Calls for a public enquiry into awards of Covid-related contracts

17 November 2020 — Political Concern

The original brief of this website, set up ten years ago, was to raise awareness of the ‘revolving door’, rewards for failure, widespread behind-the-scene lobbying and party funding which corrupts the decision-making process here and abroad. There is currently a resurgence of such concerns, expressed here by Professor Prem Sikka and later by Sophie Hill, a PhD student.

On 6th November Professor Prem Sikka wrote an article showing the imperative for a public inquiry into how Covid contracts are handed out.

Two weeks later a Hackney reader sent this link to a Metro article which reported that  Sophie Hill, a British PhD student in Government at Harvard University, had created a ‘My little Crony’ map – snapshot below.

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Exiting the false “jobs versus environment” dilemma

16 November, 2020 — ROAR

The workerist environmentalism of Italy’s Porto Marghera group connects the workplace and the community in the struggle against capitalist “noxiousness.”

Amidst the renewed rise of obscene inequalities, a wave of protests is sweeping through Italy, from south to north. On the one hand, the pandemic has engendered an upsurge in workplace disputes to defend health and in mobilizations to protect the income of workers affected by COVID-19-related restrictions. On the other hand, however, we have also witnessed successful interventions coordinated by the right and infused with a bewildering array of conspiracy theories in response to such measures.

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The Dead And Those About To Die – Climate Protests And The Corporate Media

17 November 2020 — Media Lens

The Roman poet Horace famously declared:

‘Dulce et decorum est pro patrie mori.’

It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. Wilfred Owen, the great English poet of the First World War, described this phrase as ‘the old Lie’ in his famous war poem, ‘Dulce et decorum est’. Patriotism so often means ‘honouring’ those who ‘fell in service to this country’, grand ceremonies at war memorials, feasts of royal pageantry. And then sending yet more generations of men and women to fight in yet more wars.

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Biden’s “normalcy” means return of “ancien régime”

15 November, 2020 — Indian Punchline

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and NSA Susan Rice after a meeting at the White House, Washington, DC. April 14, 2015

There has been a spate of reports in the American media that the US president-elect Joe Biden is assembling his cabinet of ministers. Most reports mention that Biden’s secretary of state will be Susan Rice, former US ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor in the Barack Obama administration. Reportedly, Biden’s choice for US defence secretary is likely to be Michele Flournoy, who had previously served as a senior defence adviser in Bill Clinton and Barack Obama’s administrations. Continue reading

Capitalism’s Coronavirus Catastrophe

16 November 2020 — Internationalist 360°

Stephen Millies

Philadelphia-area nurses are preparing to strike to demand safe conditions for patients and health-care workers.

Wall Street’s war machine includes 11 aircraft carriers and 5,800 nuclear weapons. Yet the capitalist government in the United States is helpless to combat the latest coronavirus surge.

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