The article begins:
The “solutions” to the coronavirus epidemic being implemented by the capitalist
rulers in the U.S. — and other capitalist governments around the globe — are to
shut down production, slash jobs and tear apart the social fabric for working
people. The rulers are imposing isolation on hundreds of millions and curbing
our political rights.
That is really a bizarre way to begin a very much needed criticism of the
capitalist nations' response to this pandemic because according to all the
scientists and medical specialists, social isolation is the only way to control
the spread of the virus and it is precisely what China did and what was
successful in eventually stamping it out in that country. So the way this
article begins, sounds sort of like Trump.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2020 12:39 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Virus triggers breakdowns, bosses’ attacks on workers
https://themilitant.com/2020/03/21/virus-triggers-breakdowns-bosses-attacks-on-workers/
Virus triggers breakdowns, bosses’ attacks on workers article BY ROY LANDERSEN
Vol. 84/No. 12 March 30, 2020 AP/RAMON ESPINOSA MS Braemar crew members hold
sign, “I love you Cuba,”
after Cuban government let ship dock March 18 with passengers with coronavirus,
after other Caribbean nations denied it entry. figure MS Braemar crew members
hold sign, “I love you Cuba,” after Cuban government let ship dock March 18
with passengers with coronavirus, after other Caribbean nations denied it entry.
AP/RAMON ESPINOSA MS Braemar crew members hold sign, “I love you Cuba,”
after Cuban government let ship dock March 18 with passengers with coronavirus,
after other Caribbean nations denied it entry. figure end The “solutions” to
the coronavirus epidemic being implemented by the capitalist rulers in the U.S.
— and other capitalist governments around the globe — are to shut down
production, slash jobs and tear apart the social fabric for working people. The
rulers are imposing isolation on hundreds of millions and curbing our political
rights.
They have failed to provide the testing, the treatment and the mass production
of medicines that we need to fight to mitigate, and then find a vaccine to
halt, the spread of the new virus and drugs that can cure it. In the face of
this crisis, caused by the bosses’ organization of society around their drive
for profits, the rulers continue to leave working people more than ever on
their own.
No government — with the exception of revolutionary Cuba — has mobilized
resources and organized working people to combat the spread of the virus. None
is producing what is urgently needed, from medical equipment to hospital beds
or fulfilling food and housing needs. Instead, workers and farmers face mass
layoffs and growing shortages as industries and shops, small and large, are
shuttered.
Working people have the capacities to resolve these shortages if we can use our
collective power to force the government to do so, regardless of the capitalist
rulers’ greed for profit.
The woefully inadequate number of hospital beds in the U.S. is a disaster, not
to mention the shortages of respirators, ventilators, test kits and drugs that
can alleviate some of the threats of the virus. Hospitals are running out of
masks, gowns and other equipment essential to protect workers.
All of these closures and shortages have the same cause — the bosses carefully
calculate which facilities generate a large enough profit and get rid of the
rest. Their class’s accumulation of riches takes precedence over the health and
lives of working people.
The New York City government ordered a monthlong closure of the public school
system March 16 that hit over 1 million students. This places the
responsibility for child care, and for two more meals a day, on the backs of
working-class families already facing layoffs and loss of benefits.
Anti-social hoarding and black-market price gouging exacerbate the problems
workers face in finding and affording basic necessities.
With the growing season coming, farmers face greater problems in getting
fertilizer and seed, and can’t get enough workers, with the borders locked down.
In fact, if you open the newspaper or turn on the TV, they’re crammed with ads
for things workers know are impossible, from a trip to Disneyland, a restaurant
to eat out at or job-wanted ads.
Lockdowns restrict political space
In San Francisco, Alameda and five other counties across northern California
authorities have issued “shelter-in-place” orders — threatening to fine or
imprison anyone outside for any reason the authorities deem “nonessential.”
Wanda Vázquez, governor of Puerto Rico, has imposed a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
curfew, enforceable with fines or jail.
There are similar anti-working-class restrictions worldwide. The Ukrainian
government banned gatherings of more than 10 people. Several thousand people
defied the ban March 14, however, to protest President Volodymyr Zelensky’s
decision to discuss concessions with Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern
Ukraine.
“What the Ukrainian government is doing in terms of the national interest is
more dangerous than the virus,” Yulia Kovtun told the New York Times.
And the social crisis unfolding has just begun. The dog-eat-dog competition for
profit by capitalist bosses, protected by their governments, along with the
crisis of the for-profit “health care” system, pose the question of what must
be done.
One key question is whether there is widespread testing for the virus.
The U.S. rulers, like most capitalist governments, were utterly unprepared to
do testing, and today, weeks after the outbreak developed, allow testing only
when someone has symptoms of the disease.
In contrast to the higher mortality rates in the U.S., Italy and elsewhere, so
far it is only 0.8% in South Korea. Testing for the virus there is free for
anyone with symptoms and only those infected with the disease have been
quarantined. Drive-through stations providing test results in hours have
enabled over a quarter of a million people to be tested since January.
Suspected cases are traced and treated.
Working-class road forward
As long as the bosses and their government call the shots, workers need to find
ways to organize and fight for what is needed — government-guaranteed testing;
adequate supplies of medical equipment and care for everyone who needs it;
long-term weekly government-guaranteed pay; and relief for all who need it.
Working people have proven they have the capacity to fight, push back the
bosses and win. Rail workers at Canadian National Railway recently waged an
eight-day strike over safety, work schedules and conditions. Walmart workers in
Miami successfully won a two-year fight for cashiers, who have to stand all
day, to have mats to cushion the concrete floors. In Los Angeles, some Walmart
workers are in a constant fight to retain their newly won right to stools to
sit on. There are many shop-floor battles like these over wages and working
conditions that go unreported today.
We know from history how social struggles like the Black-led civil rights
movement overturned Jim Crow segregation, and how Cuban workers and farmers
overthrew the U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba in 1959,
taking political power into their own hands. It’s no accident that Cuba today
is where the government, the unions and other mass organizations of the people
have been successful in fighting the virus by making sure no one on the island
is left on their own.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson
“God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.”
― Neil DeGrasse Tyson
