Tallahassee, FL- On March 22, Florida State University’s Graduate Assistants United (GAU) marched to Wescott and demanded FSU change their policies around COVID-19.

College Station, TX – Students at Texas A&M University gathered in a silent sit-in on January 28 for improved COVID-19 policies on campus. The coalition, consisting of individuals and organizations such as Grad Aggies for Worker Safety (GAWS), Feminism4Aggies and TAMU Students for a Democratic Society, organized the protest in solidarity with the students of the University of North Texas, who were also calling for improved COVID-19 policies at universities across Texas.

Chicago, IL – On the afternoon of January 22, organizers shut down the city block in front of Governor Pritzker’s Gold Coast mansion for 15 minutes, demanding immediate action to address the surging COVID cases in Illinois prisons and jails. Organizers dropped a letter on Pritzker’s doorstep calling for a mass release of those incarcerated, beginning with the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions who are especially at risk.

San José, CA – On Thursday, January 20, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of new claims for unemployment insurance rose for the second week in row, to more than 280,000 for the week of January 10-15. This is up almost 40% from the beginning of January. While much of this may be caused by the spike in COVID-19, there have been other signs of economic weakness that started to show up in December.

On Thursday, January 20, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of new claims for unemployment insurance rose for the second week in row, to more than 280,000 for the week of January 10-15. This is up almost 40% from the beginning of January. While much of this may be caused by the spike in COVID-19, there have been other signs of economic weakness that started to show up in December.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Jan. 3 statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

![Banner reads “Lifting the curfew on education”. An initiative by the Students Fe](https://i.snap.as/ZD8mvZzs.png “Banner reads \“Lifting the curfew on education\“. An initiative by the Students Fe Banner reads \“Lifting the curfew on education\“. An initiative by the Students Federation of India to reopen schools and colleges.

(Fight Back! News)”)

Kolkata, India – The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India has had a devastating effect, claiming more than 250,000 lives in a matter of three months, between April and June of this year.

New York, NY – As the Delta variant rages through the U.S., a major Chinese publisher has signed a contract to distribute a timely book comparing COVID-19 responses in the countries' two systems: capitalism and socialism.

Caracas, Venezuela – Geovanni Peña, the director of the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Worker Safety, states, “Capitalism is the biggest reason for COVID deaths. Here, the Venezuelan government protects the working class and the people feel a collective social responsibility to protect each other. This is why we only have six Delta variant cases, while Delta increases exponentially throughout the USA and other countries.”

Oppressed nationalities hit more than twice as much as US whites

San José, CA – On Wednesday, July 20 the National Center for Health Statistics released their provisional report on lifespans in 2020. The report found that the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 600,000 people in the United States, lowered the lifespan by one and half years in 2020. This is the worst drop since World War II. Lifespans have generally increased over time, but this sets the trend back almost 20 years to 2003.