Poverty

China Offers To Tutor Planet Following Extreme Poverty Elimination

April 7, 2021 Morgan Artyukhina, Sputnik News. Create! China, International Solidarity, Poverty, Socialism

Home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, China’s social policies have a dramatic effect on humanity as a whole. Despite a shift toward allowing capitalist markets in the late 1970s, the socialist state has still accounted for nearly three-quarters of global poverty elimination since then. China’s State Council Information Office has published a white paper outlining how the socialist country can teach the rest of the world about how to alleviate poverty. In the last 40 years, China has lifted 770 million people out of poverty, declaring an end to its most extreme forms in November. Titled "Poverty Alleviation: China's Experience and Contribution,” the Tuesday document lays out some of the ways China’s decades-long struggle can help other parts of the globe.

Neoliberalism Was Born In Chile; Neoliberalism Will Die In Chile

March 12, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Resist! Chile, Class war, Neoliberalism, Poverty

Daniel Jadue is the mayor of Recoleta, a commune that is part of the expanding city of Santiago, Chile. His office is on the sixth floor of a municipal building in whose lower reaches one can find a pharmacy, an optical shop, and a bookstore run by the municipality that are dedicated to providing fairly priced goods. On the walls of his office are emblems of his commitment to the Palestinian people, including flags and an iconic cartoon of Handala created by Naji al-Ali, a Palestinian cartoonist who was assassinated in 1987. ‘I am Palestinian’, Jadue tells me with pride. ‘I was born on 28 June 1967, just days after the Israelis took Jerusalem’. The struggle of the Palestinians, which has haunted much of his political life, he says, is ‘not so different from the struggle of the Chilean people.

Women’s Leadership In The Global Recovery From The COVID-19 Pandemic

March 8, 2021 By Siddharth Chatterjee and Smriti Aryal, Inter Press Service. Create! China, Gender equality, International Women's Day, Poverty

Beijing - Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), and the theme for this year’s celebration is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” We recognize the tremendous contribution and leadership demonstrated by women and girls around the world in shaping our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and a more sustainable future. A global review of the progress achieved towards commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women 25 years ago in Beijing, conducted by UN Women in 2020, reveals that no country has fully delivered on the Beijing Platform for Action, nor is close to it. Globally, women currently hold just one-quarter of the seats at the tables of power across the board and are absent from some key decision-making spaces, including in peace and climate negotiations. This reality is despite the advances that we can see globally: there are now more girls in school than ever before, fewer women are dying in childbirth, and over the past decade, 131 countries have passed laws to support women’s equality.

Real Unemployment Is Three Times What They’re Telling Us

February 18, 2021 John Buell, Informed Comment. Educate! Low wages, Poverty, Recession, Unemployment

Southwest Harbor, Maine – As Congress gets set to debate the Biden Pandemic relief package, one of the favorite Republican lines is the contention that an economic recovery is already well underway. Pouring more money into an accelerating economy is likely to induce seventies style inflation. It is time, they argue, for a little cautionary austerity. However politically efficacious this line may be, rosy portraits of an expanding economy hide the chronic weakness of the US economy and especially the burdens imposed on poor and minority communities. Fear of inflation on the part of Republicans is insincere and ill timed.

Crisis In Buenaventura

February 18, 2021 Maya Hernandez, Alliance for Global Justice. Resist! Colombia, Poverty, State Violence

Buenaventura is the main port for Colombian foreign trade and the second largest city in the prosperous state of Valle del Cauca. Historically, the territory has been inhabited by Afro-descendants, indigenous peoples, and campesinos. Despite the diversity and cultural richness of this territory, it is primarily known for its high levels of poverty, difficulties in accessing public services, health, decent housing, and education. These conditions have derailed the lives of the inhabitants to unimaginable extremes. Violence and threats against the inhabitants of the poorest neighborhoods of Buenaventura have become increasingly commonplace.

Tales Of Resistance: Why Do The Poor Laugh?

February 9, 2021 Jessica Dos Santos, Venezuelanalysis. Educate! Economic Blockade, Poverty, US Regime Change, Venezuela

In the middle of the holidays, the pipes in my apartment got clogged for the second time this year. On both occasions water was scarce for several days, and when it did arrive it brought so many rocks that the flow got blocked. I had no option but to call our “community plumber.” In other words, a man that for the past 30 years has fixed issues with pipes in this building and nearby (and lately he’s been as busy as ever). We’re talking about a good-natured fellow, a lovely guy, one of those who helps you carry bags, preaches about Jesus, sends his regards to the family and suddenly tells you, with a sweet smile: “that will be US $200.” And one can’t help but think “he’s screwing me, but how on earth can I curse such a nice man?”

US Suffers Sharpest Rise In Poverty Rate In More Than 50 Years

February 5, 2021 Alex Tanzi and Catarina Saraiva, Chicago Tribune. Educate! COVID-19, Poverty, Recession, United States

The end of 2020 brought the sharpest rise in the U.S. poverty rate since the 1960s, according to a new study. Economists Bruce Meyer from the University of Chicago and James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame found that the poverty rate increased by 2.4 percentage points during the latter half of 2020 as the U.S. continued to suffer the economic impacts of COVID-19. That percentage-point rise is nearly double the largest annual increase in poverty since the 1960s. This means an additional 8 million people nationwide are now considered poor. Moreover, the poverty rate for Black Americans is estimated to have jumped by 5.4 percentage points, or by 2.4 million individuals.

The Failings Of Unemployment Insurance Are By Design

February 4, 2021 Marty Hart-Landsberg, Reports From the Economic Front. Educate! Poverty, Unemployment benefits, wealth inequality, Worker Rights

Our unemployment insurance system has failed the country at a moment of great need. With tens of millions of workers struggling just to pay rent and buy food, Congress was forced to pass two emergency spending bills, providing one-time stimulus payments, special weekly unemployment insurance payments, and temporary unemployment benefits to those not covered by the system. And, because of their limited short-term nature, President Biden must now advocate for a third. The system’s shortcomings have been obvious for some time, but little effort has been made to improve it. In fact, those shortcomings were baked into the system at the beginning, as President Roosevelt wanted, not by accident.

Martin Luther King’s Radical Anticapitalism

January 21, 2021 Keeanga Yahmahtta-Taylor, The Paris Review. Educate! Capitalism, Martin Luther King Jr, Poverty, Racism

In a posthumously published essay, Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out that the “black revolution” had gone beyond the “rights of Negroes.” The struggle, he said, is “forcing America to face all of its interrelated flaws—racism, poverty, militarism and materialism. It is exposing the evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced.” But it had not started out that way. Over the course of a decade, the black struggle opened up a deeper interrogation of U.S. society, and King’s politics traversed the same course.

Martin Luther King’s Vision Of An Interconnected World

January 19, 2021 Arthur Romano, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Inequality, International Soi, Martin Luther King Jr, Poverty

We are facing converging global crises — a horrific pandemic, worsening economic inequality both in the United States and globally, climate change and the continuing scourge of systemic racism around the world. What would Martin Luther King Jr. think or advise if he were alive today? What might he say in these days after the Capitol Building was attacked by a primarily white mob that was seeking to usurp the results of a free and fair election and implement an America First agenda through violent force? To get to these answers, we need to consider one of King’s most important and overlooked pieces of writing, The World House, a chapter in the last book he wrote, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”

Chris Hedges On The Roots Of Rage In Tinderbox America

January 16, 2021 Russell Mokhiber, Morgan County USA. Resistance Report Democrats, Joe Biden, Poverty, Trump

Former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges went on the Jimmy Dore Show this week to discuss the roots of rage in Tinderbox America. “The reaction by CNN and the mainstream media was quite frightening,” Hedges told Dore. “All they did was demonize the people in the crowd, which isn’t in any way to condone what they did. But unless we investigate the roots of this rage, the rupture of these social bonds, the deep betrayal, then these divisions and the rage that comes with it, is only going to grow.” “We should not have deleted Trump from Twitter and other social media platforms,” Hedges said. “Giving these tech companies that kind of ability to censor is very dangerous.

Free Grocery Store Opens In District With High Number Of Poor Students

January 6, 2021 Janelle Griffiths, NBC News. Create! Education, Food Insecurity, Poverty, Texas

This month, the principal of Linda Tutt High School in the small town of Sanger, Texas, said he was approached by an eighth grader eager to share that he had bought a three-in-one men's shampoo, conditioner and body wash. "The first thing he did was he said: 'Hey. Look in my hair,'" the principal, Anthony Love, recalled in an interview Tuesday. "And so I looked at it, and it looked clean," Love said. "But he was excited about it because it was the first time he's ever had his own shampoo." The student, who lives with his mother and sister, said he had avoided using their shampoo because of the smell, Love said. But he was finally able to get his own shampoo, as well as food, at a new student-run grocery store on the school's campus where students can buy food and other essentials, without money.

The US Undercounts People In Poverty By 106 Million

December 19, 2020 Cassie M. Chew, Sojourners. Educate! Joe Biden, Poor People's Campaign, Poverty

Suppose the total annual income of a family composed of a mother, father, great-aunt, and two children living outside of a major metropolitan area came to $32,000 in 2019. Although their income might be significantly lower than the average among similarly-sized households in the region, the U.S. wouldn’t have included them in the official count of American families living in poverty. Families of their size and composition only would have been considered impoverished in 2019 if their earnings fell below $31,275. Since this hypothetical family earned $725 more, they wouldn’t have been considered poor. Scenarios like this one found among real American families are behind new advocacy to change how the U.S. government defines poverty.

Indigenous-Led Patrol Keeps Peace, Assists People In Inner City

December 7, 2020 Chad Pawson, CBC.ca. Create! Canada, Indigenous Activist, Poverty, Violence

An Indigenous-led patrol in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is hoping for funding from the city so it can expand to provide services similar to a well-known patrol in Winnipeg. The Sweet Grass Clan patrol was launched last summer through the Aboriginal Front Door Society at Hastings and Main Streets. It aims to establish a community-based, Indigenous-led patrol much like Winnipeg's Bear Clan patrol, which started small but is now a major presence keeping the peace and assisting residents in inner-city communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group is connecting with people on the street, handing out essential safety items like masks and hand sanitizer.

Book Review: ‘The Myth And Propaganda Of Black Buying Power’

December 4, 2020 Margaret Kimberly, Organisation for Propaganda Studies. Educate! Black America, Capitalism, Poverty, Propaganda

Dr. Jared A. Ball’s new book, “The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power” explains the history of the black “buying power” canard. It is a commercial and political propaganda tool for the black political class, a cudgel to blame people for their own poverty, and a means of disappearing any critique of capitalism. Black Americans are besieged by many facetious notions which claim to bring them progress. One of the most pervasive and insidious is the myth of “buying power.” We are told that we have $1 trillion that could be harnessed if only we spent money more wisely or saved more or were better educated about our personal finances.

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