active participation of all peace and justice organizations in the United States in a nationally coordinated fundraising campaign. This fundraising campaign is especially crucial as the US government has virtually unlimited resources to prosecute this case to the fullest extent of the law.

Surge In Lobbying Opposed To Medicare For All

Between the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019, lobbying on Medicare for All increased dramatically, almost entirely due to a surge in lobbying activity by organizations that oppose it. This indicates that opponents of Medicare for All are newly scared about its rising prospects. The diverse and powerful array of trade groups, conservative activist organizations, GOP-linked establishment groups and health care industry interests launching an all-out advertising blitz against Medicare for All further reinforces this reality. The number of organizations hiring lobbyists to work on Medicare for All increased from nine in the first quarter of 2018 to 61 in the first quarter of 2019 – a nearly sevenfold increase. The number of individual federal lobbyists working on Medicare for All increased from 29 in the first quarter of 2018 to 270 in the first quarter of 2019 – a ninefold increase.

133 Former FARC Members Assassinated Since Peace Agreement Signed In 2016

Servio Delio Cuasaluzán Guanga was murdered on Monday in Colombia, specifically at El Palmar point, Chabú village, municipality of Ricaurte (Nariño), and became former FARC guerrilla number 133 found dead since the signing of the Peace agreement in 2016. There are another 11 that no one knows anything about, they are still “disappeared” by force. During this last week, the party “Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común” leapt from one duel to the next. There were four murdered. Report after report came in: on Monday the victims were Ánderson Pérez (in Cauca) and Daniel Esterilla (in Nariño); on Wednesday, it was Carlos Miranda’ s turn, at the hands of the Public Force (in Meta), and yesterday, Servio Delio Cuasaluzán. The political party blamed the government...

Wayfair’s Walkout Against Concentration Camps

Hundreds of Wayfair workers in Boston walked out on Wednesday to protest their company’s complicity in Trump's migrant detention camps on the border. We spoke with walkout leader Maddie Howard about the workers’ decision to take action on the job against the camps. Hundreds of workers at the online retailer Wayfair walked out of their jobs yesterday to protest their company’s decision to sell beds to migrant detention camps on the US-Mexico border. Their action received support from Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — AOC tweeted: “[t]his is what solidarity looks like — a reminder that everyday people have real power, as long as we’re brave enough to use it.”

Trump Does Not Want To Get Too Involved With Venezuela

The U.S. President tacitly acknowledged the failure of the actions aimed at destabilizing Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro. In a tacit reference to an eventual U.S. military action against Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Saturday that he does not want to get too involved in the Latin American country, although he also held that his tactics could "change at any time." In a press conference held at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump confessed that he had spoken about Venezuela "with almost every leader" with whom he met this week.

Demasking The Torture Of Julian Assange

Finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News.

Great Antiwar Analyst and Writer Justin Raimondo Dies

Justin Raimondo, former editorial director and co-founder of Antiwar.com, is dead at 67. He died at his home in Sebastopol, California, with his husband, Yoshinori Abe, by his side. He had been diagnosed with 4th stage lung cancer in October 2017. Justin co-founded Antiwar.com with Eric Garris in 1995. Under their leadership, Antiwar.com became a leading force against U.S. wars and foreign intervention, providing daily and often hourly updates and comprehensive news, analysis, and opinion on war and peace. Inspired by Justin’s spirit, vision, and energy, Antiwar.com will go on.

Low-Wage Workers Being Sued For Medical Bills By Nonprofit Hospital That Employs Them

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — This year, a Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare housekeeper left her job just three hours into her shift and caught a bus to Shelby County General Sessions Court. Wearing her black and gray uniform, she had a different kind of appointment with her employer: The hospital was suing her for unpaid medical bills. In 2017, the nonprofit hospital system based in Memphis sued the woman for the cost of hospital stays to treat chronic abdominal pain she experienced before the hospital hired her. She now owes Methodist more than $23,000, including around $5,800 in attorney’s fees. It’s surreal, she said, to be sued by the organization that pays her $12.25 an hour. “You know how much you pay me. And the money you’re paying, I can’t live on,” said the housekeeper, who asked that her name not be used for fear that the hospital would fire her for talking to a reporter.

“We Are In The Next Phase Of The Struggle”

The negotiations between the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition in Sudan—interrupted after the crackdown on protests in Khartoum on June 3—will resume towards the establishment of a civilian government, said activist and journalist Ahmed Kaballo. “For many of us involved in the revolution, this is stage two and we are certainly in the next phase of the struggle,” he remarked. Born in Leeds, England, from a family of Sudanese origin—his father, Dr. Sidgi Kaballo, is a member of the Central Committee of the Sudanese Communist Party,—Kaballo spoke to EL UNIVERSAL in English to address the current political situation in the northeastern African country.

Pilots Sue Boeing For Putting Profits Over Safety

Boeing's 737 MAX series— first announced in 2011 and put to service in 2017 — is the fourth generation of its 737 aircraft, a widely popular narrow-body aircraft model that has been a mainstay of short-haul aircraft routes across the globe. By March 2019, the entire global fleet was suspended by a US presidential decree, following the second fatal crash involving a 737 MAX that killed 157 people in Ethiopia. The first crash involving the 737 MAX jet happened off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189 people. In the time since the two fatal crashes, some of the families of the 346 people killed have sought compensation, while aircraft carriers — such as Norwegian Air...

“Theoretical Lies” Of The World Bank. Developing Countries And The Hidden Agenda Of The “Washington Consensus”

The World Bank claims that, in order to progress, the Developing Countries [1] should rely on external borrowing and attract foreign investments. The main aim of thus running up debt is to buy basic equipment and consumer goods from the highly industrialised countries. The facts show that day after day, for decades now, the idea has been failing to bring about progress. The models which have influenced the Bank’s vision can only result in making the developing countries heavily dependent on an influx of external capital, particularly in the form of loans, which create the illusion of a certain level of self-sustained development.

Detroit Residents Organize Community With 12th Annual Rally To Silence The Violence

Michigan residents have been coming together as apart of the Silence the Violence Rally for nearly over a decade. Silence the Violence continues to be an opportunity for people to show their commitment to ending violence in their communities and has grown from a local rally to a national event. This year’s rally locations have spread from Detroit into Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baltimore, New York, and Boston; as well as a host of other local cities in the Detroit area that include Flint, Pontiac, Highland Park, and Ypsilanti. Attendees use the event to define violence in a variety of ways from individual, gang violence to domestic and state violence.

Trump Is Deepening The ‘Economic War’ Against Iran – Wilkerson

GREG WILPERT It’s The Real News Network and I’m Greg Wilpert in Baltimore. President Trump announced on Monday that his administration will impose new sanctions on Iran to put yet more pressure on its leadership to renegotiate the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The new sanctions target five Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders. Here’s what Trump said just before signing the Executive Order. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP Sanctions imposed through the Executive Order that I’m about to sign will deny the Supreme Leader and the Supreme Leader’s office and those closely affiliated with him and the office, access to key financial resources and support.

US Sanctions On Venezuela Illegal Under UN, OAS And US Law

The application of unilateral economic sanctions is an explicit violation of international law protected under the United Nation’s (U.N.) and Organization of American States’s (OAS) charters, human rights stipulations, and even national United States (U.S.) law. Despite that truth, they have become U.S. President Donald Trump’s favorite tool to assert his foreign policy goals around the world. Since 2017, the Trump administration has imposed 150 sanctions on individuals and entities in Venezuela via executive orders and by invoking the so-called Kingpin Act.
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