Cuba: From AIDS, Dengue, and Ebola to COVID-19
The U.S. dawdled for months before reacting to the pandemic. Cuba’s preparation for COVID-19 began on January 1, 1959.
The End of the American Empire
The US is not only experiencing a serious economic crisis but also a profound humanitarian crisis that its people have been suffering for decades.
Relevance of Ambedkar’s Idea of ‘State Socialism’ in the Time of COVID-19
In the light of the current crisis, the time has come to revisit Dr Amebdkar’s ideas on democratic state socialism proposed by him in his book ‘State and Minorities’ written in 1947.
The Emperor Has No Mask: The Indian State in the Time of COVID-19
Ramaa Vasudevan As the COVID-19 virus races across countries and continents, taking its deadly toll, states across the world are scrambling to deal with what has become the most wide-spread pandemic outbreak since the 1918 Spanish flu. As states grapple to navigate this uncharted territory, the pandemic has also become a lens that is bringing…
India’s Unemployment Rate May Have Shot Up to 23% After COVID-19 Lockdown: CMIE
Courtesy: The Wire Staff The national lockdown may have led to significant job losses across the country, with the overall unemployment rate hitting over 23% in the last week of March 2020, according to estimates put out by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). India currently does not have official high-frequency employment data….
Is Capitalism a Disease?
Richard Levins 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…
Unemployment Pandemic
Capitalist crises are neither predictable nor do they stem from a single cause. Instead, at least as I see it, the possibility of a crisis is always there but the causes and triggers are all historical and therefore multiple and varied. Sometimes, crises in capitalism stem from difficulties in extracting more surplus from workers and…
Wall Street Wins, Again: Bailouts in the Time of Coronavirus
Jake Johnson, Nomi Prins [This article has been edited by us, using additional inputs from the following articles: Alana Abramson, Philip Elliott, March 25, 2020, President Trump Signs $2.2 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Package Into Law, https://time.com Jack Rasmus, “US Senate’s Final Stimulus Bill: Why It Won’t Be Enough”.] President Donald Trump signed a historic $2.2…
Finnish PM Proposes Four-Day Workweek, Six Hours Each Day
Courtesy: Telesur Prime Minister Sanna Marin spoke in favor of reducing working days and working hours during the 120th-anniversary ceremony of the founding of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Turku, Finland. “Four-day work week, six-hour day. Why couldn’t this be the next step? Is eight hours the absolute truth?” the Finnish Prime…
Deadly Algebra of Wage Freeze and Super Profits in India
Courtesy: Newsclick A recent analysis of official data reveals that workers in India across all types of occupations have been suffering a deadly squeeze on their incomes as inflation-adjusted wages have been barely increasing, or even declining for the past several years. This has not only devastated the living standards of already ill-paid workers…