Independent Media Institute
The Merits of Medicare for All Have Been Proven by This Pandemic
The horror of the coronavirus pandemic proves that progressives have been justified in demanding a single-payer health care system. By Sonali Kolhatkar A pandemic is not the time to be having discussions about how to design a national health care system. The fact that the United States, which… »
Americans With Jobs Are Sharing Their Stimulus Checks With People Out of Work
With unemployment nearing Great Depression levels and many still waiting on any government support, a new person-to-person relief economy is forming. By April M. Short The responses of governments around the world to the pandemic and its resulting economic impacts are revealing and varied. As officials enact measures to keep… »
Venezuela’s Borderlands Have Been Assaulted by COVID-19
By Vijay Prashad, Eduardo Viloria Daboín, Ana Maldonado, and Zoe PC Sixty percent of Venezuela’s COVID-19 cases are in its border states of Apure, Bolívar, Táchira, and Zulia. Roughly 70,000 Venezuelans who had moved to nearby countries of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru (largely in response to crippling U.S. »
How Movements Can Turn Public Support Into Lasting Change
Taking “movement moments” to change, from the Red Summer to Black Lives Matter. By Collective 20 It is said that Mark Twain once quipped that “history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” These days one cannot escape comparisons with 1968, and with widespread civil unrest, troops in our cities’… »
Billions of Children Are Being Punished by the Pandemic
“In June, the WHO, along with other UN agencies, released a landmark study, ‘Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020.’ Sadly, this study—like so much about the status of children in our time—has received almost no news coverage.” By Vijay Prashad The Great Lockdown lingers month… »
If We’re Going to Defund Militarized Police Departments, Why Not Add the Pentagon?
The U.S. military’s budget, like so many police department budgets, is bloated, and diverts our tax dollars into forces of domination and violence. Now is the time to question our spending priorities at the local and federal level. By Sonali Kolhatkar When Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a resolutionrecently… »
Who Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize in a Time of Pandemic?
By Vijay Prashad A few weeks ago, I was talking to Noam Chomsky about the state of the world. At one point, Noam smiled and said that he is not aware of any German doctors in Italy, even though both countries are in the European Union; instead, Cuban and Chinese doctors… »
Tear Down the Racist Statues, End Racist Debt and Pay for Equalizing Reparations
By Vijay Prashad The statues are coming down. The most recent avalanche began in the United States after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police and the uprising it occasioned. In Philadelphia, the city removed a statue of former police commissioner Frank Rizzo; the mayor… »
Tear Down the Racist Statues, End Racist Debt and Pay for Equalizing Reparations
By Vijay Prashad The statues are coming down. The most recent avalanche began in the United States after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police and the uprising it occasioned. In Philadelphia, the city removed a statue of former police commissioner Frank Rizzo; the mayor… »
The Murder of George Floyd Is Normal in an Abnormal Society
By Vijay Prashad Silence There is no need to write these words, no need to read them. All this has been written before. There is no need to wonder why George Floyd (age 46) was murdered in broad daylight in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020. The script of his… »