March 2020
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Covid-19 as symptom: Notes on the production of a virus
Understandably, these days we hear a lot about the symptoms of Covid-19 (dry cough, high fever, etc.). Conversely, there is much less discussion of the virus as a symptom. Let’s say then that to intervene on the symptoms of the virus it is necessary not only to have specific scientific knowledge, but also to put… Continue reading
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Ecosocialism or barbarism: African journal interviews C&C editor Ian Angus
In an interview with the African Review of Political Economy, Climate & Capitalism editor Ian Angus discusses the environmental crisis, the Anthropocene and Covid-19. Continue reading
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The UK will spend over £350bn on extravagant military projects while failing to ensure national health security
New analysis shows that Britain plans to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on expensive military projects while the UK’s under-funded public health system struggles to address pandemics such as Covid-19. Continue reading
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Is Capitalism a Disease?
The scientific tradition of the “West,” of Europe and North America, has had its greatest success when it has dealt with what we have come to think of as the central questions of scientific inquiry: “What is this made of?” and “How does this work?” Over the centuries, we have developed more and more sophisticated… Continue reading
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Lockdown!
According to AFP estimates, some 1.7 billion people across the world are now living under some form of lockdown as a result of the coronavirus. That’s almost a quarter of the world population. The world economy has seen nothing like this. Continue reading
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Black Agenda Radio 24 March 2020
24 March 2020 — Black Agenda Radio Black Agenda Radio for Week of March 23, 2020 Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford Black Trillion Dollar “Buying Power” is a Capitalist Hoax / James Baldwin’s African Awakening / Too Fast to Be a Woman Continue reading
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Our leaders are terrified. Not of the virus – of us
You can almost smell the fear-laden sweat oozing from the pores of television broadcasts and social media posts as it finally dawns on our political and media establishments what the coronavirus actually means. And I am not talking about the threat posed to our health. Continue reading
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Ghosts of Capitalism vs. Walls of Solidarity
In these difficult times for humanity, confronted with the danger of constant predatory action by the greed and boundless ambition of the hegemonic powers in the name of the free market, free enterprise, wild neo-liberalism, the destruction of nature ravaged to extremes never before seen by decadent capitalism, only solidarity and responsibility illuminate our habitat. Continue reading
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Matt Hancock faces the dressing down of his life over ‘insulting’ comments on coronavirus
Health secretary Matt Hancock appeared on ITV‘s Good Morning Britain on 23 March. During the interview, he faced the dressing down of his life over his ‘insulting’ comments on the government’s strategy for handling the new coronavirus (Covid-19). Continue reading
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COLDTYPE Issue 202 Mid-March 2020 – is now online
24 March 2020 — Coldtype Continue reading
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When Logistics Run Out of Time
The vast majority of people first experienced the growing coronavirus crisis for themselves in a supermarket. Almost every store now has at least half a dozen bare aisles, if not more, and social media has been awash with pleas for so-called ‘panic buying’ to stop, which the government is now echoing. Continue reading
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Lancet chief skewers Johnson government for its disastrous Covid-19 failure
An editorial piece in The Lancet – the world’s most prestigious, and best known general medical journal warned two months ago of the oncoming conflict between an ill-prepared, under-funded national health service and an indiscriminate invisible killer in the form of the 2019 coronavirus. More recently The Lancet warned again of the problems that health… Continue reading
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8 Day Journey From Hong Kong To Chile, COVID-19 On My Tail
Imagine that you are in Hong Kong, in a city where “you are actually not supposed to be”, in the first place. You are ready to go home, to South America. But just two days before your departure, via Seoul and Amsterdam, your first Sky Team carrier, Korean Air, unceremoniously decides to cancel all flights… Continue reading
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China Wins Big With Covid-19. What Were We Thinking?
China suffered through the H1N1 coronavirus epidemic in 2008 largely because the CDC took 6 months to identify it and, as a result, 300,000 died prematurely. SARS (774 deaths) was the clincher. They created a hair-trigger alarm system, mandated post-mortem pneumonia DNA testing nationwide, and promoted the CDC head, Dr. George F. Gao[1], to Demigod. Continue reading
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Italy and UK rely on help from Cuba, China, Venezuela to fight coronavirus – as US steps up brutal sanctions
Italy requested doctors from China, Cuba, and Venezuela to contain the coronavirus, while Cuba rescued a ship of British citizens. Meanwhile, US sanctions worsen the toll of the Covid-19 crisis in Iran and Venezuela. Continue reading
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Business as Usual: Coronavirus, Iran and US Sanctions
Never discount the importance of venality in international relations. While pandemics should provide the glue for a unified front in response – we keep being told of fighting this horrendous “invisible enemy” – it’s business as usual in other respects. The United States, with a disparate, confused medical system that risks being overwhelmed, remains committed… Continue reading
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Expert: US sanctions on Iran, Venezuela during pandemic could be genocidal
Iran has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, and new US sanctions are making it worse. Alfred de Zayas, a former UN Special Rapporteur, says that intensified US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela during the crisis are “insane”, and possibly genocidal. Continue reading
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RECESSION FOR CHINA, DEPRESSION FOR EU AND USA?
22 March 2020 — theplanningmotivedotcom The market crash is now four weeks old. The first two weeks registered falls without a liquidity crisis (see pie chart below). The third week registered sharp falls with a liquidity crisis. The fourth week registered the biggest weekly falls with severe dislocation between assets because investors decided to be Continue reading
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A few ambitious points on fighting the crisis
We are facing two crises at once, health and economic, that are related in very important ways. The covid-19 epidemic has done major damage around the world, but it’s highlighting some serious structural problems with the US social model that better-run countries are not so afflicted by. We are plagued by a deep economic polarization… Continue reading
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Late-Stage Imperial Omni-Crisis: Death by Virus and Internal Contradictions
The epidemic reveals the stark truth, that the US dismantled and privatized its public health system, to fatten the pockets of the oligarchy and render working people more helpless and dependent. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 