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How should links react to the coronacrisis?
Translated from Dutch. View the original post
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This article is by: Willem Bos (editor-in-chief of Grenzeloos), Paul Mepschen (anthropologist) and Jan Willem Stutje (historian)
The coronacrisis is a crisis of unprecedented magnitude and with dramatic consequences. It is a global health crisis, a health crisis and a financial and economic crisis. In a world that has long been characterised by a high degree of instability,lack of international leadership,the emergence of #nationalism, #racism and #rechtspopulism andeen zwakke organisatie van de arbeidersklasse,van sociale andlinkse bewegingen.
Internationally, we are only at the beginning of the coronapandemic. After China, the coronavirus has struck mainly in Western Europe, but its spread is rapid and once the infection reaches the refugee camps in the Middle East and South Europe, and the slums in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America (if not yet done), the consequences not to be overlooked. Health care in these countries cannot cope with an explosive increase in contamination, especially in the metropolises with 10 to 20 million inhabitants, where people live close to each other.
The economic effects of this crisis are huge. It is not only about the economic consequences of the pandemic itself, however large they may be, but also about the fact that the pandemic functions as a detonator for a recession/crisis that has been lurking for a long time. With a global increase in inequality and growing impoverishment ahead. The most vulnerable groups are hit the hardest.
It is no coincidence that in recent years new viruses are emerging in ever higher frequency, such as MERS, SARS, H1N1, Zika, Ebola. This has everything to do with neoliberal globalisation, the sick and disease-making system of food production dominated by the agro-industry and the disappearance of natural ecosystems, especially primary forests.
The pharmaceutical industry, dominated by big pharmaceuticals, is focused on making profits and therefore more interested in developing drugs for relatively small groups of patients with high purchasing power than on drugs with a preventive effect against diseases that large groups of poor people hit. Fundamental and independent research at universities has been cut on a large scale, including in the Netherlands. Promising programs have been discontinued. Research on viruses is hardly a priority for the industry as long as there is no outbreak. Long-term planning is necessary — but the market does not provide for that.
The spread of the virus and its development into a pandemic was also possible due to the heavy cuts in the curative and preventive health care and the wave of privatisations of the past decades. As a result, public health care lack sufficient supplies of basic facilities such as intensive care beds, ventilation equipment, test equipment and even mouth caps. Due to the lack of testing in the Netherlands, the rest of Europe and the USA, an approach based on sufficient test data such as in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore was impossible. That has led to further dissemination.
In the event of such a serious crisis, rapid and decisive action by the government is necessary. Through 40 years of savings, privatisation and market operation and arrogant superiority thinking, the government is not sufficiently prepared and equipped for such a crisis. In addition, the government mainly protects vested interests. Support for businesses and industries is given priority over support for the least defensive people: homeless people, refugees, migrant workers, single elderly people, self-employed workers, flexible workers; especially women and people of colour who are in care, cleaning and at home pay for the consequences of the epidemic and the measures taken.
Intervention in crises like this is necessary. A government can be expected to protect the population by promulgating certain regulations and distributing scarce resources. Apart from the fact that the measures taken are selective, they were often too late. This was the case with the closure of schools, with the launching of test programmes and with the measures that enable 'social distance'. However, we must seriously recognise that authoritarian measures can fundamentally change the relationship between citizens and the state in the long term. A crisis of this magnitude is an ideal opportunity to now implement all kinds of measures that cannot be taken under 'normal' circumstances — such as extreme forms of control, security and supervision. This is what Naomi Klein calls shock therapy. It is important to protect society and democratic and social rights. It requires a critical attitude and massive initiatives “from the bottom up” to enable new forms of solidarity, resistance and democratic control.
Coronavirus does not distinguish by skin color. Anyone can get infected by it. How seriously the disease strikes in a person depends on several factors: age as well as social class and individual condition and health. The coronavirus is color-blind, but the society in which the virus strikes is not. The virus affects people of color extremely hard because they are relatively more poor, live in poor conditions, have fewer opportunities to observe distance from others and have less access to health care. In this crisis, we are dealing with the strengthening of racism and xenophobia. The definition of corona as 'a foreign virus' (Trump) and discrimination against and violence against people with an Asian background are expressive of this. For right-wing and post-fascists, such a crisis situation — with the associated fear and frustration among the population — is also an ideal breeding ground for their poisonous ideas about 'we' and 'the other', the need for authoritarian leadership and the closing of borders.
cc photo: Pixabay
Left makes a mistake when she thinks that all of this is going to pass by itself and can hold on to the usual priorities and the usual way of working. The Left must carefully analyse the specific link of this crisis and the DNA of the capitalist system. Both the immediate causes — namely the profit-driven global agro-industry and the role of multinational and agro-industrial enterprises — and the causes of the spread, namely the breakdown of health systems and the role of 'big farma'. Government crisis policy must also be viewed critically. It is clear that the danger of this virus has been underestimated and measures have been too late or too half-hearted and insufficient medical and other capacity has been released.
In the fight against the crisis, the Left must be based on the interests of those affected and the most vulnerable, not on safeguarding the political and economic interests of the rich. It implies the immediate introduction into community institutions of the entire health infrastructure, the socialisation of private clinics, medical supplies and of all facilities and services and personnel that can be further deployed to provide assistance to victims and further prevent the spread of the virus.
For the most vulnerable groups: refugees, homeless people, migrant workers, people with psychiatric problems, people (especially women and children) who are or are threatened with (domestic) violence and vulnerable people from LHBTIQ communities, safe housing should be arranged, for example, in vacant hotels, business premises and other suitable accommodations. House evictions or penalties for rent debt and the closure of facilities for default should be prohibited. Everyone must have free access to all necessary medical facilities, medicines and protective equipment regardless of insurance. For people in captivity, specific measures must be taken to protect their health.
All workers should be provided with adequate protective means and be able to observe the necessary precautions against contamination, as required by the FNV. Any workplace where this is not the case must be closed by the workers themselves, and they will be paid their full wages. The strike of Italian workers in the automobile industry is an example of necessary social struggle in this area. All workers in non-essential production and services should have the right to cease work while maintaining wages.
Anyone who, as a result of the crisis or the measures taken in the context of the crisis, or in part, becomes unemployed or deteriorating in income should be fully compensated in order to maintain purchasing power.. Salaries in vital sectors such as health care and education should be drastically increased. This applies primarily to cleaners, nurses and ambulance staff and other underpaid functions.
Because of the need to keep a distance from each other, all kinds of social cultural institutions and even food banks have to close and people get isolated. We are seeing initiatives to help and support victims of the virus, people in isolation or care workers. By shopping, caring for children, taking over certain tasks or simply keeping in touch. Such initiatives cannot be supported and praised enough. Civil society organisations, trade unions and social movements must work to defend coexistence and support and develop self-organisations in ways consistent with the necessary precautions. Solidarity is our most important weapon in this crisis.
Coronacrisis and climate crisis are similar. The causes lie in an economic system driven by winds and exploitation of labour and nature and a break between economics and ecology. Some measures that should have been taken earlier are being taken, such as limiting air traffic and commuting and canceling money and energy consuming spectacles such as Formula One races. At the same time, many necessary measures that will bring closer the transition to a carbon-free and green economy are not yet being taken.. We must fight for a society in which such measures become planned and structural, so that capitalism does not return to its normal course when the coronacrisis has been carried out.
The coronacrisis is a crisis of unprecedented magnitude and with dramatic consequences. It is a global health crisis, a health crisis and a financial and economic crisis. In a world that has long been characterised by a high degree of instability,lack of international leadership,the emergence of #nationalism, #racism and #rechtspopulism andeen zwakke organisatie van de arbeidersklasse,van sociale andlinkse bewegingen.
Internationally, we are only at the beginning of the coronapandemic. After China, the coronavirus has struck mainly in Western Europe, but its spread is rapid and once the infection reaches the refugee camps in the Middle East and South Europe, and the slums in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America (if not yet done), the consequences not to be overlooked. Health care in these countries cannot cope with an explosive increase in contamination, especially in the metropolises with 10 to 20 million inhabitants, where people live close to each other.
The economic effects of this crisis are huge. It is not only about the economic consequences of the pandemic itself, however large they may be, but also about the fact that the pandemic functions as a detonator for a recession/crisis that has been lurking for a long time. With a global increase in inequality and growing impoverishment ahead. The most vulnerable groups are hit the hardest.
It is no coincidence that in recent years new viruses are emerging in ever higher frequency, such as MERS, SARS, H1N1, Zika, Ebola. This has everything to do with neoliberal globalisation, the sick and disease-making system of food production dominated by the agro-industry and the disappearance of natural ecosystems, especially primary forests.
The pharmaceutical industry, dominated by big pharmaceuticals, is focused on making profits and therefore more interested in developing drugs for relatively small groups of patients with high purchasing power than on drugs with a preventive effect against diseases that large groups of poor people hit. Fundamental and independent research at universities has been cut on a large scale, including in the Netherlands. Promising programs have been discontinued. Research on viruses is hardly a priority for the industry as long as there is no outbreak. Long-term planning is necessary — but the market does not provide for that.
The spread of the virus and its development into a pandemic was also possible due to the heavy cuts in the curative and preventive health care and the wave of privatisations of the past decades. As a result, public health care lack sufficient supplies of basic facilities such as intensive care beds, ventilation equipment, test equipment and even mouth caps. Due to the lack of testing in the Netherlands, the rest of Europe and the USA, an approach based on sufficient test data such as in South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore was impossible. That has led to further dissemination.
In the event of such a serious crisis, rapid and decisive action by the government is necessary. Through 40 years of savings, privatisation and market operation and arrogant superiority thinking, the government is not sufficiently prepared and equipped for such a crisis. In addition, the government mainly protects vested interests. Support for businesses and industries is given priority over support for the least defensive people: homeless people, refugees, migrant workers, single elderly people, self-employed workers, flexible workers; especially women and people of colour who are in care, cleaning and at home pay for the consequences of the epidemic and the measures taken.
Intervention in crises like this is necessary. A government can be expected to protect the population by promulgating certain regulations and distributing scarce resources. Apart from the fact that the measures taken are selective, they were often too late. This was the case with the closure of schools, with the launching of test programmes and with the measures that enable 'social distance'. However, we must seriously recognise that authoritarian measures can fundamentally change the relationship between citizens and the state in the long term. A crisis of this magnitude is an ideal opportunity to now implement all kinds of measures that cannot be taken under 'normal' circumstances — such as extreme forms of control, security and supervision. This is what Naomi Klein calls shock therapy. It is important to protect society and democratic and social rights. It requires a critical attitude and massive initiatives “from the bottom up” to enable new forms of solidarity, resistance and democratic control.
Coronavirus does not distinguish by skin color. Anyone can get infected by it. How seriously the disease strikes in a person depends on several factors: age as well as social class and individual condition and health. The coronavirus is color-blind, but the society in which the virus strikes is not. The virus affects people of color extremely hard because they are relatively more poor, live in poor conditions, have fewer opportunities to observe distance from others and have less access to health care. In this crisis, we are dealing with the strengthening of racism and xenophobia. The definition of corona as 'a foreign virus' (Trump) and discrimination against and violence against people with an Asian background are expressive of this. For right-wing and post-fascists, such a crisis situation — with the associated fear and frustration among the population — is also an ideal breeding ground for their poisonous ideas about 'we' and 'the other', the need for authoritarian leadership and the closing of borders.
cc photo: Pixabay
Left makes a mistake when she thinks that all of this is going to pass by itself and can hold on to the usual priorities and the usual way of working. The Left must carefully analyse the specific link of this crisis and the DNA of the capitalist system. Both the immediate causes — namely the profit-driven global agro-industry and the role of multinational and agro-industrial enterprises — and the causes of the spread, namely the breakdown of health systems and the role of 'big farma'. Government crisis policy must also be viewed critically. It is clear that the danger of this virus has been underestimated and measures have been too late or too half-hearted and insufficient medical and other capacity has been released.
In the fight against the crisis, the Left must be based on the interests of those affected and the most vulnerable, not on safeguarding the political and economic interests of the rich. It implies the immediate introduction into community institutions of the entire health infrastructure, the socialisation of private clinics, medical supplies and of all facilities and services and personnel that can be further deployed to provide assistance to victims and further prevent the spread of the virus.
For the most vulnerable groups: refugees, homeless people, migrant workers, people with psychiatric problems, people (especially women and children) who are or are threatened with (domestic) violence and vulnerable people from LHBTIQ communities, safe housing should be arranged, for example, in vacant hotels, business premises and other suitable accommodations. House evictions or penalties for rent debt and the closure of facilities for default should be prohibited. Everyone must have free access to all necessary medical facilities, medicines and protective equipment regardless of insurance. For people in captivity, specific measures must be taken to protect their health.
All workers should be provided with adequate protective means and be able to observe the necessary precautions against contamination, as required by the FNV. Any workplace where this is not the case must be closed by the workers themselves, and they will be paid their full wages. The strike of Italian workers in the automobile industry is an example of necessary social struggle in this area. All workers in non-essential production and services should have the right to cease work while maintaining wages.
Anyone who, as a result of the crisis or the measures taken in the context of the crisis, or in part, becomes unemployed or deteriorating in income should be fully compensated in order to maintain purchasing power.. Salaries in vital sectors such as health care and education should be drastically increased. This applies primarily to cleaners, nurses and ambulance staff and other underpaid functions.
Because of the need to keep a distance from each other, all kinds of social cultural institutions and even food banks have to close and people get isolated. We are seeing initiatives to help and support victims of the virus, people in isolation or care workers. By shopping, caring for children, taking over certain tasks or simply keeping in touch. Such initiatives cannot be supported and praised enough. Civil society organisations, trade unions and social movements must work to defend coexistence and support and develop self-organisations in ways consistent with the necessary precautions. Solidarity is our most important weapon in this crisis.
Coronacrisis and climate crisis are similar. The causes lie in an economic system driven by winds and exploitation of labour and nature and a break between economics and ecology. Some measures that should have been taken earlier are being taken, such as limiting air traffic and commuting and canceling money and energy consuming spectacles such as Formula One races. At the same time, many necessary measures that will bring closer the transition to a carbon-free and green economy are not yet being taken.. We must fight for a society in which such measures become planned and structural, so that capitalism does not return to its normal course when the coronacrisis has been carried out.
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