truthout--2020-08-29--Watered-Down “Anti-Racism Training” in Schools Is Perpetuating Racism

High school students have been in the streets all summer , and they ’ re not backing down .
Black Lives Matter protests have gone on for weeks .
They ’ ve popped up in hundreds of small towns .
More and more kids don ’ t need to be taught that policing is racist , nor that police anchor a historic system of racial domination .
They see it everywhere .
Now students are demanding deeper teaching on racism — education that questions the racial power arrangements baked into U.S. settlement , our narratives of progress , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That depth of teaching is far outside the comfort zone of many schools ; they ’ ll likely look to outside contractors to meet student demands .
But the largest provider of anti-bias education programming to U.S. schools doesn ’ t teach that either — and it has a long history of conflict with anti-racist movements and close alliances with police departments .
In the last few months , students around the country have pointed to sanitized history curricula and platitude-filled diversity trainings .
In Baltimore , students marched on school district @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white supremacy in the U.S. , Black political organizing and Black literature .
In a white Chicago suburb , students are petitioning for curricula and workshops that account for their community ’ s own role in state violence , planned in consultation with Black , Latinx , Indigenous and Asian activists .
Similar petitions and campaigns are gaining steam in Maryland , Arizona , New Jersey , California , Indiana ( also Indiana ) , Minnesota , West Virginia , Texas , Pennsylvania , Michigan , South Carolina , Louisiana , Florida and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anti-racist education so paltry ?
It ’ s not just that teachers and principals are overwhelmingly white , although that matters ; many white educators think of talking openly about race as rude or “ too negative ” for children , or — in the era of an overtly racist president — politically partisan , and therefore , literally illegal .
( Fear of “ taking sides ” has stopped some majority-immigrant public schools from even talking about Trump ’ s impacts . )
A broader problem is that racism is only minimally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ term “ colorblind ” is still thrown around New York City schools decades after anti-racist activists and scholars rejected it as a framework that refuses to see racism ; and in schools , that justifies excluding Black and Brown perspectives from curricula .
Many schools ’ Black History Month celebrations famously center sanitized versions of civil rights heroes : entertainers , scientists , smoothed-over versions of Rosa Parks , Martin Luther King Jr. and even Malcolm X .
Teachers — often teachers of color — who do try to talk about racism in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wield it are easily branded as troublemakers .
In one recent instance , Zakia Barrett , a Black teacher outside of Boston , was suspended for saying that “ many cops are racist.
” In order for Barrett to be reinstated , 127 parents had to wage a campaign pointing out that she was right .
The New York City Department of Education ( DOE ) has an official ( but unspecific ) commitment to anti-racist education , and we have seen life made impossible for teachers of color trying to move their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one school , as Trump ’ s “ Muslim ban ” was anticipated , teachers of color struggled to roll out a hard-won , one-day curriculum on the U.S. Muslim experience , Muslim astronomy and Islamophobia .
Although administrators agreed that professional development was needed to familiarize a predominantly white teaching staff with good practices in talking to children about race and racism , they never scheduled it ; they were struggling to cover topics mandated by the DOE , leaving no time for “ extra ” subjects .
Teachers of color who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as “ extra work ” were marked as agitators .
These struggles are not unusual , nor do they usually make the news .
History and literature curricula may be getting a welcome renovation through student protest .
Black Lives Matter at School has done deep curriculum work to give substance to the demands .
New teaching tools are readily available for teachers to access .
Black educators and other educators of color have , of course , been producing materials for decades .
But teaching anti-racist practice to children and staff is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about their own relationship to racism is fraught , so those conversations are often outsourced to an “ expert ” organization whose credentials insulate the school from criticism .
Few of those organizations exist , and most are small .
The coming wave of demand for anti-racism training will almost certainly exceed their capacities .
In fact , even as protests demand that Black grassroots leadership be centered , large mainstream organizations will certainly be widely called upon to lead these trainings , including the Anti-Defamation League ( ADL ) , a long-time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For many organizations already involved in anti-racist work , the ADL is not a welcome choice .
This month , a broad set of groups , including Movement 4 Black Lives ( M4BL ) , United We Dream , Critical Resistance and MPower Change , called on their communities to reconsider any collaborations with the ADL .
The letter accompanies a report documenting ADL ’ s work as an antagonist of anti-racist movements , especially those led by people of color — even as the organization uses the language of anti-racism .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ The report notes that the ADL led the 2018 smear attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar , charging her with anti-Semitism when she noted that pro-Israel political funding shapes congressional policy .
Additionally , ADL ’ s white director patronizingly scolded the M4BL to keep their “ eyes on the prize ” when M4BL challenged the U.S. military-industrial complex , including its support for military enforcement of Israeli apartheid laws .
The ADL ’ s education efforts bear out these concerns .
Until just recently , the ADL was battling to quash ethnic studies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color in California .
Historically , ADL curricula have been challenged on marginalizing the voices of affected communities and soft-pedaling the state ’ s role in racism .
ADL ’ s education director was hired fresh from creating the Department of Homeland Security ’ s discredited Countering Violent Extremism program , which racially profiles and surveils Arab and Muslim communities .
At the ADL , in addition to leading education programming , Selim also leads programming on law enforcement and counterterrorism .
So when the ADL posted its family-friendly explainer on racism and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complete with “ questions to dig deeper ” and links to a wider range of lesson plans — we dug in .
“ Anti-Hate ” Education Is Not Anti-Racist — or Progressive The ADL ’ s approach is designed to tick boxes for white adults dutifully talking over racial violence with children , while remaining profoundly unthreatening to actual racist power .
For instance , ADL materials don ’ t mention protesters ’ critiques of racial capitalism , nor their calls for police abolition and safety through community care — even though together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the most profound shifts in popular ideas about race in U.S. history .
The ADL ’ s curriculum minimizes this summer ’ s massive outpouring of rage and political will , seeming to say that protests culminated in the recent congressional resolution condemning “ police brutality.
” It obeys the Black Lives Matter protest command to say the names of people murdered by police , printing a short litany of “ high profile deaths.
” But it describes them using the term widely used to minimize police accountability : police-involved deaths .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ poorly written “ about us , without us.
” It ’ s the unchallenging version of anti-racism that the ADL has taught for decades — and why school districts happily let the ADL run conversations on race .
The ADL ’ s Pyramid of Hate ( which is used ubiquitously in the ADL ’ s curriculum ) explains it clearly .
It says that biased attitudes — not capitalism and white vested interests in preserving power arrangements — are the foundation of racism .
Systemic discrimination is just a big set of disparities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anti-immigrant , anti-Muslim structure that transcends class and achievement .
Racist violence just comes from “ hate ” — it ’ s not structural or institutional .
According to the pyramid , George Floyd ’ s murder illustrates that “ hate and bias can escalate and lead to dire outcomes , ” while slavery , colonialism and capitalism disappear from the equation .
To a student who learns that , toppling statues of Columbus makes no sense .
These ideas about racism did once have currency , around the same time as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ADL isn ’ t stuck in the past ; it ’ s just a conservative organization .
It has a long history of antipathy toward Black and anti-colonial movements .
For the past several years , Jewish groups like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace have pointed out that the ADL weaponizes charges of anti-Semitism to silence Black , Muslim , Arab and Jewish voices .
Arab organizers have been saying the same for decades .
It ’ s unnerving , therefore , that the ADL has been teaching K-12 kids about racism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national .
By 2018 , the ADL ’ s No Place for Hate® program was training about one in every 50 U.S. students , according to its annual report for that year .
This program targets K-12 schools across the U.S. with a needs assessment , the formation of a school committee , and school-wide student pledges and anti-bias activities .
The ADL also held nearly 1,000 A World of Difference® trainings and seminars in 2018 , likely reaching around 20,000 or 30,000 teachers in a single year .
These trainings target teachers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ institutions , discussing bias , diversity , and “ confront [ ing ] racism , anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry.
” For anti-racist educators , this poses a problem .
The uprisings and protests against police violence have dominated the news cycle and been an overarching fixture in daily life since George Floyd ’ s murder .
Students , like others in the U.S. , are being forced to think about issues around racism and policing they may not have before .
When curricular materials leave out such an analysis of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issues raised by Black Lives Matter protests are easily pushed outside the frame .
Defunding and abolishing the police can be seen as a myopic threat to public safety , rather than a necessary shift in how communities deal with violence .
George Floyd ’ s murder can be viewed as unrelated to capitalism and its melding of race and value .
Global networks of resistance to state violence — as , for example , Black and Palestinian movements are building together — can be rendered invisible .
Educators then face the dilemma @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to critique systems of oppression that the tools like the Pyramid of Hate leave untouched .
While using the ADL ’ s curriculum might feel like a form of solidarity , in our policed , surveilled , segregated schools , using it actually models the opposite .
Feeling the force of this moment , the ADL has cosmetically submerged some of its past conservatism .
Until recently , for instance , its explainer on Black Lives Matter included a warning that the ADL objected to the M4BL platform .
Now that warning is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a letter affirming that Black lives matter .
( Its editorials scolding Black , queer and Muslim organizers are still posted . )
But this is a moment to be on high alert against the co-option of demands for real change .
Nothing About Us Without Us So , who will teach our kids about racism ?
Giving students the education they ’ re calling for will have to mean deliberately centering anti-racist teaching initiatives primarily informed by — and supportive of — Black anti-racist educators , other educators of color , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demand this teaching .
One useful model is the California ethnic studies program that the ADL sought to dismantle .
It ’ s designed by educators and scholars in accordance with the principles of ethnic studies : to facilitate thinking and critical learning from the vantage point of racialized , Indigenous and marginalized people ; and to support and encourage students to consider how they might make change .
That vantage point itself was the subject of the ADL ’ s challenge to the curriculum .
The inclusion of Arab American Studies — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularly in an era of marked repression and violence against U.S. Arab and Muslim communities — included discussion of Palestine , a central political and social issue shaping Arab American life .
The ADL charged that teaching about Palestine was anti-Jewish ( despite Jewish support for the curriculum ) .
Rooting out “ controversial ” voices , says Lara Kiswani , an organizer with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center , gutted the curriculum ’ s values and created an “ all lives matter ” version of anti-racist education .
Each lesson plan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ articulated values laid out at the start of the curriculum to show how it advanced critical thinking , empathy and solidarity .
When critics like the ADL objected , these core defining values were stripped out , Kiswani told Truthout .
“ Then they changed all the lesson plans using ghost writers whose names they refused to release .
The new lesson plans were about how communities of color have contributed to the U.S. and a multicultural society , their migration patterns .
Nothing about their struggles , their social movements , their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against it .
There was no mention left of structural racism , ” she said .
It ’ s not incidental that conservative objections to Palestine were the catalyst for conservative pushback : If anti-racist education is to uphold Black leadership like the M4BL or Latinx leadership like Mijente , then Palestine and discussion of the intersections between U.S. racism and global power will be on the agenda .
The recent victory to restore the ethnic studies model was in part about insisting on communities ’ power to narrate their own stories , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests .
But it was also a battle against a distinctively conservative form of education : “ multiculturalism ” that seeks to include everyone but not to shift power .
Kiswani warns that anti-racist education has to be understood not only as the concern of progressives ; conservatives also “ understand education as terrain , ” and invest enormous resources to limit the scope of education on racism , colonialism and power , she says .
As most schools navigate anti-racist education individually , the principles of ethnic studies are a crucial framework @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We must insist that the curriculum being taught to students is not limited by what racist parents might complain about .
Most critically , it must follow the lead of the Black and allied movements that are moving students to make these demands .
Providers of such teaching may not be as familiar or easy to find as the ADL , they may not have grant funding that makes their programming free , and they may introduce ideas that unsettle the schools they enter .
But we can ’ t accept substitutes @

High school students have been in the streets all summer, and they’re not backing down. Black Lives Matter protests have gone on for weeks. They’ve popped up in hundreds of small towns. More and more kids don’t need to be taught that policing is racist, nor that police anchor a historic system of racial domination. They see it everywhere.
Now students are demanding deeper teaching on racism — education that questions the racial power arrangements baked into U.S. settlement, our narratives of progress, and the daily systemic violence that protests are naming. That depth of teaching is far outside the comfort zone of many schools; they’ll likely look to outside contractors to meet student demands. But the largest provider of anti-bias education programming to U.S. schools doesn’t teach that either — and it has a long history of conflict with anti-racist movements and close alliances with police departments.
Schools Fear Open Discussion About Racism
In the last few months, students around the country have pointed to sanitized history curricula and platitude-filled diversity trainings. In Baltimore, students marched on school district headquarters demanding lessons on the history of white supremacy in the U.S., Black political organizing and Black literature. In a white Chicago suburb, students are petitioning for curricula and workshops that account for their community’s own role in state violence, planned in consultation with Black, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian activists. Similar petitions and campaigns are gaining steam in Maryland, Arizona, New Jersey, California, Indiana (also Indiana), Minnesota, West Virginia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida , and elsewhere around the country.
Why is anti-racist education so paltry? It’s not just that teachers and principals are overwhelmingly white, although that matters; many white educators think of talking openly about race as rude or “too negative” for children, or — in the era of an overtly racist president — politically partisan, and therefore, literally illegal. (Fear of “taking sides” has stopped some majority-immigrant public schools from even talking about Trump’s impacts.)
A broader problem is that racism is only minimally acknowledged in many school districts. The term “colorblind” is still thrown around New York City schools decades after anti-racist activists and scholars rejected it as a framework that refuses to see racism; and in schools, that justifies excluding Black and Brown perspectives from curricula. Many schools’ Black History Month celebrations famously center sanitized versions of civil rights heroes: entertainers, scientists, smoothed-over versions of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and even Malcolm X. Teachers — often teachers of color — who do try to talk about racism in terms of power and the people who wield it are easily branded as troublemakers. In one recent instance, Zakia Barrett, a Black teacher outside of Boston, was suspended for saying that “many cops are racist.” In order for Barrett to be reinstated, 127 parents had to wage a campaign pointing out that she was right.
The New York City Department of Education (DOE) has an official (but unspecific) commitment to anti-racist education, and we have seen life made impossible for teachers of color trying to move their schools to actually teach it. In one school, as Trump’s “Muslim ban” was anticipated, teachers of color struggled to roll out a hard-won, one-day curriculum on the U.S. Muslim experience, Muslim astronomy and Islamophobia. Although administrators agreed that professional development was needed to familiarize a predominantly white teaching staff with good practices in talking to children about race and racism, they never scheduled it; they were struggling to cover topics mandated by the DOE, leaving no time for “extra” subjects. Teachers of color who had been arranging what was now seen as “extra work” were marked as agitators. These struggles are not unusual, nor do they usually make the news.
The Anti-Defamation League: A Troubled School Partner
Teachers — often teachers of color — who do try to talk about racism in terms of power and the people who wield it are easily branded as troublemakers.
History and literature curricula may be getting a welcome renovation through student protest. Black Lives Matter at School has done deep curriculum work to give substance to the demands. New teaching tools are readily available for teachers to access. Black educators and other educators of color have, of course, been producing materials for decades.
But teaching anti-racist practice to children and staff is another story. Walking people through conversations about their own relationship to racism is fraught, so those conversations are often outsourced to an “expert” organization whose credentials insulate the school from criticism. Few of those organizations exist, and most are small. The coming wave of demand for anti-racism training will almost certainly exceed their capacities. In fact, even as protests demand that Black grassroots leadership be centered, large mainstream organizations will certainly be widely called upon to lead these trainings, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a long-time standby when it comes to such workshops.
For many organizations already involved in anti-racist work, the ADL is not a welcome choice. This month, a broad set of groups, including Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL), United We Dream, Critical Resistance and MPower Change, called on their communities to reconsider any collaborations with the ADL. The letter accompanies a report documenting ADL’s work as an antagonist of anti-racist movements, especially those led by people of color — even as the organization uses the language of anti-racism. For instance, the report notes:
Today, the ADL is the single largest non-governmental police trainer in the country. The ADL 2016 annual report boasted that 100% of major US metropolitan police departments have sent participants to Israel and the ADL’s Advanced Training School in Extremist and Terrorist Threats. These trainings deepen the militarized, racialized policing of US neighborhoods, treating low-income neighborhoods and communities of color as counterinsurgent “human terrain”…
The report notes that the ADL led the 2018 smear attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar, charging her with anti-Semitism when she noted that pro-Israel political funding shapes congressional policy. Additionally, ADL’s white director patronizingly scolded the M4BL to keep their “eyes on the prize” when M4BL challenged the U.S. military-industrial complex, including its support for military enforcement of Israeli apartheid laws.
The ADL’s education efforts bear out these concerns. Until just recently, the ADL was battling to quash ethnic studies curricula created by educators and scholars of color in California. Historically, ADL curricula have been challenged on marginalizing the voices of affected communities and soft-pedaling the state’s role in racism. ADL’s education director , George Selim, was hired fresh from creating the Department of Homeland Security’s discredited Countering Violent Extremism program, which racially profiles and surveils Arab and Muslim communities. At the ADL, in addition to leading education programming, Selim also leads programming on law enforcement and counterterrorism.
So when the ADL posted its family-friendly explainer on racism and the police murder of George Floyd — complete with “questions to dig deeper” and links to a wider range of lesson plans — we dug in.
“Anti-Hate” Education Is Not Anti-Racist — or Progressive
The ADL’s approach is designed to tick boxes for white adults dutifully talking over racial violence with children, while remaining profoundly unthreatening to actual racist power.
The ADL’s approach is designed to tick boxes for white adults dutifully talking over racial violence with children, while remaining profoundly unthreatening to actual racist power. For instance, ADL materials don’t mention protesters’ critiques of racial capitalism, nor their calls for police abolition and safety through community care — even though together, these messages have produced perhaps one of the most profound shifts in popular ideas about race in U.S. history. The ADL’s curriculum minimizes this summer’s massive outpouring of rage and political will, seeming to say that protests culminated in the recent congressional resolution condemning “police brutality.” It obeys the Black Lives Matter protest command to say the names of people murdered by police, printing a short litany of “high profile deaths.” But it describes them using the term widely used to minimize police accountability: police-involved deaths.
This isn’t just a text poorly written “about us, without us.” It’s the unchallenging version of anti-racism that the ADL has taught for decades — and why school districts happily let the ADL run conversations on race. The ADL’s Pyramid of Hate (which is used ubiquitously in the ADL’s curriculum) explains it clearly. It says that biased attitudes — not capitalism and white vested interests in preserving power arrangements — are the foundation of racism. Systemic discrimination is just a big set of disparities — not an anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim structure that transcends class and achievement. Racist violence just comes from “hate” — it’s not structural or institutional. According to the pyramid, George Floyd’s murder illustrates that “hate and bias can escalate and lead to dire outcomes,” while slavery, colonialism and capitalism disappear from the equation. To a student who learns that, toppling statues of Columbus makes no sense.
These ideas about racism did once have currency, around the same time as the idea of “colorblindness.” But the ADL isn’t stuck in the past; it’s just a conservative organization. It has a long history of antipathy toward Black and anti-colonial movements. For the past several years, Jewish groups like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace have pointed out that the ADL weaponizes charges of anti-Semitism to silence Black, Muslim, Arab and Jewish voices. Arab organizers have been saying the same for decades. It’s unnerving, therefore, that the ADL has been teaching K-12 kids about racism since the mid-1980s when its programs went national. By 2018, the ADL’s No Place for Hate® program was training about one in every 50 U.S. students, according to its annual report for that year. This program targets K-12 schools across the U.S. with a needs assessment, the formation of a school committee, and school-wide student pledges and anti-bias activities. The ADL also held nearly 1,000 A World of Difference® trainings and seminars in 2018, likely reaching around 20,000 or 30,000 teachers in a single year. These trainings target teachers as well as police forces and other institutions, discussing bias, diversity, and “confront[ing] racism, anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry.”
For anti-racist educators, this poses a problem. The uprisings and protests against police violence have dominated the news cycle and been an overarching fixture in daily life since George Floyd’s murder. Students, like others in the U.S., are being forced to think about issues around racism and policing they may not have before. When curricular materials leave out such an analysis of state power and exploitation, the interconnected issues raised by Black Lives Matter protests are easily pushed outside the frame. Defunding and abolishing the police can be seen as a myopic threat to public safety, rather than a necessary shift in how communities deal with violence. George Floyd’s murder can be viewed as unrelated to capitalism and its melding of race and value. Global networks of resistance to state violence — as, for example, Black and Palestinian movements are building together — can be rendered invisible. Educators then face the dilemma of trying to empower their students themselves to critique systems of oppression that the tools like the Pyramid of Hate leave untouched. While using the ADL’s curriculum might feel like a form of solidarity, in our policed, surveilled, segregated schools, using it actually models the opposite.
Feeling the force of this moment, the ADL has cosmetically submerged some of its past conservatism. Until recently, for instance, its explainer on Black Lives Matter included a warning that the ADL objected to the M4BL platform. Now that warning is gone, and the ADL recently signed a letter affirming that Black lives matter. (Its editorials scolding Black, queer and Muslim organizers are still posted.) But this is a moment to be on high alert against the co-option of demands for real change.
Nothing About Us Without Us
The ADL has a long history of antipathy toward Black and anti-colonial movements.
So, who will teach our kids about racism? Giving students the education they’re calling for will have to mean deliberately centering anti-racist teaching initiatives primarily informed by — and supportive of — Black anti-racist educators, other educators of color, and the movements that are propelling students to demand this teaching. One useful model is the California ethnic studies program that the ADL sought to dismantle. It’s designed by educators and scholars in accordance with the principles of ethnic studies: to facilitate thinking and critical learning from the vantage point of racialized, Indigenous and marginalized people; and to support and encourage students to consider how they might make change.
That vantage point itself was the subject of the ADL’s challenge to the curriculum. The inclusion of Arab American Studies — an essential component of ethnic studies, particularly in an era of marked repression and violence against U.S. Arab and Muslim communities — included discussion of Palestine, a central political and social issue shaping Arab American life. The ADL charged that teaching about Palestine was anti-Jewish (despite Jewish support for the curriculum). Rooting out “controversial” voices, says Lara Kiswani, an organizer with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, gutted the curriculum’s values and created an “all lives matter” version of anti-racist education.
Each lesson plan was tied to a set of clearly articulated values laid out at the start of the curriculum to show how it advanced critical thinking, empathy and solidarity. When critics like the ADL objected, these core defining values were stripped out, Kiswani told Truthout. “Then they changed all the lesson plans using ghost writers whose names they refused to release. The new lesson plans were about how communities of color have contributed to the U.S. and a multicultural society, their migration patterns. Nothing about their struggles, their social movements, their experiences of racism and how they struggled against it. There was no mention left of structural racism,” she said.
It’s not incidental that conservative objections to Palestine were the catalyst for conservative pushback: If anti-racist education is to uphold Black leadership like the M4BL or Latinx leadership like Mijente, then Palestine and discussion of the intersections between U.S. racism and global power will be on the agenda.
The recent victory to restore the ethnic studies model was in part about insisting on communities’ power to narrate their own stories, reflecting the ethos of Black Lives Matter protests. But it was also a battle against a distinctively conservative form of education: “multiculturalism” that seeks to include everyone but not to shift power. Kiswani warns that anti-racist education has to be understood not only as the concern of progressives; conservatives also “understand education as terrain,” and invest enormous resources to limit the scope of education on racism, colonialism and power, she says.
As most schools navigate anti-racist education individually, the principles of ethnic studies are a crucial framework for ensuring that curricula are actually anti-racist. We must insist that the curriculum being taught to students is not limited by what racist parents might complain about. Most critically, it must follow the lead of the Black and allied movements that are moving students to make these demands. Providers of such teaching may not be as familiar or easy to find as the ADL, they may not have grant funding that makes their programming free, and they may introduce ideas that unsettle the schools they enter. But we can’t accept substitutes.
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truthout--2020-08-29--Trump Is Laying the Groundwork to Reject the Results of the Election

Last week , as Donald Trump ginned up for the Republican National Convention , he went on Fox News to talk with Sean Hannity about “ voter fraud , ” be it fraud committed at polling sites or fraud committed by mail .
To preempt this , he assured his audience , he would send sheriffs , miscellaneous other law enforcement and U.S. attorneys into polling places around the country to monitor for irregularities .
This warning , along with ongoing GOP plans to send 50,000 “ poll watchers ” to polling stations around the country , echoed GOP strategies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ routinely sent out monitors to Black neighborhoods and other areas that tended to skew Democratic .
In April , The Intercept reported that conservative activists wanted monitors for the November elections to include off-duty and retired police , military , even Navy SEALs — a practice that was banned between 1981 and 2018 by a consent decree stopping the GOP from carrying out such monitoring , but which has been permitted for the past couple years after a judge in New Jersey decided not to renew the consent decree .
Into this legal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an armed force intended to scare would-be voters away from polling sites .
A few days after Trump ’ s Hannity interview , Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf acknowledged his department didn ’ t actually have the authority to dispatch agents to in-person vote sites in November .
In Congress , Trump ’ s beleaguered Postmaster General Louis DeJoy tried damage limitation by claiming that the U.S .
Postal Service was absolutely equipped to handle a surge in mail-in votes ; he also reportedly told Trump and his operatives to stop undermining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responded not with contrition but with more attacks on the postal system .
As the GOP convention got underway , he continued issuing warnings that his opponents were intent on stealing the election through a vast conspiracy to commit wholesale vote-by-mail fraud .
Now , this may all be bluster .
But it ’ s calculated bluster that is designed to shore up Trump ’ s position in November .
For whether or not Trump actually tries to order the Department of Homeland Security , the Department of Justice and other departments to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to polling sites , the damage that he is already doing is immense .
Two-thirds of Republican voters now tell pollsters they don ’ t have confidence in the fairness of the election .
And some polls have shown that 8 out of every 10 Republican voters now believe that an expanded vote-by-mail system will lead to a fraudulent result .
Now , don ’ t get me wrong ; a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to elections being undermined by those with power isn ’ t a bad thing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and courts uphold restrictions on the franchise — through purges of voter rolls , disenfranchisement of those with felony convictions , making it harder for students to register to vote in the college towns in which they live , and so on — that clearly isn ’ t a good thing for democracy .
Similarly , when polling sites are closed in poor , disproportionately nonwhite neighborhoods , resulting in people having to spend hours in line simply to cast a ballot , that too flies in the face of any sense of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shut , as they were this June in Lexington , Kentucky , while hundreds of people who have waited for hours are still in line outside , that ’ s also anti-democratic , as a judge noted in ordering the polls to stay open longer so that these voters could cast their ballots .
For more than 20 years I have written about organized efforts to suppress the vote .
And the vast majority of voter suppression efforts emanate from the right wing .
They are championed by people such as Georgia Gov @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as secretary of state and in his current job , has pushed for strict voter ID laws in his state .
These laws are seen as election-winning tools by conservative activists in states such as Wisconsin , who have sued to enforce strict purges of the electoral rolls .
They are embraced by the GOP in Florida , which , despite passage of a ballot initiative a couple years back to re-enfranchise those with felony convictions , has stonewalled the changes and fought a rearguard political and legal action to limit the scope @ @ @ @ @ @ @ genuinely interested in protecting the integrity of the electoral process , he would tackle all of these well-documented abuses head-on .
If he really wanted to use federal agents and attorneys to protect the election , he would ask William Barr ’ s Department of Justice to investigate these orchestrated efforts to disenfranchise huge numbers of Americans .
But , of course , that ’ s the last thing Trump wants .
Trump , who has never had an approval rating above 50 percent as president , knows that the more Americans that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are .
If he wants to maintain power , he has to both massively reduce the numbers who vote and also gin up enough distrust in the results amongst his supporters that , if he loses , he can convince them the result is illegitimate .
In short , Trump ’ s definition of fraud seems to be electoral participation by people who disagree with Trump .
And his definition of “ monitoring ” for fraud , is , similarly , more realistically “ intimidating political opponents and refusing to acknowledge unfavorable vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strategy is an understatement .
For it is a strategy that could push the U.S. toward violent civil conflict over the coming months .
This week , in Kenosha , Wisconsin , a young white man fixated on his support for the police murdered two people protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake , as armed white militias swarmed the protests .
Now , the country needs to grapple with the likelihood that these same far right militias may turn to violence to protect Trump ’ s presidency .
With less than 10 weeks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explicitly laying the groundwork to reject the results of the election , and to encourage his followers to take to the streets to maintain his hold on power .
In an era in which paramilitary groupings have increasingly brought weapons to protests , and in a period in which there are more guns in civilians ’ hands in the U.S. than there are people , that is a scenario that ought to inspire horror no matter what your ideological affiliations are .

Part of the Series Voting Wrongs
Last week, as Donald Trump ginned up for the Republican National Convention, he went on Fox News to talk with Sean Hannity about “voter fraud,” be it fraud committed at polling sites or fraud committed by mail. To preempt this, he assured his audience, he would send sheriffs, miscellaneous other law enforcement and U.S. attorneys into polling places around the country to monitor for irregularities.
This warning, along with ongoing GOP plans to send 50,000 “poll watchers” to polling stations around the country, echoed GOP strategies from decades past, when the party routinely sent out monitors to Black neighborhoods and other areas that tended to skew Democratic. In April, The Intercept reported that conservative activists wanted monitors for the November elections to include off-duty and retired police, military, even Navy SEALs — a practice that was banned between 1981 and 2018 by a consent decree stopping the GOP from carrying out such monitoring, but which has been permitted for the past couple years after a judge in New Jersey decided not to renew the consent decree. Into this legal opening, Trump apparently hopes to place an armed force intended to scare would-be voters away from polling sites.
A few days after Trump’s Hannity interview, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf acknowledged his department didn’t actually have the authority to dispatch agents to in-person vote sites in November. In Congress, Trump’s beleaguered Postmaster General Louis DeJoy tried damage limitation by claiming that the U.S. Postal Service was absolutely equipped to handle a surge in mail-in votes; he also reportedly told Trump and his operatives to stop undermining confidence in the postal system.
Trump responded not with contrition but with more attacks on the postal system. As the GOP convention got underway, he continued issuing warnings that his opponents were intent on stealing the election through a vast conspiracy to commit wholesale vote-by-mail fraud.
Now, this may all be bluster. But it’s calculated bluster that is designed to shore up Trump’s position in November. For whether or not Trump actually tries to order the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and other departments to send out armed agents and other officials to polling sites, the damage that he is already doing is immense.
Two-thirds of Republican voters now tell pollsters they don’t have confidence in the fairness of the election. And some polls have shown that 8 out of every 10 Republican voters now believe that an expanded vote-by-mail system will lead to a fraudulent result.
The vast majority of voter suppression efforts emanate from the right wing.
Now, don’t get me wrong; a healthy dose of skepticism when it comes to elections being undermined by those with power isn’t a bad thing. After all, when political leaders push and courts uphold restrictions on the franchise — through purges of voter rolls, disenfranchisement of those with felony convictions, making it harder for students to register to vote in the college towns in which they live, and so on — that clearly isn’t a good thing for democracy. Similarly, when polling sites are closed in poor, disproportionately nonwhite neighborhoods, resulting in people having to spend hours in line simply to cast a ballot, that too flies in the face of any sense of democratic fairness. When polling stations are shut, as they were this June in Lexington, Kentucky, while hundreds of people who have waited for hours are still in line outside, that’s also anti-democratic, as a judge noted in ordering the polls to stay open longer so that these voters could cast their ballots.
For more than 20 years I have written about organized efforts to suppress the vote. And the vast majority of voter suppression efforts emanate from the right wing. They are championed by people such as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who, both as secretary of state and in his current job, has pushed for strict voter ID laws in his state. These laws are seen as election-winning tools by conservative activists in states such as Wisconsin, who have sued to enforce strict purges of the electoral rolls. They are embraced by the GOP in Florida, which, despite passage of a ballot initiative a couple years back to re-enfranchise those with felony convictions, has stonewalled the changes and fought a rearguard political and legal action to limit the scope of the re-enfranchisement.
Trump’s definition of fraud seems to be electoral participation by people who disagree with Trump.
If Trump were genuinely interested in protecting the integrity of the electoral process, he would tackle all of these well-documented abuses head-on. If he really wanted to use federal agents and attorneys to protect the election, he would ask William Barr’s Department of Justice to investigate these orchestrated efforts to disenfranchise huge numbers of Americans. But, of course, that’s the last thing Trump wants.
Trump, who has never had an approval rating above 50 percent as president, knows that the more Americans that vote, the poorer his re-election chances are. If he wants to maintain power, he has to both massively reduce the numbers who vote and also gin up enough distrust in the results amongst his supporters that, if he loses, he can convince them the result is illegitimate.
In short, Trump’s definition of fraud seems to be electoral participation by people who disagree with Trump. And his definition of “monitoring” for fraud, is, similarly, more realistically “intimidating political opponents and refusing to acknowledge unfavorable vote tallies.”
To call this a scorched-earth strategy is an understatement. For it is a strategy that could push the U.S. toward violent civil conflict over the coming months. This week, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a young white man fixated on his support for the police murdered two people protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake, as armed white militias swarmed the protests. Now, the country needs to grapple with the likelihood that these same far right militias may turn to violence to protect Trump’s presidency.
With less than 10 weeks until the election, Donald Trump is explicitly laying the groundwork to reject the results of the election, and to encourage his followers to take to the streets to maintain his hold on power.
In an era in which paramilitary groupings have increasingly brought weapons to protests, and in a period in which there are more guns in civilians’ hands in the U.S. than there are people, that is a scenario that ought to inspire horror no matter what your ideological affiliations are.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-08-30--Trump Shifts $44 Billion Away From FEMA Amid Record-Setting Hurricane Season

Lawmakers are concerned that President Donald Trump ’ s decision to swipe $ 44 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) will leave its disaster fund depleted amid a record-setting hurricane season .
Trump issued a memorandum allowing states to use $ 44 billion from FEMA ’ s Disaster Relief Fund to pay $ 300 per week in enhanced federal unemployment benefits earlier this month .
The move came after Trump and Senate Republicans refused to budge on their demands to slash boosted unemployment benefits , repeating a widely-debunked claim that the extra pandemic aid was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jobs .
House Democrats , meanwhile , approved a full extension of the $ 600-per-week benefit back in May .
After Hurricane Laura made landfall this week in Louisiana amid a hurricane season which has already seen a record-setting number of named storms , lawmakers worry Trump ’ s move could leave FEMA unprepared to respond to recovery efforts .
If the entire $ 44 billion is used , it could deplete the disaster relief agency ’ s budget to as low as $ 25 billion , according to the Louisiana news outlet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FEMA administrator under former President Barack Obama , told the outlet that he expected Congress would approve extra funding as it has done in the past .
“ This Congress prints money faster than China can lend it to us , ” he said .
But Rep. Bennie Thompson , D-Miss.
, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee , which oversees FEMA , expressed doubts that Trump would approve additional funds after he balked at providing crucial pandemic relief to hard-hit cities and states in the latest round of negotiations .
He argued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unallocated funds after Senate Republicans refused to compromise on the pandemic relief package .
“ We ’ re in the midst of this pandemic , and we have hurricanes and wildfires and the Senate is in recess , ” he told the outlet .
Five members of the Homeland Security Committee wrote a letter to FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor expressing that “ concerns remain whether the amount will be enough given the current COVID-19 response expenditures , other current open disaster reimbursements and any future storms or disasters.
” The letter noted that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently amended its forecast to predict 19 to 25 named storms this year.
” Hurricane Laura made landfall Thursday as a category 4 storm , leaving widespread destruction in its path .
Rep. Donald Payne Jr. , D-N.J. , who chairs a subcommittee on emergency preparedness and response , said he was “ extremely concerned about the health and safety of Americans when Hurricane Laura comes ashore.
” “ The fact that President Trump would take up to $ 44 billion from FEMA ’ s Disaster Relief Fund right before a possibly record-setting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our country during a crisis , ” he said in a statement .
“ If he had convinced his Senate allies to pass our Heroes Act , we would have extended unemployment benefits and still had plenty of money for FEMA and states to use to help Americans recover from a natural disaster , like Hurricane Laura.
” But Republicans pushed back on the concerns .
Rep. Garret Graves , R-La.
, told NOLA.com that “ there is no way that we will leave our citizens hanging out there , ” predicting that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money for relief if necessary .
But Paul Rainwater , a disaster response expert who worked on Republican Gov .
Bobby Jindal ’ s team during hurricanes like Katrina and Rita , warned that relief funds could be delayed even if Congress does provide extra funding .
“ I wish the president would have found another fund to use or worked something out with Congress , ” he told the outlet .
“ You have to have money in the pot so people can draw it down.
” The active hurricane season is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FEMA will have to contend .
Iowa was recently hit with a rare and devastating storm , and many parts of California and the western U.S. face historic wildfires .
“ There is a reason the Constitution gave Congress the sole power to authorize government expenditures , ” Payne said .
“ It was to prevent reckless presidents from taking money from one program to fund another one .
”

Lawmakers are concerned that President Donald Trump’s decision to swipe $44 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will leave its disaster fund depleted amid a record-setting hurricane season.
Trump issued a memorandum allowing states to use $44 billion from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to pay $300 per week in enhanced federal unemployment benefits earlier this month. The move came after Trump and Senate Republicans refused to budge on their demands to slash boosted unemployment benefits, repeating a widely-debunked claim that the extra pandemic aid was a disincentive for workers to return to their jobs. House Democrats, meanwhile, approved a full extension of the $600-per-week benefit back in May.
After Hurricane Laura made landfall this week in Louisiana amid a hurricane season which has already seen a record-setting number of named storms, lawmakers worry Trump’s move could leave FEMA unprepared to respond to recovery efforts. If the entire $44 billion is used, it could deplete the disaster relief agency’s budget to as low as $25 billion, according to the Louisiana news outlet NOLA.com.
Craig Fugate, the former FEMA administrator under former President Barack Obama, told the outlet that he expected Congress would approve extra funding as it has done in the past.
“This Congress prints money faster than China can lend it to us,” he said.
But Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, which oversees FEMA, expressed doubts that Trump would approve additional funds after he balked at providing crucial pandemic relief to hard-hit cities and states in the latest round of negotiations. He argued that the public should not rely on unallocated funds after Senate Republicans refused to compromise on the pandemic relief package.
“We’re in the midst of this pandemic, and we have hurricanes and wildfires and the Senate is in recess,” he told the outlet.
Five members of the Homeland Security Committee wrote a letter to FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor expressing that “concerns remain whether the amount will be enough given the current COVID-19 response expenditures, other current open disaster reimbursements and any future storms or disasters.”
The letter noted that “the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently amended its forecast to predict 19 to 25 named storms this year.”
Hurricane Laura made landfall Thursday as a category 4 storm, leaving widespread destruction in its path. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., who chairs a subcommittee on emergency preparedness and response, said he was “extremely concerned about the health and safety of Americans when Hurricane Laura comes ashore.”
“The fact that President Trump would take up to $44 billion from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund right before a possibly record-setting hurricane season shows his inability to protect our country during a crisis,” he said in a statement. “If he had convinced his Senate allies to pass our Heroes Act, we would have extended unemployment benefits and still had plenty of money for FEMA and states to use to help Americans recover from a natural disaster, like Hurricane Laura.”
But Republicans pushed back on the concerns. Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., told NOLA.com that “there is no way that we will leave our citizens hanging out there,” predicting that Congress will “just print more” money for relief if necessary.
But Paul Rainwater, a disaster response expert who worked on Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal’s team during hurricanes like Katrina and Rita, warned that relief funds could be delayed even if Congress does provide extra funding.
“I wish the president would have found another fund to use or worked something out with Congress,” he told the outlet. “You have to have money in the pot so people can draw it down.”
The active hurricane season is far from the only threat with which FEMA will have to contend. Iowa was recently hit with a rare and devastating storm, and many parts of California and the western U.S. face historic wildfires.
“There is a reason the Constitution gave Congress the sole power to authorize government expenditures,” Payne said. “It was to prevent reckless presidents from taking money from one program to fund another one.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-08-30--Co-ops Can Lay a Path to Just Economies Amid the COVID Crisis

Cooperatives are showing greater resilience than traditional enterprises in Argentina amid the COVID-19 crisis , in the same way as employee-owned companies did in the U.S. during the Great Recession , producing COVID tests , masks and disinfectant , and directly meeting the needs of their workers and communities .
The cooperatives of Argentina , many of which underwent a rapid conversion from capitalist firms to cooperatives in the class struggle of the early 2000s , provide an inspiring example of how we can face the COVID challenge with solidarity .
In 2020 , co-ops have produced almost 10 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are approximately 400 empresas recuperadas ( recovered companies ) , supporting 18,000 jobs across all sectors .
These factories were rescued from bankrupt owners by worker takeover .
In many cases , workers had stayed without salaries for months and were fired without severance pay .
Many owners planned fraudulent bankruptcies , looting their businesses for years .
“ We ’ re fighting our former employers , who kicked us out , and the only thing we want is to work and to be responsible , ” Emanuel Stolerman , treasurer of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speaking in Spanish .
“ For this reason co-ops are an alternative to traditional economics in the whole world.
” In order to be responsible , the abandoned employees re-activated their former workplaces in three steps : 1 .
Occupy , 2 .
Resist ( negotiate legal status ) , 3 .
Produce .
During the country ’ s 2001 economic crisis , Argentine politics had already responded to the challenges of the times and opened up legal possibilities for workers who had lost their jobs .
United in a cooperative , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a limited time , until the foreclosure ( uso temporario ) or until , especially in key industries , the local parliaments enact expropriation laws .
The neoliberal administration of Mauricio Macri ( 2015–2019 ) was hostile to the cooperatives , and their boom was just returning when COVID struck and the country faced another fiscal-financial crisis .
In March 2020 , the International Monetary Fund ( IMF ) declared Argentina ’ s debt unsustainable and advised that the country not be forced to repay its foreign-currency debt until 2024 .
With the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt payments over health care would cost lives , bondholders nonetheless refused debt-restructuring proposals .
Argentina skipped payment on May 22 and entered default .
Nevertheless , in August 2020 , Argentina reached an accord on debt-restructuring with its biggest bondholders on $ 65 billion ( in U.S. dollars ) .
For the first time supporting a debt negotiation , Argentina became an IMF-precedent case , with the organization ’ s objective to stimulate creditors in other pre-default countries for debt-restructuring and prevent a global crash .
In December 2019 , with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Peronist government proceeded supporting cooperatives , and the Ministry of Social Development created a National Directorate of Empresas Recuperadas to support cooperatives with subsidies , preferential credit , tax relief and integration with state institutions , as well as to maintain a National Register of Empresas Recuperadas .
Responding to COVID in April , the National Directorate of Empresas Recuperadas presented a workplace recovery law that aims to facilitate the re-activation process and to prevent fraudulent bankruptcies and the looting of firms .
BNA ( Banco Nación , the national bank of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for empresas recuperadas to ensure access to cheap credit .
“ Empresas Recuperadas ” and the Battle Against COVID The cooperative Farmacoop , the first laboratory among the empresas recuperadas , produces affordable medications to support local health care .
Farmacoop produces 8,000-10,000 bottles of disinfectant per day and undertakes quality control and distribution for 20,000 masks per day .
With the support of the State University of La Plata , the National Directorate of Empresas Recuperadas and a private investor , Farmacoop is starting production of cheap , fast COVID antibody tests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it immediately detects the virus antibodies but not the virus itself .
The line will produce 25,000 test kits per week , and once the pandemic is over , the technology can be applied to other health concerns , including dengue , pregnancy and allergies .
The cooperative Textiles Pigüé , a maker of sports equipment , switched to producing face masks , uniforms and surgical masks .
Textiles Pigüé is also participating in a project of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council and the National Institute of Industrial Technology ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ integrate an antiviral and disinfectant material into fabrics , such as for sheets , masks , gloves , etc .
The gel-like natural polymer — which contains copper and silver nanoparticles that reportedly destroy the membrane of the virus and deactivate it — is produced at low cost and with local materials .
The material can be integrated into high-contact surfaces in hospitals , public transit , schools and dwellings .
Close integration of universities , state institutions and cooperatives has bolstered the Argentine health care system .
In the city of Comodoro @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caps in cooperation with INTI .
In Trelew , Propulsora Patagónica donated 60 meters of fabrics for sheet production for local hospitals .
In Santa Rosa , six laid-off women formed a cooperative and now produce 500 masks a day .
Atex Cooperative Textil produces 115 pairs of shoe protectors , 200 protective caps , 1,000 surgical masks and 1,000 sheets per day for the Tornquist municipal hospital .
Cooperative Textil Traful Newen produces 200,000 masks for provincial hospitals under an agreement with the local Ministry of Health .
Graphic design cooperative MadyGraf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ begun producing disinfectant and masks .
Compañeros Unidos Para Siempre produces 2,000 surgical masks per day for the local health system , and Aldea Eigenfeld , Diamante and Rosario del Tala produce 500 pairs of sheets and towels per day for the local Hospital de la Baxada in Paraná .
With support from the Provincial Institute of Cooperative and Mutual Action , Teque of Tucuman produces around 10,000 masks per day for hospitals and the vulnerable sectors .
Like traditional companies , co-ops are also dealing with the daily health risks of COVID @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can accommodate to the circumstances , in order to protect each other and especially high-risk groups .
“ Eighty percent of our co-op members are over 55 years old , and this makes us organize our daily work in a way that protects these members : we offer at-risk groups to stay at home , while the rest of the co-op members work for them and we share the income , ” Farmacoop Treasurer Emanuel Stolerman told Truthout .
“ And of course , we take explicit care of using masks inside of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to confronting the twin economic and health crises .
They have adapted to circumstances and demonstrated social responsibility and solidarity , providing their communities with crisis-relevant products as well as good livelihoods .
The principles of cooperatives are mutual assistance , mutual respect , solidarity , recognition and trust .
Cooperative work relies on the principle of equal pay and one-person , one-vote , instead of one-share , one-vote .
Leading positions rotate on a regular basis , and all-important decisions on the firm are taken in the plenary .
Co-ops advocate self-help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own employers , they invest their time any money in the company .
They stay in the working process , keep their own jobs and in many cases create new ones .
Co-ops are economic democracy , the counterpart of political democracy .
A July study from the United Nations forecasts that the number of people living in extreme poverty in Latin America is expected to increase from 67.7 million in 2019 to 96.2 million in 2020 .
This is an equivalent to 15.5 percent of the region ’ s total population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ average decline of 9.1 percent in GDP is estimated in 2020 .
The COVID crisis led to an economic disaster ; capital flight and falling exports from the Global South boost the downward spiral , to a supply-and-demand shock , extreme GDP fall , and toward an unknown catastrophe .
Despite ample warning from institutes that have forecast this exact pandemic scenario for years , many governments worldwide failed both to prepare or to react decisively — from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro , who defined COVID as “ just a flu , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spahn , who delayed importing masks and disinfectant , claiming that masks were of limited protective value for people not directly facing infection in health care settings .
Moreover , a general social resistance to COVID-prevention measures has developed in many countries — fed by the organized right wing — with protests against the “ corona lie , ” and refusals to wear masks or follow social distancing orders .
COVID has revealed multiple fault lines in neoliberal global networks : Companies that distributed supply chains around the world to lower costs are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has made finance fragile ; and welfare states beleaguered by capital flight leave citizens to weather the crisis alone .
Like the Great Recession , the latest shock offers a choice : Naively ask , “ Who could have known ?
” and continue careening from crisis to crisis ; or change the story for good .
The needed changes at the macro level are clear : Build a global health system , broadly construed to include access to health care and social insurance for all at the national level ; dignified livelihoods @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the global pharmaceutical order .
We must enable international public health cooperation on disease prevention and response , especially the growing threats of agriculture-enhanced pathogens , antibiotic-resistant microbes and climate-related shocks .
These times also call for us to forgive debt for poorer countries and launch a Green New Deal with wage-led Keynesian reinflation .
We also need a microeconomic vision to advance a more multi-polar world organized around local , social economies with resilient production systems , fair pay for workers and the end of shareholder primacy .
In the COVID era @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economy to collectivize key assets for the common good and to strengthen cooperative enterprises with government and third-sector collaboration .
The COVID response that we choose can point toward a more egalitarian , sustainable world .

Cooperatives are showing greater resilience than traditional enterprises in Argentina amid the COVID-19 crisis, in the same way as employee-owned companies did in the U.S. during the Great Recession, producing COVID tests, masks and disinfectant, and directly meeting the needs of their workers and communities.
The cooperatives of Argentina, many of which underwent a rapid conversion from capitalist firms to cooperatives in the class struggle of the early 2000s, provide an inspiring example of how we can face the COVID challenge with solidarity.
In 2020, co-ops have produced almost 10 percent of the Argentine GDP. Among them are approximately 400 empresas recuperadas (recovered companies), supporting 18,000 jobs across all sectors. These factories were rescued from bankrupt owners by worker takeover. In many cases, workers had stayed without salaries for months and were fired without severance pay. Many owners planned fraudulent bankruptcies, looting their businesses for years.
“We’re fighting our former employers, who kicked us out, and the only thing we want is to work and to be responsible,” Emanuel Stolerman, treasurer of the Cooperative Farmacoop Ltda, told Truthout, speaking in Spanish. “For this reason co-ops are an alternative to traditional economics in the whole world.”
In order to be responsible, the abandoned employees re-activated their former workplaces in three steps: 1. Occupy, 2. Resist (negotiate legal status), 3. Produce. During the country’s 2001 economic crisis, Argentine politics had already responded to the challenges of the times and opened up legal possibilities for workers who had lost their jobs. United in a cooperative, they can apply to use the company for a limited time, until the foreclosure (uso temporario) or until, especially in key industries, the local parliaments enact expropriation laws.
The neoliberal administration of Mauricio Macri (2015–2019) was hostile to the cooperatives, and their boom was just returning when COVID struck and the country faced another fiscal-financial crisis. In March 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared Argentina’s debt unsustainable and advised that the country not be forced to repay its foreign-currency debt until 2024. With the knowledge that forcing governments to choose unsustainable debt payments over health care would cost lives, bondholders nonetheless refused debt-restructuring proposals. Argentina skipped payment on May 22 and entered default. Nevertheless, in August 2020, Argentina reached an accord on debt-restructuring with its biggest bondholders on $65 billion (in U.S. dollars). For the first time supporting a debt negotiation, Argentina became an IMF-precedent case, with the organization’s objective to stimulate creditors in other pre-default countries for debt-restructuring and prevent a global crash.
“We’re fighting our former employers, who kicked us out, and the only thing we want is to work and to be responsible.”
In December 2019, with the start of the Alberto Fernández administration, the Peronist government proceeded supporting cooperatives, and the Ministry of Social Development created a National Directorate of Empresas Recuperadas to support cooperatives with subsidies, preferential credit, tax relief and integration with state institutions, as well as to maintain a National Register of Empresas Recuperadas.
Responding to COVID in April, the National Directorate of Empresas Recuperadas presented a workplace recovery law that aims to facilitate the re-activation process and to prevent fraudulent bankruptcies and the looting of firms. BNA (Banco Nación, the national bank of the country) created a lending facility for empresas recuperadas to ensure access to cheap credit.
“Empresas Recuperadas” and the Battle Against COVID
The cooperative Farmacoop, the first laboratory among the empresas recuperadas, produces affordable medications to support local health care. Farmacoop produces 8,000-10,000 bottles of disinfectant per day and undertakes quality control and distribution for 20,000 masks per day. With the support of the State University of La Plata, the National Directorate of Empresas Recuperadas and a private investor, Farmacoop is starting production of cheap, fast COVID antibody tests. Like similar tests in the U.S., it immediately detects the virus antibodies but not the virus itself. The line will produce 25,000 test kits per week, and once the pandemic is over, the technology can be applied to other health concerns, including dengue, pregnancy and allergies.
The cooperative Textiles Pigüé, a maker of sports equipment, switched to producing face masks, uniforms and surgical masks. Textiles Pigüé is also participating in a project of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council and the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) in Argentina to develop and integrate an antiviral and disinfectant material into fabrics, such as for sheets, masks, gloves, etc. The gel-like natural polymer — which contains copper and silver nanoparticles that reportedly destroy the membrane of the virus and deactivate it — is produced at low cost and with local materials. The material can be integrated into high-contact surfaces in hospitals, public transit, schools and dwellings.
Close integration of universities, state institutions and cooperatives has bolstered the Argentine health care system. In the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, Jointex produces boots and protection caps in cooperation with INTI. In Trelew, Propulsora Patagónica donated 60 meters of fabrics for sheet production for local hospitals. In Santa Rosa, six laid-off women formed a cooperative and now produce 500 masks a day. Atex Cooperative Textil produces 115 pairs of shoe protectors, 200 protective caps, 1,000 surgical masks and 1,000 sheets per day for the Tornquist municipal hospital. Cooperative Textil Traful Newen produces 200,000 masks for provincial hospitals under an agreement with the local Ministry of Health. Graphic design cooperative MadyGraf is publishing pandemic-safety instructions and has also begun producing disinfectant and masks.
Compañeros Unidos Para Siempre produces 2,000 surgical masks per day for the local health system, and Aldea Eigenfeld, Diamante and Rosario del Tala produce 500 pairs of sheets and towels per day for the local Hospital de la Baxada in Paraná. With support from the Provincial Institute of Cooperative and Mutual Action, Teque of Tucuman produces around 10,000 masks per day for hospitals and the vulnerable sectors.
Like traditional companies, co-ops are also dealing with the daily health risks of COVID. But their advantage is that they can accommodate to the circumstances, in order to protect each other and especially high-risk groups.
“Eighty percent of our co-op members are over 55 years old, and this makes us organize our daily work in a way that protects these members: we offer at-risk groups to stay at home, while the rest of the co-op members work for them and we share the income,” Farmacoop Treasurer Emanuel Stolerman told Truthout. “And of course, we take explicit care of using masks inside of the company.”
Cooperatives have been central to confronting the twin economic and health crises. They have adapted to circumstances and demonstrated social responsibility and solidarity, providing their communities with crisis-relevant products as well as good livelihoods.
Cooperatives have been central to confronting the twin economic and health crises.
The principles of cooperatives are mutual assistance, mutual respect, solidarity, recognition and trust. Cooperative work relies on the principle of equal pay and one-person, one-vote, instead of one-share, one-vote. Leading positions rotate on a regular basis, and all-important decisions on the firm are taken in the plenary.
Co-ops advocate self-help and not charity. Cooperative members are their own employers, they invest their time any money in the company. They stay in the working process, keep their own jobs and in many cases create new ones. Co-ops are economic democracy, the counterpart of political democracy.
From Cooperatives to a Social Economy
A July study from the United Nations forecasts that the number of people living in extreme poverty in Latin America is expected to increase from 67.7 million in 2019 to 96.2 million in 2020. This is an equivalent to 15.5 percent of the region’s total population. In South America, a regional average decline of 9.1 percent in GDP is estimated in 2020. The COVID crisis led to an economic disaster; capital flight and falling exports from the Global South boost the downward spiral, to a supply-and-demand shock, extreme GDP fall, and toward an unknown catastrophe.
Despite ample warning from institutes that have forecast this exact pandemic scenario for years, many governments worldwide failed both to prepare or to react decisively — from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who defined COVID as “just a flu,” to the German Minister of Health Jens Spahn, who delayed importing masks and disinfectant, claiming that masks were of limited protective value for people not directly facing infection in health care settings. Moreover, a general social resistance to COVID-prevention measures has developed in many countries — fed by the organized right wing — with protests against the “corona lie,” and refusals to wear masks or follow social distancing orders.
COVID has revealed multiple fault lines in neoliberal global networks: Companies that distributed supply chains around the world to lower costs are frozen; unlimited mobility for global investment has made finance fragile; and welfare states beleaguered by capital flight leave citizens to weather the crisis alone. Like the Great Recession, the latest shock offers a choice: Naively ask, “Who could have known?” and continue careening from crisis to crisis; or change the story for good.
The needed changes at the macro level are clear: Build a global health system, broadly construed to include access to health care and social insurance for all at the national level; dignified livelihoods for care workers; and reform of the global pharmaceutical order. We must enable international public health cooperation on disease prevention and response, especially the growing threats of agriculture-enhanced pathogens, antibiotic-resistant microbes and climate-related shocks. These times also call for us to forgive debt for poorer countries and launch a Green New Deal with wage-led Keynesian reinflation.
We also need a microeconomic vision to advance a more multi-polar world organized around local, social economies with resilient production systems, fair pay for workers and the end of shareholder primacy.
In the COVID era, we must push for a social economy to collectivize key assets for the common good and to strengthen cooperative enterprises with government and third-sector collaboration. The COVID response that we choose can point toward a more egalitarian, sustainable world.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
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truthout--2020-08-30--Public Health Experts Decry FDA’s “Troubling” Approval of Remdesivir for COVID

Public health experts on Saturday decried the Food and Drug Administration ’ s “ troubling ” approval of a Covid-19 treatment which has not been proven to help patients who are severely ill with the disease .
The FDA expanded its emergency authorization on remdesivir on Friday evening , allowing its use for all patients who are hospitalized with Covid-19 .
Previously , the drug had been approved — and shown to benefit — only patients who are not ill enough to require the use of a ventilator .
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn claimed that “ the data show that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even more hospitalized patients who are suffering from the effects of this devastating virus , ” but epidemiologists and other experts pushed back .
“ No published research supports such widespread use , ” tweeted Eric Fiegl-Ding , a fellow at the Federation of American Scientists .
Remdesivir has been shown to improve recovery time for patients who require oxygen but not ventilation , but has not been shown to save lives in the sickest patients , according to data from the New England Journal of Medicine .
“ It seems to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without data , without evidence , ” Eric Topol , vice president for research at Scripps Research in La Jolla , California , told USA Today .
Earlier this week , Topol expressed “ horror ” at claims made by Hahn and President Donald Trump about the efficacy of convalescent plasma in treating the coronavirus .
Hahn later apologized publicly for overstating the benefits of plasma from patients who have recovered from Covid-19 .
On Friday , two public relations officials were fired from their jobs at the FDA .
Both had been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regarding plasma , and one had encouraged Hahn to apologize for his original statement about the treatment .
The dismissals , as well as Trump ’ s repeated claims that the agency is standing in the way of his reelection chances by holding back approval for treatments and vaccines , raised alarm among public health experts who fear the politicization of the FDA in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic .
For many members of the public , Topol told USA Today , the FDA ’ s credibility has “ already been sacrificed.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ week , the White House has recently suggested that a vaccine for Covid-19 could be approved by the FDA as early as September , even though phase 3 trials—the standard randomized , controlled studies generally required before authorization .
The Trump campaign reportedly refers privately to a vaccine approval by October , just ahead of the general election , as “ the holy grail.
” “ I hope Stephen Hahn will find his conscience and think about the greater good and greater harm his agency can cause , ” tweeted Feigl-Ding on Saturday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pressure will only harm trust in the longtime venerable institution and hurt public health for generations to come .
”

There’s insufficient evidence to support widespread use of the drug for treating COVID-19, according to health experts.
Public health experts on Saturday decried the Food and Drug Administration’s “troubling” approval of a Covid-19 treatment which has not been proven to help patients who are severely ill with the disease.
The FDA expanded its emergency authorization on remdesivir on Friday evening, allowing its use for all patients who are hospitalized with Covid-19. Previously, the drug had been approved — and shown to benefit — only patients who are not ill enough to require the use of a ventilator.
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn claimed that “the data show that this treatment has the potential to help even more hospitalized patients who are suffering from the effects of this devastating virus,” but epidemiologists and other experts pushed back.
“No published research supports such widespread use,” tweeted Eric Fiegl-Ding, a fellow at the Federation of American Scientists.
Remdesivir has been shown to improve recovery time for patients who require oxygen but not ventilation, but has not been shown to save lives in the sickest patients, according to data from the New England Journal of Medicine.
“It seems to be a pattern of approval without science, without data, without evidence,” Eric Topol, vice president for research at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, told USA Today.
Earlier this week, Topol expressed “horror” at claims made by Hahn and President Donald Trump about the efficacy of convalescent plasma in treating the coronavirus. Hahn later apologized publicly for overstating the benefits of plasma from patients who have recovered from Covid-19.
On Friday, two public relations officials were fired from their jobs at the FDA. Both had been involved in the agency’s messaging regarding plasma, and one had encouraged Hahn to apologize for his original statement about the treatment. The dismissals, as well as Trump’s repeated claims that the agency is standing in the way of his reelection chances by holding back approval for treatments and vaccines, raised alarm among public health experts who fear the politicization of the FDA in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For many members of the public, Topol told USA Today, the FDA’s credibility has “already been sacrificed.”
As Common Dreams reported earlier this week, the White House has recently suggested that a vaccine for Covid-19 could be approved by the FDA as early as September, even though phase 3 trials—the standard randomized, controlled studies generally required before authorization. The Trump campaign reportedly refers privately to a vaccine approval by October, just ahead of the general election, as “the holy grail.”
4) What I worry about the most…. is an October surprise… of FDA being forced to do something it doesn’t want to or science doesn’t support. That keeps me awake at night. — Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) August 29, 2020
“I hope Stephen Hahn will find his conscience and think about the greater good and greater harm his agency can cause,” tweeted Feigl-Ding on Saturday. “Bending to Trump White House pressure will only harm trust in the longtime venerable institution and hurt public health for generations to come.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.