F**K The Man
Morning Comrades! Before I start to wrap up this week I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that today is the last day to pick up the collab with Villy Villian. It’s a banger of a shirt that I am extremely happy to put out and yeah, click below!
I have recently spent more time on a youtube channel than anywhere else and that channel is Philosophy Tube. I wrote a larger overture about this channel over on the paid-for part of this newsletter but I wanted recommend this channel for all of you. Abigail Thorn does an incredible job to not only bring philosophy into our reality by applying it to modern discussions and additionally, and this part I particularly enjoy, explains Philosophy in its historical context with humour, relevance and wit. The below show is a particular relevant talk but I urge you to spend some time on here.
A big, horrific reality that went mostly unnoticed was the WTO’s decision to block to waive the Trade and Intellectual Property Rules (TRIPS) for COVID-19 vaccines. In plain English, the publicly financed Covid vaccines from the West are at this point predominately being kept here, and through the WTO well over a 100 countries predominately from the Global South called for the IP to be waived so that generic vaccines could be produced en masse for the rest of the world. Essentially, the Global North West told the rest of the world to fuck off, as per usual and blocked the motion.
“This is a massive missed opportunity to speed up and scale up the production of lifesaving vaccines worldwide by waiving the intellectual property barriers that prevent more qualified manufacturers joining the effort.
“Rich countries are vaccinating at a rate of one person per second yet are siding with a handful of pharmaceutical corporations in protecting their monopolies against the needs of the majority of developing countries who are struggling to administer a single dose.
“It is unforgivable that while people are literally fighting for breath, rich country governments continue to block what could be a vital breakthrough in ending this pandemic for everyone in rich and poor countries alike.
“During a pandemic that is devastating lives across the planet, governments should be using their powers now, not tomorrow, to remove intellectual property rules and ensure pharmaceutical companies work together to share technology and fix raw material shortages, all of which are standing in the way of a massive scale up in production.” - Oxfam’s Health Policy Manager, Anna Marriott
I have linked this twitter thread by Jason Hickel for anyone that wants to read into this
Another piece of solid investigative journalism that took a back seat this week, only because I was focused on the bullshit happening back in England was this piece by John Washington. The headline essentially tells you what it is about so I won’t bore you but this is worth digging into for your own radicalization
Lastly, and in regards to my interest and time spent on the Fascist Bullshit the Tory party tried to pull this week I have some ok-to-good news! The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill has been put off, mostly thanks to everyone that applied pressure, in the streets and online. It’s not been put off but delayed. I will be keeping a close eye on this one and I hope you do too.
To wrap up another week, here are some hot shots from the interwebs worth sharing and getting pissed off about.
Before anyone gets too excited about “left” we are up here in Northern Europe, fucking forget it. Yes, we have some social programs but make no mistake, our Social Democratic Parties in Northern Europe are Class Enemies to the Core and just as bad as the rest of the bastards. Case in Point: