https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ib6LsH54CE
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Texas educators launch safety committee to save lives
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/08/texa-s08.html
By the Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee
8 September 2020
The following is a statement from the Texas Educators Rank-and- File Safety Committee, which has been established to mobilize opposition to the increasingly unsafe conditions in Texas schools and the draconian demands placed on educators and other school workers. For more information and to join the committee, contact us today.
Texas has had over 650,000 cases of COVID-19. More than 80 percent of hospital beds are in use in the state’s five largest cities, and flu season is right around the corner. Additionally, COVID-19 has recently been shown to transmit primarily through aerosols, which can collect and circulate in small indoor spaces without advanced ventilation systems—the precise situation in most Texas classrooms. The safety measures deployed so far (masks, social distancing, temperature checks/surface cleaning) do not address these new facts about the nature of the disease.
We are creating and mobilizing the Texas Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee to defend the life of every student, teacher, and family member in this state. Repeated entreaties to local governments have failed. Union-backed lawsuits against unnecessary district reopenings that endanger the most vulnerable have been defeated and subsequently dropped.
Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have comprehensively reneged on the most elementary provisions of security and safety for educators, and these failures fall disproportionately onto the backs of students and teachers in already underfunded districts. Neither the Abbott administration nor the Texas AFT (American Federation of Teachers) are invested in any serious defense of the interests of teachers and paraprofessionals, preferring instead to lend their voices to the back-to-work profit drive on behalf of Wall Street at the expense of the working class.
Educators in Texas are being emotionally and legislatively blackmailed into compliance with unsafe work conditions. The attorney general has shown his willingness to overrule the recommendations of local medical authorities advising school closures, as evidenced by his July 28 memorandum forbidding the preemptive closure of schools based on mandates from supervising health authorities.
Texas universities, pursuing a reckless, unplanned, and murderous reopening that started in mid-August, have seen massive case increases. Teacher Assistants have been forced to choose between teaching in-person or losing their jobs, while university resident halls have turned into quarantine centers.
The assertion that a “safe reopening” of K-12 schools and universities is possible has already been proven false in practice. Hundreds of infections have taken place in K-12 schools across the state. Baylor University has 824 cases after resuming majority in-person classes on August 24; Texas A&M has 878 cases since August 22; Texas Tech has 717 cases; and the University of Texas Austin has 601 cases.
Texas educators must act in affirmative self-defense and stand their ground on the absolute principle of lives over profit.
Therefore, we issue the following demands and commit ourselves to fighting for them:
1. We unequivocally demand the cessation of in-person instruction for all public schools, private schools, and charter schools in the State of Texas. Any and all decisions on the viability of in-person instruction should be determined democratically by workers, based on the scientifically grounded guidance of trusted health authorities, as determined by rank-and-file educators.
2. The culture of fear and intimidation that has been cultivated by politicians and the media to intimidate teachers into endangering themselves and their loved ones must come to an immediate halt. We demand an end to the coercion and economic blackmail that have been weaponized against educators in Texas.
3. The attacks on evidence-based policy leveled by partisan state lawmakers and the Executive Branch serve only to eradicate public trust in scientific mandates, which endanger each and every Texas resident. We call for an end to the assault on science and scientifically guided public policy, which have been attacked for specific partisan and financial goals.
4. The threat posed to older and/or immunocompromised educators has forced many into a reluctant retirement or resignation. To that end, we demand that every educator facing such a predicament be guaranteed full income and be allowed to return to his or her job once safe conditions are reestablished.
5. Teachers working from home under the current conditions must be compensated at their full salaries. Additionally, teachers must be provided unlimited sick leave to avoid the macabre outcome of rationing sick days based on severity of symptoms. No teacher should lose a cent in compensation due to pandemic accommodations. All K-12 educators, college professors, and Teacher Assistants working from home under the current conditions must be compensated at their full salaries.
6. The life of each and every student is invaluable and non-negotiable. We demand an end to the homicidal “herd immunity” approach that endangers the most vulnerable children in the most underserved and put-upon communities. To write off the death of even one student as an “acceptable casualty” or “inevitable loss” is barbarism of the highest order.
7. The safety of children is not limited to their physical well-being. Parents must be liberated to focus on the issues and concerns that arise with their children without the threat of economic ruination when they prioritize the needs of their children over those of their jobs. To this effect, we demand full income protection for parents who elect to stay home to facilitate their children’s education.
8. The bipartisan expiration of the $600-a-week federal unemployment benefits reveals the bloody intent of both political parties to prosecute a campaign of downward wage pressure upon the workers and their families. We demand a provision of generous economic and educational resources for both short- and long-term unemployed parents to be financed by taxes on oil production and large estates. In addition, all college tuition payments must be frozen, and student loan debt abolished to provide free higher education to all.
9. We demand the provision of rapid-response on-site testing for all faculty, students, and paraprofessional staff. Registered nurses must work alongside administrators to ensure safety protocols are both followed and enforced. Contact tracers must be stationed at every school in every district to provide the public with up-to-date information about the locality and severity of the virus.
10. The events that take place within school are in the public domain, and any efforts by administrators or government officials to conceal the details about the spread of the infection must be opposed and the truth revealed to the public. We demand the protection and support of whistleblowers who draw attention to the problems at hand for students and teachers alike. We refuse to abide the current regime of fear and censorship that has characterized the response to the pandemic at the highest levels of administrative and executive government.
Teachers must not be made to march to their graves!
We, Texas teachers, are calling on our colleagues, caregivers, students, administrators, college admissions officers, custodial and nutritional staff, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, workers in other industries, and anyone else concerned about this threat to join us in protecting ourselves and each other from a reckless and cynical physical return.
Texas is the second most populous state in the United States, with 29 million residents. It is home to a large and powerful working class drawn from all around the world, speaking numerous different languages, and connected to the international process of production by countless channels.
Sitting over this powerful working class is one of the most reactionary state governments anywhere. The law in Texas is that strikes of public employees are illegal, and any attempt to organize work stoppages among public employees will be met with the full repressive force of the state apparatus.
The powers-that-be in the state government are frightened by the immense power that teachers and educators hold, hence their relentless assault on each and every attempt by workers to assert their democratic rights.
Meanwhile, the same unions that collect our monthly dues march us into danger! We are expected to expend untold efforts to provide quality education. In return, we receive no support from the state government, district-by-district financial blackmail from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), and a series of insufficient ad hoc solutions to problems that grow worse by the day and more numerous by the hour.
It is high time teachers recognize their essential status! If teachers do not teach, then parents cannot work. If parents cannot work, then business cannot profit. And if businesses cannot profit, then their dividends will cease while the stock market simultaneously craters. There is already a shortage of educators in the state, and we have been put upon for too long.
Already, rank-and-file safety committees are being formed in cities, counties and states across the country. We stand in absolute solidarity with those efforts, and we lend our full structural and material support to those educators and the members of the communities they represent. We encourage educators reading this to get involved in the effort to join a rank-and-file safety committee or to lead the campaign to create one in your area.
We are exercising our First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of association. We commit ourselves to studying and bringing forward the history of the struggles of the working class in Texas, in America and internationally and reviving the traditions of real workers struggles.
There is no official political organization, union, or body that is working seriously to defend educators and workers from the murderous back-to-school drive and advance their interests. Therefore, we are taking matters into our own hands through democratic self-organization, independent of the unions and the Democratic and Republican parties. We urge all those in agreement to contact us today.
Global coronavirus death projections point to policy of herd immunity being pursued with impunity
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/08/viru-s08.html
By Benjamin Mateus
8 September 2020
On September 4, the number of new cases of COVID-19 surpassed 300,000 globally for the first time. After a brief peak in mid-August, the seven-day running average is climbing again, with over 267,500 infections each day. There have been over 27 million cases since the start of the pandemic in December 2019, a period of nine months.
The first 10 million cases were reached on June 27 and the first 20 million on August 9. Cases are expected to exceed 30 million in the second half of this month, after which the number of new cases is set to increase its pace, according to the global projections made by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), based in Seattle, Washington.
According to Worldometer Dashboard, on September 6, 2020:
* Globally: total cases 27,234,299; total deaths 886,192
* Europe: total cases 3,797,637; total deaths 209,970
* North America (including Mexico and Central America): total cases 7,658,021; total deaths 280,295
* South America: total cases 6,688,579; total deaths 211,692
* Asia: total cases 7,755,652; total deaths 152,104, with India at the epicenter
* Africa: total cases 1,304,400; total deaths 31,332
* Oceania: total cases 29,289; total deaths 784
Based on IHME’s current global projections, by December 1, 2020, the cumulative number of deaths will exceed 1.92 million, an additional million victims over the next three months. By various regions, the figures are as follows:
* East Asia and Pacific: 131,736 deaths, with a peak of 4,820 deaths per day
* South Asia: 404,016 deaths, with daily deaths at 9,716
* Europe and Central Asia: 406,204 deaths, with 5,441 deaths per day peaking in the last week of December at 9,670 daily deaths
* Latin Americas and Caribbean islands: 478,124 deaths, with a peak of 1,600 daily deaths
* North America (the US and Canada): 339,647 deaths, with a peak of 3,137 daily deaths
* North Africa and the Middle East: 113,839 deaths, with an initial peak of 1,671 followed by a second surge mid-December
* Sub-Saharan Africa: 50,033 deaths, with a peak of 809 deaths per day
Daily deaths are projected to start climbing after October 1 and then rise sharply after November 1. By December 1, current projections for the daily number of deaths stand at 26,870. Hospital resources expected in use in December include 1.87 million hospital beds, 399,463 intensive care unit (ICU) beds and 340,307 ventilators. These projections are driven by dropping temperatures in the fall and winter season that drive people indoors, compounded by declining mask usage, which stands at around 60 percent, and declining social distancing measures.
India has become the epicenter of the pandemic as daily COVID-19 infection rates continue their ascent unabated. On September 6, the country recorded a single-day high of 91,723 new cases. With over 4.28 million cases, it is second only to the United States, with 6.48 million cases. Though India ranks third in number of deaths, this is most certainly a gross underestimation. Testing rates remain abysmally low, and most of the population that live in rural areas lack access to medical attention, making a diagnosis attributable to COVID-19 nearly impossible. On the other hand, more than half the population is under the age of 25, which is known to be a factor for improved outcomes.
With 634,000 cases and over 67,000 deaths, Mexico’s crude case fatality rate has been one of the highest, at above 10 percent. It is fourth in terms of deaths behind the United States, Brazil and India. Recent government statistics place the number of excess deaths from March to August from all causes at 122,765 more than previous years, indicating a gross underestimation of COVID-19 deaths. Excess mortality has been predominately among people between 45 to 65 years of age. Late last week, Hugo Lopez Gatell, a health official for the Mexican state, informed the press that they had run out of death certificates.
On Friday, France saw a spike in new cases reach close to 9,000, the largest daily increase since the beginning of the pandemic. As Bloomberg noted, the surge is arriving just as schools are preparing for the arrival of 12 million students. Yet, Macron’s government is pushing back against any future lockdown measures. Health Minister Olivier Veran, speaking on France’s BFM TV, a 24-hour rolling news and weather channel, said, “I can’t imagine a total re-confinement and the president doesn’t want to consider a general re-confinement.”
Across Europe, cases have been on the rise as lockdowns were eased and summer travels were permitted. Repeatedly, leaders of every country have cited the crippling economy and public fatigue as justification for not reviving future lockdowns or containment measures. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has even called the reopening of schools a “moral duty,” a necessary strategy for recovery from the pandemic. Behind these sentiments lies the policy of herd immunity working through political figures to force the population to accept as inevitable that which is preventable.
In an opinion piece in the New York Times Dr. Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said of the growing number of cases throughout Europe, “Lockdown measures can bring case numbers low enough that testing and tracing can break chains of transmission. European countries have already taken a severe economic and social hit to contain COVID-19, but to finish the job and truly crunch the curve, they need to build up a massive diagnostic capacity to be able to run large, fast and accurate testing services. This is a difficult project but not impossible.”
NPR recently sat down with the head of IHME’s team, Chris Murray, as well as Dr. Ashish Jha of Brown University and Kalipso Chalkidou of the Imperial College School of Public Health in London to discuss these horrific but possibly controversial figures.
Murray said that according to his team’s calculations, “When you look at the huge epidemics that unfolded in Argentina, despite considerable efforts at lockdowns, the big epidemics that occurred in Chile, the epidemics in Southern Brazil and South Africa and contrasted them with what was happening in the Northern Hemisphere, in places with similar social distancing mandates, where things were actually on average, improving—that’s where in the statistical analysis, we see a very strong correlation with seasonality.”
Dr. Jha said that the projections of 410,000 deaths in the US by January 1 are highly implausible. He explained, “We have gotten so much better at taking care of sick patients, I think mortality has probably fallen by about 50 percent.” Yet, Murray countered that his team found that death rates have failed to improve even after advancements in treatments and various therapies. Dr. Chalkidou added that many countries across the globe lack reliable health statistics, making determination of the cause of death impossible. “This means it’s likely that vast numbers of COVID-19 deaths are going uncounted. We also don’t have good data on comorbidities that increase people’s chances of dying of COVID-19.”
These chilling conversations and reports deserve thoughtfully consideration. They provide a disastrous prognosis that the near-future trajectory of the pandemic will have devastating consequences if immediate measures are not taken to stem the transmission of this contagion. Yet, massive political efforts are being employed to open schools and force society to return to pre-pandemic existence for the sake of the financial markets. That these startling figures do not assume the primary focus in current world events is criminally negligent and the hallmark of the criminality of the ruling elites.
Health disaster and class conflict on horizon as millions of students return to US schools
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/08/scho-s08.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws
By Evan Blake
8 September 2020
Following the Labor Day holiday, the vast majority of K-12 public schools have now begun their fall semester across the United States. Millions of students and educators have been forced back into overcrowded and dilapidated schools, which will induce a massive spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yesterday, the US surpassed 6.5 million COVID-19 cases and is on track to soon reach the gruesome death toll of 200,000.
The nation’s roughly 13,600 school districts have been left to their own devices, reopening either fully in-person, or fully remote instruction, or under the “hybrid” model combining the two. Given the rapid level of community transmission of COVID-19 and the porousness of district and state boundaries, the latest science makes clear that the only safe method of instruction at present is full remote learning.
A study released in July found that the transition to remote learning in the spring prevented 1.37 million infections over a 26-day period and saved roughly 40,600 lives in the US over a 16-day period. Another study last month found that aerosolized particles containing COVID-19 can travel up to 16 feet through indoor settings, exposing the utter fraud that a “hybrid” model with minimal social distancing can be done safely.
Democratic and Republican politicians nationally are consciously implementing a policy of “herd immunity” that they know will lead to a catastrophic loss of life for the most vulnerable sections of the population. They do so in order to reduce pension and health care obligations, and to force parents back into factories and other workplaces where they face ramped-up exploitation in order to service the unprecedented levels of debt produced by the CARES Act bailout of Wall Street and major corporations.
There are no national or state bodies aggregating reopening plans for all school districts in the country, a damning testament to the contempt of the ruling class for educators and the entire working class.
The most comprehensive list of reopening plans has been compiled by Education Week, which reports plans for 888 districts across the country, including the 100 largest districts. Of these districts, 219 are providing fully in-person instruction involving 2.54 million students; 246 are reopening under the “hybrid” model involving 3.84 million students; and 423 are reopening fully online involving 13.2 million students.
Based on this list, roughly a third of all public school students have returned to classrooms at least part-time. If these figures are extrapolated for all 50.8 million students in the US, then roughly 6.6 million have now resumed fully in-person learning and another 10 million have resumed partial in-person learning under the hybrid model.
The results of these policies have already been catastrophic, with thousands of COVID-19 infections tied to K-12 school reopenings and tens of thousands on college campuses. Following reports of major outbreaks at schools that first reopened in late July, a regime of censorship has been erected across the country, with districts and states falsely claiming that HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws prevent them from sharing information on outbreaks in schools.
In the coming weeks there will be a flood of news reports that teachers, education workers, students and parents have died as a result of school reopenings, which will provoke a groundswell of opposition. There will be revolts by educators, attempted retaliation by administrators and the state apparatus, and the eruption of broader struggles by the working class against the homicidal back-to-school and back-to-work policies.
Teachers and school workers have no choice but to take matters into their own hands, form their own organizations which they control, and fight for their collective self-defense. The critical task at present is to rapidly build an interconnected network of independent, rank-and-file safety committees to prepare for the immense struggles that lie ahead. The Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, which formed four weeks ago to facilitate the growth of this network of rank-and-file safety committees, made the following statement condemning the mass reopening of schools:
These policies will lead to untold suffering and death, all of which is entirely unnecessary. We call for the immediate closure of all schools that have reopened, in order to stop the spread of the pandemic and save lives. To achieve this, educators, parents and students must take matters into their own hands and organize independently of the unions and both big business parties, which are doing everything to facilitate the reopening of schools.
In schools that have reopened, rank-and-file safety committees must demand and enforce the provision of the highest-grade PPE, daily and rapid testing for all students and staff, the reduction of class sizes to no more than 10 students, the retrofitting of schools to have the most advanced ventilation systems, and other measures to ensure the greatest degree of safety. In opposition to the conspiracy to withhold vital public information, these committees will expose the truth, defend whistleblowers against retaliation and uphold the right of educators to collectively refuse to work when outbreaks occur.
In fighting for these demands, the committees will win wide support among educators and prepare the grounds for a broad struggle to completely close schools and transition to high quality remote learning, with online working conditions also to be controlled by these committees.
The formation of rank-and-file safety committees must be wholly independent of both the Democrats and Republicans, as well as the teachers unions and their apologists in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other pseudoleft organizations, all of whom support the reopening of schools with only minor tactical differences.
Throughout the summer and over the past six weeks that schools have reopened en masse, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), and their state and local affiliates, have directly facilitated the homicidal reopening of schools.
The unions have promoted illusions in impotent lawsuits, opposed the mobilization of millions of educators in joint strike action, and reached miserable sellout deals with Democratic politicians to reopen schools with in-person instruction in New York City, Detroit and other cities. In districts such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego, the unions struck deals to start the semester online, simply forestalling the resumption of in-person learning by a few weeks.
There has been an outpouring of opposition since early July, when the Trump administration began escalating the drive to reopen schools. There have been hundreds of protests, which are continuing, votes for strike action and widespread discussion on social media. The most conscious expression of this opposition has been the formation of rank-and-file safety committees in Detroit, Florida, Texas and other locations.
The orientation of these committees is to the broader working class in the US and internationally, fighting for the unification of educators with workers in the auto industry, health care, logistics, meatpacking, and all those who face the same deadly conditions worldwide.
Only through such unity will it be possible to mount a powerful struggle to shut the unsafe schools, provide high quality online learning, and take the measures needed to contain the pandemic and save workers’ lives. All those who agree with this perspective should fight to build such committees today.
The author also recommends:
The global campaign to reopen schools and the international strategy of the working class
[4 September 2020]
For a general strike against the reopening of German schools!
[15 August 2020]
8 September 2020
Following the Labor Day holiday, the vast majority of K-12 public schools have now begun their fall semester across the United States. Millions of students and educators have been forced back into overcrowded and dilapidated schools, which will induce a massive spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yesterday, the US surpassed 6.5 million COVID-19 cases and is on track to soon reach the gruesome death toll of 200,000.
The nation’s roughly 13,600 school districts have been left to their own devices, reopening either fully in-person, or fully remote instruction, or under the “hybrid” model combining the two. Given the rapid level of community transmission of COVID-19 and the porousness of district and state boundaries, the latest science makes clear that the only safe method of instruction at present is full remote learning.
A study released in July found that the transition to remote learning in the spring prevented 1.37 million infections over a 26-day period and saved roughly 40,600 lives in the US over a 16-day period. Another study last month found that aerosolized particles containing COVID-19 can travel up to 16 feet through indoor settings, exposing the utter fraud that a “hybrid” model with minimal social distancing can be done safely.
Democratic and Republican politicians nationally are consciously implementing a policy of “herd immunity” that they know will lead to a catastrophic loss of life for the most vulnerable sections of the population. They do so in order to reduce pension and health care obligations, and to force parents back into factories and other workplaces where they face ramped-up exploitation in order to service the unprecedented levels of debt produced by the CARES Act bailout of Wall Street and major corporations.
There are no national or state bodies aggregating reopening plans for all school districts in the country, a damning testament to the contempt of the ruling class for educators and the entire working class.
The most comprehensive list of reopening plans has been compiled by Education Week, which reports plans for 888 districts across the country, including the 100 largest districts. Of these districts, 219 are providing fully in-person instruction involving 2.54 million students; 246 are reopening under the “hybrid” model involving 3.84 million students; and 423 are reopening fully online involving 13.2 million students.
Based on this list, roughly a third of all public school students have returned to classrooms at least part-time. If these figures are extrapolated for all 50.8 million students in the US, then roughly 6.6 million have now resumed fully in-person learning and another 10 million have resumed partial in-person learning under the hybrid model.
The results of these policies have already been catastrophic, with thousands of COVID-19 infections tied to K-12 school reopenings and tens of thousands on college campuses. Following reports of major outbreaks at schools that first reopened in late July, a regime of censorship has been erected across the country, with districts and states falsely claiming that HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws prevent them from sharing information on outbreaks in schools.
In the coming weeks there will be a flood of news reports that teachers, education workers, students and parents have died as a result of school reopenings, which will provoke a groundswell of opposition. There will be revolts by educators, attempted retaliation by administrators and the state apparatus, and the eruption of broader struggles by the working class against the homicidal back-to-school and back-to-work policies.
Teachers and school workers have no choice but to take matters into their own hands, form their own organizations which they control, and fight for their collective self-defense. The critical task at present is to rapidly build an interconnected network of independent, rank-and-file safety committees to prepare for the immense struggles that lie ahead. The Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee, which formed four weeks ago to facilitate the growth of this network of rank-and-file safety committees, made the following statement condemning the mass reopening of schools:
These policies will lead to untold suffering and death, all of which is entirely unnecessary. We call for the immediate closure of all schools that have reopened, in order to stop the spread of the pandemic and save lives. To achieve this, educators, parents and students must take matters into their own hands and organize independently of the unions and both big business parties, which are doing everything to facilitate the reopening of schools.
In schools that have reopened, rank-and-file safety committees must demand and enforce the provision of the highest-grade PPE, daily and rapid testing for all students and staff, the reduction of class sizes to no more than 10 students, the retrofitting of schools to have the most advanced ventilation systems, and other measures to ensure the greatest degree of safety. In opposition to the conspiracy to withhold vital public information, these committees will expose the truth, defend whistleblowers against retaliation and uphold the right of educators to collectively refuse to work when outbreaks occur.
In fighting for these demands, the committees will win wide support among educators and prepare the grounds for a broad struggle to completely close schools and transition to high quality remote learning, with online working conditions also to be controlled by these committees.
The formation of rank-and-file safety committees must be wholly independent of both the Democrats and Republicans, as well as the teachers unions and their apologists in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other pseudoleft organizations, all of whom support the reopening of schools with only minor tactical differences.
Throughout the summer and over the past six weeks that schools have reopened en masse, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), and their state and local affiliates, have directly facilitated the homicidal reopening of schools.
The unions have promoted illusions in impotent lawsuits, opposed the mobilization of millions of educators in joint strike action, and reached miserable sellout deals with Democratic politicians to reopen schools with in-person instruction in New York City, Detroit and other cities. In districts such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego, the unions struck deals to start the semester online, simply forestalling the resumption of in-person learning by a few weeks.
There has been an outpouring of opposition since early July, when the Trump administration began escalating the drive to reopen schools. There have been hundreds of protests, which are continuing, votes for strike action and widespread discussion on social media. The most conscious expression of this opposition has been the formation of rank-and-file safety committees in Detroit, Florida, Texas and other locations.
The orientation of these committees is to the broader working class in the US and internationally, fighting for the unification of educators with workers in the auto industry, health care, logistics, meatpacking, and all those who face the same deadly conditions worldwide.
Only through such unity will it be possible to mount a powerful struggle to shut the unsafe schools, provide high quality online learning, and take the measures needed to contain the pandemic and save workers’ lives. All those who agree with this perspective should fight to build such committees today.
The author also recommends:
The global campaign to reopen schools and the international strategy of the working class
[4 September 2020]
For a general strike against the reopening of German schools!
[15 August 2020]
The Billionaires Are Already Moving To Privatize Social Security And Take Your Money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-2vLye0HWg
CHINA BACKS VENEZUELA’S RIGHT TO SAFEGUARD SOVEREIGNTY
By Telesur English.September 7, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/china-backs-venezuelas-right-to-safeguard-sovereignty/
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China and Venezuela share basically similar views on safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, jointly supporting multilateralism, and improving global governance.
China stands with the Venezuelan people in their fight against COVID-19 and upholds the Venezuelan government’s right to safeguard national sovereignty, and national dignity and development, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.
Wang made the remarks while holding talks with his Venezuelan counterpart Jorge Arreaza via video link.
Noting that Latin America is one of the “epicenters” of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang said Venezuela is facing the challenge of preventing and controlling the epidemic and resolutely fighting hegemony as well.
China and Venezuela share basically similar views on safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests, jointly supporting multilateralism, and improving global governance, Wang said, adding that China is willing to provide additional help and support in accordance with Venezuela’s needs.
Maintaining sovereign equality of nations, resolving disputes by peaceful means, and non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs are the most important principles of the UN Charter. But the United States has publicly declared to overthrow the Venezuelan government, and has even escalated its sanctions against Venezuela at this critical anti-epidemic moment, violating the basic humanitarian spirit.
“Any external interference runs contrary to the will of the people, and will not be sustainable,” Wang said, adding that China believes that Venezuela has the ability and wisdom to resolve the problems it faces through domestic dialogue and China is willing to play a constructive role in this regard.
Arreaza said Venezuela appreciated China for dispatching a team of medical experts, providing anti-epidemic material assistance, and speaking up for Venezuela on the international stage to oppose unreasonable unilateral sanctions by the United States.
The United States does not want to see the rise of China and emerging market economies. It attempts to delay China’s development process and also promote the Monroe Doctrine again in Latin America. These attempts will not succeed, he said.
Venezuela firmly supports the one-China principle and believes that China will succeed in its economic and social reform, said Arreaza.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)