Making political sense of the world can be tricky unless one understands the role of the state in capitalist societies. The state is not primarily there to represent voters or uphold democratic rights and values; it is a vehicle for facilitating and legitimating the concentration of wealth and power into fewer and fewer hands.
News that three different vaccines with high rates of efficacy in preventing COVID-19 are on their way has raised hopes. We can all use some cheerful news right about now. But the best medical evidence suggests we should temper our optimism.
Don’t throw away that mask or expect a short sprint to a world free of the pandemic, say experts. Nor will the vaccination of the Canadian general public really begin in earnest till the summer of 2021.
The oil and gas industry “likely won’t meaningfully reduce” its carbon pollution this decade without more government funding, according to a new Royal Bank of Canada report.
New York (CNN Business)Tyson supervisors at a pork processing facility in Waterloo, Iowa took bets on how many workers would get infected with Covid-19, even as they took measures to protect themselves and denied knowledge of the spread of the illness at work, according to new allegations in a lawsuit against the company and some employees.
"According to Carter: The world community needs to sink their teeth into the science and wake up. The world needs to take a hard look because what’s happening is equivalent to “the crime of all time, undercutting all society… Our perverse form of economics is destroying the planet disrupting all the oceans, poisoning the oceans, entire oceans with acidification, with heating, which disturbs and breaks down all the healthy ocean currents and… it is the definition of evil.” (Carter)"
Leaked images show mega-corporation’s use of ‘virtual foreman,’ which advocates say puts workers’ pandemic safety at risk
Amazon warehouse workers say a version of the company’s infamous “time off task” productivity-monitoring system is operational in Canada — and it’s pushing them to race against seemingly arbitrary digital timers, at the expense of their health.
[Editor: These are two very interesting podcasts on the subject of democracy, inequality, capitalism, racisism, imperialism, and freedom.]
1. Canadian-American filmmaker and writer Astra Taylor admits that for most of her life the term "democracy" held little appeal. But when she took on the what-is-democracy question, her inquiry turned into a belief that while it may not fully exist, democracy is still worth fighting for.
