“Florida State University wants GAs basically to come to work, be overworked, underpaid and just die on their own dime and do nothing about it. There are a lot of things on this campus that are impacting GA safety in particular,” said Jordan Lenchitz, grievance officer for GAU. Lenchitz went on to explain how COVID-19 threatened both teachers’ livelihoods and ability to financially support themselves. “We’re here today to let the university know that we’re not going to go quietly, and we’re not going to die and pay for our own funerals, because they don’t pay us enough for that anyway.”

Organizing chair for GAU, Jordan Scott, elaborated on the conditions FSU students and faculty have been facing. “With the majority of graduate workers making between $16,000 and $25,000 annually, we cannot afford to subsidize Florida State University’s response, or lack thereof to the crisis.” He said they wanted to unite other organizations on FSU’s campus to fight for better conditions within the pandemic.

“We are currently building relationships with different student organizations including but not limited to Students for a Democratic Society and an array of international students’ organizations on campus, and the staff and faculty unions. The best thing that anyone can do is show up to the impact bargaining. Our first impact bargaining meeting. There will be a hybrid option. The best way to hear about any updates is by following us on social media Twitter @fsu_gau, Facebook facebook.com/fsugau/ or on Instagram at fsugau.”

Some of GAU’s demands include workplace modifications for disabled workers, compensation for in-patient medical costs, and paid sick leave when a graduate worker is exposed to COVID-19.

GAU members say they will keep fighting for a successful bargaining and to hold FSU accountable for its role in allowing the COVID-19 pandemic to spread.

Jordan Lenchitz also criticized FSU for attempting to hold in-person meetings for their negotiations when several members from GAU had contracted COVID-19. He urged people to come support them at their bargaining meeting. “People are welcome to come and get involved. FSU’s entire team is six people, and so, if we can bring out 50 people, we can outnumber them nine to one.”

#TallahasseeFL #PeoplesStruggles #PublicSectorUnions #GraduateAssistantsUnionGAU #FloridaStateUniversityFSU #TeachersUnions #COVID19

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.

Participating students held signs with demands, statements about the TAMU student who died of COVID-19 complications, and a QR code linked to the coalition’s petition in the Academic Plaza, a highly trafficked courtyard in the center of the campus.

The coalition’s demands are increasing mandatory testing on campus, an online option for classes, and better housing accommodations for students that test positive for COVID-19. Currently, TAMU does not require any testing for students, including when students return to campus from breaks or when they have close contact with someone who is known to have the virus. Professors are not required to have an online option for their classes, either live or as a recording, forcing students to expose themselves to large groups of students daily as well as incentivizing students who contract the virus to attend classes while contagious. Students who test positive are given no assistance from the university with safe, isolated living spaces, and are expected to move into hotel rooms off campus with no financial support or to remain housed in their dormitory or apartment. This jeopardizes any roommates an infected student has, as well as those who may share a public bathroom with a contagious student.

Over 25,000 people have signed the coalition’s petition for stricter COVID-19 protocols, but TAMU continues to relax their policies.

#CollegeStationTX #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19 #TAMUStudentsForADemocraticSociety

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.

The call to decarcerate correctional facilities has been sounded since the rise of COVID-19 and was repeated as further surges and variants put those inside at risk. The governor and Illinois Department of Corrections have done little in response since the early days of the pandemic. Kiah Sandler from the Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois put it plainly, “One thing needs to be made very clear to our governor, Illinois Department of Corrections, our legislators and our representatives: What is taking place inside our jails and prisons is a medical crisis.”

The day began outside Cook County Jail with a rally called by the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture. “Incarcerated people are being treated like their lives do not matter. They cannot socially distance, they cannot quarantine, they cannot get medical care, and they’re not the ones bringing COVID into these prisons,” said Liam Collier, co-chair of CFIST (Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture), “Only 66% of prison staff in Illinois are vaccinated, compared to 75% of incarcerated people.” Prison staff are under mandate to get the first dose of the vaccine by the end of January.

The crisis is not limited to prisons. Cassandra Greer, whose husband Nick Lee died from COVID in Cook County Jail, said that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart “has a blatant disrespect for lives. Not only the inmates, but his employees as well. It should not be the same situation in 2022 as what happened in 2020 when Nick died.” She added, “So we are asking Governor Pritzker to please stand with us. Because the mayor don’t care. The Cook County Sheriff don’t care. And it’s profit over people”

“Divisions selected for quarantine, such as Division 5, were previously condemned areas of jail that were reopened without any extermination of the mold, insect, or rat infestations,” shared a member of Chicago Community Jail Support, “The debris in the air and the lack of medical care is causing long-term respiratory issues.”

“All of the mothers I work with are not sleeping at night, living a nightmare that their kids could die in a COVID-infested cell,” said Bertha Escamilla, of Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity. “We will not allow this corrupt system to devalue our children.”

Other speakers included representatives from US Palestinian Community Network, Chicago Torture Justice Center, and Tamon Russell, currently incarcerated at Hill Correctional Center, who spoke directly to Governor Pritzker: “We need help.”

After the rally, the group formed a car caravan that proceeded past the Juvenile Detention Center on Ogden, past the Thompson Center, ending on the governor’s street. Surrounded by over a dozen cars, Mark Clements, Community Organizer with the Chicago Torture Justice Center, addressed his message directly to the governor, “We know you have let many people out, but we are asking that you give these brothers and give these sisters an opportunity. They’ve got mothers. They’ve got fathers. They were not sentenced to death. And with this pandemic, and with the mistreatment, and with the medical mistreatment behind prison walls, you already know, they are serving death sentences, governor.”

Frank Chapman, Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, drew a connection to the impending release of Jason Van Dyke. “They’re going to let Jason Van Dyke out on February 3. If they can let that criminal out, who murdered a child, shot [Laquan McDonald] 16 times, they can let our people out!”

On the day of Van Dyke’s release, The Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivor of Police Torture will join Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Black Lives Matter-Chicago, Indivisible Chicago-South Side and other allied organizations in a Day of Outrage and Direct Action to demand the U.S. attorney and the Department of Justice indict Jason Van Dyke at the federal level.

“The movement fought for years to get Van Dyke behind bars, and we will not let him walk free after murdering a teenager,” Chapman said, “We will not stand by while our loved ones and community members are kidnapped, tortured, brutalized and murdered with impunity.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19 #GovernorPritzker

Signs of economic weakness and growing concerns about rising interest rates also slammed the stock market last week. For the second week in a row, stocks fell. The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, has made it clear that it will raise interest rates sooner rather than later because of the rising inflation, which hit 7% year over year in December. Higher interest rates have usually been bad for stocks, especially for fast-growing companies and more speculative stocks. The technology heavy NASDAQ entered correction territory last week, falling more than 10% from its peak. More speculative financial assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were slammed, with Bitcoin continuing to drop and ending the week down almost 50% from its record high.

#SanJoséCA #Unemployment #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19

Signs of economic weakness and growing concerns about rising interest rates also slammed the stock market last week. For the second week in a row, stocks fell. The U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, has made it clear that it will raise interest rates sooner rather than later because of the rising inflation, which hit 7% year over year in December. Higher interest rates have usually been bad for stocks, especially for fast-growing companies and more speculative stocks. The technology heavy NASDAQ entered correction territory last week, falling more than 10% from its peak. More speculative financial assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were slammed, with Bitcoin continuing to drop and ending the week down almost 50% from its record high.

#SanJoséCA #Unemployment #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19

The Filipino people are outraged at the gross lack of preparations of the Duterte government for the rapid surge in Covid-19 infections. The new surge has long been anticipated by the scientific community with the identification of the Omicron variant which started to spread in the western hemisphere as early as November 2021.

The Duterte government's complacency is clearly manifested in the just signed 2022 budget which did not allocate enough funds to conduct free mass testing and ramp up the capacity of hospitals to accommodate the expected increase in Covid-19 patients. Funds to purchase vaccines is more than 60% less than the purchases made last year. Nor were funds allotted to improve facilities in schools to ensure the safe conduct of face-to-face classes.

Duterte himself admitted the budget does not have an “elbow room” for new surges. The regime's utter shortsightedness will be the cause of bringing back the country down to its knees in the face of the continuing pandemic.

Faced with the threat of a renewed surge, the regime is again set to resort to restrictions and lockdown measures that have long proven to be ineffective especially without concomitant mass testing and widespread contact tracing. Factories and businesses face threats of closures and will add to the widespread problem of joblessness. As a result of government's failure to ensure that school facilities were upgraded, schools are again set to be closed (although many have actually remained close) to the detriment of students.

The emergence of new Covid-19 variants is attributed to the lack of vaccines due to intellectual property rights and monopolization of production by big pharmaceutical companies, and the inequitable distribution between the advanced capitalist countries and the backward countries across the world, and between the cities and the rural areas within different countries. Worse, expired or near expired vaccines are being dumped in countries such as the Philippines.

In the country, only above 40% of the population has been vaccinated. Vaccination is concentrated in the National Capital Region leaving out many outlying provinces, especially people in the rural areas. Less than 2% have received booster shots even as the efficacy of the first round of vaccines anticipated to wane in the near future.

In the face of the renewed Covid-19 surge, there is mounting clamor for an immediate realignment of funds for the purchase of military equipment and hardware (including new aircraft, war ships, cruise missiles, bombs and cannons) and infrastructure projects in order to increase funds for public hospitals and medical facilities, public schools, transportation facilities and other public services.

There is rising demand for free mass testing (especially in work places and schools), free treatment, stepped up vaccine education and inoculation campaign, vaccine research and production, retrofitting of schools and other urgent measures. There is demand for higher wages, lower prices, economic aid and other urgent needs in the face of rising prices and economic crisis.

#Philippines #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #Duterte #COVID19

(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.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling government in India, failed to address the concerns of the people and enacted repressive policies that are against their interests. In India the number of people living in poverty outnumber the entirety of sub-Saharan Africa, and privatized healthcare has led to the demise of countless people during this pandemic.

The callous attitude of the of BJP led to the shortage of vaccines, oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders, ventilators and other medical necessities – shortages that proved to have a devastating effect. During the first wave, the Narendra Modi-led government was shipping off vaccines manufactured by private entities like Serum Institute in Pune to countries like South Africa instead of bolstering the reserve stock. At the height of the pandemic, these private entities had vaccine shortages. These vaccines, namely Covidshield and Covaxin, are available at rates between Rs. 700-Rs. 1300 ($9-$18) depending on the medical facility offering these vaccines. The vaccine manufacturers and the hospitals, clinics and others providing these vaccines are profiteering even in these dire conditions by charging first-world rates for the vaccine.

The lockdown essentially broke down the economic structure in India. India, a cash-based informal economy with a massive service sector, came to a halt. During the first COVID wave hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave urban centres where they work to go back to their homes in the villages, but transportation such as trains and bus services were also closed down, leaving these workers no option but to return to their homes on foot. Many migrant workers died during this time and several others were inhumanly treated once they reached their home states. In Uttar Pradesh workers were doused with harmful chemicals – apparently to ‘sanitize’ them.

The informal nature of the Indian economy made establishing a lockdown even harder, since it is nearly impossible to reduce human interaction. The West Bengal government would have partial lockdowns where on certain days in a month the state would be closed down in a failed attempt to stop the spread. The unemployment crisis hit its highest numbers in West Bengal. Many engineering graduates were forced to seek working-class jobs after graduating because of the lack of industry-based jobs and the economic standstill. The cost of essential items skyrocketed due to inflation. Petrol prices increased as well, leading to increase in transportation costs.

Education took a major hit. During the lockdown the state and central governments mandated schools and colleges move to online classes. This had a very devastating effect, since majority of schools and colleges in the rural areas aren't equipped with the technology required for online learning, leaving millions of children without the means to get access to school resources. The Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government canceled examinations for 10th and 12th grades. This left several thousand at risk of not getting jobs after they graduate school, since the grades they would get in these exams would determine their career.

The student wing of the CPIM (Communist Party of India, Marxist), the Students Federation of India (SFI) called for the reopening of schools and colleges. The SFI across West Bengal organized classes in conjunction with teachers outside their colleges and universities demanding that these institutions be reopened. Anustup Chakravarty a member of the SFI unit of Jadavpur University spoke of how the TMC government was reopening theatres, malls and restaurants but left educational institutions closed to the benefit of no one.

The progressive left parties such as the CPIM and the SUCI (Socialist Unity Centre of India) suggested stimulus packages of Rs. 7000 per month to unemployed families, including the provision of basic food supplies such as rice, vegetables etc. every month. These proposals were roundly rejected by the BJP government.

CPIM leader Sujan Chakraborty of Jadavpur Constituency in Kolkata, told Fight Back! local members of the CPIM were involved in to provide food to the local working people who continued to work during the pandemic, such as rickshaw drivers, auto-rickshaw drivers, delivery workers, construction workers etc. While evaluating the conditions a situation of food scarcity was predicted. A community kitchen was then be set up that fed the working people for several months, after which many of the rickshaw drivers themselves offered to provide a minimum amount for the food. The “Sromojibi Canteen” (Working People's Canteen) then took off, providing full lunches for affordable rates of only Rs. 30 (40 cents). These canteens then spread throughout the state of West Bengal. Later “Sromojibi Bazaar” (Working People's Bazaar) was also set up to provide vegetables at significantly lower rates than the ordinary markets.

On August 16, various leaders of the CPIM spoke during the 500th day of operations of the Jadavpur Sromojibi Canteens about the work that the CPIM members were involved during the second wave, including the Red Volunteers who provided oxygen cylinders and carried patients to nearby hospitals.

Recently the Global Hunger Index placed India at a rank 101, below several other countries in the Indian sub-continent and Africa as well. 381 million people (a very conservative number which could easily be 500-600 million) live in conditions of extreme poverty. Food scarcity is due to extreme poverty and the breakdown of informal mechanisms to distribute crops and finished agricultural products to markets. These extreme conditions are aggravated by the anti-farmer policies that have led to massive farmers protests across the country.

Government policies have allowed COVID-19 to cripple the Indian economy. The local and state governments in India need to bolster the vaccination drive. The overall vaccination process has been slow in West Bengal, but it has picked up post-July.

Several automatic-rickshaw drivers and rickshaw drivers who are part of the TMC drivers’ union told Fight Back! they have received free vaccination, but it has been largely inconsistent, since many drivers have yet to receive vaccine for reasons being that they are either out of state or are not part of the ruling party's union.

Vaccination efforts need to continue on a larger scale to prevent another devastating situation when the third wave hits. The local governments and the state governments need to prioritize people over profiteering to ensure that more lives are not lost.

#KolkataIndia #India #COVID19 #BharatiyaJanataPartyBJP #vaccination #Asia

Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China & the U.S. - originally published last year and penned by dozens of writers from the U.S. and around the world – will now be translated and distributed in China. It will be available for sale by late September.

The book’s secondary title – An anthology of social justice activists discussing a global choice: cooperation vs. competition - describes the stark choice facing humanity.

“It’s been an honor for our book to be published in China,” said Lee Siu Hin, national coordinator of the China-U.S. Solidarity Network and the National Immigrant Solidarity Network, as well as a writer and editor of the book, “and a great opportunity for U.S. activists to meet and build solidarity with Chinese academia and activists. We hope to continue this work for peace and friendship.”

The authors detail the decisive, comprehensive steps taken by the Chinese government to break the chain of infection, as opposed to the chaotic U.S. response which ranged from outright denial to chaotic bungling, to racist blame games.

Events have borne out the message of the book, published in July 2020 when the U.S. COVID-19 death toll was 150,000. That number has since quadrupled, reaching well over 600,000 in a country of 350 million. By contrast, since that time the number of deaths in China, a country of 1.4 billion, has remained below 5000.

Capitalism on a Ventilator also puts into perspective the ridiculous campaign to use the “lab-leak theory” to blame China for the coronavirus. It was China which, in January 2020, tried to warn the U.S. about the virus, through phone calls, public announcements and early sequencing of the virus, mounting the world’s most comprehensive and successful campaign against the novel disease.

“Despite China’s many accomplishments, a dangerous war drive against China is gaining momentum in the U.S.,” said Sara Flounders, director of the International Action Center and co-editor of the book. “Hopefully this book will introduce voices who are resisting this pull and urging science, cooperation and solidarity as the only alternative.”

Fight Back! editor Mick Kelly states, “This important book includes a chapter from one of our writers, Robert Hayes, that shows the superiority of socialism in combating COVID-19. Every activist should get this book and read it.”

In September of last year, union-busting Amazon tried to ban Capitalism on a Ventilator from its all-powerful platform, claiming the book did not “comply with [Amazon’s] guidelines” and falsely listing it as “out of print.”

While an outcry forced Amazon to carry the title on its megasite, even now it cannot be found on Kindle, the publishing giant’s e-book format.

The chapters include articles by many authors including: Ajamu Baraka, Monica Moorehead, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Margaret Kimberley, Margaret Flowers, Vijay Prashad, Max Blumenthal, Lee Siu Hin, Sara Flounders, Carlos Martinez, Kevin Zeese, Deirdre Griswold and more.

The book can be found online at these locations:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/capitalism-on-a-ventilator https://world-view-forum.myshopify.com/products/capitalism-on-a-ventilator https://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Ventilator-Impact-COVID-19-China/dp/0895671964

#NewYorkNY #CapitalismAndEconomy #Culture #Asia #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #BookReviews #China #Socialism #COVID19

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.”

The United States, one of the major epicenters of the world for capitalism, is leading the world in COVID deaths and COVID cases, with over 36.5 million cases and over 600,000 deaths. India and Brazil are capitalist countries with far-right leadership and they are second and third for the number of COVID cases and deaths. Compare these countries with anti-capitalist countries, such as Cuba, with 440,000 cases; and Venezuela with 311,000 cases detected and 3682 deaths.

Fight Back! interviewed Geovanni Peña, the director of the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Worker Safety, to learn more about how Venezuela has handled the pandemic. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

“Unlike the USA, Venezuela has implemented countrywide regulations, since the pandemic began, that continue today. During ‘closed week’ in Caracas, the streets are far more empty. The only open shops in the afternoon are essentials, such as supermarkets, pharmacies, healthcare clinics. Every other week is closed week.

“Schools have also stayed closed the entire pandemic, with students learning virtually, through WhatsApp texts – if they only have phone but no internet – or by picking up materials every 15 days. Teachers and parents have been very creative in helping the children. Schools may open in their fall semester, in October and we expect all teachers will be vaccinated by then.

“We will look at the rates and the data to decide if schools will open in October. We will only open if it is safe. We will not put children or staff at risk. In Venezuela, lives are more important than schools opening. While the schools have been closed, the government continued to provide the meals to the children.”

Geovanni also discussed the laws including wearing masks in stores and outside.

“One of the biggest dangers in the USA was the propaganda and lies about COVID. Here, Venezuelans are immune to lies. They support the science. The people here use masks because they are conscience and responsible. They are conscious of themselves and our society. Venezuela was unlike Brazil, USA or England, where the cases were exploding everywhere or Ecuador, where they had so many cases, they were throwing dead bodies in the street. Our successful control of COVID during the pandemic is due to President Maduro and the regulations he’s put in place. And he didn’t do it alone, he set up a council of the various ministers of the government and health experts. We had very high full recuperation rates and very low deaths.

“Here, the town decided to take care of one another. We have a united sense of community. We significantly increased protections. There is a low risk of catching COVID here because everyone wears masks, the closed weeks and we have a great healthcare system.”

Former President Chavez turned their for-profit healthcare system into a universal free healthcare system. The government also built more clinics all over the country, especially in areas, like the countryside, which didn’t have close access to them.

“Healthcare should be a human right in every country. In Venezuela, we use diagnostics, free and easy access to healthcare and free treatment for COVID. To help COVID patients and support businesses, the government converted hotels into hospitals. There was also strong communication between the government and the communities. If someone called in with symptoms, a nurse would bring the COVID test to the person’s house.”

Supporting the people through this pandemic is not only about healthcare, but also about maintaining people’s income. During the pandemic, the countries that did not provide sufficient funds to the people resulted in more people taking public transportation and working, thus increasing the chances of COVID spreading.

“President Maduro and the government provided 100% full income to public workers and subsidized private businesses, as long as they continued to fully pay their workers’ salaries. The government also passed a law that immune-compromised people do not have to work, won’t lose their job and will continue to receive their salary.

“The government implemented safety measures in jobs. Each job has a safety delegate and committee. So far, there are over 6000 registered. If there is a suspicion that a worker has COVID or there are unsafe working conditions, the safety committee is immediately activated. They can make a person with symptoms take a COVID test and report unsafe working conditions to the government.”

Other than salaries, rent has been a top concern in many countries, like the U.S. The U.S. had an eviction moratorium in place for a period of time, but it just ended, leaving millions at risk for eviction and homelessness. Venezuela was a different story. The Venezuelan government continued to build more free housing through Gran Misión Vivienda, which has built 3.6 million homes since 2011. The government also issued executive orders, which continue today, concerning rent.

“The government told the people that they don’t have to pay rent, nor do they have to pay rent back, when the pandemic ends.”

Including rent forgiveness, people receive bags of food monthly from the government through the CLAP program for 42 cents per bag. Each box includes items such as rice, pasta, oil, sardines, beans, flour, milk, sugar, etc.

Contract tracing and vaccines are another important aspect of the pandemic procedures to keep people safe.

“When we find a COVID case, we ensure the person and people in contact with the infected person are quarantined. In Venezuela, we have solidarity with one another in the battle against COVID. If someone finds out a neighbor is sick, they will call a doctor for them. We have a little more than 12,000 active cases, including only six Delta variant cases. We have a ton of beds available for patients. Other countries or states in the USA, are running out of beds.

“Due to the blockade, we can only receive vaccines from China, Russia and Cuba. This has slowed down the rate of vaccines coming here. So far, 4 million people here have been vaccinated. We are guaranteeing that 6 million more will be vaccinated very soon. By October, we will have 50% vaccinated.”

The U.S. has a plethora of vaccines, but only 50% of the people have been vaccinated, with some aeras as low as 20%.

“One pillar of our pandemic plan is the importance of educating the public and informing people of the benefits of the vaccine. I don’t know of any anti-vaccination movement here and I would’ve heard about it because I am the director of the National Institute of Prevention, Health and Worker Safety.

Director Geovanni Peña addressed the blockade as well: “I believe we need to stop the blockade and all nations need to join in fighting against COVID together. And all the governments need to protect their people.”

The Venezuelan government and people have done tremendous work in controlling COVID and supporting people through the pandemic.

#CaracasVenezuela #Venezuela #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19 #BolivarianRepublicOfVenezuela #DeltaVariant #Americas

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.

The report also documented the impact of national oppression in the United States. Chicanos and Latinos had the greatest lifespan drop of three years, followed closely by African American lifespans, which fell 2.9 years. In contrast, the lifespan for white Americans fell only 1.2 years, or less than half as much as African Americans and Chicanos and Latinos. The report did not include data on Asian Americans or Native Americans.

It was clear last year that African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, and Native Americans were getting hit the hardest by the pandemic. Lack of health insurance, especially for Chicanos and Latinos and poor health care for all these nationalities played a big role. White Americans were also more likely to have professional and semi-professional white collar jobs that could be done from home, reducing the risk of catching COVID-19 at work.

While the two previous greatest falls in U.S. lifespans in the last 100-plus years – the 1918 influenza pandemic, and World War II – saw a bounce-back in lifespans, the same is not certain today. More than 40% of U.S. COVID-19 deaths have been in 2021, so there is little chance that lifespans will bounce back this year. Even worse, deaths from COVID-19 are again rising rapidly in the United States, up more than 40% in just the last two weeks.

#SanJoseCA #Healthcare #COVID19

The weak jobs report unleashed a flood of claims by the Republicans that federal unemployment benefits were keeping people from taking jobs. But last fall they opposed expanding federal aid because they said that the job market was strong and was recovering on its own. Republican-ruled states are already starting to cut back on aid to the unemployed. South Carolina and Montana have blocked the extra $300 per week from the federal government. Both states will also be ending their participation in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, or PUA, in June. The PUA is for self-employed and gig workers.

But this doesn’t explain why 400,000 more workers started looking for work last month, and why the unemployment rate went up last month to 6.1% as more people started looking for work. Nor does this claim explain the more than 200,000 jobs cut by businesses last month. In fact, this is the same old austerity program of trying to cut government spending, and pushing the burden of the crisis onto the backs of working people.

The unemployed also face a growing threat of evictions, as a federal court overturned the nationwide eviction ban by the federal Centers for Disease Control. Only 16 states out of 50 have their own eviction bans for those hurt by the recession, and all but six of them end in May or June. This will put millions of people in danger of eviction and many will end up joining the growing ranks of homeless.

The official federal count of homeless people – of a little more than 500,000 – is a vast undercount based on counting people in the street and shelters. Schools reported about 1.5 million students without their own home. If each unhoused student has a parent sibling not in school, this would be about 3 million homeless, or about 1% of the U.S population.

This shows another of the glaring inequalities of life under capitalism: while the average price of homes went up over 9% in 2020, millions of people cannot afford to pay for their own place to live.

#SanJoséCA #COVID19 #pandemicUnemploymentAssistanceProgram #USDepartmentOfLabor

The weak jobs report unleashed a flood of claims by the Republicans that federal unemployment benefits were keeping people from taking jobs. But last fall they opposed expanding federal aid because they said that the job market was strong and was recovering on its own. Republican-ruled states are already starting to cut back on aid to the unemployed. South Carolina and Montana have blocked the extra $300 per week from the federal government. Both states will also be ending their participation in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, or PUA, in June. The PUA is for self-employed and gig workers.

But this doesn’t explain why 400,000 more workers started looking for work last month, and why the unemployment rate went up last month to 6.1% as more people started looking for work. Nor does this claim explain the more than 200,000 jobs cut by businesses last month. In fact, this is the same old austerity program of trying to cut government spending, and pushing the burden of the crisis onto the backs of working people.

The unemployed also face a growing threat of evictions, as a federal court overturned the nationwide eviction ban by the federal Centers for Disease Control. Only 16 states out of 50 have their own eviction bans for those hurt by the recession, and all but six of them end in May or June. This will put millions of people in danger of eviction and many will end up joining the growing ranks of homeless.

The official federal count of homeless people – of a little more than 500,000 – is a vast undercount based on counting people in the street and shelters. Schools reported about 1.5 million students without their own home. If each unhoused student has a parent sibling not in school, this would be about 3 million homeless, or about 1% of the U.S population.

This shows another of the glaring inequalities of life under capitalism: while the average price of homes went up over 9% in 2020, millions of people cannot afford to pay for their own place to live.

#SanJoséCA #COVID19 #pandemicUnemploymentAssistanceProgram #USDepartmentOfLabor

Mayor Lightfoot has continued to hold off on vaccinating Chicago residents aged 16 and over despite the fact that the state of Illinois has opened up vaccine eligibility to those residents. People in that age group are currently being found to be the most significant cause of spread of the virus. National health experts are calling for states and cities to hold off on opening schools, bars, restaurants and other similar places right now due to the recent uptick in cases as well, as the more contagious UK variant has now been found to be the main variant found in the United States.

The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding that the Chicago Public School system modify schedules for high schools to lessen unnecessary contact and limit the number of people in buildings to minimize COVID spread. The union also says that each Wednesday, high schools should be conducted remotely to provide teachers with additional prep time, which is in desperately short supply, and that teachers and other educators who are in higher risk categories, or have family members who are, should be given access to remote teaching opportunities or else paid leave. In addition, they say that the school system should vaccinate high school students and family members who are high risk, which would be permitted by Illinois current eligibility guidelines.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #TeachersUnions #CTU #COVID19

San José, CA – This past week, on March 11, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and White House passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue law without the support of a single Republican in the House or the Senate. The law provides much-needed relief for millions of people whose finances have been wounded by the pandemic. Yet much more needs to be done, especially in the fight against the growing economic inequality.

The latest report on unemployment insurance or UI showed that the number of new claims for the week ending March 6 continued to be at high levels. The number of applications for state UI was 712,000, still higher than the pre-recession record of 695,000 set all the way back in the early 1980s. While the number of new claims for regular state unemployment insurance dropped by more than 40,000, the number of new claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, rose by almost the same amount, leaving the total almost unchanged from the week before, at almost 1.2 million claims.

The same report showed that the total number of people collecting state UI, the PUA, or other unemployment programs rose again to more than 20 million people for the week ending February 20. While the number of people receiving state UI was virtually unchanged at 4.8 million, the number collecting PUA benefits jumped by more than a million to total almost 8.4 million. The federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, or PEUC, for the long-term unemployed also increased by almost a million to more than 5.4 million. The state Extended Benefits or EB program for the long term unemployed in states with high unemployment rates also increased by a small amount to 1.3 million.

Without the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the PUA and PEUC would have stopped new claims as of March 15, and would have ended benefit payments on April 15, cutting off 13.8 million people from their unemployment benefits financial lifeline. The ARP also extended the unemployment insurance from the regular six months to a year and a half: the PUA now pays benefits for 79 weeks, and the PEUC to pay benefits for 53 weeks after the regular state UI, which lasts 26 weeks, runs out. These extended benefits run until September 6.

The ARP also extends the unemployment insurance supplement at a lower level of $300 per week until September. This supplement is much needed, as the maximum amounts of state unemployment are often nowhere enough to even pay the rent, much less survive. It also exempts the first $10,200 of UI from federal taxation – providing some relief to those hit by first losing their jobs, and then having their UI benefits taxed by the federal government.

With more than half of Americans getting their health insurance from their jobs, the ARP expansion of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will provide some relief to those who lost their health insurance along with their paycheck. The ARP also adds money to the COBRA program that allows laid-off workers to keep their former health insurance at a lower cost than before. There is also money for paid sick leave, but it does not require businesses to offer paid sick leave. The lack of sick leave helped contribute to the pandemic, as American workers have been forced to develop a culture of coming to work sick in order to avoid loss of pay or worse.

While the aid to renters, homeowners and homeless people is a very small part of the ARP (only $37 billion or about 2% of the total), it is a start towards aiding the tens of millions of renters and millions of homeowners who have fallen behind in their rent or mortgage. But, with some 3 million people without their own homes, the ARP aid is nowhere near enough to solve the problem.

The ARP also provides more money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously known as Food Stamps. It extends the 15% increase in benefits through September, past the existing cut-off of June. But the ARP does not permanently increase the benefit level, relax the work requirement, or loosen the savings limit that restrict participation and contribute to the high levels of hunger in world’s leading food producer.

The ARP also sends money to state and local governments that have fallen into budget deficits with the recession. Other states, such as California, have been lucky not to have developed big deficits. But California still had to borrow more than $18 billion from the federal government to pay for the historic surge in regular state UI benefits. State and local governments have cut more than a million jobs to try to balance their budgets, and the aid will allow them to restore programs and services that were cut.

There is also a wide array of money for institutions hit hard by the pandemic from schools to transportation agencies to retirement funds. The ARP also beefs up health care funding, mainly for vaccine distribution and COVID testing and tracking, but also in other areas.

COVID-19 also accelerated the increase in economic inequality that has been growing in the United States for the last 40 years. The pandemic led to historic lines at food banks, while the stock market hit record highs. Tens of millions of working people saw their savings and small businesses decimated even as total wealth increased and the wealth of billionaires skyrocketed. The estimated wealth of U.S. billionaires increased 44% to a total of $4.3 trillion, even as tens of millions lost their jobs, their businesses, and have their homes put at risk.

The ARP makes some short-term steps towards addressing economic inequality. The most popular one is the $1400 per person checks for about 85% of the people. These will start hitting people’s bank accounts this week. This round of relief checks includes adult dependents such as parents and college students that were left out of the checks under the Trump administration. However, it still does not include undocumented immigrants, as the checks require a Social Security number, while undocumented pay taxes using a Taxpayer Identification Number or TIN. However the legal resident and citizen members of a mixed household with an undocumented are eligible this time around.

The United States has the highest poverty rates for children among middle- and high-income countries, with more than one in every seven children living in poor households even before the pandemic began. The U.S. official poverty rate, on which this number is based, is way too low. It was designed in the 1960s based on data from the 1950s, and is centered around the cost of food. But in the last 50 years, rent, childcare, health care and other necessities have risen in price much faster than food, leading to a falling ‘official’ poverty rate even as inequality and homelessness grow.

The ARP marks a step in the fight against child poverty by expanding the child tax credit, increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor, and increasing the childcare tax credit for working parents. While these actions could cut child poverty by as much as half, these provisions only apply to 2021; but permanent changes are needed.

#SanJoséCA #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19 #PandemicUnemploymentAssistance #AmericanRescuePlan

That is the message that the white power structure in Leon County is sending to the prisoners in the Leon County jail. Your lives simply don't matter.

If you die from COVID-19, good riddance. It will save the public the expense involved in taking care of you.

Neither Tallahassee Mayor John Daily, County Commission Chair Rick Minor, County Administrator Vince Long, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) CEO Mark O'Bryant, the Leon County Health Department Director Claudia Blackburn, nor any lobbyist or member of the Leadership Tallahassee gang that run this town apparently give a damn about unvaccinated prisoners.

CDC guidelines updated on February 16, 2021 clearly state that “jurisdictions are encouraged to vaccinate staff and incarcerated/detained persons of correctional or detention facilities at the same time because of their shared increased risk of disease.”

Note that prisoners maintaining social distance is impossible in the Leon County jail.

None of the discussions on the Friday Covid-19 webinars moderated by lobbyist Gary Yordon and others are much more than tepid propaganda for TMH marketing.

There is no discussion of thousands of doses going to private TMH physician partners who can then distribute the vaccine to their private patients with no effective monitoring in place.

Only people fortunate to have health insurance and private doctors are eligible for this vaccine. That means that many Black, brown, and poor people are excluded from these doses of vaccines.

All of the vaccine should go to public health departments, public clinics, or institutions open to the public, such as churches with no membership requirements.

It certainly should not go to powerful, wealthy TMH board members such as Sally Bradshaw, who reportedly received the vaccine at age 55. It certainly should not go to TMH marketing people no questions asked.

Getting the vaccine in Leon County depends to a large extent on who you know. That is why the vaccine has gone disproportionately to the white, the rich and the powerful.

Blacks dying as a matter of public policy is nothing new to this town. Think of all the Blacks who died because city-owned TMH would not admit them to the hospital.

Blacks dying because they have not received COVID testing or the vaccine is the continuation of a tradition that has existed in Tallahassee for decades.

#TallahasseeFL #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19

Even worse, the previous week’s claim number for regular state UI was revised upward by 68,000. These weekly new claims numbers were four times higher than the number a year ago, before the economic crisis started. The total number for all programs – including the state UI, the federal PUA, as well as the new programs for those who have been out of work for more than six months, the state Extended Benefits, and the Federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC – is nine times the pre-recession totals of a year ago.

While the stock market has been hitting new highs and corporate profits are near record levels, the job market is still down almost 10 million jobs from a year ago. Most economists think that the total production of goods and services, measured by the Gross Domestic Product or GDP, will recover their pre-recession levels this year. But the recovery in the job market won’t be until at least 2022, given that the number of new jobs has basically stalled in December and January, which, when averaged together had a monthly job loss of about 90,000.

Even worse, projections are that millions of jobs are not coming back. The recession and pandemic have speeded up the use of new technologies that can eliminate jobs. 20% or more of office jobs may continue to be work at home, which will cause losses in downtown food service and retail jobs. At least 20% of business travel is projected to be lost as videoconferencing continues, again leading to permanent hotel, restaurant and travel related jobs gone. Many retail jobs are not coming back even when COVID-19 loses its pandemic status, as a lot of online shopping is here to stay.

One might think that this will just shift jobs from stores to warehouses and fulfillment centers. But warehousing jobs, which grew dramatically during the pandemic with the explosion of online shopping, is also under threat with growing automation. Chewy, a pet supply online retailer, just opened a new fulfillment center that uses only one-third the workers of a traditional warehouse. Amazon has also been stepping up the use of robots in their warehouses. These robots are bound to spread across the whole warehousing and shipping industry, reducing the number of jobs.

This is one of the features of recessions in a capitalist economy – that it speeds up technological and job changes that were already underway. And unless there are strong labor unions and a fighting workers’ movement, the average worker will get the short end of the stick while corporations and their owners win.

#SanJoseCA #Layoffs #PeoplesStruggles #COVID19

However, CTU also says that the agreement puts them in a vastly better position than they were in November, when even after months of struggle, the planning and preparation by CPS would have been laughable were it not also so dangerous. They say that school clerks and technology coordinators who had reported safety concerns for months will now have access to vaccines and enforceable safety measures that should have been in place before they had ever been asked to step foot back into the buildings.

A new safety committee will be created which the teachers say they will use to enforce the agreement and organize to ensure that CPS meets safety standards and mitigation protocols. The agreement also lays out gains on accommodations, vaccinations, delayed re-opening, school closing metrics, and more. CTU says that while they did not get what anyone deserves, they instead got what they were able to take through collective action and fighting hard, and that accepting this deal is a way to protect the progress they have made.

This agreement comes after many rank-and-file CTU members were locked out, docked pay or faced discipline as a result of the actions they took to keep people safe. CTU believes that those sacrifices made were a major factor in what made CPS finally negotiate and arrive at the agreement that is now ratified.

As CTU members were voting on the agreement on Tuesday, February 9, CPS began at last to reinstate the workers who they had locked out in retaliation for their collective action.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #ChicagoPublicSchools #TeachersUnions #COVID19

Hardest hit in December were restaurants and bars, which shed over 370,000 jobs as fear of the rising COVID-19 pandemic, government restrictions and colder weather slammed the sector. State and local government budget cuts also put another 51,000 workers out of their jobs. Local and state governments combined have laid off almost 1.4 million workers this past year, hit hard by the recession and the lack of federal government aid.

While the official unemployment rate stayed the same as in November at 6.7%, this number doesn’t count the millions of workers, mainly women, who have been forced to give up on looking for work and thus are not counted as unemployed. The percentage of jobless workers who are long-term unemployed continued to rise, to almost 40% of the total.

The job situation is likely to worsen in the January report. The survey for the report will be carried out next week, January 11 to 16. Just this past week two new records were made in the United States. On Wednesday, January 6 more than 4000 people died of the COVID-19, and then today there were more than 300,000 new cases in just one day. With the pandemic even worse than when the December survey was taken in mid-December, the job situation is also likely to get work.

But while this latest surge in the wake of the holidays was expected to peak by the end of the month, two recent developments threaten make this bad situation even worse. The vaccine rollout has transformed the Trump administration’s “operation warp-speed” into a vaccination snail’s pace. This is not simply a case of the Trump administration’s incompetence – which it is – but a problem with the decentralized, profit-guided U.S. health care system that has gutted public health starting with the Reagan administration in the 1980s. One deep-blue, well-to-do California County estimated that it would finish the first phase of vaccinating health care workers and institutionalized seniors by the end of February. Given that this is about 7% of the population, it would take 20 months, or until August 2022, to protect 70% of the population that could be enough to crush the virus.

Another problem is the potential spread of a new variant of the virus. Despite more stringent restrictions in Britain than in much of the United States, cases are rising even faster there as the new variant is estimated to be 60-70% more infectious. After a first round of “don’t worry, mutations happen all the time,” it is now coming out that the U.S. is behind most other countries in being able to even test for the new variant, which is spreading in the country from coast to coast.

#UnitedStates #Unemployment #economy #Covid19 #pandemic #EconomicReport

To start, in late December they demanded the school board hold an emergency meeting January 4 to discuss updated COVID numbers and plan for virtual learning options. That was the first win as the board met that night and heard concerns from community and educators. The power of the union and the threat of a massive sick-out forced the board to accept the demands of two weeks of virtual learning and also to lower metrics that make it easier to close school sites if there are COVID-19 cases.

Chandler Education Association President Katie Nash said of the win, “Organizing for power works! It takes a lot of hard work, strategy and tactics.” When asked what led to the big victory, she said, “It’s about relationships. It’s about beginning with a goal in mind and slowly working away at that goal. You start out with small things and escalate as necessary. As you gain momentum, your demands may need to change. It’s also about telling your story. Your story has power. Our stories have power. No one can take that power away from you. And when we put all of those stories together, we are truly most powerful.”

As COVID-19 cases continue to ravage Arizona, Fight Back! will continue to publish updates about worker resistance.

#TucsonAZ #PeoplesStruggles #TeachersUnions #COVID19

Minneapolis, MN – More than 30 mothers, parents, children and supporters who work for Hennepin County gathered at Painter Park, December 19, to call on Hennepin County Commissioners to hold an emergency board meeting to pass COVID Childcare and Caregiver Leave at full pay until schools and daycares are fully functional.

The action took place one day after Board Chair Marion Greene met with mothers and union representatives and refused to exercise her power and act.

Last spring the federal government passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), authorizing leave at two-thirds pay for parents. This leave is set to expire in two weeks.

School and childcare closures have greatly impacted the lives of all caregivers regardless of gender. However, organizers emphasized that childcare leave is largely a women’s issue. The struggle of mothers has largely been absent from mainstream media and political discussions. The continued silence and lack of action by elected officials and county administration speaks to the ongoing and systemic oppression of women.

Across the country, COVID-related childcare issues are forcing women out of the workforce at alarming rates. According to recent government statistics, 617,000 women left the workforce in September alone, compared with only 78,000 men. One in four women are considering leaving the workforce altogether. FFCRA only guarantees paid leave at two-thirds of an employee’s hourly wage, and most Hennepin County employees cannot afford a one-third pay cut. This has left low-paid workers, single parents and parents with one-income households in financial crisis.

Regina Andrews, a welfare worker and mother of three, told supporters that she has to go in the bathroom to scream and cry on her lunch break because the stress of being a worker, mother, nurse, teacher and chef is too much.

For those who did take the leave, the loss of income has been devastating. “Two-thirds of my pay does not pay my bills,” says Aimee Wimberlay, single mother of two, also a welfare worker for Hennepin County. “I did it [took federal leave] for as long as I could and I have nearly lost my house in the process. I even attempted to apply for emergency assistance and was denied because I made too much.”

Speaking anonymously, another county worker and single mother of five stated, “Last spring I was struggling with depression and anxiety. It was very difficult. I was living in the dark. I took the time off even though it put me at financial risk. Since March I have been behind in my rent. I only can pay the late fees. I took that risk. Why? Because I was desperate and had no other choice.”

Union officials are calling on the county to pass a stopgap measure to provide COVID childcare and caregiver leave at full pay until schools and daycares are fully functional. The county leave would supplement, not supplant, any potential state or federal action.

After the action at Painter Park, attendees drove in a car caravan down Hennepin Avenue to the Walker Sculpture Garden. With signs taped to their cars reading “Hennepin County: help my mommy help me!” and “Let me eat,” the caravan passed two blocks away from Board Chair Marion Greene’s home. When participants arrived at the Sculpture Garden, they celebrated their ongoing struggle with snacks and holiday pictures in front of the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture.

Participants vow to continue their struggle. As Latonya Reeves, president of AFSCME Local 552 and the AFSCME Hennepin County Policy Committee stated, “Hennepin County, support your workers the way we support the community.”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #AFSCME #COVID19 #HennepinCounty