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On 3/19/20 1:15 PM, RKOB via Marxism wrote:
We think that the main line of struggle against the COVID-19 epidemic should be a massive expansion of the health care system in order to do mass and free testing, to care about those infected, hospitalize those who need it, etc. Clearly this needs mass pressure, mass actions etc to force the ruling class to do this, to force the capitalists to pay for it, etc.
Look, not everybody is anxious to organize leftist protests. In fact, in the USA, as opposed to Algeria, protests are far and few between. However, unless the city and the state began to intervene to control mass gatherings, the pandemic would spread faster than an Australian brush fire.
Just the other day, the Hasidic sects in Brooklyn ignored the orders against gatherings of more than 50 people. A couple of weddings have resulted in the creation of hot zones that endanger the lives of many people who had not been invited to the wedding. I don't live near any Hasidic sect members in the UES of Manhattan but I am all for crowd control to minimize the threat of people getting sick, including me.
Yes, I know that this hurts worthy causes. I reviewed a film festival last Friday for Counterpunch dedicated to worth causes but it was cancelled the day the article appeared. Yes, it would have been great for a hundred people or so to see a film about Australian aboriginals fighting mining companies but not if it risked them getting sick.
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