https://fighting-words.net/2020/04/05/united-states-continues-imperialist-policies-despite-covid-19-pandemic/https://fighting-words.net/2020/04/05/united-states-continues-imperialist-policies-despite-covid-19-pandemic/

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Countries throughout the globe are focusing on the eradication of the COVID-19 pandemic which has infected nearly a million people and killed over 45,000. During the early phase of the detection of the virus in the People’s Republic of China, the United States administration of President Donald Trump dismissed the threat of COVID-19 and refused to implement emergency measures on a national scale.

By early April, the crisis was evident for all to witness. Millions were rendered unemployed in the U.S. where the official propaganda of the state and corporate community is that the economy was expanding at a rapid rate with no threat of recession.

At present the threat of another Great Depression on the scale, or exceeding, the downturn of 1929-1941, which only mass resistance and the implementation of the New Deal were able to ameliorate during the 1930s, is within the realm of possibility. It was only the advent of the second imperialist war of 1939-1945 which pulled the U.S. out of the Depression.

On a domestic level with the U.S. discourse very much centered on the level of benefits being given to various sectors within the economy as relates to the $2.2 trillion stimulus package approved by Congress and the president, while the role of foreign affairs has escaped public scrutiny. Healthcare workers, rightly concerned, are demanding personal protection equipment to prevent the outbreak from further spreading among physicians, nurses and other employees….

https://fighting-words.net/2020/04/10/detroit-on-the-front-line-in-battle-to-end-covid-19-pandemic/

By Abayomi Azikiwe

More than 2,000 people working in the healthcare industry have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 in the Detroit metropolitan area sending further tremors through the already heavily-shaken region which has been identified as a major “hotspot” in the pandemic.

A spokesperson for Beaumont Hospital system said on April 6 that 1,500 of their employees have symptoms consistent with COVID-19. These numbers include 500 nurses.

At Sinai-Grace Hospital, a group of nurses staged a sit-in demanding that additional staff be hired and assigned to their shift. The nurses emphasized that there was not enough personnel to address the needs of the patients.

These nurses were then told to go home. Another nurse two weeks earlier was terminated by Sinai-Grace for raising the same concerns in a social media post.

Henry Ford Hospital announced on April 8 that over 700 of its 31,000 employees had tested positive for COVID-19. 718 patients battling the virus are being treated in the five Henry Ford Hospital campuses across Detroit and its suburbs.

The situation has created much anxiety and anger among workers in the hospital systems….

https://bit.ly/3a3m5pi

As footage of Wisconsin’s crowded polling stations flooded the internet Tuesday, public health officials and civil rights advocates condemned the state’s Supreme Court and Republican legislative leaders for allowing in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic and thwarting Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ last-minute efforts to address voter safety concerns.

“It’s not going to be a safe election. People are going to get sick from this,” Brook Soltvedt, a 60-year-old textbook editor who is in charge of running the polling place at Thoreau Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, told The Cap Times.

Soltvedt added that though she thinks “the city has done about the best that they can do,” she worries that the election will cause voter confusion and health consequences. In an effort to protect her 77-year-old husband, Soltvedt said she plans to “strip in the garage, put my clothes in the washer, and go downstairs for two weeks….”

An election official checks in a resident at a drive-up polling place set up outside of Roosevelt Elementary School on April 7, 2020 in Racine, Wisconsin. The polling place was set up to offer drive-up voting where residents voted from their vehicles but it offered one outdoor voting booth for residents who walked to the polling place. The extreme measures were put in place to make the process safer for residents and election officials as the state continues its shelter-in-place order to help curtail the spread of COVID-19. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Campaign to Get Cuban Medical Aid to Detroit to Fight Covid-19

Weekly Moratorium NOW / MECAWI Zoom Call

The Moratorium Now! Coalition invites you to participate in a video conference call on Monday, April 13 at 7 PM sharp to establish a Detroit committee seeking emergency medical aid from Cuba. (Info on how to register for the call is below.)

We are all stunned by the enormous death and destruction in Detroit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This plague is especially hitting the African American community, disproportionally. While Trump promotes a malaria drug that is proving ineffective and even harmful to people with COVID-19, we know that Cuba has produced Interferon Alpha 2(b) and other medications which are showing promising results against the Coronavirus in China and other countries. We desperately could use those medications here in Detroit.

Although subject to the inhumane U.S. blockade, Cuba has been dedicated to developing and sharing medical breakthroughs, training people from all over the world to be skilled healthcare workers, and sending medical teams wherever there is great need. Several Detroit students have graduated from or are currently enrolled in medical school under full scholarship in Cuba. Cuban doctors and nurses are now in Italy, Iran, and 35 other nations, helping to save lives of COVID-19 victims.

We want to invite Cuba to help us now, as Detroit is being so heavily impacted by the virus. Governor Whitmer, under the current state of emergency, has legal authority to get help from other states and countries. Detroit needs the medications that Cuba has been developing and using successfully for COVID-19. Interferon Alfa-2B stands out across the world as a serious option, with promising results. We call for the governor to import, test, and if possible, utilize this drug to save lives. We also want Governor Whitmer to extend an invitation to Cuba to send doctors to Detroit.

Join us in our efforts.

To get on Monday’s (April 13) Zoom video conference, you must register well before the meeting, any time/day before 6:30pm Monday night. Follow the directions below. Then sign or call in to the conference just before 7 PM on Monday, April 13.

Please call Jason at 610.764.7587 or email jasontschantre@gmail.com for more information or with questions about meeting on Zoom.

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You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Apr 13, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/uZMod-2ppzwvgbq7T8hd1uTpw1WWHp6odw

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Your experience with Zoom might be better if you register for a free account at https://zoom.us/

https://bit.ly/2VpblfG

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the lives of millions of working people and our families. Select your state to find the resources, programs and benefits available in your area to assist you during this crisis.

Assata’s Daughters

PBS Doc – “Cuba’s Cancer Hope”

When the U.S. trade embargo left Cuba isolated from medical resources, Cuban scientists were forced to get creative. Now they’ve developed lung cancer vaccines that show so much promise, some Americans are defying the embargo and traveling to Cuba for treatment. In an unprecedented move, Cuban researchers are working with U.S. partners to make the medicines more widely available.

https://bit.ly/2VbIhbF

The amount of support and national solidarity displayed during these times has also been nothing short of amazing. The Ping An Finance Center – the fourth tallest building in the world – is lit up every night with encouraging messages to Chinese citizens to support each other and fight on. I strolled through downtown one night and found that all the skyscrapers had been proudly emblazoned with huge digital images of courageous doctors and nurses on the front-lines in Wuhan as if they were rock stars. This last week there was a national moment of commemoration. Loud sirens were blared throughout the city and every car on the street was blasting their horns as loud as they could go. The event was to mourn those who had lost their lives to COVID-19, but also to signify that China had won – they had beaten the virus.

Experiencing firsthand how the pandemic was handled here really makes me proud to live in a country that puts the needs of its people as its first priority. Life is truly returning to normal in China, but it’s only because socialism carved a path to victory and helped save humanity.