Please share this information with your networks. Show your support for this collective effort as we demand our elected officials take action in this current health, economic and social crisis. This is the link to the Letter Writing Campaign and Petition: bit.ly/ThePeopleFirst
… An article published on October 14 in The Hill by Dr. Steven Phillips, an epidemiologist formerly employed by the CDC, raised the questions:
“How can the earth’s poorest continent by almost any health, income, or education measure, including the UN’s Human Development Index, lead the world? How can a continent where 56 percent of its urban population is concentrated in non-social distanced slums, and where only 34 percent of households have access to basic handwashing facilities, largely avoid this viral scourge? These conditions have resulted in Africa having the highest rates of malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and measles deaths in the world. Not only does COVID not follow this dismal trend, but it has reversed it — demonstrating a dramatically lower toll than any other continent.”
Contrasting the African situation with the U.S. and the world illustrates the dangerous social conditions under which people are living in the most advanced industrialized state in the world, where the number of infections and deaths are continuously climbing. The U.S. remains the most dangerous place to be in the world with more than 7 million infections and 215,000 deaths from COVID-19. The global share of COVID deaths to the world’s population is 5 for the U.S., 2.3 for Europe and 0.26 for Africa. (See this)
This worldwide pandemic has revealed the vulnerability of the U.S. capitalist and imperialist system. These lessons must be learned by the working class and oppressed in order to re-energize the struggle for national health insurance and socialized medicine. Quality healthcare is a fundamental human right despite the avoidance of this pertinent issue within the 2020 presidential debates.
Come together in unity meet different organizations and legislature. Hear powerful messages from all . Guests include : Peace in the streets, all of us or none wisconsin , breaking barriers mentoring, Tory lowe , Vaughn Mays, UBMW,etc. Also enjoy great food and music and attractions for the kids.
Recordando a nuestrxs seres queridxs que han fallecido durante este año en el que seguimos viviendo por una pandemia mundial, violencia perpetrada a nuestras comunidades. Actividades para jóvenes Paseo con velas Actuaciones musicales y Ceremonia Ofrenda comunal (favor de traer sus propias fotos, recuerdos, velas)Comida: tamales, atole y chocolate caliente.Evento gratis.
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Remembering our loved ones who have passed during this year where we continue to endure a global pandemic, police violence and ongoing violence perpetrated to our communities. Youth Activities Candlelit Walk Musical Performances & Ceremony Comunal OfrendaFree event.
Join us for a short course in protest health and safety. Your trainers will all be experienced street medics, most of which have been doing this work for several years. Topics Covered: – Dealing with police tactics and chemical weapons – Protest safety and etiquette – Security cultureHosted by Milwaukee’s street medic collective – Forward Action Medics (FAM)This is not a street medic training. The training for a street medic is 20 hours long and takes a lot of work to put together. We hope to offer another one of these again in the future but attending this training DOES NOT count as being trained as a street medic.This event is open to the public, with a few exceptions: no members of law enforcement, active duty military, or news media may attend. All are welcome, but we expect people to respect each other, the space, and their trainers. Anyone whose participation becomes problematic may be asked to leave.Covid-19 Precautions: – Masks and hand sanitizer will be available. Everybody is required to wear masks inside the building. – We will be breaking up into three small groups which will rotate between three different sections to facilitate social distancing. – While every effort to socially distance will be made, the last time we held this training we had over 100 participants. If you are a person who is at risk of complications from Covid-19, you should consider whether this training is for you.Accessibility: – Gender neutral restrooms will be available. – This event is wheelchair accessible – We will be discussing topics relevant to protests in and around Milwaukee, and therefore some of these topics may be triggering or unsettling. Please do what you need to do for your own mental health, and don’t be afraid to step away from a discussion if it makes you uncomfortable.
Yesterday the State Department announced the beginnings of yet more sanctions on Iran, this time targeting the country’s financial industry. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed the move was necessary to “further deprive the Islamic Republic of Iran of funds to carry out its support for terrorist activities and nuclear extortion that threatens the world,” adding that his actions were part of a “maximum economic pressure campaign” that will continue until Iran ceases its “malign behavior.”
Pompeo insisted that the sanctions “do not affect existing authorizations and exceptions for humanitarian exports to Iran, which remain in full force and effect.” Yet existing sanctions have already wreaked havoc on the Islamic Republic, killing thousands. Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch condemned the Trump administration for “drastically constraining the ability of the country to finance humanitarian imports, including medicines and medical equipment,” its executive director Kenneth Roth describing Washington as “compounding Iranians’ misery by depriving them of access to the critical medical resources they urgently need.”
Iran was one of the first countries to be hit badly by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the U.S. used the opportunity to cause maximum devastation by intimidating other nations into refusing to sell or donate them medical supplies, lest they be hit with secondary sanctions. As a result, Iran was woefully under equipped to deal with the problem. In the end, the World Health Organization stepped in, sending supplies themselves — part of the reason the Trump administration was so keen to leave the organization. Washington insiders openly discussed using the pandemic to force the Iranian government out of office and implement a regime more suited to their needs.
While the government claims that the sanctions are “directed at the regime and its corrupt officials that have used the wealth of the Iranian people to fuel a radical, revolutionary cause that has brought untold suffering across the Middle East and beyond,” it is widely understood that the attack on the banking center will affect Iran’s ability to function and even purchase basics like food from abroad.
The National Iranian American Council (no lovers of the current administration in Tehran) condemned the action as “heartless and sadistic,” claiming the sanctions were explicitly designed to “choke off humanitarian exports to Iran” and displayed the cruelty of the Trump administration. “It is critical that the American people and our elected representatives put an end to this cruel, inhumane, and strategically catastrophic suffering and humiliation that is being imposed on innocent Iranians in our names,” they concluded.
“I don’t know how many times I have to read a headline about #Iran that breaks my heart. Why are the lives of Iranians disposable? Do we not have compassion for the hurt, the pains, the struggles of the people of Iran? Why must we be so callous?” asked Leila Gharagozlou, a producer at MSNBC.
“Contrary to the US claims, humanitarian goods and services are affected by the cruel sanctions. Financial institutions fear the US vengeance, which is why the financial channels created to facilitate transactions for humanitarian commodities, have had no tangible results,” said Mohammad Zareyian, an Iranian representative at the United Nations General Assembly.
The sanctions have already caused serious hardship on Iran, sending the prices of consumer goods soaring and the value of its currency, the rial, plummeting. Like in Venezuela, oil production has sputtered, as the Islamic Republic can find few buyers for its main national export. The price of food has also become a serious issue for many. “The sanctions deliberately target ordinary Iranians, women and children,” Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Professor of English Literature at the University of Tehran toldMintPress last week. “They are designed to kill hospital patients and to create poverty. They have had partial success.”
The U.S. has dreamed of a change of government in Tehran since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 overthrew the American-backed Shah and installed Ayatollah Khomeini as leader. To that end, it has propped up dictators like Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, fomented protest movements, supported virtual shadow governments like the MEK, and imposed suffocating sanctions on the nation.
Earlier this year, Trump assassinated top general Qassem Soleimani as he was attending regional peace talks in Baghdad. In the summer it imposed new “snapback” sanctions on Iran for its refusal to comply with the nuclear deal, despite the fact that the U.S. had already walked away from the same deal. In August, Trump appointed disgraced Iran-Contra hawk and regime change specialist Elliott Abrams as his chief advisor on Iran, a signal to all those paying attention that increased hostilities were in the offing.
There is speculation that Trump will attempt to increase hostilities with Iran before the election, provoking an international incident. If that is the case, these sanctions are merely a prelude to something bigger.
Feature photo | A member of the Iranian army walks past rows of beds at a temporary 2,000-bed hospital for coronavirus patients set up by the army at the international exhibition center in northern Tehran, Iran, March 26, 2020. Ebrahim Noroozi | AP
At the UN Security Council, the US, UK, France, and allies blocked the testimony of José Bustani, the first OPCW director general, on the chemical watchdog’s Syria cover-up scandal. The Grayzone obtained his prepared statement and is publishing it in full.
Actividades para jóvenes
Paseo con velas
