In These Times | "Felt like this was a new wave or a turning point in the struggle for Palestine.”

In These Times | Stephen Franklin on labor's losses—and explosive resurgence

Monthly Review | How much does it cost to maintain an empire? A stunning new analysis by Gisela Cernadas and John Bellamy Foster shows the true scale of U.S. military spending.

It is not a coincidence that these three countries – the US, Ukraine, and Israel – are the only ones that did not vote in favour of this year’s annual UN General Assembly resolution to end the six-decade-long US embargo on Cuba (which was imposed formally by US President John F. Kennedy on 3 February 1962 but began in 1960). The US has not only enforced this blockade on Cuba as a country, but on the Cuban Revolution as a process.

Since Israel began its brutal siege of the Gaza Strip, Canada’s labour unions have come out in vocal support of the Palestinians. Ranging from calls for an immediate ceasefire, to opposition to Canadian arms sales to Israel, and statements opposing violence “on both sides,” unions have increasingly lined up to call out Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza and the West Bank.

In the world’s largest and fastest-growing car mar-
ket — the People’s Republic of China — the decision
has been made that the automobility of the medi-
um-term future will be battery-electric. Electromo-
bility — explicitly understood as being the contin-
uation of (individual) automobility with the electric
drivetrain — is considered a central strategy to mit-
igate climate change. It is also supported by corre-
sponding political guidelines, especially in China, the
European Union, and the USA.

Belgian transport workers have refused to load and unload weapons going to Israel. The boycott that began on Tuesday accompanied growing international pressure for a ceasefire.

Hadas Thier | Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty this week for running a crypto scam and faces years in prison. It seems jurors weren’t taken in by SBF like famed author Michael Lewis, whose new book paints an oddly sympathetic portrait of Bankman-Fried.

Anonymous BBC Journalist | Britain’s BBC is one of the world’s most influential and trusted news sources. But pressure from conservative political elites has warped its coverage of Israel’s war and caused it to downplay the violence being inflicted on Palestinian civilians.

The Chinese manufacturing sector is resilient to headwinds

Vijay Prashad | If the “two-state solution” is no longer practical and if the “one-state solution” is blocked by the Israeli political class, then all that remains for Netanyahu and others is the “three-state solution.” This is the solution that seeks to remove large parts of the Palestinian population from East Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, and perhaps even from within Israel’s 1948 lines and send them to the three states of Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon... This “three-state solution” is precisely ethnic cleansing, a crime under international law. For decades, the Israeli political class has been willing to conduct genocidal policies—including this bombardment of Gaza—to facilitate its ethno-national, apartheid state project that requires the erasure of Palestinians and Palestine.

Many of these indebted countries are rich in natural resources and have young labour forces available for work. But they do not prosper because commodity prices for their exports are set for them by the international forces of the multi-nationals and trading companies. And world trade growth, particularly in resource commodities, is now contracting. For example, copper prices are down 25% in the last 12 months.

The US may have been expanding in Q3, but most of the rest of the world was contracting; and in 2024, they may be joined by the US.

by Davide Mastracci | Israel has killed more than 3,100 Palestinian children since October 7, but many journalists have still not called for a ceasefire.

Fairbnb’s new co-op platform aims to offer short-term rentals without the destructive side effects

Monthly Review | Matteo Crossa reveals the true nature of unequal value transfer from Mexico to the United States. Going beyond a simple tally of wages lost versus remittances, Crossa’s research demonstrates the true magnitude of the value stolen from Mexico, negating the claim that its manufacturing sector is a boon to the Mexican working class.

Health ministry says US administration 'devoid of human standards, morals' for 'shamelessly' questioning validity of figures

After more than a month on the picket line, autoworkers have reached a tentative agreement with Ford including massive wage increases, cost of living adjustments and the right to strike over plant closures. Now the deal goes to the membership, while strikes continue at GM and Stellantis.

The U.S. government, he explains, is willing to “try out a progressive government in Guatemala as long as it is obedient to U.S. interests.” That government now gains U.S. favor by accepting an indigenous mobilization that serves to “hide the emergence of the pluri-national, anti-neoliberal, or anti-imperialist social subjects that do exist in Guatemala.” Radical indigenous movements, such as the ones active in Peru and especially Bolivia, are to be squelched.

In October, the IMF and World Bank gathered in Morocco for their annual joint meeting – their first such summit on African soil since 1973. In the decades since, the IMF and World Bank have imposed their failed debt-austerity agenda on much of the Global South. Few people today expect the IMF and World Bank to solve global problems. That is because, across the world, from Pakistan to Sri Lanka to Suriname, people know that these institutions are the authors of pain.