Educate!
Education is the foundation of political change. In this section we provide news and analyses of current events that you won’t likely read or hear in the corporate media. Our sources are from organizations and independent media outlets free of corporate and government propaganda. We strongly encourage you to share these articles by email and social media so that together we create an echo chamber that overcomes the influence of the oligarchy. You will find large social media sharing buttons on the left side of each article when you open the article to read.
Oil majors are not on track to hit Paris Agreement climate targets that limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, a new report reveals.
Eight fossil fuel giants – Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, Eni, Equinor, and ConocoPhillips – are on course to use 30 percent of the world’s remaining carbon budget for that 1.5°C goal, according to the Big Oil Reality Check report by nonprofit Oil Change International (OCI).
Combined, the oil and gas companies’ extraction plans are consistent with a temperature rise of over 2.4°C, the report found. That level of warming, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, will reduce food security, risk irreversible loss of ecosystems, and increase heat waves, rainfall, and extreme weather events.
Juneteenth: Embracing The Power Of Awareness And Repair
June 19, 2024
Mobolaji Olambiwonnu, Scheer Post.
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Black America, Black Liberation, Juneteenth, Slavery
When President Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021, I initially saw it as a symbolic gesture, unable to replace the concrete legislation needed to address the challenges faced by the Black community in America. However, as time passed and I had conversations with my white friends who had no idea about its historical origins, I started realizing the true importance of Juneteenth. It is not just another holiday, but a valuable lesson for America—a chance to confront its past and make amends for ongoing injustices.
Juneteenth is a day that marks the liberation of enslaved African Americans in Texas. Can you believe it took more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation for them to learn they were finally free?
Juneteenth: Black Liberation Through Revolutionary Struggle
June 19, 2024
Nino Brown, Liberation News.
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Black America, Black Liberation, Juneteenth, Slavery
On June 19, 1865 Major General Gordon Granger and 1,800 Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, nearly two months after General Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy surrendered in the decisive battle of Appomattox, to announce that slavery finally ended with the issuing of General Order Number 3. This order stated: “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
This declaration claimed that there would be “absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.”
A Judge Paused The University Of California Strike
June 19, 2024
Meghan McCarty Carino, Portside.
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California, Campus Movement, Labor Movement, Strikes, Unions, University of California
Thousands of graduate and postdoctoral student workers at six University of California campuses were back on the job this week after a judge ordered a temporary stop to their weekslong strike.
They’re represented by the United Auto Workers union and initiated the rolling strike to protest the university’s handling of pro-Palestine protests. They also called for related charges and disciplinary actions against their members to be dropped. This temporary order allows for classes to wrap up but leaves some big questions unresolved.
The University has charged that the strike was illegal because it violated the union’s current contract, according to Melissa Matella, associate vice president for labor relations at the UC.
NATO: 500,000 Troops On High Readiness For War With Russia
June 19, 2024
Kyle Anzalone, Antiwar.com.
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NATO, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism
An official with the North Atlantic alliance says the bloc has exceeded its goal of placing 300,000 soldiers on standby for a potential war with Russia. The announcement comes as NATO members significantly escalate support for Ukraine, bringing the alliance closer to direct war with Moscow.
On Thursday, a NATO official told AFP that member states have 300,000 soldiers ready to deploy for a conflict with Russia in the space of 30 days. “The offers on the table from allies comfortably exceed the 300,000 that we set,” the official said. “Those are forces which allies have said to us, ‘They are available to you as of now at that level of readiness.’”
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 255: Netanyahu Dissolves War Cabinet
June 18, 2024
Qassam Muaddi, Mondoweiss.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, Famine, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, Wars and Militarism
On Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved the Israeli government war cabinet that was formed immediately following the October 7 attack, and that has been directing the war for nine months.
Netanyahu’s move came a week after two key members of the war cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot, resigned in protest of Netanyahu’s leadership, calling for early elections.
The formation of the war cabinet, which excluded Netanyahu’s governing coalition allies, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, was Gantz’s condition to join, back in October. Following Gantz and Eizenkot’s resignations, both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who are controversial to Israel’s western allies due to their explicitly racist rhetoric, have demanded to join the cabinet.
Top Lawmakers Sign Off On Massive US Arms Sale To Israel
June 18, 2024
News Desk, The Cradle.
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Congress, Democrats, Israel, Joe Biden, Palestine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism, weapons, Weapons Sales
Two Democratic lawmakers in the US Congress have signed off on a massive arms sale to Israel, which will include $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets, the Washington Post reported on 17 June.
Representative Gregory Meeks and Senator Ben Cardin agreed to the deal after months of holding up the sale due to concerns over Israel’s conduct in its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
“Any issues or concerns that Chair Cardin had were addressed through our ongoing consultations with the administration, and that’s why he felt it appropriate to allow this case to move forward,” Eric Harris, Communications Director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Washington Post.
How A Network Of Nonprofits Enriches Fundraisers
In September 2020, the Federal Trade Commission joined regulators in four states to sue four men behind a notorious telemarketing company called Outreach Calling. The FTC alleged that the company, which it described as a “sprawling fundraising operation,” had raised millions on the promise of helping the needy — cancer patients, veterans, firefighters — but instead used the money to line its pockets.
The case was meant to put fundraisers on notice. The FTC would not only go after charities that improperly spent donor dollars, but it would “aggressively pursue their fundraisers who participate in the deception,” a news release said.
Rolling Back Protections For Child Labor In The Name Of ‘Parental Rights’
June 18, 2024
Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
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Child labor, Farm Workers, Parental Rights, Workplace Safety
One hundred years ago this month, I was reminded by Portside’s “This Week in People’s History” feature (5/29/23), a constitutional amendment passed both houses of Congress, with large majorities, and went to the states for ratification. It remains a proposal, not a law, to this day, because the necessary three-quarters of states didn’t accept it.
The proposal is the Child Labor Amendment, giving Congress authority to regulate “labor of persons under 18 years of age.”
Efforts to protect children from dangerous work continued anyway, of course, and the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act included prohibitions on children under 14 working in most occupations. Separate rules have been crafted for agricultural jobs (which is its own story).
Nero’s Guests
June 17, 2024
Chris Hedges, Scheer Post.
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Chris Hedges, Israel, Palestine, Wars and Militarism, Zionism
Israel has been poisoned by the psychosis of permanent war. It has been morally bankrupted by the sanctification of victimhood, which it uses to justify an occupation that is even more savage than that of apartheid South Africa. Its ‘democracy’ — which was always exclusively for Jews — has been hijacked by extremists who are pushing the country towards fascism. Human rights campaigners, intellectuals and journalists — Israeli and Palestinian — are subject to constant state surveillance, arbitrary arrests and government-run smear campaigns. Its educational system, starting in primary school, is an indoctrination machine for the military.
West Has To Decide Whether It Wants Peace After Putin’s Ukraine Proposal
June 17, 2024
Scott Ritter, Orinoco Tribune.
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NATO, Peace Negotiations, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism
President Vladimir Putin has outlined another proposal to solve the Ukraine crisis once and for all at a meeting with top diplomats at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, making clear that Moscow is not interested in freezing or postponing the conflict.
According to the president, Russia is ready to cease fire and start negotiations once Ukraine begins to withdraw from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions within their administrative borders and officially renounces plans to join NATO. Additionally, Russia requires Ukraine to adopt a neutral, non-aligned, and non-nuclear status.
Korean Girls Killed By US Troops: The Price Of Military Tensions
June 17, 2024
Lee Jun-hee, Hankyoreh.
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History, Korea, North Korea, South Korea, US Imperialism
As military tensions continue to rise on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea recently marked the 22nd anniversary of the deaths of Shin Hyo-sun and Shim Mi-seon, two middle school girls who were killed in 2002 when a US Forces Korea convoy driving an armored vehicle struck and crushed them.
On Thursday, 23 activist groups, including the Hyo-sun Mi-seon Peace Peace Park Project Committee, gathered at the park named after two girls in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, to hold a candlelight memorial vigil. Over 150 people, representing groups ranging from religious communities to youth groups, attended the memorial to pay their respects.
Europe’s Elections As A Mirror
June 16, 2024
Patrick Lawrence, Scheer Post.
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Elections, Europe, European Union (EU), Rightwing Politics
Ah, those elections last week to the European Parliament, in which voters across the European Union administered a sound whack to the technocrats, market fundamentalists, and liberal authoritarians who now hold power across much of the Continent: Let us attempt what we are not supposed ever to undertake. Let us try to understand them.
The E.U. Parliament, to get straight a few basic details, is one strut of the three-legged stool of which the union is made: The unelected technocrats are in Brussels, the unelected central bankers are in Frankfurt, and the elected legislature is in Strasbourg. Belgium, Germany, and France: The distribution of institutional power in this way is meant as a display of the Continent’s hard-won unity.
Blinken’s Lies About Hamas Reveal Biden Administration’s True Intentions
June 16, 2024
Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss.
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Anthony Blinken, Biden administration, Ceasefire, Hamas, Israel, Palestine
“The proposal that President Biden laid out 12 days ago was virtually identical to one that Hamas had accepted and put forward itself on May the 6th. So there’s no reason why this agreement should not be reached. The only reason would be Hamas continuing to try to change the terms.”
So said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday. The statement is part of an extended campaign of deception that Blinken has spearheaded. It featured President Joe Biden’s dramatic unveiling of a ceasefire proposal, followed by a U.N. Security Council resolution and Blinken’s latest tour of the Middle East — all ostensibly to reach a ceasefire.
Russia Rejects The Swiss Peace Summit As A ‘Fraud’
June 16, 2024
People's Dispatch.
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China, G7, Peace Negotiations, Russia, Ukraine, United Nations (UN), Volodymyr Zelensky, Wars and Militarism
The two-day Ukraine peace summit will start on Saturday, June 15 amidst widespread speculation about its objectives. The possibility that this will start a process for peace is also in serious doubt given the non-participation of several significant countries such as China and no invitation to Russia, one of the main parties of the conflict.
According to the Reuters, nearly 90 states and international organizations, mostly from the West, have confirmed participation in the summit which will be held on June 15-16 at Burgenstock in Switzerland.
Despite the participation of some Global South countries such as India, the summit is expected to be dominated by the Europeans, the US, and their allies.