CAPITALIST SYSTEMIC POVERTY

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—”The most significant thing happening in the world right now is the fact that the global capitalist order which is destroying our ecosystem is held in place by a US-centralized power alliance whose aggressions are putting our planet at increasing risk of nuclear war. There is nothing more urgent or newsworthy than the fact that multiple forms of human insanity are imperiling the entire human species, and indeed the life of every terrestrial organism. The fact that this isn’t at the forefront of our attention shows how propagandized we are…”

BILLY BOB—Why China Leads the World​ demolishes the fake, anti-China narratives that have become unavoidable in the West and obligatory components of every Western newscast. I can’t count the times I’ve seen a particular anti-China story and thought to myself “I wonder what the truth on this is?” before googling the topic together with Godfree’s name. In my mind and in the minds of countless others, Roberts’ name is synonymous with truth and insight regarding China.

Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Prasanth Radhakrishnan, a New Delhi based journalist with Newclick.in and People’s Dispatch, about the historic farmer strike currently sweeping India. Radhakrishnan explains why farmers are rising up, how they are organized, and how the neoliberal government of Narendra Modi has responded to the movement. Just one day after this interview, the Modi government raided the offices of Newsclick.in and detained its editors in what has been denounced as an act of intimidation against critical media.

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York City. He wrote Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism and founded www.democracyatwork.info, a non-profit advocacy organization of the same name that promotes democratic workplaces as a key path to a stronger, democratic economic system.

MoA—The AstraZeneka vaccine was developed by Oxford University. It will be a no-profit vaccine as its development was financed by public money. The cost per dose will be below $3-4.

Both of the mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer are for-profit vaccines. They seem to be quite good (and no, they do not modify your DNA) but they will cost between $25 and $35 per shot. They also require an elaborate and expensive distribution chain as they can only be stored at very low temperatures. The adenovirus based vaccines can be stored in a normal refrigerator.

The mRNA vaccines hyped in the U.S. media are simply too expensive to be used around the world. If we want to limit the global effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic we will have to use the cheaper vector based vaccines.