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El periódico «La Voz de los Trabajadores»: Edición de marzo-abril
La guerra de Estados Unidos e Israel contra Irán es una escalada importante en el Medio Oriente que tiene implicaciones peligrosas para los trabajadores de todo el mundo. La brutalidad del asalto imperialista a nivel internacional va junto con el ataque a las libertades civiles por parte del régimen de Trump dentro de Estados Unidos. Esto incluye las operaciones continuas del ICE y la Patrulla Fronteriza, las amenazas a las elecciones de mitad de período de 2026, los retrocesos ambientales que afectan profundamente a la comunidad negra y la brutalidad policial sin control.
Nuestro editorial en este número nos advierte: «Existe un gran peligro de subestimar la determinación de la élite empresarial estadounidense de llevar adelante esta iniciativa. No podemos confiar en que las sentencias judiciales o las próximas elecciones nos salven. Debemos organizarnos ahora, no solo para realizar manifestaciones masivas y crear redes comunitarias contra la violencia del ICE, sino para encontrar el camino hacia la construcción de un nuevo partido de la clase trabajadora a través del cual podamos organizar nuestra defensa política en todos los planos y todos los días».
En este número también tenemos artículos sobre los archivos de Epstein y la clase dominante, la huelga de maestros de San Francisco y una reseña del nuevo álbum de U2.
La edición de marzo-abril de 2026 de nuestro periódico está disponible en formato impreso y en línea como PDF y contiene articulos en ingles y español. ¡Lee hoy mismo el último número de nuestro periódico con una descarga gratuita en PDF! Como siempre, agradecemos cualquier donación que ayude a sufragar los gastos de impresión.
Haz clic en la imagen para leer el periódico o envíanos un mensaje para recibir una copia impresa:
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U.S. workers confront the COVID-19 crisis
Millions in the U.S. lost their healthcare on April 1st. Millions more are food insecure and unsure of how they will pay their rent in the coming months. Unemployment numbers have smashed all previous records, with 10 million workers filing for unemployment insurance. The $2.2 trillion stimulus package that promises to send $1200 to most U.S. adult citizens, $500 for every child under 16, and increases in unemployment benefits not only falls short of providing the long-term relief that workers need, it disproportionately gives billions more to big business.
For all intents and purposes, the U.S. is still in the beginning phase of this devastating cycle in the life of this virus. Despite the courage and bravery of frontline workers, the working class as a whole is extremely vulnerable and woefully underprepared for the weeks and months ahead.
The image of hospital workers wearing trash bags and reusing personal protective equipment (PPE), and the videos of an overwhelmed Elmhurst hospital are just the opening scenes of this crisis. The U.S. is going to be hit harder than Italy, and the outcome has the potential to be far worse. On March 28, Italy surpassed 10,000 deaths.
An Amazon worker in New York. (AFP) We know that at best companies have been indifferent to the dangers, or at worst they actively put workers in harm’s way. On March 10, as profits started falling, when decisive measures for personal distancing should have been taken, a coalition of 150 hospitality and travel organizations urged Americans to “keep traveling”. In many places, hotels are still open, considered “essential” industry by the state, and languishing with low occupancies instead of opening their doors to those experiencing housing insecurities.
Frontline workers in the hospitals and grocery stores, and those cleaning buildings are putting in a heroic effort to keep working people healthy through this crisis. For years these workers have had to justify their existence and beg for a living wage. Businesses have considered many of these workers low skilled and undeserving. Today, we all have a deeper understanding of how essential these workers are to our lives.
What if Stop and Shop workers, United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) members, had not gone out on strike in 2019 to defend their health care and wages? The strength of the strike, after costing Stop and Shop over $300 million in profit, has now put the workers in a better position to demand health and safety precautions as well as hazard pay. Today, safety glass has been installed at all registers, and the workers are getting a 10% increase in wages through the crisis.
In a desperate attempt to find PPE, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) found 39 million N95 masks. Yet this is not enough to fill the overwhelming need for protective equipment. The federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies includes 12 million medical-grade N95 masks and 30 million surgical masks—only about one percent of the 3.5 billion that the Department of Health and Human Services estimates would be needed over the course of a year if the outbreak reaches pandemic levels. COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the WHO on March 11.
Doctors and nurses are often forced to reuse masks. Unions that organize essential workers are fighting to get the basic protections they need. The shortage of masks in the U.S. is incredible. Neighbors are busy sewing, trying to produce homemade masks for their health-care worker friends and family. The heroic efforts of the working class to protect their loved ones is inspiring but also heartbreaking. Workers know that the productive capacity exists in the U.S. to produce the masks we need overnight.
GE workers in Massachusetts organized in the IUE-CWA understand the important role they could play in saving lives. On April 1, the workers and union leadership began talking about striking to fight against layoffs and for immediate conversion of their shop to be used for the production of ventilators.
Union nurses at Jacobi hospital in the Bronx protested on March 28 due to a shortage of masks, gloves, and ventilators. Already for years, nurses have been fighting for safe staffing levels, and the situation is exasperated by the current circumstances. Paramedics in New York City are stretched to the breaking point, 20% have contracted COVID-19, and it is getting more difficult to answer emergency calls.
In Pittsburgh, a group of mostly African-American sanitation workers, members of Teamster Local 249, went out on an “illegal” wildcat strike, demanding greater protection on the job. In unsafe conditions with no masks or hazard pay, the workers felt they had no choice but to stop collecting the garbage to have their voice heard.
Still, millions of workers in non-union jobs, Amazon, Fast Food, store clerks, machine shops, agriculture, and so on are working daily, keeping the slowing wheels of the U.S. economy turning. Recent strikes at Amazon, Instacart, and Whole Foods highlighted the dangerously unsafe working conditions. Meanwhile, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos cut healthcare for 2000 part-time workers. Amazon also fired Christian Smalls the organizer of a Staten Island Amazon safety and health walkout.
The capitalists are basing their definition of “essential” labor on what is essential for their profits, not human needs. Retail and other services that are being shut down are closed not because they are unnecessary in this crisis, but because they do not have business. Marx pointed out that in his time, “according to capitalistic anthropology, the age of childhood ended at 10, or at the outside, at 11.” In our time, capitalistic anthropology decides that weapons manufacturing and condominium construction are necessary production.
Against capitalist irrationality, workers are leading the fight for a real solution to the coronavirus crisis. In Massachusetts, the Building Trades Council not only voted unanimously for an immediate halt in non-essential construction work but also defined what that actually means. Against the construction of investment properties, they put forward keeping workers home except for the following projects:
- Emergency utility, road or building work, such as gas leaks, water leaks and sinkholes
- New utility connections to occupied buildings
- Mandated building or utility work (for example on necessary public infrastructure)
- Work at public health facilities, health-care facilities, shelters, including temporary shelters and other facilities that support vulnerable populations
- Work which ensures the reliability of the transportation network, and
- Other work necessary to render occupied residential buildings fully habitable
In Connecticut, a broad layer of rank-and-file workers and union leadership have come together to form a group, Connecticut Workers Crisis Response, which puts forward a full set of demands to take on the crisis. These include triple pay for public facing essential workers, reopening closed hospitals, training and recruiting health-care workers from related sectors on an emergency basis, evacuating prisons and jails, expanding free home delivery of essential goods, and protecting workers’ right to strike. We encourage all Socialist Resurgence readers to read the full program, which is available here. At the time of writing, over 150 workers, including union leadership, from 11 different unions have endorsed the demands. You can register for their webinar here.
While workers are heroically fighting the bosses in increasingly greater numbers, we still remain isolated on a shop, regional, and state basis. To realize its full power as a social force, organized labor must come together for open and democratic discussion that includes frontline workers, unemployed, and the union rank and file to strategize and plan an emergency relief program to fight against the inaction of the bosses and the misleadership of the politicians.
The working class has been sent into a fight without any help at all. Workers are not passive participants waiting for a lifeline; they are demonstrating bravery in the face of illness, death, and economic devastation every day. By convening big, open, and democratic meetings, organized labor will draw on the creativity and energy of the current struggles, strikes, and declarations that are pointing the way forward.
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A Socialist Perspective on the Coronavirus Stimulus Plan
Written by Florence Oppen
On March 27th, the House passed an historic $2 trillion stimulus bill with almost unanimous bi-partisan support. After denying the crisis for weeks, the government is now jumping into action, but not to help the working class.
The coronavirus health crisis is also becoming a social and economic crisis for working people and big businesses alike. Wildcat strikes have been spreading like wildfire as it becomes increasingly clear that the capitalist system in the most imperialist country in the world is unable to deliver basic healthcare services and supplies, such as masks, test kits, or hospital beds, to say nothing of more expensive life-saving equipment like ventilators.
This bailout is the largest in U.S. history, and it has been presented as a combination of measures “for everyone” from the unemployed to big business, a “bailout for all.” In reality, it is a combination of a massive bailout to major corporations, a mere two years after the big tax break Trump granted them, and just a mini-bailout for workers.
As socialists we embrace any measures that will benefit and relieve workers’ hardships, but we absolutely reject bailing out corporations, because all that money could and should go to granting critical services to workers, such as universal healthcare access and paid leave for all, and to the reconstruction of public infrastructure and the retooling of production facilities to mass produce critical medical supplies for which there are currently shortages. No company should be making any profit during this crisis. We need to declare a social emergency and redirect all productive capacities to basic needs and care with zero profit margin, and to do so in a bottom-up and democratic way where working people participate in decision making .
The Structure and Priorities of the Stimulus Plan: Profits over People
Official government communication has framed the breakdown of the stimulus package so that it appears to give more to workers (30% to the total with $600 billion) and small business (19%) than to big corporations (25% with $500 billion). The reality is very different, for the government is investing $454 billion into the very depleted Federal Reserve (which spent most of its savings in the 2008 crisis). This money, according to an article in American Prospect, will “then be placed into a ‘credit facility’ and levered up 10-1, creating a $4.5 trillion money cannon aimed at the largest corporations in America.”[1] What this is describing is for all intents and purposes a corporate slush fund.
The enormity of this bailout has been under-estimated, as some analyses are already arguing: “it’s not a $2 trillion bill, it’s closer to $6 trillion, and $4.3 trillion of it comes in the form of a bazooka aimed at CEOs and shareholders, with almost no conditions attached”.[2] In the end it is promising corporations 17 times more than what is being given to working people. The difference between the support being granted to corporations as opposed to workers is obscene. As American Prospect points out, while working people will get “a $1,200 means-tested payment and a little wage insurance for four months…corporations get a transformative amount of play money to sustain their system and wipe out the competition.”[3]
A New Bailout for Major Corporations
The Stimulus Plan includes $500 billion in loans for businesses, which includes loans to some of the major US corporations that have benefited from massive tax loopholes. According to an article by the New York Times: “The companies that will be receiving the largest bailouts were, until recently, enjoying unprecedented levels of corporate profitability, thanks to large corporate tax cuts, industry mergers and the avoidance of significant wage increases for employees.”[4] Airline companies will be getting $50 billion, and Boeing, brushing off the absurd levels of malfeasance in its development of the 737 Max which resulted in hundreds of deaths, will get $17 billion of public money! In the same vein, big hotel chains such as Marriott and Hilton will get public money after having spent their revenue in stock buybacks instead of increasing workers wages and benefits. The double scandal of this bailout is not that, once again, more money is given to big corporations, but that it is done with no conditions in exchange, such as the basic requirement that they pay at least a living wage of $15/hour to all workers.
A Limited Mini-Bailout for Workers
The mini-bailout for workers is short-sighted and falls way below the bare minimum necessary to weather this crisis. It consists of three measures: a direct one-time payout of $1,200 maximum for individuals making $75,000 or less and decreasing amounts for those making up to $99,999, with an additional $500 for each child in qualifying households, some unemployment measures, and a payment deferral for federal student loans. The most coveted measure is of course the one-time payout But this money will allow most households to just cover rent for one month, with little left to spare. In parts of the country facing housing crises, such as the Bay Area, it likely won’t even cover that for many households. It will also exclude between 30 and 40 million waged workers (15% of total) who do not file taxes regularly.[5] More than a one-time payout workers need to know that their basic needs (healthcare, food, housing etc) will be covered no matter what.
The so-called stimulus bill will also increase unemployment insurance by $600 across the country for 4 months. Now, gig economy workers, freelancers, and furloughed workers will be able to qualify for it––a positive development. The problem is that more than 3.3 million workers have already filed for unemployment, and that while the $600 extra will help, they will only allow unemployed workers to get closer to their original salary, which was often insufficient to begin witht. Workers facing additional financial strain due to the need for medical care or stocking supplies for quarantine will remain unable to face such costs.
Finally, the $350 billion in loans to help small businesses keep their employees on the payroll is a good idea, but still far below what is needed: “the total cost of payroll alone for American small businesses is $1.5tn every three months.”[6] That is, small businesses need 4 times more money to ride out the crisis without firing anyone.
We Need Universal Healthcare and Paid Leave Now
This crisis is compounding the economic struggles faced by the US working class. The vast majority of workers in the US live paycheck to paycheck, which makes it impossible to accumulate any savings, pushes them into chronic debt and leaves them unable to cope with the fallout of a global health crisis using only their own resources.
Workers need another kind of relief: we need universal healthcare now with free treatment for all, universal paid sick leave which will give everyone a stable source of income, and the cessation of all non-essential economic activity to truly stop the spread of the virus. Furthermore, in order to overcome the pandemic we need to close down for-profit-America, retool all available manufacturing facilities for the production of essential medical equipment and reappropriate all existing infrastructure to fit the needs of this emergency. Workers, through their unions, caucuses, committees, and workers centers, need to be at the forefront of planning and decision-making around this retooling to ensure that protective and safety measures are enacted.
This crisis reminds us that the only way out of these crises is to organize from below and coordinate our actions at the regional, state and national level in order to build a political alternative to neoliberal capitalism. We need to get all our unions and community organizations to form a united front to mobilize for emergency relief demands. We should follow the lead of unions like the CWA demanding that General Electric regear unused manufacturing plants to produce much needed ventilators, hire skilled union workers, and ensure their safety. Additionally, a collection of workers has formed the Connecticut Workers Crisis Response to develop a solution out of this crisis that prioritizes the needs of working people. The immediate future and survival will be at stake in the weeks and months ahead. We cannot wait until elections in November, we need to organize now.
[1] https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-federal-reserve-loads-cannon/
[2] https://prospect.org/api/amp/coronavirus/unsanitized-bailouts-tradition-unlike-any-other/
[3] https://prospect.org/api/amp/coronavirus/unsanitized-bailouts-tradition-unlike-any-other/
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/27/opinion/coronavirus-bailout.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/26/us-stimulus-bill-worker-relief
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/26/us-stimulus-bill-worker-relief -
COVID-19: Philadelphia protest demands, ‘Release the prisoners!’
PHILADELPHIA—On March 30, a caravan of over 120 cars filled the streets to demand that public officials take measures to empty the jails, prisons, and detention centers because of the COVID-19 emergency. The protesters in the cars chanted and bumped their horns as they circled City Hall and other state and city buildings.
Signs taped to the car windows read, “Jail the virus: Free our people,” “Inaction is murder,” and “Release them all!” A sound system played Beyoncé’s song “Freedom,” which helped to give the event a defiant and almost festive air. Reuben Jones, an organizer with the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he thought the action “made a powerful statement. Traffic was locked up, and people were paying attention.”
The action was sponsored by a coalition of groups that have been agitating for prisoners’ rights. They included: Abolitionist Law Center, ACLU, Amistad Law Project, Black Alliance for Peace, Black and Brown Workers Co-op, Black Lives Matter Philly, Decarcerate PA, Frontline Dads, Just Leadership, LILAC, Movement Alliance Project, Philadelphia Bail Fund, Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, #No215Jail Coalition, Reclaim Philadelphia, ShutDownBerks, Social Worker Action Network, Working Educators, and YASP.
Protesters pointed out that a time bomb is ticking within Pennsylvania’s jails and prisons, which is on the verge of exploding with deadly consequences. On April 1, Philadelphia officials announced that 12 inmates in the city’s jails had confirmed cases of COVID-19. Yet, the city has merely lowered the jail population by less than 6 percent since the pandemic began. Philadelphia, the protest organizers stated, lags behind many other cities and states in taking necessary action. On the state level, in the meantime, emphasis has been on putting quarantine measures in place rather than significantly reducing the prison population.
“Without release, thousands may die”
A statement that the organizers sent to the media stated: “Prisons, jails, youth detention centers and immigration centers are already some of the most dangerous places in the world. Sanitary conditions in these facilities are poor in normal times and medical care is extremely limited. Overcrowding makes social distancing extremely difficult. Hand washing is often impossible. Amidst such conditions, the spread of COVID-19 is not only inevitable but potentially lethal. Without immediate release, many thousands more individuals may die, including incarcerated people, staff, lawyers and their loved ones.
“Right now, Philadelphia jails are holding over 4300 people and Pa. state prisons have more than 47,000 individuals locked up. There are 124 youths in Philadelphia’s Juvenile Justice Services Center, a detention facility, and 17 in adult jails. Many other youth are in placements around the state.
“The vast majority of incarcerated people are black and brown. Beyond their original unjust detention, individuals and families of color are now at risk of losing their lives.
“The majority of people in the Philly jails are awaiting trial and presumed innocent. Many are in jail simply because they do not have the money to pay bail, or are being held because of unjust detainer policies. The 20% of people in the jails who are post-conviction are serving sentences with minimums of less than a year. As of 2018, nearly 1900 people of the total state prison population were over the age of 60, and many more are under the age of 60 yet have co-morbidities and compromised health.”
On March 31, Johanna Fernandez, a leading activist in the fight to free political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, relayed a message from Mumia to supporters. Mumia is confined at SCI Mahanoy near Frackville, Pa. Fernandez wrote: “Mumia just called to say that the prison has moved to a more repressive lockdown in response to COVID 19. Guys are in their cells all day, except during a 45 minute period when they are able to be out on the block to do whatever they need to do: (shower, call, kiosk, & mop and clean your cell). 7 to 14 men are allowed out at a time on the block. Designated prisoners wipe down the block between these 45 min periods, during which groups of 7-14 men are allowed out on the block. Food is delivered to the cells.”
“There is no yard.” Mumia told her. “Feels like being back on the [death] row or in the hole.”
Immigrants detained in potential death chambers
The statement by the March 30 protest organizers pointed out: “The Berks County Detention Center in Leesport, Pa.—effectively a prison—is holding 40 migrant adults and children, the youngest a 6-month-old girl. The York County Detention Center houses hundreds more, with 180 detainees currently on hunger strike. Up to 19 [Pennsylvania] counties detain immigrants in cooperation with ICE.”
Mayowa Abayomi Oyedira, an asthmatic asylum seeker from Nigeria who was confined in the York County Prison, wrote in a court affidavit last week: “I cannot sleep. I cannot breathe, and I feel like I am going to die. … Nobody in here can even get me an inhaler. How can they save us from this virus?” Until a federal judge ordered his release on March 31, Oyediran had been placed in a cellblock packed with some 60 other detainees—all sharing a half-dozen rarely cleaned toilets, and sleeping and eating almost shoulder to shoulder.
Although Oyedira and 12 other immigrants with severe underlying medical conditions were freed, ICE is challenging the court order and has resisted calls for similar efforts, arguing that it has the ability to prevent the spread of the disease by quarantining detainees who develop symptoms.
The Philadelphia car-caravan protest coincided with the release of an emergency petition by the Pennsylvania ACLU, on behalf of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. The petition asks the state Supreme Court to use its “King’s Bench” power to protect public health by ordering lower courts to release high-risk inmates from county jail, and those who are being held pretrial or on short sentences for minor offenses. The lawyers argued that it is only a matter of time before a crisis erupts that would be similar to the one taking place at Rikers Island in New York, where at least 167 prisoners and 137 staff members have tested positive for the virus.
Video of the March 30 Philadelphia protest:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15pOHQPX4E72mUsgMk-IfscH7esKp5o33
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COVID-19: Walkouts hit Amazon, Whole Foods & Instacart
en español aquí
During the COVID-19 crisis, many workers are deemed essential. Supply chains are stressed and there are runs on everyday items like toilet paper, paper towels, and cleaning items causing shortages. Sales of some items are at “Black Friday” levels. Retail, health-care, and delivery workers face health hazards on the job with protective equipment like gloves and masks in short supply. In some retail settings, workers have been told not to wear gloves or masks in order to not frighten customers.
While the economy falters, companies cut corners on safety to reap profits while they offer little more than temporary raises or bonuses. Walmart gave full-time associates about $300 and part timers $150. Companies like Target offer small “hazard” raises. It’s ironic that people who were considered unworthy of a $15 hourly minimum wage are now lauded as frontline heroes.
Unlike health-care professionals or cops, retail and supply chain workers are less likely to receive a living wage or benefits. Without health insurance or paid sick leave, these workers are forced to choose between work and the danger of financial ruin. None of these low-wage workers have the resources to merely sit home and wait the pandemic out. Because of increased demands, Amazon and its subsidiary, Whole Foods, plan to hire an additional 100,000 workers to help meet demand.
Job actions
A group of about 100 Amazon workers, out of a workforce of 2500, walked out at a Staten Island warehouse on March 30. The walkout occurred after a worker had tested positive for COVID-19 and strikers demanded that the company clean the facility and test the employees. Amazon worker Chris Smalls was fired by the company after the walkout for supposedly not adhering to “social distancing” protocols and not self-isolating after contact with a coworker who tested positive for the coronavirus.
Appearing on MSNBC, Smalls said, “This pandemic shocked the world, shocked America. The conditions in the warehouse have been hugely different, it’s been scary. It’s like a ghost town in there. Associates are scared to come to work. Ever since the pandemic hit us … I’ve seen associates get sick weekly.” Smalls continued, “Our PPE is very limited … we don’t have masks and the gloves that we have are not latex. They are used for lifting up boxes.” Smalls also pointed to the fact that the hiring process for the 100,000 new workers does not include screening for COVID-19.
The New York State attorney general and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have expressed their intention to investigate the firing of Smalls.
A “sick-out” by Whole Foods workers on March 31 raised demands for increased pay, paid sick leave, testing, and better safety measures. A petition posted by the Whole Foods Workers National Organizing Committee demanded:
- Guaranteed paid leave for all workers who isolate or self-quarantine instead of coming to work.
- Reinstatement of health-care coverage for part-time and seasonal workers.
- Increased FSA funds to cover coronavirus testing and treatment for all team members, including part-time and seasonal.
- Guaranteed hazard pay in the form of double pay during our scheduled hours.
- Implementation of new policies that can facilitate social distancing between workers and customers.
- Commitment to ensuring that all locations have adequate sanitation equipment and procedures in place.
- Immediate shutdown of any location where a worker tests positive for COVID-19. In such an event, all workers should continue to receive full pay until the store can safely reopen.
In early March, Amazon launched an Amazon Relief Fund to extend grants to contract and seasonal workers. They caused a backlash by soliciting public donations to the fund. Last year, it was estimated that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos rakes in $8,961,187 per hour, which is 315 times the annual income of the average full time Amazon employee. In 2017 and 2018, Amazon, which employees 500,000 people, paid zero taxes on $11.2 billion and $5.6 billion respectively.
For months, Amazon workers have been fighting for paid time off through Amazonians United. Workers discovered that although the employee manual allowed for paid vacation days and paid personal days, not all workers were aware of the availability of these days. Amazon workers in various sites have been fighting for water, air conditioning, and breaks for more than a year. Through collective action, workers can win gains on the job.
Instacart shoppers struck on March 30, demanding hand sanitizer and hazard pay. Instacart shoppers are app-based gig workers who have few, if any, protections. They shop for customers and depend in part on tips. The average pay per order is about $10. The company responded to the workers’ demands by promising hand sanitizer in a week and guaranteeing “the default in-app tip amount to whatever a customer had previously tipped.” The company didn’t address hazard pay or paid sick leave.
Wildcat strikes and work stoppages have taken place at Fiat-Chrysler’s Sterling Heights (Mich.) and Windsor (Ont.) assembly plants to demand the plant be shut down. Sanitation workers in Pittsburgh struck for a day to demand safety equipment and measures, Purdue workers at a chicken processing plant similarly walked out to demand safer working conditions. Kroger warehouse workers in Memphis pulled a wildcat action to demand that the facility be cleaned after a worker tested positive, and half of the 6800-person workforce at Bath Iron Works shipyard called in sick for a day to protest working conditions.
Build a fightback
Workers learn their potential power through action. We can’t depend on the politicians of either party or the courts to protect us. If the bosses fire an organizer like Chris Smalls, shut production down until they are rehired! The NLRB and labor law supposedly protect “concerted action” by workers, but laws are words on paper without action to enforce it.
Building a class-struggle movement inside and outside of the unions is an urgent task in this period of crisis. This includes organizing the unemployed to demand relief and emergency measures for unemployment compensation, health care, and a complete moratorium on rents and mortgages and evictions. The unions must act as the defenders of all workers, not just their current members.
Workplace struggles alone are not enough. Workers need their own political instrument. We need a fighting labor party based in the unions and the mass organizations of the oppressed. Working-class political independence is an essential step to advance the interests of the working class and oppressed in the U.S. Both ruling class parties serve the interests of the ruling class.
• Reinstate Chris Smalls now! No retaliation against strikers!
• An immediate raise in the minimum wage to $25/hr! Paid sick leave for all! Safety measures in every workplace!
• Nationalize the health-care system under democratic workers’ control! Health care is a human right, not a privilege!
Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images
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Organizing During Crisis: Building Working Class Power Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
Written by JP Pereira
The Coronavirus pandemic, which emerged on the global stage at the end of 2019, has pushed the economy to the verge of total collapse, spread worldwide panic and confusion, and exacerbated the precarious and nightmarish situation facing working people. At the time of writing, The total number of confirmed cases around the world surpassed 450,000 with over 20,000 deaths.[1] While there is an apparent decline in rates of new infections in Italy, Spain’s death toll has overpassed that of China rising to 3,434 dead.[2] In the US, there are a total of 132,485 cases confirmed, with 2,348 deaths. New York has become the main hotspot in the country with 5% of global cases and 965 recorded deaths. The US is now reporting the most number of confirmed cases in the world. The working class is facing the brunt of this disaster as workers are getting fired, having their wages and hours cut, losing health insurance, and are at risk of being displaced from their homes. Those most impacted are immigrants and low-wage workers of color.[3]
During this public health crisis, corporations are continuing to exploit and endanger the lives of working people, and capitalist governments’ measures have been slow and largely insufficient to deal with this catastrophe. The US ruling class wants to send workers to risk their lives to save their profits. Trump has said we need to bring businesses back up and running by April 30th, and the Lt. Governor of Texas stated that grandparents should step up and risk death to save this economic system.[4] The crisis is also revealing ruptures within the ruling class as NY Governor Cuomo is calling to nationalize production of masks and ventilators, and California Governor Newsom has purchased hotel leases to provide housing for homeless people. There is apparent cooperation between the state and federal governments with the deployment of Navy Hospital Ships in NYC and LA and the construction of temporary field hospitals in the Javits Center in Manhattan, NY and in Riverside and Santa Clara County in California. However, even with these measures, reports are indicating that there will still be a shortage of hospital beds as COVID-19 continues to spread as the US has only 2.8 hospital beds for every 1,000 people, compared to 12.3 beds in South Korea.[5] While there have been small measures to alleviate the pain that workers face and control this catastrophe, including municipal orders to halt evictions in Oakland and Philadelphia, increased COVID-19 testing, increased funding for unemployment, and the $1,200 US per month over two months (maximum) stimulus package for most people across the country, these responses allow for bailouts of megacorporations, and are largely insufficient to meet the needs and challenges of the majority of the population.
Mutual Aid and Beyond
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, governments have enacted lockdown measures, like in Spain and Italy, and others in the US have encouraged non-essential workers to stay home and for people to practice social distancing. These efforts have led to the rapid development of solidarity and mutual aid networks across the globe. To keep spirits up during lockdowns, we have seen solidarity balcony singing across Italy, and balcony applause for healthcare workers in Barcelona. Mutual aid networks have quickly developed across major cities to share online information and resources, as well as to deliver food and supplies to people in need. Unions and labor councils have developed hardship funds for workers left unemployed during the crisis. And, we have seen an increase in online and digital organizing through a flurry of online video meetings, online petitions, political discussion and organizing webinars, and mass union conference calls. These expressions demonstrate that working people are ready to support and express solidarity with one another. However, we must go beyond mutual care and aid to highlight the failures of this system, and outline a long-term vision and socialist program. To bring this about we need a plan for mass collective action, in a safe and responsible way to avoid the spread of panic and COVID-19.
Class Struggle Amidst the Pandemic:
While capitalist governments around the world are forcing workers to rise their lives during this crisis, their insufficient measures that prioritize corporations over people, delayed responses, and disorganized production and manufacturing based on consumerism, and the patchwork of private healthcare services, ensuring the profits of pharmaceutical companies and private hospitals, reveal a deep crisis in the capitalist mode of organizing society. In addition, these responses demonstrate the governments’ commitment to profit at all costs, revealing the ruling class’s craven disregard towards working people.
In the US, while ‘non-essential’ workers are being told to stay at home, frontline workers in the healthcare, service, transportation, and manufacturing sectors continue to go to work and are, therefore, at higher risk of becoming infected. This is especially the case for healthcare workers who are treating COVID-19 patients and are not receiving enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like N95 masks and gloves. University of California Graduate Student Workers, who had been engaged in a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) wildcat strike prior to the COVID-19 pandemic reaching the US, adapted their tactics at UC Berkeley moving to a digital strike online, organizing for a Social Welfare strike (not teaching, but supporting students in need, and having online general assemblies). They were successful in reinstating health benefits for the 82 fired UC Santa Cruz workers. Kaiser healthcare workers in the Bay Area protested outside of Kaiser in Santa Clara demanding PPE. In Los Angeles, ‘Reclaimer’ tenants have taken over a dozen vacant homes on land owned by the California Department of Transportation, to provide housing for homeless residents.[6] In Detroit, bus operators struck for a day and forced the city to increase cleaning and sanitation measures.[7] NYC teachers staged a ‘sick-out’ after Mayor DeBlasio had refused to close public schools. Dockworkers in Oakland have threatened to walk off the job if the Port of Oakland isn’t properly sanitized.[8] Immigrants have declared a hunger strike across 3 ICE detention centers demanding to be released, citing horrendous sanitation conditions.[9] Immigrant advocates in New Jersey demanded that Governor Murphy act immediately to free ICE detainees & reduce jail populations.[10] They staged a solidarity demonstration, honking their car horns in a jail parking lot in visibility of detainees holding signs through windows.[11] Finally, in Georgia, 50 Perdue plant workers walked off the job citing coronavirus concerns.[12]
Internationally, many sectors of the working class are taking industrial action over the crisis. In Italy, which has been the epicenter of the crisis in Europe, auto workers have waged unsanctioned strikes across the country, which was sparked at the Fiat-Chrysler Pomigliano plant in Naples, and quickly spread to other industries across the country. In Uruguay, construction workers struck and mobilized workers to join the strike across this sector. In Argentina, Metalworkers in Tierra del Fuego organized an assembly and decided to walk off their jobs after bosses failed to respond to the crisis. And in Brazil, Almaviva call center workers struck and demonstrated in front of the company’s doors demanding hand sanitizers.[13]
While workers are facing many challenges during this crisis, we have seen that they are taking action and we can all continue to organize. It is important to develop plans to continue organizing online as ‘social distancing’ is increasingly becoming the norm during this crisis. Here are some helpful reminders and suggestions whether you are organizing within a union, caucus, or regional, statewide or national coalitions.
- If your existing organizing body has not gone online yet, you should propose doing so and collectively develop the material infrastructure and support to continue organizing.
- Don’t know how to facilitate a conference call or Zoom webinar? These are now happening all the time from unions, community organizations, and beyond. Find a call that interests you, hop on, take notes, see what works and what doesn’t. Then try it out (maybe start with a couple comrades first!). Don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t go well the first time – you’ll improve by reflecting and making improvements as you go.
- If you feel isolated in your workplace or community organizing, and have no union, caucus, or committee to work through, the first step is to make a list of who will be the potential core organizers to discuss what to do next, and then schedule a Zoom meeting or conference call with them.
- Organizing online is not fundamentally different than in person, we follow the same patient method of base-building: we map out the workplace/community space, and do one on one outreach for people to come to a joint meeting, and with the core of organizers we prepare together the agenda and goals of those meetings. Once we have an organizing space going, everything is a bit easier.
Socialist Emergency Program:
Our strategic goal is to develop a workers’ united front, composed of broad sectors of working class organizations for a plan of action to demand and win emergency measures that meet the needs of the working class. For more information, check out our Socialist Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic in the US.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-live-news-india-lockdown-italy-cases-restrictions-uk-us-outbreak-australia-china-hubei-latest-updates
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-death-toll-in-spain-overtakes-china-as-lockdowns-extend-across-globe
[3] http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/time-to-act-for-workers-critical-state-and-local-policies-to-respond-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR196xeedzve6T_YqvAmU_yx77IDNr1g3FDtEmjVssod7_KfEENOQGEh7R8
[4] https://socialistresurgence.org/2020/03/24/trump-to-seniors-sick-and-disabled-drop-dead/?fbclid=IwAR1BV_X9ZU_Ef5bJtMpNNdXvdpDOKUk7SZkBbpyASDT01rjt8MaDLgTp2-Y
[5] https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/14/21179714/coronavirus-covid-19-hospital-beds-china
[6] https://itsgoingdown.org/a-dozen-vacant-homes-reclaimed-by-unhoused-tenants-in-la-as-calls-for-rent-strike-grow-across-us/?fbclid=IwAR2ggjmwLRZh5PUfBC_1Ybx7xtYCVAAWK7NQZzxBhVYAmYc_lM4ewfewTzA
[7] https://labornotes.org/blogs/2020/03/detroit-bus-drivers-win-protections-against-virus-through-strike?fbclid=IwAR3t6_XBdE72rCj44J8xCSnyaww08Pu0i9VGSPincJ-y5cVUnFrAJTsJMU4
[8] https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Coronavirus-Port-of-Oakland-longshoremen-15147186.php?t=e46fa2ca3d&fbclid=IwAR2eyHj5byh9xXRJUvpWIb3d_nL2bCe2G9ri7OZ_3nMvbKv65-VP4TxbPlQ
[9] https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pkew79/immigrants-are-now-on-hunger-strike-in-3-ice-detention-centers-over-coronavirus-fears?fbclid=IwAR2QWtfpwQnlfdRgb4IHypK9cldiwiXzm9761OKBeT9LBVkbi7z09rAT_uA
[10] https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/advocates-demand-gov-murphy-act-immediately-free-ice-detainees-reduce-jail-populations/?fbclid=IwAR29hP-iOuOhN2TAoD2doOr6IUAHlVKG3WDeVCFu6DTlNyKTpyytTbGbJ2o
[11] https://www.facebook.com/whitstrub/posts/10216324246474569
[12] https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/perdue-employees-walk-out-as-coronavirus-concerns-grow/93-7c7bdcbb-f3ec-439b-b541-9070e758b5cb?fbclid=IwAR3xqLGJr2xPIIVYJRPDXBi6pwbVfDL-aCcxHWl81Z40sqj_GqVPfNPz_z8
[13] https://litci.org/en/workers-fight-two-wars-against-the-coronavirus-and-against-the-bourgeoisie/ -
The future of the corona crisis: Economics and politics
Food bank delivery in New York City. The COVID crisis has greatly worsened the ability of low-wage working-class families to obtain food. (Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech / QNS) By STEVE LEIGH
Steve Leigh is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Network in Seattle.
On March 25, 2020, the Senate passed a stimulus bill of at least 2 trillion in the face of the virus. Some of this makes perfect sense from a capitalist viewpoint—loan guarantees to large corporations and to hospitals to buy needed equipment. The origins of the other parts of it are less clear.
The Senate voted to increase UE compensation and send checks of $1200 to each U.S. citizen. The reason for these in part is to stave off social unrest. Since the crisis broke, there have been some strikes and sickouts demanding closures to protect workers—UAW, teachers in NYC, and a strike by bus drivers in Detroit to demand free bus fare.
With large parts of the economy shut down, the fear of riots and other upheavals were realistic. Something had to be done to prevent this. Other measures were expansion of sick leave at the federal level and local bans on evictions and foreclosures. These went much further than similar measures from 2008 on. This shows that this crisis is likely to be more severe than the Great Recession. It is also even more international.
The Great Recession rolled out more slowly and was less deep than this crisis. The U.S. GDP dropped 4-5% in one year during the Great Recession. Expectations now are that in the second quarter of 2020, GDP could drop 50% and over 10% for the year.
The politics of the concessions to the working class make sense. The economics of it are less clear. Payments to workers who are off work, subsidies from the federal government, etc. will at least in theory stimulate consumption. Though many areas of consumption are closed now, those that are left will be supported. Profit for some of the goods already produced will be realized because of the stimulus. That is, some goods that would otherwise stay on the shelves will be sold.
Whether this temporary stimulus will cause long-term production of even still available goods down the pipeline is less clear. This will depend on demand, but more importantly whether capitalists think they can make a sufficient profit from more production.
The Crisis means that less surplus value is being extracted from the working class, though some sectors will actually increase production (medical equipment manufacturers, grocery stores, etc.). The overall profit rate of U.S. capitalists and capitalists across the world will decline precipitously for the foreseeable future. The profits of the still productive sectors are divided by the full mass of capital including those no longer making a profit.
There is another difference between the current crisis and 2008-9. This time industries are shutting down because of health reasons, not because of declining profitability, at least initially. However, the Corona Crisis came just as economists were predicting a new U.S. and worldwide recession anyway. This means that even after the Crisis is over, the effects of it combined with pre-existing declining profit rates will likely continue the recession/depression caused by the Crisis in the first place.
Revolutionaries must be prepared for a long period of depressed economic conditions.
The overall depression in the extraction of surplus value will stiffen the capitalist resolve to resist more concessions to the working class. It is already having the effect of pushing some capitalist representatives to demand re-opening of the economy—i.e., the return to full surplus value extraction. For now, this is a minority opinion, even if it is shared by the Buffoon in Chief.
As the Crisis continues and morphs into a somewhat more typical economic crisis, the conflict between the inherent drive of capitalism for higher profit and the survival needs of the working class will intensify. Capitalists will be less willing to continue dipping into reserves to maintain the survival of workers. Workers will be compelled by survival to fight back. The capitalist desire to manage potential working-class unrest with concessions will decline as the decline of profit intensifies.
The capitalist economy is based on the drive for profit. When the rate of profit goes down, the desire to invest also declines. Declining investment leads to an overall decline in economic activity. Continued stimulus from the government cannot re-energize the economy absent a revival in the overall profit rate.
This scenario played itself out during the Great Depression. The New Deal regulation of the economy and stimulus stalled in the late ’30s . Only World War II, a life and death struggle for U.S. capitalists, forced them to temporarily reduce their commitment to higher profit. It unified the ruling class and reduced direct competition. This only lasted less than four years. However, it was followed by the rebuilding of a destroyed world. World War II was a colossal clean out of capital. As such, it laid the basis for a new capitalist boom, as expected from Marxist crisis theory.
This history points out a very likely result of the current crisis. Even before the outbreak of Covid 19, international tensions were accelerating. Inter-imperialist rivalry was growing. Though we can never predict the future in detail, the current crisis increases the chances that the world could move toward imperialist war.
This means that the Left needs to integrate its propaganda and organizing in defense of working-class living standards with the fight against imperialist war. As with any antiwar organizing, this must be combined with opposition to racism, which will be used to justify war. Anti-racism will take many fronts, from opposing Islamophobia to defense of immigrant rights to opposition to mass incarceration. The latter will be important both to oppose racism and to protect political organizing. Along with this must come opposition to U.S. economic sanctions against “enemy” nations, another instrument of war.
Finally the whip of war hysteria and the false “we’re all in this together” mantra will impose further intensification of gender and sexual orientation oppression. We already see this with some areas declaring abortion an elective surgery!
The current crisis will place unprecedented demands on the revolutionary Left, and we must be prepared to rise to the occasion!
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Interview: The New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel disaster
Socialist Resurgence: Can you describe for readers what happened on Oct. 12? How did the collapse happen?
Mike Howells: On Saturday, Oct. 12, the under-construction New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel, located on the 1000 block of Canal Street, the city’s main drag, partially collapsed, leaving three workers dead and 30 injured. Anthony Magrette, Quinnyon Wimberly, and Jose Arreola perished in the disaster. The cause of the partial collapse appears to be a decision by the management of the project, Citadel Builders LLC, to have metal supports for the 18th floor removed just three days, Oct. 7, after the pouring of concrete. Industry standards recommend that the supports for the freshly laid concrete of a floor of a building under construction remain in place for three weeks. Two days before the hotel building collapse, a construction worker videotaped footage showing signs of the 18th floor buckling.
The conduct of New Orleans building inspectors assigned with the responsibility of monitoring the Hard Rock Hotel project contributed to the disaster. GPS records show that city building inspectors did not appear at the Hard Rock Hotel construction site in the months leading up to its partial collapse, though official inspection records state otherwise. The ultimate boss of the inspectors is Democratic Mayor Latoya Cantrell. Cantrell’s mayoral election campaign received $70,000 in donations from the businesses behind the Hard Rock Hotel project, the 1031 Canal Street Development LLC. The “appearance” of a conflict of interest regarding the city’s handling of the Hard Rock Hotel project is clear to all who bother to open their eyes.
The firm that was in charge of the actual building of the Hard Rock Hotel, Citadel Construction, has, even in comparison to most competing area construction firms, a miserable track record as an employer. It proudly boasts to potential customers that it uses only non-union labor. This anti-union hiring policy hampers its ability to find the competent skilled labor construction projects needed since many, though not all, of these workers are unionized. The lack of an organized labor presence in the Hard Rock Hotel workplace no doubt made it easier for Citadel supervisors to save money and speed up production by cutting corners on safety measures.
SR: Describe the Committee for Transparency of the Hard Rock Disaster and who is involved. What demands are you raising?
Howells: The Committee for Transparency of the Hard Rock Disaster does remain active in the struggle to secure justice for all victims of the Hard Rock Disaster. It has brought together family members who lost a loved one in the Hard Rock Hotel collapse with local militants and other working-class locals who are outraged at what transpired on 1031 Canal Street, the site of the disaster, and how City Hall has responded to the disaster.
The Committee has been in the forefront of the demand that the New Orleans city council hold public hearings on the Hard Rock Disaster and provide those adversely impacted by it with the opportunity to address the council and mayor in person. The activities of the Committee have included general meetings, educationals, protests, boycott actions, and press conferences. At present the Committee is focusing on taking steps to enable the struggle to effectively adapt to the radically changed conditions for organizing brought by the rise of the COVID-19 epidemic.
SR: What has been the response of the labor movement? How have the building trades responded?
Howells: The Southeast Louisiana Building and Construction Trades Council has intervened on the matter of the Hard Rock Disaster in an on and off fashion, but to little effect. The Building Trades Council, in collaboration with the DSA and several local non-profits, has held a candlelight vigil and, later, a Justice for Hard Rock Workers protest. Recent inactivity on the issue indicates the local AFL-CIO gave up on contributing to the Hard Rock Disaster struggle long before the COVID-19 epidemic took center stage here.
Photo: Scott Threlkeld / NOLA.com
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Lebanon: Lessons from the uprising
Protest in Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, on Oct. 20. (Reuters) By ANDY BARNS
The political uprising in Lebanon is now in its sixth month. Revolutionary processes are never one-and-done deals, and cannot be characterized as singular events that happen and pass. They are organic in the same way their participants are, and like any organism they develop unevenly and gradually, require great struggle to overcome their obstacles, and yes, they can be killed.
Given these facts, it is impossible to say with certainty how the revolt in Lebanon will proceed. That is especially true right now, with increasing cases of COVID-19 in the country and calls by the government forces to halt protests in favor of social isolation. A state of emergency was ordered on March 15.
How the protesters will deal with these questions and how the revolt will survive and reproduce itself under conditions of pandemic, only time will tell. Nonetheless, several lessons can be gleaned from the situation, and parallels between the tactics of the Lebanese and U.S ruling classes can be drawn. We must pay close attention if we want to win the battle for democracy and workers’ rights internationally.
Millions protest in the streets
Here is a brief re-cap of the Lebanese upsurge so far (links to more detailed accounts by direct eyewitnesses will be provided below): The protests were set off by several grievances, in tandem and combined with decades of government corruption and mismanagement. Wildfires were not properly fought by the government, even though the equipment was available [1], and several people died fighting the flames. Power outages, and potential bread shortages were also a problem, met by the Lebanese government with several new taxes—including on, of all things, Facebook and Whatsapp calls. For the Lebanese working class, this highlighted the callousness of their government leaders, and on Oct. 17, mass protests flooded the streets—with a general strike on Oct. 21.
Over the course of the upsurge, at least one in five Lebanese joined the protests, and up to a million people could be in the streets on a given day, in a country of seven million people. Protesters blocked roads, stopped businesses, and targeted banks (who were withholding money from people, unless they wealthy and with key connections) [2].
In previous major uprisings in Lebanon, sectarian chants and divisions implanted by agents of the ruling class were successful in filtering the movements. This movement is different in that most protesters have developed a class perspective and understand that it is about all oppressed layers fighting against the ruling class. No government leader is safe from criticism, and simple government shuffles of personnel do not appease the populace. New attempts to form a working-class leadership, including revolutionary communes and rank-and-file unionism, are small but exist.
But, of course, the forces of counterrevolution are also present. Police brutality is the normal response to proletarian uprising in any country no matter how “free” its rulers advertise it. Lebanese police forces deliberately blinded several protesters. Hundreds were injured in other ways, and many more arrested. Politicians and sectarian groups have attempted to co-op the movement (“we understand you”) or stoke sectarian chants (“Shia! Shia!) [3]. The militias and thugs of sectarian origin have assaulted many activists in an attempt to intimidate the revolutionary process. All in all, these are things that might be expected in a moment of mass upsurge.
Even with the outbreak of the COVID-19 sickness (333 Lebanese infected, six deaths, and 23 recoveries as of March 25), the momentum of the protest movement has been difficult to slow down. March saw the continuance of protests on a host of issues, including the International Woman’s Day march, which continued despite coronavirus fears [4]. What the coming weeks and months hold for the Lebanese revolution is uncertain, but it is clear that the working class in Lebanon is in motion.
Parallels with the situation of U.S. workers
With this background settled, what lessons can be drawn from the mass revolt in Lebanon that can be applied to working-class struggles in the United States? To begin, Lebanese capitalism has often relied on religious sectarianism to divide and conquer the populace. This has been made especially easy with the clientele system, in which “clients” and “patrons,” usually workers and bosses, or tenants and landlords, have a supposedly mutually beneficial relationship based on sectarian grounds, i.e. Shia or Sunni, or even with ethnicity.
Certainly, no such system exists in the United States, but the logic of division still exists. The legacy of the U.S. slave system and Jim Crow has left marks on the culture that are repeatedly used by the capitalist class to divide the people. While the forms of racial oppression have morphed over time (and the struggles against oppression), the basic logic of pitting white and Black workers against each other is ever present. In turn, Trumpism, a political movement reflecting the effects of racism and hard-right politics on the mainstream, has helped to repackage white supremacy under a new cover as a method of deflecting the blame for the economic and social problems of the working class from the capitalist system.
Lebanese workers generally understand, even at this stage of the political process, that all sectarian divides of this nature must be overcome in order for the oppressed to defeat their real enemy in the halls of power. Sectarian leaders and sectarian political parties are having a difficult time. Once the U.S. working class recognizes its common struggle against class oppression (including the vile racisms of the mass incarceration system, unjust policing, and housing discrimination), it will be unstoppable.
It should be kept in mind that the current Lebanese rebellion is not a deus ex machina. The last great uprising in Lebanon occurred in 2015, and that event was far more reformist and liberal. But in order to get to even that point, to say nothing of the current uprising, took many years of patient organizing by committed activists. Moreover, if a successful revolution is to take place, it needs leaders and activists who can educate and explain goals and strategies to their fellow workers, and who can engage at every step of the way in the struggle. For that, a mass-based revolutionary socialist party must be built—a key item that has been lacking so far in the uprising in Lebanon.
Thus, there is no guarantee that a Lebanese revolution will succeed, but if it does, it would be the product of a long struggle and careful preparation [2]. We should expect the same internationally.
Repression and co-optation
Another important lesson to be learned is how the ruling class responds to a potentially revolutionary moment. As in the case of the Lebanese ruling class, they may simply try to co-opt the movement. As already stated, several Lebanese politicians have attempted and failed to take on the demands of the Lebanese movement as their own. They are opportunists who believe that once again the workers of Lebanon will simply be happy with a “better” politician in office. They think that a simple shuffling of persons in a rotten system will trick the workers.
Any person even vaguely familiar with U.S. electoral politics will see a certain parallel in this country, with the political co-optation of social movements by the “Democratic” Party. With a new wave of workers revolt in the form of repeated teachers’ strikes, the GM strike, the Black Lives Matter movement, massive student walkouts over climate change, etc., the ruling class will try its very best to restrict any movement against capital. It is no real surprise that the Democratic Party tries to co-opt the workers’ movement for its own purposes, much in the same way that the Republican Party cynically exploits fears by the middle class and a layer of relatively privileged white workers of social replacement by immigrants or racial minorities. The U.S. working class would do well to follow the Lebanese example and treat these hucksters with the same disdain.
Finally, no revolutionary movement will be left alone to peacefully develop. Lebanon currently shows that activists, campers, and protesters are routinely attacked by the police and sectarian thugs. There is every reason to expect that this same terrorism will be applied against a sustained revolt in the United States. As mentioned, the ruling class likes to stoke racism, and a incipient fascist militia exists in the U.S., brainwashed by racist internet forums and Trumpist allegations that the country is “being overrun by foreigners.” Activists in the U.S., even at this early stage, have been intimidated and attacked by fascists seeking the creation of a “white ethnostate.” Of course, the U.S. ruling class doesn’t care for this “vision”, but the fascists are nonetheless useful tools to impede revolutionary activists.
U.S. police departments also routinely intimidate, murder, and imprison racial minorities and others considered to be on the margins of U.S. society. The 1985 MOVE bombing is one example, wherein the Philadelphia police used a helicopter to drop a bomb on a Black residential neighborhood [5]. Should the U.S. working class stand up, at long last, to its oppressors, we should expect the most heinous violence from the ruling class and its thugs, and be well prepared.
Yet perhaps the most valuable lesson the uprising of the Lebanese masses can teach us is that revolutionary situations are part of a process. For six months now, the Lebanese workers have been in motion. The window of revolutionary change doesn’t even end with the uprisings. Not just decades of prior activism are to be considered, but the aftermath.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 shows us that even when the working class achieves victory and a real workers’ democracy is formed, the road of struggle still carries on. Nor is there any guarantee that democratic rights or personal freedoms will survive after the revolution, as the degeneration of the revolution under Stalin demonstrated. Russia is today ruled by an authoritarian capitalist regime, showing that all progress can be overturned.
Yet, it is also true that despite decades of ruling class impunity and sectarian division, Lebanon still feasts on a huge mass radicalization and political upsurge today! The world is complex, and history is not set in stone but is fluid and contradictory. So don’t make any bets about the triumph of U.S. capitalism or U.S. militarism either. Indeed, all economic exploitation the world over is open to complete destruction by the proletariat if they awake, organize, and build parties with revolutionary programs to take their struggles forward.
Notes:
[0] https://www.lebaneserevolution2019.com/
Timeline and propaganda written from the revolution itself.
[1] https://www.lebaneserevolution2019.com/timeline/day-1
Start of the revolution.
[2] https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/lebanons-october-revolution-must-go-on/
Early account of the revolution.
[3] http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article6417
Translated interview with same activist as above, reprinted by the Forth International.
[4] https://www.lebaneserevolution2019.com/timeline/day-143
IWD march in Lebanon, and other protests.
[5] https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/
Regarding the 1985 MOVE Bombing.
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Only Socialism Can Free Health and Science From the Clutches of Capitalism
The new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues unabated. The UNO declared that the problem could reach “apocalyptic proportions”.1 At the time of writing this, the number of infected and dead on the planet exceeds 439,000 and 19,600, respectively. There are almost 7,000 deaths in Italy and 3,400 in Spain. Regarding the number of infections, the WHO pointed out the possibility for the new epicenter to be the United States, which has more than 55,000 infected and almost 200 deaths.
By: Daniel Sugasti
The dynamics reveal a dramatic picture, with unpredictable prospects in all areas. To get an idea, the last major epidemic outbreak in the world was Ebola, concentrated in West Africa. This highly infectious disease took two years to be “restrained” and caused approximately 11,000 deaths. That is less than COVID-19, which spread three or four months ago.
In severe cases, especially among people over sixty or with pre-existing conditions, COVID-19 causes serious pneumonia requiring urgent hospitalization in intensive care units (ICU), equipped with mechanical ventilators. Among the medical equipment considered basic, this equipment is decisive in dealing with respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus.
The lack of breathing machines in Italian hospitals, in the context of a health system that collapsed in the face of the demand generated by the pandemic, was a central element that led to medical teams having to decide who would or would not have the opportunity to survive. So much so that, in early March, an age limit was set for the admission or non-admission of serious patients to intensive care. Thousands were simply left to their own faith, and among other reasons, this explains the high mortality rate of the new coronavirus in the third economy of the Eurozone.
The Ventilators Business
As in any crisis of capitalism, the world bourgeoisie will try to make the cost be paid by the sweat and death of the proletariat and oppressed sectors. A section of the petit-bourgeoisie and urban middle sectors will certainly also suffer a heavy blow. There will even be factions of the property-owning class that will not get the rates of profit they aspire to. The crisis will increase the polarization, which predates the COVID-19 crisis because it will directly pose the problem of who loses and who wins; who survives and who dies.
That said, it is no less true that a section of the world bourgeoisie will make immense fortunes by speculating in the life and death of millions of human beings.
Not to mention the powerful pharmaceutical industry, led by American companies, which estimates to make a profit of one and a half billion dollars until 2023.2 For these tycoons, there is no crisis.
Due to its important relationship with the coronavirus crisis, we will approach here some aspects of the industry dedicated to the development of technologies and the production of complex medical equipment, such as artificial respirators.
Let’s start with a close example. In Argentina, the main local producer is TECME from Córdoba. The company announced -perhaps rubbing its hands- that it meets the conditions to cover a demand that grew “exponentially”, around 300%, with the coronavirus crisis. The ICU respirators have a market value of between $20,000 and 40,000 dollars, depending on the model. But the average is $25,000. This could provide an estimate of the profits this sector hopes to accumulate. According to Forbes magazine, the businessmen Paolo and his brother Gianfelice Rocca, owners of the Techint group, are the richest men in Argentina, with an estimated fortune of 4.1 billion dollars. If their assets were confiscated and, say, made available to deal with the pandemic, some 164,000 respirators could be purchased. How much could be done to save lives if those resources were made available to meet the urgent needs of the majority of society?
Let’s move on to examples of bigger fish. “As the pandemic spreads, there is an unprecedented demand for medical supplies, especially respirators,” said an executive from GE Healthcare, the health division of General Electric (GE). This is a full-blown multinational. Its factories are operating 24 hours a day. GE Healthcare was responsible for just over 16% of GE’s $121 billion turnovers in 2018. It can be assumed that those profits will grow at fastly from the spread of COVID-19. In this regard, the GE announced on March 24 an agreement with Ford and 3M to increase the production of respirators.3
Another company interested in taking advantage of the business is the Dutch company Philips, which between 2014 and 2018 operated a shift towards the medical equipment market. And it did not do badly: its profits increased by 169%, some 1.1 billion euros.4
The race to produce respirators also led the Swedish manufacturer Getinge and the French manufacturer Air Liquide to increase their assembly line. Dräger, the German medical technology giant, claims to have “doubled” its production. Löwenstein announced that it will guarantee a 6,500 units order placed by the German government, which will be paid for with public money. With a keen “nose for business”, the company had been increasing production since February, when the epidemic in China was at its worst and the global spread was almost a fact.
In the same vein, non-industrial companies are trying to relocate in the face of the pandemic crisis to increase their profits. The powerful automobile industry, which has much of its capacity idle, is struggling to reorient itself to the production of respirators and medical equipment.
It is the case, as we have said, of Ford, General Motors, Tesla, among others, which now have the “green light” from President Trump to manufacture respirators. In Europe, the French automaker PSA said it is studying “very seriously whether it is feasible” to enter this field. Germany’s Volkswagen and Daimler are also looking at options. While the businessmen take time to think, the German Ministry of Economy informed that such decisions can only be made by them: “the companies need to decide on their own”.5 On their side, in battered Italy, Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles are talking to the largest local fan manufacturer about entering that market as well.
Other companies are considering the idea of designing new models and even 3D printing. The Dutch company Ultimaker, for example, offers such printing to produce ventilator valves.
Thus, while thousands of people die daily, a handful of tycoons speculate and profit from the pandemic. The capitalist states, with their governments, are fulfilling their role by offering them all kinds of stimuli, using public money.
The mechanical respirator business, which is only a part of the huge complex of multinational companies that control the production in the health field, shows and will continue to show that, until capitalism is liquidated, the profits of very few will be above the lives of millions.
There will be no intensive care beds or specialized personnel for all severe cases
Besides the respirators’ situation, each ICU bed needs trained personnel to handle them. A representative of the French National Union of Anaesthetists and Rescuers said that the COVID-19 resuscitation protocols require patients to be placed on their stomachs, and “five people are needed to do this”. These professionals, of course, require protective equipment such as masks, goggles, gloves, and disinfectants. These supplies, which are much cheaper than respirators, are in shortage in Europe.
The working class must be aware that as long as the production and supply of respirators and medical supplies essential to deal with the pandemic continue to be in the hands of the private sector, a general shortage is inevitable. For the poorer segments of our class, there will be almost complete lack.
This is because, in capitalism, health is not a human right but a commodity that can only be accessed by those who can pay for it. That is why, at times like this, ending this system of production is a matter of life and death.
In Brazil, South America’s largest economy, there were 106,800 hospital beds available in 2019, including “common” and ICU beds (approximately 60,000), most of them in the wealthier regions in the southeast of the country. According to David Uip – coordinator of the campaign against the coronavirus in the State of São Paulo, the most affected by the pandemic – 90% of these beds are occupied by cases not related to COVID-19. The government of São Paulo itself warns that the peak of infections will occur between April and May: 20% of the population could be infected; that is, 9,200,000 people. But behind the scenes, health authorities are not ruling out that the rate will reach 60%, some 27.2 million people.6
The Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine warned that, in the epicenters of the pandemic, the average demand reached 2.4 ICU beds per 10,000 inhabitants. This represents almost double the average for the Brazilian public sector, on which 80% of the population depends.7 In any case, the conditions for a collapse are served: 60% of Brazilian municipalities do not have respirators in the public health network.8
The outlook gets worse when it is known that, in severe cases of COVID-19, the period of occupation of an ICU bed, with its respective artificial ventilator, can reach 20 days.
This macabre perspective should not be surprising since it is a direct result of decades of neoliberalism and the deliberate dismantling of the Brazilian public health system, the SUS. According to DataSus, in the last decade, there was a 5% reduction in beds.9 Researchers from Oxford University, in a preliminary study, estimated that Brazil could register 478,000 deaths.10 A report by ABIN, Brazil’s intelligence agency, forecasts more than 200,000 infected and 5,500 dead as of April 6, according to The Intercept.11 In the rest of Latin America, the situation should be no different.
According to projections from a Harvard study, between 40 and 70% of the population worldwide will be contaminated: this means between 3.1 and 5.5 billion people.12 Of the total number of people infected, it is predicted that 15% will require hospitalization and nearly 4% will die.
Europe is showing all the inability of imperialist capitalism to deal with the pandemic. In the U.S., a possible new epicenter, the working class, and its most impoverished sectors will pay the consequences of the absence of a public health system. U.S. hospitals have 62,000 mechanical ventilators available and could add another 99,000 that are considered obsolete and are in storage, according to the Society of Critical Care Medicine.13
If that is the reality in the imperialist countries, what can be expected in the peripheral capitalist countries?
According to the 2019 census conducted by the consulting firm Global Health Intelligence (GHI), the basic infrastructure of hospitals in almost all Latin American countries is completely deficient. If we take data on the availability of mechanical respirators, we find, among others, that Mexico has 16,739; Argentina has 5,777; Colombia has 6,293; Chile has 1,737; Bolivia has 750; Guatemala has 528; Panama has 488, and Costa Rica has 298 pieces of equipment. It is not difficult to note that these numbers will not account for a possible demand of 15% of patients from the risk groups defined by the characteristics of the COVID-19. In all cases, we insist, it is assumed that 80% of the beds and ventilators are already occupied for other reasons.14
The case of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, is dire, and COVID-19 may prove to be uncontrollable. Two-thirds of its population survives in subhuman conditions, without food, drinking water or access to soap. Cholera is endemic and in its last outbreak left 10,000 dead. High rates of malnutrition, HIV infection and tuberculosis increase the number of immunosuppressed people. A report by the St. Luke’s Foundation and the Maryland Medical Center in 2018 warned that, with a population of over 10,000,000, only 90 beds were available for intensive care. Of these, only 45 had respiratory support.15
A Socialist Program to Face the COVID-19 Pandemic
There is no effective way out for the working class as long as health care is in the hands of the capitalist class. For the rich, who can be served in the best possible way, the lives of millions of workers do not matter. A Brazilian businessman, the owner of a network of restaurants, had an attack of sincerity a few days ago and stated that Brazil could not stop for “five or seven thousand deaths”.16 This is the logic of capitalists. The important thing is to continue producing, to profit. The rest does not matter, it will not go beyond “collateral damage”. The working class, for the rich, is cannon fodder. As we stated in another text, there is no middle ground: it is either them or us.17
The only realistic and coherent way out for the defense of the lives of millions is the expropriation, without compensation and under workers’ control, of the main levers of the world economy. Amid the pandemic, especially the pharmaceutical industrial complexes and those destined for the production of medical equipment, such as beds, respirators, masks, glasses, gloves, alcohol, and everything necessary to face the virus.
It is urgent to confiscate these industries currently in the hands of a handful of tycoons and put them to work based on a workers’ and socialist economic plan.
Heavy investment in scientific research is imperative, among many other measures. By freeing science and technological development from capitalist pettiness, it will be possible to move more quickly and effectively toward possible alternatives for immunization or new models of respirators that are cheaper and suitable for large-scale production.
In the same way, as we have pointed out in other publications, it is necessary to fight for measures that guarantee effective social isolation for the working class, without job losses or wage reductions.
Translation: Sofia Ballack.
Notes:
[1] See: <http://g1.globo.com/globo-news/globo-news-em-pauta/videos/t/todos-os-videos/v/onu-fala-em-pandemia-de-proporcoes-apocalipticas/8428454/>.
[2] See: <https://guiadafarmacia.com.br/estudo-iqvia-mercado-farmaceutico-global/>.
[3] See: < https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/colunas/painelsa/2020/03/ford-quer-elevar-producao-de-respiradores-com-3m-e-ge.shtml?origin=folha>.
[4] See: <https://exame.abril.com.br/negocios/para-a-philips-inovacao-medica-se-antecipa-a-regulamentacao/>.
[5] See: <https://oglobo.globo.com/economia/coronavirus-alemanha-pede-fabricantes-de-automoveis-que-produzam-equipamentos-medicos-1-24321252>.
[6] See: <https://brasil.elpais.com/politica/2020-03-22/coronavirus-no-brasil-segue-a-curva-de-paises-europeus-e-sao-paulo-preve-ate-9-milhoes-de-infectados.html>.
[7] See: <https://www.poder360.com.br/governo/sus-nao-tem-leitos-de-uti-para-enfrentar-coronavirus-diz-jornal/>.
[8] See: < https://saocarlos.clubefm.com.br/noticias/60-dos-municipios-brasileiros-nao-tem-respiradores-mecanicos>.
[9] See: <https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2020/03/21/queda-no-numero-de-leitos-e-pico-de-internacoes-por-doencas-respiratorias-em-abril-e-maio-sao-desafios-diante-de-coronavirus-em-sp.ghtml>.
[10] See: <https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/coronavirus-estudo-mortos-bolsonaro/>.
[11] See: <https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/coronavirus-abin-projeta-mortes/?fbclid=IwAR2YHpMk_etoJrgl-u4vhZud9oBR39Em7UF5G2istkK8Pu3-Gy5T9Uz0b4Q>.
[12] See: <https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-outbreak-could-hit-3-billion-adults-harvard-expert-2020-3?r=US&IR=T>.
[13] See: < https://www.forbesargentina.com/como-planean-aumentar-su-produccion-los-fabricantes-de-respiradores/>.
[14] See: < https://interferencia.cl/articulos/exclusivo-asi-esta-preparada-america-latina-para-el-covid-19-en-cuanto-infraestructura>.
[15] See: <https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-51984658>.
[16] See: < https://istoe.com.br/dono-do-madero-diz-que-brasil-nao-pode-parar-por-5-ou-7-mil-mortes/>.
[17] See: <https://litci.org/en/covid-19-its-them-or-us/> -
COVID-19: It’s Them or Us
The effects of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic are unraveling important truths that can transform into valuable lessons for the working class and other oppressed sectors. Lessons that, given time and the correct circumstances, should become concrete actions.
By Daniel Sugasti 03/23/2020
“We are all in the same boat”, say the governing leaders and the big capitalist news media. If this is true –because anyone can get infected by the virus– the most appropriate image is not one of a rowing team, but of the Titanic sinking, with life boats only for “the first class”, for the rich and the powerful. Because no country has –or will have– remotely enough ICU beds or respirators for all of the most endangered population.
“We are truly at war”, asserted president Trump on Sunday, March 22nd. Against the spread and lethality of this virus, sure, without a doubt. But the leaders approaching this war (the bourgeoisie) are not confronting the enemy as they should, nor in a direct manner. They do it from the commodity of their mansions and with the certainty that if they do fall ill, they’ll be tended to in the best manner.
Besides the recommendations to reinforce hygiene habits, the only measure that is taking any effect is social distancing, or quarantine. However, this is impossible for the majority of the working class, if it does not come accompanied by other measures that’ll guarantee this effectively.
The “stay at home” or “shelter in place” slogan –that many governments have not yet ordained or did so quietly to avoid diminishing the profits of their bourgeoisie– is not applicable for millions of workers around the world, who are torn by the terrible dilemma of being forced to go to work, risking infection, or starving to death.
As always occurs in class societies, in this double crisis, both sanitary and economic –where one feeds off the other–, the proprietary classes will do anything in their reach so that the losses and the dead, fall on or come from the working class. We have here our first lesson. While it is necessary to take individual precautions and organize to counter the spread of the virus, we must not lose sight of the other ongoing war, parallel to the one imposed by the fight against COVID-19: the conflict against the capitalist system, in all its presentations, that has always proven it does not give a damn about the working class. So the struggle is double: against the virus and against the bourgeoisie [1]. It’s them or us.
We constantly hear about the differences in mortality rates among the different age groups. But not much is said about the relation between mortality and class differences, which apparently has not shown its most lethal facet. The pandemic will affect families and individuals differently, depending on the material conditions of each. It’s not the same to be over sixty and in need of a respirator in an ICU when you’re rich than when you’re poor. It’s true that the virus does not discriminate between social classes. But the capitalist States, with their regimes and governments, do make this distinction when implementing measures that affect us directly.
After China, the epicenter appears to have moved to the European continent, where there are powerful imperialist countries with incredibly superior resources to those of semi-colonial countries. We are witnessing an ascending curve of infections and deaths, especially in Italy and the State of Spain. As we write this, the death toll in these countries surpass 6,000 and 2,200 respectively.
But if we consider the political systemic destruction of public health services of both States, dictated by the neoliberal agenda, it is not hard to understand this horrendous situation. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the ICU beds in Italy were reduced by half in the last 25 years: from 575 places for every 100,000 inhabitants to 275 currently. Something similar has happened in the State of Spain. We know that the public health system has suffered from: repeated cuts to its funding, labor precariousness and increasing privatization, process that took a major leap after the 2008-2009 crisis. This explains, among other elements, how the mortality rate, whose average is generally 3.8%, is 6% in the State of Spain and in Italy it is 9.2%. The new virus infected an economy and a health system that was already “immunocompromised” by the deliberate actions of their capitalist governments.
If this is the situation in parts of Europe, the situation in the United States, the most hegemonic imperialist force, is not any more reassuring. With more than 30,000 infected, it has become the third country with most cases. Until now, 400 people have died. And all the conditions are in place for this sanitary crisis to get worse. The main problem is that there is no public health care system per se in the U.S. More than 27 million people in the country are uninsured, a number that has increased during Trump’s governance. A medical consultation for someone without insurance costs hundreds of dollars. Other tens of millions of people are underinsured, that is, that they have a basic plan that often doesn’t cover even a fraction of the cost of a consultation or treatment. In fact, the working class in the United States, especially undocumented immigrants and the poorest sectors, are more afraid of going to the doctor because of economic repercussions than they are of actually being infected by the coronavirus or having any other illness.
So, if this the reality in imperialist countries, what can we expect in semi-colonial countries like those in Africa or Latin America? Well, specialists are categorical when stating that the consequences would be apocalyptic in Africa. In Latin America, the pandemic has not yet reached the levels of China or Europe, but it is beginning to wreak havoc in a much worse structural scenario than that of European countries: poverty and misery; pure and harsh unemployment; informal or precarious labor; rural misery; overcrowding and terrible housing conditions in the urban cities, when there’s even access to housing, are part of the subcontinent’s reality. The coming months will unveil all the existing and cumulative precariousness over the decades.
The truth is that the coronavirus comes to make matters worse in Latin America and the Caribbean. Of their 629 million inhabitants, 30% are considered poor and 10.7% survive in extreme poverty. In 2014, 70 million people were registered as homeless in the region. These are all data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The countries with the worst rates of homelessness are Honduras (45.6%), Nicaragua (29.5%) and Guatemala (29.1%). In Haiti, 60% of the population is poor and 24% is considered extremely poor ($1.24 a day).
According to the ILO, informal labor in Latin America reached 53%, affecting about 140 million workers in 2018. On the other hand, though owning the major sweet water reserves in the world, about one third of the Latin American and Caribbean population lack access to drinking water. As far as basic sanitation services go, it is estimated that 70% of homes don’t have access to proper fecal sludge management [2]. The countries with the least access to drinking water in Latin America are: Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia [3].
Currently, over 75% of Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s inhabitants reside in urban zones. In fact, it is the second most urban region in the planet. The problem is the degrading housing conditions. According to the IDB, there is about a 6% housing deficit in the region, not to mention that 94% of the «houses» are not of good quality. Just in Brazil, we’re talking about a shortage of 7.78 million houses, according to data from 2017 [4].
Moreover, extreme poverty impedes millions from accessing basic hygiene products such as soap. In the middle of this crisis, this is criminal: how do you prevent infection of COVID-19 and other diseases not only without real possibilities of social distancing, but also having to live in crowded, precarious conditions, with no access to drinking water or soap, without basic sanitation? Isn’t this a death sentence for millions of people?
With a global recession nearing –of which COVID-19 is considered a precursor–, the capitalist governments are not worried with saving lives, rather they’re rushing to save the profits of big businesses and banks. This is a well known recipe: when the 2008-2009 crisis blew up, the U.S. government injected 700 billion dollars of public funding to banks and businesses. The European Union did the same, destining 200 billion euros just to save the banking system, at the cost of condemning millions of workers to unemployment, the cold, evictions, death. Now the IMF predicts a recession that is “as bad or worse” than the one at the brink of 2008.
The question, now, is the same: who will pay for this new recession? This is yet to be seen. It will be defined in the class struggle arena, that may acquire new forms of struggle.
For the moment, ILO estimates that, as a minimum, 25 millions jobs will be lost. In the U.S., the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, informed Congress that he fears unemployment will grow 20%, practically more than double what Trump received when he took over. According to ECLAC, Latin America will suffer a -1.8% contraction of the GDP, that might generate an increase of ten percent in unemployment. Only in Brazil, before the circulation of COVID-19, there were 13 million unemployed.
Latin American governments are following the same lead as Trump and the European Union: saving banks and businesses. In fact, they’re taking advantage of the chaos to deepen their ultraliberal agendas and pressure counter reforms that sell out historic rights won by the working class.
In Brazil, for example, Jair Bolsonaro’s ultra right government not only authorized even more flexible labor laws, authorizing reduced working hours and reduction of salaries by half [5], he even proposed the suspension, plain and simple, of work contracts, without pay for four months [6]. Their minister of economy, the rabid neoliberal Paulo Guedes, announced a first financial package equivalent to 2.2% of the GDP for “the national economy”, that is, to rescue big businesses such as commerce, tourism, aviation, etc. There is even talk of the possibility of a 1.2 trillion Brazilian reales’ aid from the Central Bank, for the financial market. To paint a better picture, in 2008, the Brazilian banks’ rescue consumed 117 billion Brazilian reales. The problem is that 90% of those resources will be repaid by the very own taxpayers, since they don’t provide much more than measly postponements of some payments, certain facilities for obtaining credit, advancement of acquired benefits, etc. Only 0.2% of that amount will be used directly to salvage homes, though always under the form of immediate assistance: the Bolsa Familia program will be amped by 0.1% and another 0.1% will be used to reinforce the public health system. This is in line with the criminal minimization of the health crisis by Bolsonaro, which he qualifies as senseless “hysteria”, that could generate a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Brazil. On another note, the Argentinian minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, announced a series of aids that sum up to 2.2% of the GDP. Of that, 1.63% of the GDP will be destined to public credits, mainly for businesses and other sectors; only 0.6% will be used towards reinforcing public infrastructure and incrementing social assistance [7].
Sebastián Piñera, who faces the revolution in Chile with fire and blood, announced an economic package plan of 11.7 million dollars, that is, 4.7% of the GDP, destining a great amount to save businesses. It’s worth noting that there is no public health system in Chile, since everything has been privatized during the last 40 years of neoliberalism [8].
We’re living uncertain times in all terrains. On March 23rd, the pandemic reached more than 300 thousand cases with 100 thousand new cases just in the four days before. It is possible that, at some point during the next few months, the curve of infection by COVID-19 will begin to flatten. However, the effects of the economic and social crisis will be more profound and long-lasting. In other words, if we don’t stop the governments, this global health crisis will become a humanitarian tragedy that will leave a lot more poor than dead by the new virus.
One last consideration. The crisis unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic shows the complete inability of the capitalist system to face the problems of the immense majority of the world population. The images of Italian military tanks transporting cadavers of people, who may have survived if there had been enough respirators and public resources to tend to them, is, among other things, macabre proof of the bankruptcy of this way of production and social organization.
Capitalism is not only incapable. Capitalism kills. This must be crystal clear in the conscience of workers.
The incapability is such that no small amount of superiority preachers of the “invisible hand” of the “free market” started to beg for aid all of a sudden to the “public treasure chests”. State intervention, for capitalists, must be “minimal” to tend to the needs of the proletariat and the poor, and “maximum” when it comes to reducing the risk of losses to their profits.
The conclusion we can draw from the aforementioned is that only anticapitalist measures can face this pandemic and the possible recession that is coming.
A united front of the whole working class is necessary to have the cost of the crisis paid by its creators, the capitalists. We will not pay the piper.
It is time to demand free testing and effective quarantine to protect the lives of everyone. This means defending our jobs and the conquests of our class. Demanding measures like the ban on layoffs and reduction of salaries; for the State to guarantee salaries by attacking the interests of the businesspeople. We need to fight to guarantee a living wage for informal workers and the self-employed, for those who survive on the highs and lows of each day.
We need to fight to guarantee hygiene products, alcohol, face masks, gloves and everything necessary for the protection of families, especially the poor. To guarantee the essential necessities for the protection of medical personnel, who are at the front line against this pandemic. We need to suspend the charging of basic services (rent, electricity, water, gas, etc.) and taxes for working families.
We need to fight to guarantee free, universal, quality, public health care systems. We need to fight to materialize heavy investment in scientific investigation.
To reach these objectives, that are a matter of life and death for millions, there is no other way out, that doesn’t imply attacking the interests, the profits of the greatest capitalists.
A socialist program involves confiscating and nationalizing all hospitals and pharmaceutical industries in private hands; confiscate and nationalize every laboratory and business that elaborate test kits, respirators and medical equipment in general; confiscate and nationalize hotels, leisure spaces, and any other infrastructure that may serve as attention premises for the sick or shelter for the homeless.
They will say this is impossible, that there is no money. Socialists and the working class will reply that this is a lie.
Expropriating the bourgeoisie, socializing the means of production and reorganizing the world economy in service of the lives and meeting the needs of the immense majority of the population, under the democratic control of the working class, there will be resources a plenty. Like not many times in history, the crossroads between socialism or barbarity is set in a very dramatic manner.
In semi-colonial countries, like those in Latin America, ceasing to pay external debt, is an absolutely indispensable measure to fund an emergency plan to save the lives of the working class, not the banks.
The problem was never a lack of material resources, but at which class’ disposition they’re in.
It is no time for halfway measures. It’s them or us.
Translation by: Anastasia Ransewak
Notes:
[1] See: <https://litci.org/es/menu/especial/coronavirus/para-los-trabajadores-hay-dos-guerras-contra-el-coronavirus-y-contra-la-burguesia/>.
[2] See: <https://blogs.iadb.org/agua/es/coronavirus-dia-mundial-del-agua/>.
[3] See: <https://elpais.com/internacional/2015/05/13/actualidad/1431542093_232345.html>.
[4] See: <https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/estadao-conteudo/2019/01/07/deficit-habitacional-e-recorde-no-pais.htm>.
[5] See: <https://g1.globo.com/economia/noticia/2020/03/18/em-programa-antidesemprego-governo-propoe-reducao-proporcional-de-salarios-e-jornada.ghtml>.
[6] See: <https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2020/03/governo-vai-editar-nova-mp-para-autorizar-corte-de-50-em-salario-e-jornada-de-trabalho.shtml>.
[7] See: <https://www.celag.org/latinoamerica-y-el-covid-19-movilizar-recursos-o-gastar-en-la-gente/>.
[8] See: <https://litci.org/es/menu/mundo/latinoamerica/chile/el-salvataje-a-las-empresas-del-plan-economico-de-pinera-es-una-burla-para-los-trabajadores/>.
