Sunday, May 31, 2020
HEALTH CARE WORKERS CALL ON LABOR MOVEMENT TO TAKE ACTION
https://popularresistance.org/health-care-workers-call-on-labor-movement-to-take-action/
A Group Of Socialist Health Care Workers Put Forward A Statement In Solidarity With Actions Against Police And Racist Violence, Demanding Justice For George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, And Sean Reed, And Call On Unions And Healthcare Organizations To Take Up This Struggle.
We Condemn the Racist Police Murder of George Floyd and Believe Police Violence is a Public Health Crisis
As health care workers, we condemn the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers as an act of racist violence. We condemn the murder of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police officers as an act of racist violence. We condemn the murder of Tony McDade by Tallahassee police officers as an act of racist violence. Their killings are just a handful of countless examples of police brutality responsible for the early deaths of many Black people in the United States. Black people are three times more likely than white people to die by police violence. As health care workers, we witness first-hand how widespread racist police brutality harms Black and brown people. We understand the anti-Black, racist origins of the institution of policing, initially created to patrol and entrap people who had escaped enslavement. Thus, we recognize police violence as a critical public health threat, and racism as a public health crisis.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN ON.
We Condemn Racist Enforcing of Social Distance Measures in Black and Brown Communities
In New York City, the NYPD arrested 40 individuals for ‘breaking’ social distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, 35 of whom were Black. Meanwhile, multiple photographic and video evidence showed white groups congregating in parks and public venues without disruption. This invasive and selective enforcement of policing, surveillance, and punishment of Black and Brown communities reflects racist practices in the name of public health.
We Believe Health Care Workers Are Working Class and Should Stand in Solidarity with Black-and-Indigenous-Led Movements, Especially During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Health care workers are part of a multi-racial, multi-ethnic working class that is repeatedly subjected to racist bigotry and violence. Inside the U.S.corporatized healthcare system, we are reduced to conduits of profit-generation for large hospital and clinic systems that prioritize their capital interests over patient health and worker safety. The labor of health care workers is exploited similarly to non-health care workers, but in the age of COVID-19, health care workers are the sole recipients of “thanks” and “praise” for being on the “frontlines” of a global pandemic. In stark contrast, the underpaid, underprotected, and underprotected members of the Black and brown working class keep our cities moving, but are most frequently subjected to the systemic racism of frantic 911 calls, escalated police violence, and ultimately, early demise.
As health care workers, we oppose the racism that permeates our institutions and we oppose the economic structure that elevates profits over people. We commit to uplifting the narratives of Black and Indigenous people, and intentionally supporting their leadership in the movement.
We Denounce Professionalism and Dual Loyalty
We denounce practices and expectations of professionalism and dual loyalty. As healthcare workers we are often told to maintain “professionalism” while interacting with representatives of institutions that harm our patients. This maintenance of professionalism can lead us to accept and be cordial with institutions harming the health of the public. It reinforces the status quo of white supremacy. It legitimizes institutions like racist policing and helps protect such destructive institutions from being challenged, while keeping us silent around issues that matter. Black, Indigenous, and other healthcare workers of color perhaps understand best the terrifying nature of dual loyalties. We will no longer stand by, normalizing and maintaining white supremacist and class power, as the patients we serve are killed on the street.
We Denounce Worker Expendability Under Racial Capitalism, Especially Under COVID-19
We denounce capitalism’s subjugation of workers and its dependence on structural racism and racist policing. We see the effects of this dynamic in everyday interactions with our patients. The division and control of workers under racial capitalism forces us all to work in unsafe conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe it is no coincidence that in our systemically racist society, the bulk of “essential workers” are the same Black and brown people who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
We Stand in Solidarity with Actions Against Racist Violence
We recognize that racist, white nationalist violent acts are increasing with President Trump’s continued racist and xenophobic rhetoric. The people of Minnesota, along with others around the country, are rising up against racist and capitalist oppression through the use of a variety of strategic and direct methods. We recognize these mixed methods as legitimate and necessary expressions of righteous anger felt by people pushed to the edge by a social order meant to disenfranchise them, and believe in their revolutionary potential.
As healthcare workers we stand in solidarity with those resisting the racism that exists in the United States, a country founded on genocide and enslavement and conceived on stolen indigenous land. We condemn racist police terrorizing the communities we serve and we will no longer remain silent while this continues. We believe in eliminating the disease of policing, the white supremacist capitalist structure that underlies it, and all other systems that benefit from terrorizing communities in this country and around the world.
We demand that our unions and respective healthcare organizations take up and support this fight immediately. We demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed and all the victims of police violence. Firing these officers is not enough. Instead there must be detention and prosecution of the police involved in these killings. In the words of Minneapolis protestors, “Prosecute the police! No Justice, No Peace!”
We will join this fight.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN ON.
Email: socialisthealthcareworkers@gmail.com
Signed,
Tre Kwon – Registered Nurse, NYC.
Jillian Primiano – Registered Nurse, NYC
Mike Pappas – Physician, NYC
Shreya Mahajan – Nurse, DC
Jocelyn Camacho – Nurse, NYC
Musaub Khan – Medical Doctor, NYC
Vanessa Ferrel – Medical Doctor, NYC
Nicole Denuccio – Registered Nurse, NYC
Derrick Smith – Registered Nurse, NYC
Sarah Baden – Medical Doctor, New York
Timothy Munier – Registered Nurse, New York
Ashley Guadalupe-Padgett -Physician, New York
Mara Phelan – Resident Doctor, New York
Mark Bornstein – Physician, New Yorknyc
Kavya Minama Reddy – Physician, NYC
Mallika Govindan – Physician, NYC
Peter Marcus – Physician, NY
Tonie McKenzie – Resident physician, Brooklyn, NY
Lakshmi Babu – Physician, Unionville
Natasha Marks – Registered Nurse, NYC
Anuj Rao – Medical Doctor, NYC
Tasha Smith – Nurse Practitioner, New York
Arielle Gerard – Physician, Brooklyn, NY
Lara Weiss – Medical Doctor, NYC
Mark Edouard – Resident Physician, NYC
Jordano Sanchez – Resident Physician, New York
Vanessa Van Doren – Physician, Atlanta
Lukmanafis Babajide – Physician, Newark
Alexander Jordan – Medical Doctor, NYC
Alex Ewenczyk – Medical Doctor, psychiatry pgy3, NYC
Cori Hompesch – Registered Nurse, NYC
Erica Anunwah – Medical Student, San Diego
Jenna Schmitz – MPH, Midwife, Bronx
Katherine Mullins – Medical Doctor, NYC
Hugo Ortega – Medical Doctor, NYC
Leopoldine Matialeu – Medical Doctor, San Diego, CA
Libby Brubaker – Resident Physician – New York
Anita Sreedhar – Incoming medicine resident – New York City
Kimberly Jocelyn – Supervisor, Public Health Advisor & Public Health Analyst , New York
Payal Desai – Resident Physician, Oakland, CA
Anne Chmilewski – Physician, AZ
Antoinette mason – Physician, Santa Rosa, CA
Jennifer Fish – Medical Doctor, Santa Rosa, CA
Cecilia Divin – MD Family medicine physician, Sacramento,CA
Ramsey Salem – Resident, Los Angeles
Daniel Woolridge – Medical Doctor, San Francisco
Jennifer Tsoi Keihner – Physician, Long Beach, CA
Kristin Brownell – Physician, San Diego
Jennifer devries – Resident physician, Martinez, california
Martha Muna – Medical Doctor, San Francisco
Karla Panameño – Resident , Santa Rosa
Conner Paez – Medical student, San Diego
Christine Fitzsimmons – Registered Nurse, New York
Karla Panameño – Resident, Santa Rosa
Mariah Hansen – Psychologist, Santa Rosa
Darshan Patel – Physician, Albuquerque, NM
Tahereh Naderi – Medical Doctor, Santa Rosa, CA
Vanessa Cobian – Medical Doctor, San Diego
Safi Ahmed – Physician, Santa Rosa CA
Jackie Zewe – Medical Student, San Diego
Lisa Damberger – New Grad RN, Santa Rosa
Musaub Khan – MD, New York
Jennifer Menjivar-Lopez – Doctor, San Francisco
Jamille Rancourt – Physician Assistant, New Haven CT
Jennifer McArthur – Physician, Memphis
Kathleen Mayor-Lynn – Medical Doctor, Nashville
Yen Truong – Physician, Castro Valley, CA
Michelle Mc Abee – Public Health Professional, NY
Nilima Singh – Medical Doctor, Kendall Park
Cassidy Mellin – Medical Doctor, San Francisco
Padade Vue – Medical Doctor, Seattle
Aaron Shapiro – Medical Resident, Bronx, NY
Ekatherina Osman – Physician, Brooklyn
Rachel Clark – Medical doctor, NYC
Kelsey Wilson-Henjum – Physician, New York City
Nasir Malim – DO , NYC
Stasha O’Callaghan – Medical Doctor, New York
Sara Bazan – Physician, Columbus, Ohio
Yuliana Noah – Resident Physician, NYC
Cindy Prettypaul – Resident, New York
Amelia Bueche – Physician, Ashland, Oregon
York Chen – MD, New York City
Sonia Abuzakhm – Medical Doctor, Columbus Ohio
Tess Fraad-Wolff – Mental Health Care, New York
Robert Rock – Medical Doctor, New York City
Darcy Cassidy – Health Educator, NYC
Mary Paul – Medical Doctor, Long Island, NY
Beatrice Whitaker – Ophthalmologist, Brooklyn, NY
Anita Somani – Medical Doctor, Columbus
Mari Janowsky – Physician, San Diego
Judit Andrea Staneata – Physician, Fayetteville, NC
Kareem.Royes – Doctor, NYC
Natalie Moulton-Levy – Physician, New York, NY
Theresa Meotti – Physician, New York
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Protests against police killing of frontline worker Breonna Taylor escalate in Louisville, Kentucky
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/30/tayl-m30.html
By Dominic Gustavo
30 May 2020
Hundreds of demonstrators protested Thursday outside Metro Hall in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, demanding the charging and arrest of the police officers involved in the killing of 26-year-old emergency medical technician (EMT) Breonna Taylor. Demonstrators chanted “no justice, no peace” as the crowd continued to grow. They were met by police in riot gear, who fired smoke bombs and tear gas into the crowds and could be seen grappling with protesters. At least 7 people were injured by live gunfire.
The protests continued throughout the day and into the evening Friday, with demonstrators marching through downtown Louisville and blocking intersections chanting “I can’t breathe,” the last words of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man who was killed Monday by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His death, caught on bystander video, has sparked four nights of angry protests against police violence across the United States.
Taylor, who was also African-American, was shot dead by police in her home on March 13. The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) officers were serving a “no-knock” warrant as part of a narcotics investigation. According to a complaint submitted on behalf of Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, the police burst into the apartment without announcing themselves.
The legal brief goes on, “The Defendants then proceeded to spray gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life. Shots were blindly fired by the officers all throughout Breonna’s home and also into the adjacent home, where a five-year-old child and a pregnant mother had been sleeping. Breonna was shot at least eight times by the officer’s gunfire and died as a result.” No drugs were found in the apartment.
None of the three policemen—LMPD Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove—have been charged in the killing of Taylor. However, Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, was charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer. Walker had fired back at the police with his own gun, believing it to be a home invasion. One policeman was struck in the leg.
The police claimed that they announced themselves before breaking into the apartment with a battering ram. But Taylor’s family members and neighbors maintain that the police never announced themselves and that the two believed they were facing a home invasion.
Two months after the murder, and in response to the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat, was forced to comment publicly on the case for the first time, writing on Twitter: “The Breonna Taylor case is currently under investigation. Therefore, expansive comments are not appropriate until all the facts are known.”
Fischer stated that the LMPD was conducting an internal audit and the results would then be announced publicly. Such internal audits routinely accept police officers’ accounts of events and are often used as means to whitewash cases of official criminality.
On Tuesday, state prosecutors were compelled to drop all charges against Walker. Commonwealth Attorney Tom Wine, who had asked the judge to dismiss charges, told ABC affiliate WHAS11: "There is no amount of cocaine, heroin, marijuana...worth the life of a human being, whether it's a civilian or police officer."
Also this week, Taylor’s lawyers obtained a recording of the 911 emergency call placed by Walker on the night of his partner’s shooting. The recording undermines the LMPD’s story that Walker fired on police after they identified themselves. In the heart wrenching call, Walker can be heard calling out to Taylor, whom has just been shot nearly a dozen times by police. “I don’t know what is happening. Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker states to the police dispatcher on the other end of the line.
The dropping of charges against Walker comes in the midst of the nationwide explosion of popular anger against police brutality. Mass protests in Minneapolis have spiraled out of the authorities’ control, culminating in the burning of the Third Police Precinct building Thursday. President Donald Trump responded by threatening to deploy the National Guard to shoot protesters.
The senseless killing of Taylor, who had been working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, has likewise provoked widespread anger and condemnation. A certain parallel can be drawn between her case and that of Floyd. In the case of Floyd, the 4 officers involved have been fired, a largely symbolic action meant to stave off popular unrest, much like the dismissal of charges against Kenneth Walker. Additionally, Derek Chauvin, the police officer shown on video putting his knee on Floyd’s neck, has been arrested and faces charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter.
The authorities clearly hope to neutralize the growing upsurge of anger by the use of these symbolic gestures, but thus far they have been unsuccessful. The demonstrations in Louisville and Minneapolis have been mirrored all over the United States. As of this writing, protests have taken place in New York City; Ypsilanti, Michigan; Columbus, Ohio; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Pensacola, Florida and Los Angeles, California.
The fact that state and local administrations have made limited concessions marks a new stage in the upsurge of the class struggle. The actions of the state, characterized on the one hand by unrestrained brutality, and on the other by frenzied attempts to make amends, are symptomatic of a capitalist system that increasingly finds itself threatened and under siege.
US Border Patrol Denounced as 'Rogue Agency' for Using Predator Drone to Spy on Minneapolis Protests
"This is what happens when leaders sign blank check after blank check to militarize police, CBP, etc while letting violence go unchecked."
by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/29/us-border-patrol-denounced-rogue-agency-using-predator-drone-spy-minneapolis
Civil liberties advocates sounded the alarm Friday after reporting indicated Customs and Border Protection has been flying an unmanned Predator drone over Minneapolis as the city continues to roil with protest over the police killing of George Floyd earlier this week
Motherboard on Friday afternoon credited ADS-B Exchange, which tracks open source flight data of aircraft worldwide, for images showing what the monitoring group identified as a government drone circling the city."This is what happens when leaders sign blank check after blank check to militarize police, CBP, etc while letting violence go unchecked," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). "We need answers. And we need to defund."
"The drone took off from the Air Force Base before making several hexagonal-shaped flyovers around Minneapolis, according to the data," Motherboard reported.
"No government agency should be facilitating the over-policing of the Black community, period," the ACLU's senior legislative counsel Neema Singh Guliani said in a statement. "And CBP has no role in what's happening in Minneapolis at all."
Investigative reporter Jason Paladino was apparently the first to notice the flight path of CBP-104, described by Motherboard as "a drone with a history":
In a 2007 Popular Mechanics article, author Jeff Wise names that aircraft as a Predator. "CBP-104 has no pilot on board. The plane is a Predator B, a sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)," the article says, describing a surveillance action on the U.S.-Mexico border.
CBP-104 is also named in daily drone flight logs from CBP from 2012, published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The drone's activities at the time included collecting synthetic-aperture radar imagery and full-motion video to aid in actions such as surveilling the border, as well as surveilling and busting cannabis grow ops and methamphetamine labs. In one instance, the logs note that the drone continued to circle and feed video to officers until every suspect in a lab raid was arrested. According to the logs, this ongoing surveillance "played an invaluable role" in the arrests.
While CBP flying the drone over the city raised eyebrows, the city falls in the agency's purview, as Gizmodo 's Tom McKay and Dhruv Mehrotra explained.
"Minneapolis technically falls within the 100 air mile border zone where CBP has jurisdiction," wrote McKay and Mehrotra, "an area that encompasses just shy of two-thirds of the nation's population."
Critics pointed to the usage of the aircraft as indicative of a surveillance culture that has grown out of control in recent years.
"I can't tell you how many times, when I was working on police drone policy, law enforcement reps would get upset over the use of the word 'drone,'" tweeted Freedom of the Press advocacy director Parker Higgins. "Like, very specifically saying, it's not going to be Predator drones over protests."
The ACLU's Guliani pointed to CBP's record on civil liberties as a warning against allowing the agency to monitor the demonstrations.
"This rogue agency's use of military technology to surveil protesters inside U.S. borders is deeply disturbing, especially given CBP's lack of clear and strong policies to protect privacy and constitutional rights," she said. "This agency's use of drones over the city should be halted immediately."
The drone appeared to leave the area around 1:10pm EST.
Motherboard senior editor Janus Rose noted on Twitter a sinister aspect of the story suggesting CBP wanted the drone to be seen.
"Quick note about the predator drone from an ex-military intel source: these aircraft typically leave their ADS-B transponders off when flying missions, so they won't appear to civilian air traffic monitors," said Rose. "CBP wanted us to know it was there."
Amid Global Pandemic—With Nearly 363,000 Dead—Trump Terminates US Ties With the World Health Organization
"When every single country in the world is able to work with the WHO, except for one whose president advocates treating coronavirus with bleach and UV light, who do you think is at fault?"
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/29/amid-global-pandemic-nearly-363000-dead-trump-terminates-us-ties-world-health
President Donald Trump at a White House press conference on Friday announced he was "terminating" ties to the World Health Organization, even as the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic nears 363,000—including the more than 100,000 dead from the virus in the United States, many attributed to his own mismanagement of the crisis.
While bashing China for "having total control" over the international organization that is based in Geneva, Trump said that because of its refusal to submit to reforms demanded by the White House, "we will be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide and deserving urgent global public health needs."
Watch:
Not surrounded by his Covid-19 Task Force that includes trusted public health officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump made the announcement surrounded by top cabinet members, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center's database, the global death toll from the pandemic sat at 362,554 on Friday afternoon just as Trump was speaking, with 102,201 of those in the United States—the country with the highest number of deaths, by far.
Trump has repeatedly deflected blame onto the WHO to mask his own failures, according to critics, many of whom pointed to Friday's development as the logical conclusion of what the U.S. president has been doing since the pandemic began nearly three months ago:
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"There is one rogue state in the world, and humanity would be better off if it terminated its relationship with existence," said journalist Ajit Singh in terse response to Trump's announcement.
"When every single country in the world is able to work with the WHO, except for one whose president advocates treating coronavirus with bleach and UV light," Singh added, "who do you think is at fault?"
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