Creative Destruction: Big Tech Kicks Off 2024 with Layoffs
WSWS sends up a warning flare about the surge of automation and artificial intelligence plans to supplant large swaths of the workforce. From tech giants to logistics companies, including the USPS, layoffs and planned layoffs are all the rage. But as WSWS aptly notes, while technology could be used to enhance or improve the lives of workers and society writ large, the profit motive of the capitalist class demands that corporations see the benefits and reap the rewards.
From the article:
“These cuts are not being ‘caused’ by automation. This is technology that, in a rational society unburdened by the profit motive, could be used to rapidly improve the quality of life, including by reducing the length of the working day with no loss in pay. They could also be used to efficiently move supplies to anywhere in the world where they are needed most, including to fight the pandemic or provide life-saving food and medical supplies to the besieged population of Gaza.”
World Socialist Web Site: Google, Amazon start off new year with job cuts, as corporations plan to use AI to slash workforces
Scathing Rebuke of Black Political Leadership in America
Mark Fancher pulls no punches in this takedown of Black leadership in the United States. Fancher correlates today’s imperialist views with historical colonialism and encourages readers to remain steadfast in their support of marginalized people around the world.
From the article:
“If not a colonial reality, the practical reality of the discrimination, exploitation, oppression and political repression that constitute the African experience in the U.S. renders Black people in this country as significant members of the global mass of humanity that endures the pain caused by imperialism. This relationship of Africans in America with the rest of ‘the wretched of the Earth’ is distorted, confused and complicated when Thomas-Greenfield, like her government predecessors Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Barack Obama, stand before the world and spout imperialist lies, and not only advance the cause of the empire, but also by their mere presence suggest the possibility that all Black people in America agree with the imperialist program, and stand apart from other victims of imperialism around the world.”
Black Agenda Report: Negroes Steppin’ and Fetchin’ for Imperialism
Same Candidates, Same Messages, Different Year
We have been discussing the prospects of Trump 2.0 and whether Biden and Co. have made the case for a second term. The Democratic strategy appears to be a replay of 2020, portraying this is Democracy v. Fascism. Will the message still resonate four years later? Mother Jones D.C. Bureau Chief David Corn examines what’s at stake through this specific lens.
From the article:
“Trump and his henchmen foresee a second term in which he would have ironclad control of the federal bureaucracy. The Project 2025 gang has been cooking up a scheme that would allow the White House to replace tens of thousands of federal civil servants with Trump devotees. Part of that process includes devising a questionnaire for thousands of appointees that is designed to assess how devoted they are to Trump. In essence, Trumpists are aiming to impose a pro-Trump loyalty throughout the government. Under this plan, workers and officials at various agencies who are not Trump supporters—perhaps those who do not contribute to his campaign—could be summarily dismissed. Picture the atmosphere of fear—and snitching—that would infect the federal government.”
Mother Jones: Trump II: How Bad It Could Be