Recession

Diseased System In Shut-Lockdown

April 26, 2020 Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Austerity, Capitalism, Pandemic, Recession, Socialism

If growing misery among the masses is what made revolutions, the Lords of Capital would have been deposed from their ruling perches long ago. But human beings do not spend their lives tallying cumulative assaults on their well being and dignity, and ruling classes are expert at blaming despised Others, foreign and domestic, for the ills of society. History shows us that economic crises do not become political crises that seriously threaten the ruling order until a critical mass of people come to the realization that the system itself is rotten, unbearable and incapable of meaningful reform. They must not only hate the rulers, but also hate the rulers’ system of governance more than they despise domestic Others and “threatening” foreigners.

Capitalism Can’t Be Repaired

April 26, 2020 Richard D. Wolff, Brave New Europe. Educate! Capitalism, Pandemic, Recession, Socialism

Consider this absurdity: The U.S. government’s policy in the face of the current capitalist crash is to “return the economy to the pre-coronavirus normal.” What? In that “normal” system, private capitalists maximized profits by not producing the tests, masks, ventilators, beds, etc., needed when coronavirus hit. Profit-driven capitalism proved extremely inefficient in its response to the virus. Wealth already lost from the coronavirus far exceeds what it would have cost to prepare properly. In capitalism, a small minority—employers—makes all the key decisions (what, how, where to produce and how to use the proceeds) governing production and distribution of most goods and services. The majority—employees and their families—must live with the results of employers’ decisions but are excluded from making them.

Capitalism Is Failing Its Coronavirus Stress Test

April 25, 2020 Labor Leaders, In These Times. Organize! Corporatism, Labor Movement, Recession, Working Class

At this moment of unprecedented crisis, how can we ensure the physical safety and economic health of U.S. workers? According to a recent USA Today op-ed by four national union leaders—“Coronavirus is a stress test for capitalism, and we see encouraging signs”—the answer is partnering with “well-managed companies” who can “lead the recovery by pulling together and finding new ways to protect, pay and retain employees.” We respectfully disagree. Faced with the coronavirus, the only way to protect the lives and livelihoods of working people is through class struggle, not class snuggle. It’s true that some employers have enacted relatively pro-worker measures in response to COVID-19. But it’s surprising that an op-ed written by labor leaders fails to note the obvious reason for this benevolence: these companies have been compelled to do so by worker action, including the presence of labor unions.

Over 24 Million Workers Apply For Unemployment In Five Weeks

April 25, 2020 the Economic Policy Institute. Educate! COVID-19, Recession, Unemployment

In the last five weeks, the number of workers applying for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits has skyrocketed to well over 20 times what it was in the pre-coronavirus period, and over five times the worst five-week stretch of the Great Recession. For comparison, in the period before the coronavirus hit, just over a million workers would apply for UI in a typical five-week span, and in the worst five-week stretch of the Great Recession, it was less than four million. In the last five weeks, it was more than 24 million. That means more than one in seven workers applied for UI. (It should be noted that using seasonally adjusted numbers, the Department of Labor [DOL] reports that 26.5 million workers applied for UI during the last five weeks, and using unadjusted numbers, they report that 24.4 million workers applied for benefits.

April 25: National Day Of Car Protests To Cancel The Rents

April 24, 2020 Cancel The Rents. Resist! Housing, Recession, Rent, Rent Strike

On Saturday, April 25th cities and towns around the country will mobilize to demand: A national cancellation of all rents, mortgages for homeowners, small landlords, and small businesses, for the duration of the Pandemic. The patchwork of city and state moratoriums on evictions is not enough. In a few months when these moratoriums are lifted and the rents come due -- we will still not have the money! Join thousands of people across the country in car caravan protests on Saturday, April 25 to demand the cancellation of rent and all debts to landlords for the duration of the pandemic.

How State Officials Can Save Main Street With Three Urgent Actions

April 24, 2020 the Public Banking Institute. Create! Federal Reserve, New Economy, Public Bank, Recession, State Government

As states and cities face a tsunami of emergency expenses, collapsing tax revenues, and a shrinking bond market, we wanted to bring to your attention some new funding possibilities that have recently opened up. The Federal Reserve has stepped up to the plate by relaxing some of its rules and dropping interest rates to zero, but only for banks. The state could take advantage of this opportunity by having its own bank, something that could be done quickly by Executive Order. That and two other new funding possibilities are detailed below. #1 Use your emergency powers to set up a state-owned public bank. The Fed is now making its discount window available for loans at 0%-0.25% and is encouraging banks to use that facility to extend credit where needed to alleviate the current crisis.

Coronavirus And The Crisis Of African American Human Rights

April 24, 2020 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! Black Working Class, Capitalism, health, Human Rights, Recession

With the overwhelming evidence that the capitalist system is fundamentally antithetical to the realization of human rights, including what should be an elementary right — access to healthcare — the presidency of Donald J. Trump has been a godsend for the capitalist rulers. The obsessive focus on Trump the person, his style, his theatrics, the idea that he represents an aberration, an existential threat, allows for the ongoing structural violence embedded in the DNA of racialized capitalism to hide in plain sight. But for the Black working class and poor it is suicidal to embrace this illusion. Maintaining a clear understanding of our situation, unimpeded by illusions and ideological mystifications, has always been a tool we used to ensure our survival before the ideological swing to the right over the last decade and a half.

South Africa: Lives Over Profits! Bread Not Bullets!

April 22, 2020 The C19 People's Coalition, Popular Resistance. Organize! COVID-19, Government, Recession, South Africa

The C19 People’s Coalition was born a month ago and includes 250 organisations from across civil society in all provinces, including community-based organisations, social movements, non-governmental organisations, research institutions, faith-based organisations and others. It is the broadest grouping of civil society that has come together to address the current crisis. We have developed a Programme of Action (POA). Our rationale is that government alone cannot combat a health crisis of this scale; community and wider societal participation is critical if the measures that medical science requires us to undertake are to implement in a just and equitable manner. The failure of government and the state to fully align itself with this approach has shone a light on acute societal problems that as a matter of urgency now need to be addressed.

Coronavirus Advice From Abroad

April 22, 2020 By Stephen Engelberg, Caroline Chen and Sebastian Rotella, ProPublica. Create! COVID-19, health, Recession, Reopen Economy

After insisting that he had absolute power to decide when to reopen the American economy, President Donald Trump has turned over to all of you what he initially called “the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.” Trump is often guilty of hyperbole, but he’s right in this case. Figuring out how and when to let people go back to work during an outbreak of life-threatening disease is the most consequential decision any of you will ever face. You’ve already seen the stakes in New York, New Jersey and Michigan. Get this wrong and thousands of people in your state will die. As the presidential election campaign heats up, count on the president to blast you for high unemployment rates in your state (you lifted restrictions too slowly) or clusters of deaths (you went too far, too soon). To help you and your aides think about this decision over the next few weeks, we’ve interviewed experts and frontline officials from Italy, Germany, Spain, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

Stimulus Could Heighten Racial Economic Inequality

April 22, 2020 Layla A. Jones, Billy Penn. Educate! Bailout, Recession, Redlining, wealth inequality

As Americans across the country peeked at their federally stimulated bank accounts last week, Dr. David R. Williams of Harvard University issued an urgent call to action. As chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences in Harvard’s public health school, Williams focuses on the effects of discrimination and social influences on health. “The striking disparities we are seeing are not a result of the families who are experiencing them,” Williams said in a national press briefing. “Instead they are a result of longstanding policies. Coronavirus is highlighting this for us.” That concept was echoed over and over by historians speaking to Billy Penn about what the federal stimulus funds could mean for communities of color in Philadelphia.

As One Of Largest Bailouts In History Looms, ‘Crisis Ridden’ Corporations Reap Record Profits

April 21, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Bailout, Congress, COVID-19, Recession

Hospitals overflowing with sick and dying patients. Overworked staff risking their lives wearing garbage bags as makeshift protective equipment against an invisible but deadly virus. Refrigerated containers left outside medical facilities, filling with the dead. Mass graves being dug in the city. It is like something out of a horror movie. But it is very real and is happening right now in America. “We are doing the best we can,” Derrick Smith, a certified registered nurse anesthetist in New York City told MintPress last week, “but people are dying left and right, no exaggeration.” “I’ve never imagined or seen our healthcare system take such a beating before,” he said. “This is something that none of us have ever really seen.”

General Strike Campaign Growing In The United States; Begins On May Day

April 20, 2020 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast COVID-19, General Strike, Recession, Working Class

Over the last two years, there have been record numbers of worker strikes in the United States not seen since the depression. Since the recession and COVID-19 pandemic started this winter, there have been many wildcat strikes in response to workers having their pay cut and being required to work in hazardous conditions even though they are deemed essential. Now, as the government demonstrates its unwillingness to provide basic protection for the population even as it injects billions of dollars to big industries and banks, support for a general strike is here. We speak with Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson about the plans being made for the first general strike on May Day, what that will look like and how the campaign will be sustained over time.

Unions Back US Postal Service’s $75 Billion Pandemic Appeal

April 20, 2020 Mark Gruenberg, Intrepid Report. Organize! Bailout, Labor Unions, Postal Service, Recession

Washington — Faced with a crash in mail volume and revenue due to closures to battle the coronavirus pandemic—right when the country needs the Postal Service the most to help get vital food, medicine, and other life-saving goods to everyone—Postmaster General Megan Brennan asked Congress for a combination of $75 billion in cash and credit to keep going through the financial disaster. Her April 9 video briefing request, to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which handles postal legislation, drew immediate support from the nation’s two big postal unions, the Letter Carriers (NALC) and the Postal Workers (APWU). And even GOP President Donald Trump’s Postal Board of Governors backed it. “It is vitally important to the American people that the next stimulus package provides funding to the Postal Service sufficient to maintain a revenue stream that allows them to continue operations through this pandemic crisis,” NALC President Fredric Rolando e-mailed on April 10.

New York Tenants Plan A ‘Massive Wave Of Rent Strikes’

April 20, 2020 Steven Wishnia, The Indypendent. Resist! COVID-19, New York City (NYC), Recession, Rent Strike

With hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers unable to pay rent after being forced out of work by the coronavirus epidemic, a group of housing activists is organizing what they call “a massive wave of rent strikes” beginning May 1. Their aim is to pressure the state to cancel all rent payments for April, May, and June. “My building is going on rent strike starting May 1,” Lena Melendez of Washington Heights, a member of the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association, said during a telephone press conference April 16. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 90-day moratorium on evictions won’t protect tenants, she added, because when it ends, they’ll owe three months back rent— often adding up to $6,000 or more. There will be “massive evictions” when the courts reopen, she predicts.

A Universal Basic Income Is Essential And Will Work

April 20, 2020 Ellen Brown, The Web of Debt Blog. Create! Debt, Federal Reserve, New Economy, Recession, Universal Basic Income

According to an April 6 article on CNBC.com, Spain is slated to become the first country in Europe to introduce a universal basic income (UBI) on a long-term basis. Spain’s Minister for Economic Affairs has announced plans to roll out a UBI “as soon as possible,” with the goal of providing a nationwide basic wage that supports citizens “forever.” Guy Standing, a research professor at the University of London, told CNBC that there was no prospect of a global economic revival without a universal basic income. “It’s almost a no-brainer,” he said. “We are going to have some sort of basic income system sooner or later ….” “Where will the government find the money?” is no longer a valid objection to providing an economic safety net for the people.

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