I received an email from a member of this list, indicating that the
information in this article is untrue and sending me a link for this book on
Amazon.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2020 1:08 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] AMAZON BANS BOOK EXPOSING US COVID-19 CHAOS
AMAZON BANS BOOK EXPOSING US COVID-19 CHAOS By Sara Flounders, Workers.org.
November 4, 2020 | EDUCATE!
Take Action: The banned book's table of contents and list of authors, along
with four chapters, is available at https://wp.me/p4Yme1-404. Readers are
urged to break the ban on "Capitalism on a Ventilator" by sharing the link
and your short reviews widely on social media. Maintain pressure against
Amazon banning books with a left perspective by tweeting the Washington Post
@JeffBezos.
A decision by the Amazon company to block a book focused on a scientific and
cooperative approach to COVID-19 amounts to corporate information control
operating at a new intensity. This censorship occurs while almost every form
of U.S. media permits and promotes racist, unscientific and thoroughly
confusing information.
The censored book is "Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in
China & the U.S." This anthology of 55 articles by a broad range of social
justice authors discuss the importance of free health care, social
distancing, testing, protective equipment, education and social
mobilizations during the pandemic.
The book highlights the differences in policy and state organization toward
a virus that has so far caused fewer than 5,000 deaths in China, but more
than 225,000 deaths in the U.S. The book also shows the glaring lack of
social support infrastructure in the U.S. in contrast to U.S. trillions
spent on elaborate military, police and prison infrastructure, both at home
and worldwide.
"Capitalism on a Ventilator" is unique in challenging the sharp rise in
racist attacks on Asian people in the U.S. during the pandemic that flow
from government, business and media hostility to China. Its commentaries
expose the attacks on China by both Democratic and Republican parties
through their endorsing and imposing sanctions, military operations, trade
wars, and cancelations of cultural and academic exchanges.
Censorship By Monopoly Control
On Sept. 24, World View Forum, a small educational not-for-profit publishing
company, received this message from Amazon:
"We're contacting you regarding the following book(s): Capitalism on a
Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China & the U.S. by Sara Flounders
(AUTHOR); Carlos Martinez (AUTHOR); Monica Moorehead (AUTHOR); Kevin Zeese
(AUTHOR); Ajamu Baraka (AUTHOR); Deirdre Griswold (AUTHOR); Mumia Abu Jamal
(AUTHOR); Vijay Prashad (AUTHOR); Margaret Kimberley (AUTHOR); Lee Siu Hin
(AUTHOR). Due to the rapidly changing nature of information around
coronavirus, we are referring customers to official sources for advice about
the prevention or treatment of the virus. Amazon reserves the right to
determine what content we offer according to our content guidelines. Your
book does not comply with our guidelines. As a result, we are not offering
your book for sale. To have your book reconsidered for publication, please
update your book details (i.e., your title, cover image, and/or product
description) and resubmit."
World View Forum immediately tried to reverse Amazon's decision and provided
layers of authentication of information. But there is no appeal or even a
complaint process to Amazon decisions. The company's emails are sent from a
no-reply address.
Amazon trumpets that it has the widest range of book titles, ease of
placement, best order fulfillment and lack of censorship. As the world's
largest online book seller, Amazon claims that it resists calls to censor or
otherwise restrict books, and that for it to pull a book is exceedingly
rare.
The company has been more than willing to make a profit by selling white
supremacist propaganda and wild conspiracy theories that the COVID virus is
human-made. During the pandemic Amazon has listed products that are
dangerous quack cures for the virus.
But a book that discusses how socialist countries have had great success in
controlling the deadly COVID-19 virus through cooperation, free healthcare
and public education - that book has information that capitalist giant
Amazon has decided must be censored.
Amazon Allows COVID Hoax Book
Right-wing media darling Alex Berenson self-published "Unreported Truths
about COVID-19 and Lockdowns" with Amazon in June 2020. Berenson is
notorious for denouncing masks, quarantine measures and school closings, and
for claiming the count of deaths and infections in the U.S. is a hoax and
massive overcount. He appears regularly on far right media, including
Breitbart, Fox News and The American Conservative.
When Amazon sent Berenson a stop-publication message similar to that sent to
left publisher World View Forum, Berenson simply turned to a powerful
billionaire friend - Elon Musk, the fourth-richest man in the U.S., who has
made more than $48 billion in profit during the pandemic. Demanding Amazon
publish Berenson, Musk publicly threatened and pressured Amazon's
billionaire owner Jeff Bezos through the public venue of the Washington Post
- which Bezos also owns.
The result? Amazon immediately backed off from its decision to pull
Berenson's COVID-hoax book.
Why? Because both Bezos and Musk are capitalist powers who have a vested
interest in keeping their businesses running at top speed during the
pandemic, even if this costs many lives. So promoting a book that spouts
non-scientific theories that COVID is a hoax and that there is no need for
protective equipment, social distancing, testing of workers or shut down of
businesses is also in their economic interest.
Musk, with his multi-billion-dollar Tesla auto advancing down production
lines, has shared tweets like "Coronavirus panic is dumb" and "It's the
lockdown, not the virus, that causes the problems."
Bezos also has his multi-billion-dollar reason to allow COVID hoax
publications: to keep Amazon's global distribution system of warehouses
operating at full capacity during the pandemic. With Walmart first, Amazon
is the second-largest employer in the U.S., with 1.5 million workers.
On Oct. 1 Amazon admitted that 19,816 of its workers had tested positive or
been "presumed positive" for COVID. But its production lines roll on.
As for Berenson's right-wing COVID book, the Bezos-owned Washington Post
gave full coverage to the Bezos-owned Amazon reversal and highlighted the
agreement to print and distribute the book.
Capitalist Hostility To China
Controlling the narrative on responsibility for this global pandemic is a
high priority for the entire U.S. ruling class.
On the surface the two U.S. imperialist political parties appear to have
sharp differences in response to the pandemic. But they are united in
promoting hostility to China.
Nevertheless, the stunning difference in results between the U.S. and China
in response to COVID-19 - and the pandemic's impact on the two very
different economies - has been impossible to ignore.
The corporate media response is to suppress any mention of the positive
impact that China's free health care, guaranteed income during quarantine,
coherent national planning and deep community participation has had on
pandemic illness and mortality rates.
Instead, the only explanation given by big business media for the sharp
difference is that China is "authoritarian," "heavy handed" and
"dictatorial," and that the population is "resentful and repressed."
The New York Times summarized this hostile approach in an Oct. 31 article:
"Authoritarian Strategy: Effective, but Suffocating." This lengthy
"analysis" failed to mention a basic fact: that at this time, China's
COVID-19 deaths are under 5,000, compared to U.S. deaths of over 225,000.
And the U.S. has only one-fourth the population of China!
Other Censorship Of Left Communication
Amazon is not the only corporate media monopoly censoring left-leaning news
and organizing. Google and other major search engines have reset their
algorithms to filter and restrict almost all alternative and socialist news
sites. With search traffic rerouted away from these sites, this drastically
reduces the number of views by more than 50%. Google claims that this is to
combat "fake news."
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are stepping up their blocking of
antiracist organizing and anti-imperialist solidarity. This is done by their
equating posts by violent white supremist organizations and neo-Nazi
militias with antiracist, anti-capitalist organizing.
In the current censorship sweep, YouTube has directly intervened to block a
webinar featuring a Palestinian leader, Leila Khaled. Thousands of Twitter
and Instagram accounts have been disabled and hash tags eliminated.
Shutdowns have impacted It's Going Down, CrimethInc and the PNW Youth
Liberation Front in Portland, Ore.
Plans by the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly for a Peoples Mandate were
shut down on Facebook, along with the accounts of connected organizations
and accounts of the administrators of the Facebook sites. This in turn
impacted a Cuba Solidarity Conference as well as a SanctionsKill Facebook
account that was threatened with shutdown for posting news of the impacted
Cuba Conference.
A mobilized pushback forced Facebook to step back from this sweeping attack.
Fighting Amazon's Ban On Scientific Truth The publication of "Capitalism on
a Ventilator" was organized by the anti-imperialist International Action
Center, in collaboration with the China-U.S. Solidarity Committee. These
organizations and the authors have affirmed their determination to get the
book published as part of the ongoing political struggle against the virus
and for socialism.
