CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

COVID-19 vaccine is the People’s Vaccine

It’s time for Big Pharma to do the right thing.

In recent months, the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines has brought immense relief across Canada and around the world.

But as the current shortages of the vaccines make clear, no one company can produce all the doses of effective and safe vaccines needed to vaccinate the world’s entire population — and not quickly enough to stop the emergence and spread of more contagious new variants.

Most of the decision-making power of who gets first access to these vaccines remains in the hands of a few pharmaceutical companies: they determine what prices they set and who they will sell to first.

doctorswithoutborders.ca

Abolition Is The Way

When: Thursday July 29th, 9pm ET

Join us for a deeper dive into Abolition fundamentals by focusing on the work of Ruthie Gilmore, revolutionary Abolitionist Thinker and Activist!

zoom.us

Decent work transit canvass

When: Friday, July 30th, 5pm
Where: Coxwell Subway Station, 355 Strathmore Blvd

Join us on Friday, July 30 from 5 pm to 6 pm for this community canvass where we will be speaking out about the need for paid sick days, fair wages and decent work for all. We would love it if you came by to help us collect signatures on our new petition!

justice4workers.org

Townhall for Wheel-Trans Users

When: Wednesday August 4th, 2pm

Under the “Family of Services” program, thousands of Wheel-Trans users will lose full access and be forced to take conventional TTC service (bus, subway, streetcar).

RSVP now to the community townhall for Wheel-Trans users to learn more, share how this will affect you, and get involved.

eventbrite.ca

Healing The Past Through Ceremony

When: August 5th, 10:30am – August 6th, 6:30pm

Join Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society on August 5th and 6th as we bring healing through ceremony to those affected by residential schools. The event will be broadcast on our Facebook page from 8:30-4:30. You are welcome to join at any time.

Facebook event

Who Owns the Internet?

When: Thursday August 5th, 7pm

Join us in a 2-part program hosted by Toronto Mesh: Who Owns the Internet and How to Reclaim the Internet. Participants will learn about the technical architecture and power dynamics of what we call the Internet. We will discuss issues around long-standing digital inequities and practices of data exploitation by Internet companies. From this, we will explore alternative practices and invite you to re-imagine and co-create community networks in our Toronto neighbourhoods. This program requires no technical background from the audience.

torontopubliclibrary.ca

Beyond the Socialist Impasse: Remembering Leo Panitch

Introduction: Rachel Scott with remarks by Frances Fox Piven, Arun Gupta, Meagan Day, Steve Maher, Michalis Spourdalakis and Greg Albo. Discussion moderated by Peter Bratsis.

Source: LeftStreamed

The Forest and the Tree: Ben and Jerry’s, Unilever, and Global Capitalist Apartheid

By Kyle Bailey

After years of pressure from activists, Ben & Jerry’s on 19 July announced that it would end ice cream sales in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The Vermont-based ice-cream maker stated that such sales were “inconsistent” with its values and that it would withdraw from a deal with a local distributor. Israel’s ultra-nationalist prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who has shamelessly championed the expansion of illegal settlements, responded by informing the chief executive of Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, that the firm had taken a “clearly anti-Israel step” that would be met with a “strong” response.

Source: The Bullet No. 2424

Brazil: Between Pandemic Incompetence, Institutional War and Growing Polarization

By Jorg Nowak

Three critical issues recently infused themselves on Brazilian politics. First, a parliamentary commission by the Brazilian Senate to investigate the government’s handling of the pandemic is in the process of uncovering a vast network of corruption linked to the purchase of vaccines with the, at least, indirect involvement of president Jair Bolsonaro. Next, Bolsonaro’s popularity is clearly on a downward path, and former president Luiz Lula da Silva consistently leads all polls with at least a 20 per cent margin against Bolsonaro.

Source: The Bullet No. 2425

Genocide and Colonialism: Challenging the Canadian State

By Nouveaux Cahiers du socialisme

Public opinion has been shaken by the ‘discovery’ of unmarked graves of children who died in residential schools. The word ‘discovery’ has to be placed in quotation marks because Indigenous communities have been saying for many years that terrible things had taken place on the grounds of church-run residential schools. The time has come to call this what it is – a genocide. Following the ‘discovery’ of the Americas in 1492, a brutal process of plunder was unleashed by European powers with the goal of taking control of plethoric mineral resources, vast hunting grounds and abundant arable lands. The consequences for Indigenous communities were catastrophic. Through killing, disease and enslavement, they carried out one of the greatest genocides in world history.

Source: The Bullet No. 2426

The July 11 Protests in Cuba

By Ailynn Torres Santana

Protests began in Cuba July 11, 2021 (J-11). They spread gradually from San Antonio de los Baños (Artemisa province) and Palma Soliano (Santiago de Cuba province) to other parts of the country. Digital traces show that social media played a central but not singular role in this process. Social media had a kind of contagion effect, spreading protests from one area to another, or served to directly call people to the streets. This also meant that what happened rapidly reached beyond Cuba through “direct” connections on social media and by content going viral on people’s personal profiles and in foreign media.

Source: The Bullet No. 2427