Impact on poor and social movements

Europe

Our editorPierre Rousset presents an overview of the crisis in France. We also report on President Macron’s use of emergency powers to force through his unpopular pension cuts. The New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) is calling for resistance with physical distancing.. We also have this translated statement from the SUD labour union

Italy is the European country hardest hit so far. Leopoldo Tartaglia of the international department of the CGIL, Italy’s largest union federation presents ’Class Struggle in the Time of Coronavirus.’ The SI COBAS labour union is calling for widespread action. Antonello Zecca, an organizer with the Sinistra Anticapitalista (Anticapitalist Left) provides an overview of the crisis (22 March), and David Broder reports on the beginings of a strike wave demanding closing down of protection not essential for the population, and adequate protection for all those still working (12 March)

From Spain Dani Ramos reports on strike protest at the Mercedes-Benz factory in Vitoria-Gazteiz. Laia Facet explains how the Socialist Party and Podemos government is handling the crisis. See here for the government’s latest social protection measures.

Britain The government seems to be abandoning its ’mitigation’ strategy of letting the old and sick die , but this has cost valuable time and will cause extra deaths, saysPhil Hearse. The National Health Service was already weakened by years of austerity and the reduced EU migration following Brexit, explains Siva Anandaciva. The crisis also requires nationalisation of empty houses and a new commitment to state housing.

South Asia

India’s lockdown is probably the most anti-poor in the world. Millions of workers are migrating hundreds of km on foot after their livelihoods were destroyed by government decree. Food riots are likely unless social welfare is provided. The Coalition for Environmental Justice is arguing forlimited and people-centred public health, rather than the authoritarian and anti-science fumbling of the Hindu fundamentalist government. Jean Drèze analyses the impact of the lockdownon the poor. Statements have also been issued by People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS)
Pakistan Ammar Ali Jan and Zahid Ali propose a detailed left strategy for fighting the pandemic. The Haqooq-E-Khalq movement is calling for a people-centred response. So is the peasant movement Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee.
Activists in Sri Lanka are calling for release of vulnerable prisoners.

South East Asia

Our in-depth report from the Philippines: identifies the weaknesses in health and social protection, militarisation of society and shameless profiteering crisis as well as the opportunities for grass roots resistance. The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) warns that President Duterte is claiming excessive emergency powers.

Malaysian activists are demanding pro-poor emergency food delivery, social protection and support to micro- and small enterprises.

East Asia

From South Korea, the People’s Health Movement explains the success and limits of Covid-19 containment and the challenges for labour and social movements on the peninsula. (19 March)

China Labour Bulletin explains how women in China bear most of the burden of pandemic response, in emergency services and on the home front.

Americas

Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is a dangerous liability, warn Forrest Hylton activists of the PSOL
There is a strong mobilisation of social movements in Chile writes Javier Pineda of the Convergencia de 2 de Abril.
Barry Sheppard explains why private healthcare and low labour rights have made the USA the new centre of Covid-19 infection. Nurse activists have condemned state and private hospital crisis response. Low wage workers arecentral to protection and supporting all those staying at home, but they are shamefully exposed to risks and lack health insurance. The postal serviceis breaking down. Amazon workers and Transport workers in Detroit are striking for better protection. Communication workers have issued this advice on how to force management to provide protection.

Africa

Activists and researchers from Kenya, South Africa, Burkina Faso and Nigeria and Zimbabwe speak about the impact of Covid-19 on their countries, how governments are using the virus as a cover for wider repression, and the broader context of capitalism, climate change and popular struggles for
South Africa trade unions are demanding pro-people policies - see this statement by SAFTU andthis article by NUMSA President Andrew Chirwa. Community Health Workers are also on the front line.

Middle East & North Africa

No suprise that Israel is discriminating against Palestinians, and dumping suspected Covid-19 carriers at the West Bank border rather than providing care. In Algeria, the pandemic seems to be blocking the weekly hirak protests for justice and democracy.

 How to resist

There are increasing strikes for worker safety and closing down non-essential production. This includes international coordination among call centre workers (see also this declarationof CGT (ES), SUD (FR) and other radical labour unions) and at Amazon in Europe. and in the USA.

In Canada, Gary Kinsman takes inspiration from the strategy and tactics ofAIDS activism.

 In the long term

Cedric Durand and Razmig Keucheyan look at the four interlocking crises: health, economy, ecology, finance. Neil Faulkner (UK) predicts the Tory strategy to use the epidemic to force through unpopular reforms (16 March)

 Understanding the science

Daniel Tanuro summarises the origin and impact of the pandemic and its implications for social movements.

Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj of the Socialist Party Malaysia explains the difference between the ultraliberal ’mitigation strategy’ of letting the old and sick die, as opposed to the costly eradication strategy followed by China, South Korea and some other countries.

 We’re also reading…

Peter Drucker reviews Ashley Bohrer’s Marxism and Intersectionality: “indispensable reading for socialists trying to understand how class, race and gender mesh.”
Steve Smith reviews Greg Benson’s authoritative historical study of Trotskyists and other dissidents in the Chinese communist movement.
Free your mind from disempowering identity politics byrereading feminist manifestos from the 70s and 80s.
A Dutch court has awarded compensation to victims of colonial torturers in Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia and West Papua).
Namibia 30 years after independence: a series of articles commissioned by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (DE)
Teivo Teivainen and Pauli Huotari unpick the prejudices and assumptions in ’western’ thinking about this global crisis.
Ammar Ali Jan identifies theauthoritarian mechanisms that the capitalist elite uses in times of crisis.

 We’re also listening

Across Africa, activists are using music to spread public health messages. Our favourites so far are ’Sensitise the masses to sanitise’ by Ugandan opposition politician Bobi Wine, and ’Shield against Corona’ by Senegalese progressive rappers Y En A Marre.

 From our archives

Swee Kheng Khor identified the negative impact of privatisation of health in South-East Asia in January 2020.
Its worth re-reading these key articles on the Ebola pandemic

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