ANTI-CORPORATISM

ANDRE VLTCHEK—It all feels bizarre. As if the Western regime were preparing its citizens and the world ‘for the most awful scenario.’ As if there were no solution to this dire global crisis. “Chinese Virus”, says the U.S. President Donald Trump. He pronounces it with spite, and naturally, China feels deeply insulted. Some citizens and the government officials had enough of the continuous, racist abuses, and they are openly protesting. Well, first of all, do we even really know where the virus has originated from? In Wuhan? But how did it get to Wuhan, and what triggered the epidemic? We don’t know. Nobody really knows.

MICHAEL K. SMITH—The grossly exploitative nature of gig employment is nowhere more apparent than in the current crisis of Uber drivers during the corona virus pandemic. The unofficial “plan” is to let these drivers work right up to the moment they get sick, then hope they don’t die as they shelter in place at home awaiting a compensation check based on their collapsed earnings. In short, a token tiny payment inside a get-well card. 

BRYAN DYNE—As WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned, “You can’t fight a fire blindfolded, and we can’t stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.” The imminent dangers can be most clearly seen in the collapse of the Italian health care system, which has already been overwhelmed by 31,506 cases to date, up from just three less than a month ago. The death toll has reached at least 2,503 and is rising. If the mortality rates in Italy hold true for Britain and the United States—and the lack of public health infrastructure in both countries indicates that they will—the two countries will likely see actual death tolls of at least two million and 8.6 million respectively.

DIANA JOHNSTONE—Fifty years ago, it was “the left” whose most ardent cause was passionate support for Third World national liberation struggles. The left’s heroes were Ahmed Ben Bella, Sukarno, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, and above all Ho Chi Minh.  What were these leaders fighting for?  They were fighting to liberate their countries from Western imperialism.  They were fighting for independence, for the right to determine their own way of life, preserve their own customs, decide their own future. They were fighting for national sovereignty, and the left supported that struggle.

PATRICE GREANVILLE—Joaquin Phoenix’s seemingly impromptu and brave Oscar speech was way above and beyond the pampered audience’s comfort zone and comprehension, clearly outside the usual insufferably egocentric drivel delivered by most award recipients, and yet they eventually rose to their feet, perhaps dimly aware of the depth and scope of the message, something that the media custodians of the status quo  studiously failed to do. Their almost uniform response has ranged from outright scorn—as typified by the venom spat by the repulsive Murdoch rag, The New York Post—to hollowing out exactly all the major and substantive points in Phoenix’s clear expression of personal beliefs.