date:20200318

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No, these were workers at Summit Hospital. I think United Healthcare
Workers - part of SEIU - although I've heard similar complaints about UPTE,
as I have about ALL the unions (including my former one).

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 3:49 PM Jeffrey Masko 
wrote:

> Would that have been UPTE folks by chance?
>
> On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 2:51 PM John Reimann via Marxism <
> marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:
>
>>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
>> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
>> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
>> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
>> *
>>
>> I just got back from getting a chest x-ray (for something totally
>> unrelated
>> to the coronavirus). All the workers there are in the union. I got to
>> asking several of them how things are going, what's up with the union,
>> etc.
>> They had not seen hide nor hair of any union rep. They didn't seem to
>> think
>> the x-ray office would be closed, but if it is, they have no idea if they
>> will continue to be paid. They all commented on the $1000 they heard they
>> will be getting, as if it is in the bag, and as if it will save their
>> bacon
>> if they are laid off. I got the impression that they're seeing this bundle
>> of cash like an extra payday, period. I asked how far they think $1000
>> will
>> go in paying the rent of house note, and they all were silent. I pointed
>> out the billions that Trump is planning to give the big corporations, and
>> they had nothing to say about that.
>>
>> In the end, I was talking with the x-ray tech about all this. His final
>> words were, "well, they (the employers) sign our pay check." "Yeah, and we
>> do the work," was my reply. He kind of chuckled and muttered "that's
>> true",
>> but it was clear he'd never looked at it like that before.
>>
>> In general, the union is the furthest thing from their mind, exactly
>> because of the absence of the union for many years.
>>
>>
>> John Reimann
>>
>> --
>> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
>> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
>> Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
>> _
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>
>
> --
>
> J.A. Masko
>
> "The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without
> becoming disillusioned."
>
>Antonio Gramsci.
>


-- 
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[Marxism] [UCE] If neoliberalism is crumbling, what will follow? « Systemic Disorder


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By Pete Dolack

https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2020/03/18/what-follows-neoliberalism/

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Re: [Marxism] What some hospital workers are saying

2020-03-18 Thread Jeffrey Masko via Marxism

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Would that have been UPTE folks by chance?

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 2:51 PM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> *
>
> I just got back from getting a chest x-ray (for something totally unrelated
> to the coronavirus). All the workers there are in the union. I got to
> asking several of them how things are going, what's up with the union, etc.
> They had not seen hide nor hair of any union rep. They didn't seem to think
> the x-ray office would be closed, but if it is, they have no idea if they
> will continue to be paid. They all commented on the $1000 they heard they
> will be getting, as if it is in the bag, and as if it will save their bacon
> if they are laid off. I got the impression that they're seeing this bundle
> of cash like an extra payday, period. I asked how far they think $1000 will
> go in paying the rent of house note, and they all were silent. I pointed
> out the billions that Trump is planning to give the big corporations, and
> they had nothing to say about that.
>
> In the end, I was talking with the x-ray tech about all this. His final
> words were, "well, they (the employers) sign our pay check." "Yeah, and we
> do the work," was my reply. He kind of chuckled and muttered "that's true",
> but it was clear he'd never looked at it like that before.
>
> In general, the union is the furthest thing from their mind, exactly
> because of the absence of the union for many years.
>
>
> John Reimann
>
> --
> *“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
> Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
> Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
> _
> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
> Set your options at:
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>


-- 

J.A. Masko

"The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without
becoming disillusioned."

   Antonio Gramsci.
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Re: [Marxism] Marxism Digest, Vol 197, Issue 37

2020-03-18 Thread hari kumar via Marxism

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"personal distancing plus social solidarity"
Re Michael:
I suggested some of the medical counsel in my prior link (
http://ml-today.com/2020/03/17/how-should-marxists-view-the-covid-19-pandemic-of-2019-2020/
).
I am not an infectious diseases expert, but as an academic researcher in
the newborn ICU - I think I have interpreted the data accurately.
I think the three key points you are missing are:
1) The infectivity - or transmissibility of COVID-19 is very high. It is
termed the Ro factor, and it is in table 1 - drawn from the work of Dr
Chen.
2) The equation that I think - you still seem to be making - is between the
various varieties of 'flu' and the COVID-19. They are *not* equatable.
Largely because: of the higher death rate; but perhaps even more
importantly is the absence of so-called 'herd immunity'; and the absence of
a vaccine, which is admittedly only amiable to those who are 'covered' in
the US system or how take up state programmes such as in Germany, or
even... the 'austerity-ridden' NIHS-UK.
3) The issue of Italy not deriving benefit from quarantine is - I believe
misunderstood. That is because they waited a long time. But in the end had
they not acted, the death rate would have been *even* higher. (There were
indications I understand, that the North of Italy might have been aware of
a large unique epicentre).
The exemplar on quarantining, for instance are likely, Taiwan, Singapore
and South Korea - all did impose a form of quarantining (S.Korea was quite
relatively easy as the epicenter was localised around that Church); but
crucially coupled with a mass diagnostic testing.

Defending the health care systems I agree is very important. I made the
point that the effects of the so-called 'austerity cuts' in some of the
European countries (including Italy) - is dramatic. In other countries
where no universal health care systems have been present (USA) - the
negative effects will be even greater. The USA is compounded by being worse
than Italy in being slow and with no wide-spread diagnostics testing.
I think *after* this epidemic - there will be moments form the bourgeoisie
themselves to have better health care systems (a la Engels' 'Angel of death
quote'); and the workers will mobile more to demand restoration of the
austerity cuts at minimum - in the so-called welfare states.

You raise a good point about Chile. I guess there are two things:
1) In particular countries, there may be different decisions.
2) Even the radicals and militants will be mowed down by this
non-discriminator epidemic.

I guess I agree with a lot of Mark's comments here.
Anyway, stay safe all. Especially the older... that includes me as wells
you Louis.

Hari Kumar
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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible

2020-03-18 Thread Tristan Sloughter via Marxism

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> I do trust science.  I trust doctors on epidemics . . . the same way I
> trust environmentalists on the climate.  Why would we not?  Most of us know
> enough to understand whether these things make sense or not.

This ^. 

Not only that, but we have comrades working in medical services. If we are able 
to flatten the curve and in the coming weeks or months so the health care 
system isn't stressed to a breaking point we should rely on those comrades to 
discuss appropriate measures for if/how mass actions can be handled.

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[Marxism] Ten Free Ebooks from Haymarket Books


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https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/112-ten-free-ebooks-from-haymarket-books

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[Marxism] What some hospital workers are saying

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I just got back from getting a chest x-ray (for something totally unrelated
to the coronavirus). All the workers there are in the union. I got to
asking several of them how things are going, what's up with the union, etc.
They had not seen hide nor hair of any union rep. They didn't seem to think
the x-ray office would be closed, but if it is, they have no idea if they
will continue to be paid. They all commented on the $1000 they heard they
will be getting, as if it is in the bag, and as if it will save their bacon
if they are laid off. I got the impression that they're seeing this bundle
of cash like an extra payday, period. I asked how far they think $1000 will
go in paying the rent of house note, and they all were silent. I pointed
out the billions that Trump is planning to give the big corporations, and
they had nothing to say about that.

In the end, I was talking with the x-ray tech about all this. His final
words were, "well, they (the employers) sign our pay check." "Yeah, and we
do the work," was my reply. He kind of chuckled and muttered "that's true",
but it was clear he'd never looked at it like that before.

In general, the union is the furthest thing from their mind, exactly
because of the absence of the union for many years.


John Reimann

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible

2020-03-18 Thread Tristan Sloughter via Marxism

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> Anyway, I can not imagine how the health care system should improve 
> without mass protests?! Online petitions are usually not particularly 
> successful on such issues.

At this time mass street protests ultimately means further overwhelming the 
hospital system more than it is already going to be, causing more death and 
despair.

There have already been cases of strikes in Spain, and we may see similar in 
the US with workers not being properly protected and refusing to work until 
they are. We must extend solidarity to those workers without making the 
situation worse.

Exacerbating a public health crisis is not going to help build a mass worker 
movement.

Tristan

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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible

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I didn't suggest online petitions and, no, I don't suggest that we start
trusting the capitalist state.

I do trust science.  I trust doctors on epidemics . . . the same way I
trust environmentalists on the climate.  Why would we not?  Most of us know
enough to understand whether these things make sense or not.

And here's the thing about conspiracies.  When there actually are
conspiracies (and sometimes when there aren't), somebody starts blowing the
whistle on it.  No group of serious scientists say that global warming is
anything other than real.  It's no less real when its discussed on the
bourgeois media or by members of the bourgeois state.

Too, no group of serious medical professionals are saying that these
precautions against the pandemic are excessive. Considering that these
precautions are also playing merry hell with the economy, it's a fair bet
that the capitalists aren't playing with some new means to annoy us.

The point is that here--or in Italy or in Spain--these restrictions are
being imposed as temporary measures.  Are there dangers?  There are always
dangers when you deal with these people, so we should stay cautious and
watch their every move.

I suspect, for example, that there's going to be a serious effort to
normalize some of what they've slipped into education--particularly the
shift to online routines.  When this is behind us, there will be major
efforts to impose these more generally, and this will have to be fought.

But how and where we can best fight them should depend on where we can best
mobilize and deploy our forces.

Cheers,
Mark L.
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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible

2020-03-18 Thread Ralph Johansen via Marxism


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Chris Slee wrote

Are there any alternative forms of struggle?

Not necessarily an alternative but a possible example would be the photo 
depicted online yesterday of voters arranging themselves at an 
appropriate distance in the open air outside a precinct so that they 
were unlikely to expose each other even to an airborne virus. With 
adequate advice and monitoring in a mass protest, why not?



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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible

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May be I am too suspicious but my impression is that the capitalists are 
using now the COVID-19 crisis to sack hundreds of thousands if not 
millions of people and to cut wages. At least this is what has is 
happening just now in Europe. I don't believe the US capitalists are 
better. How do you want to fights against this under the conditions of 
mass lock down?

And, again I might be too suspicious, but all the reports about the 
massive expansion of the survaillance and police state might be also 
difficult to stop without mass protests.

Obviously people from risk groups might prefer not to participate in 
such street protests in such times. But shall all people now refrain 
from fighting for their rights?!

And for how long shall we let work the capitalist state without 
interference from the people? Or do you think we Marxists have been too 
critical about the capitalist state in the past and this time, at the 
COVID-19 crisis, we should trust it and accept that it takes much more 
powers than it did until now? I don't think so.

Anyway, I can not imagine how the health care system should improve 
without mass protests?! Online petitions are usually not particularly 
successful on such issues.

Am 18.03.2020 um 20:54 schrieb Mark Lause:
Sorry, I thought my reference to the election made it clear that I was 
generally talking about the United States. Howver the warnings about 
concentrations of large numbers of people remains valid under these 
conditions.

Simply because the capitalist media may say that the sky is blue 
doesn't mean that it's pink with Orange polka dots.

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 3:20 PM RKOB via Marxism 
mailto:marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu>> wrote:

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I do not agree with you in 2 points:

1) there has been indeed a global wave of mass protests since
mid-2019
not seen since many decades. This has been even recognized by a
recently
published study of a bourgeois think-tank. We have reported about
this
in an article

(https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/confirmation-of-revolutionary-character-of-historic-period/)

The current counter-revolutionary offensive using the COVID-19
crisis as
cover is a strike against this global wave of popular uprisings.

2) Mass lock down of millions of people and suppressing democratic
rights like demonstrating and assembling helps the ruling class,
not the
oppressed. It also does not help in itself to contain the COVID-19
pandemic. Look to Italy where you have a lock down and people die.
South
Korea has mass testing, free healt care and and a good health carse
system. This why it managed the crisis without mass lock down.

Trusting the capitalist state and its propaganda is never a good
guide!

Am 18.03.2020 um 12:37 schrieb Mark Lause via Marxism:
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> *
>
> I apologize if I'm repeating points already made in the
discussion but it's
> important that they "take" . . . .
>
> It is the nature of epidemics like this that people who don't
have symptoms
> spread the disease, and this is much worse than other examples
because the
> symptoms seem to hit people differently.  A large number of
people are said
> to have already had it and shaken it off in a few days, while it
can be
> fatal for a significant minority of those who get it. Gathering
in large
> numbers spreads the virus quicker.  Not doing this is to avoid
crashing the
> resources of an ill-prepared health care system, including the
people
> needed to run it.
>
> Beyond these obvious medical realities, this pandemic is not
only slamming
> us, but it's starting to pull down their economy, bit by bit,
and I heard
> one of the talking heads on the idiot box are discussing the
possibility of
> coming out of this with an unemployment rate of 20% (and they're
thinking
> in government figures).

Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible

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Sorry, I thought my reference to the election made it clear that I was
generally talking about the United States. Howver the warnings about
concentrations of large numbers of people remains valid under these
conditions.

Simply because the capitalist media may say that the sky is blue doesn't
mean that it's pink with Orange polka dots.

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 3:20 PM RKOB via Marxism 
wrote:

>   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> *
>
> I do not agree with you in 2 points:
>
> 1) there has been indeed a global wave of mass protests since mid-2019
> not seen since many decades. This has been even recognized by a recently
> published study of a bourgeois think-tank. We have reported about this
> in an article
> (
> https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/confirmation-of-revolutionary-character-of-historic-period/)
>
> The current counter-revolutionary offensive using the COVID-19 crisis as
> cover is a strike against this global wave of popular uprisings.
>
> 2) Mass lock down of millions of people and suppressing democratic
> rights like demonstrating and assembling helps the ruling class, not the
> oppressed. It also does not help in itself to contain the COVID-19
> pandemic. Look to Italy where you have a lock down and people die. South
> Korea has mass testing, free healt care and and a good health carse
> system. This why it managed the crisis without mass lock down.
>
> Trusting the capitalist state and its propaganda is never a good guide!
>
> Am 18.03.2020 um 12:37 schrieb Mark Lause via Marxism:
> >   POSTING RULES & NOTES  
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> > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
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> > *
> >
> > I apologize if I'm repeating points already made in the discussion but
> it's
> > important that they "take" . . . .
> >
> > It is the nature of epidemics like this that people who don't have
> symptoms
> > spread the disease, and this is much worse than other examples because
> the
> > symptoms seem to hit people differently.  A large number of people are
> said
> > to have already had it and shaken it off in a few days, while it can be
> > fatal for a significant minority of those who get it.  Gathering in large
> > numbers spreads the virus quicker.  Not doing this is to avoid crashing
> the
> > resources of an ill-prepared health care system, including the people
> > needed to run it.
> >
> > Beyond these obvious medical realities, this pandemic is not only
> slamming
> > us, but it's starting to pull down their economy, bit by bit, and I heard
> > one of the talking heads on the idiot box are discussing the possibility
> of
> > coming out of this with an unemployment rate of 20% (and they're thinking
> > in government figures).
> >
> > When I look out on the absence of mass demonstrations in the streets
> today,
> > it looks precisely like the absence of mass demonstrations in the streets
> > before the pandemic hit.  There are other reasons we don't have large
> > numbers in the street than the distancing brought on by the pandemic.
> >
> > Building a movement is part of a process.  Take this time of isolation to
> > read a book and discuss it online.  And/or hold online classes.  Make and
> > retain contacts for the future.  There's much productive to be done in
> the
> > here and now that will be useful in the future, particularly with a work
> > force that will be wiser, angrier, and hopefully more ready to take to
> the
> > streets..
> >
> > What will not be useful at this point is getting those willing to gather
> in
> > large groups disproportionately infected or putting them in a position to
> > get their family, friends and coworkers sick.
> >
> > Solidarity,
> > Mark L.
> > _
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[Marxism] Chile´s Pinera declares 90-day state of catastrophe over coronavirus outbreak


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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-chile/chiles-pinera-declares-90-day-state-of-catastrophe-over-coronavirus-outbreak-idUSKBN2152D9 



"The move is likely to stamp out any remaining protests over inequality 
after they were reignited in early March following several turbulent 
months of demonstrations and riots in late 2019. Chilean politicians 
earlier this week began discussions to postpone a referendum on a new 
constitution scheduled for April 26. A new magna carta was a central 
demand of widespread social protests, but those have faded with the 
pandemic."


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[Marxism] Special Report: How Korea trounced U.S. in race to test people for coronavirus


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An interesting albeit long article by Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-testing-specialrep/special-report-how-korea-trounced-u-s-in-race-to-test-people-for-coronavirus-idUSKBN2153BW 



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Re: [Marxism] Rethinking Voting for Democrats

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 I do confess to having one single ounce of sympathy for people making this
point.  Calls to deny votes to the class enemy are not impressive coming
from people who are not bending every effort to provide the workers with an
alternative.

In Lenin's day, there was a Socialist Party running someone like Debs, even
if he was behind bars.  Americans on this list should ask themselves why
there is no united socialist effort when it comes to elections here.

Solidarity,
Mark L.
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Re: [Marxism] Rethinking Voting for Democrats

2020-03-18 Thread Ralph Johansen via Marxism


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Walter Daum wrote

Really what? That’s a neat little article by Lenin, concisely dissecting 
the U.S. bourgeois parties of his day. It doesn’t say anything about 
tactically voting for one of them to stop the other, but I assume he was 
against, as was Debs. He doesn’t suggest that the Dems were a lesser 
evil than the Repubs, or vice versa. Lenin had equally strong 
denunciations of the bourgeois parties of his own country, Russia, and 
there, under specific circumstances, he advocated a defensive vote for 
Cadet candidates to stop the Black Hundreds from taking office. So 
where’s the principle of *never* voting for a bourgeois candidate?--


The principle of *never* voting for a bourgeois candidate may be beside 
the point.


What of the people who called and knocked on doors and posted signs and 
generally busted ass and spent much enthusiasm in support of Bernie - 
whatever the intent or effect? What if in substantial numbers they 
decide that, if Biden doesn't buy the program that they worked so hard 
for, he doesn't buy their votes either? What if they they decide that 
Biden is part of the problem, another messenger boy fronting for the 
implacable enemy. And voting for the lesser evil has invariably left us 
further from our goal of working class emancipation. Are they going to 
somehow listen up and follow your advice, and put defeat of Trump up 
front as you advocate (or is it just this tiny choir of ex-Trots that 
you address)?


So long as the preponderance who vote are not buying into even a mild 
reform program in their interests and are timorous about the 
consequences, who apparently comprise in their numbers older, 
self-indulgent, pro-military, xenophobic members of the middle class in 
the US (the 20% that follows on after the 1% because they still 
visualize the benefits to them of the power of US capital - and who vote 
in line with that interest) how then do we bring about change? By, in 
our ineffectual numbers, joining them?


CBS conducted an exit poll after one of the recent primaries, in which 
one of the questions asked was would you prefer a candidate who a) 
reflects the policies of Obama, b) is more liberal, c) is more 
conservative? The reported answers were a) 49%, b) 37%, and c) 14%. And 
that's just the Democrats.



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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible

I do not agree with you in 2 points:

1) there has been indeed a global wave of mass protests since mid-2019
not seen since many decades. This has been even recognized by a recently
published study of a bourgeois think-tank. We have reported about this
in an article
(https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/confirmation-of-revolutionary-character-of-historic-period/)
The current counter-revolutionary offensive using the COVID-19 crisis as
cover is a strike against this global wave of popular uprisings.

2) Mass lock down of millions of people and suppressing democratic
rights like demonstrating and assembling helps the ruling class, not the
oppressed. It also does not help in itself to contain the COVID-19
pandemic. Look to Italy where you have a lock down and people die. South
Korea has mass testing, free healt care and and a good health carse
system. This why it managed the crisis without mass lock down.

Trusting the capitalist state and its propaganda is never a good guide!

Am 18.03.2020 um 12:37 schrieb Mark Lause via Marxism:

I apologize if I'm repeating points already made in the discussion but it's
important that they "take" . . . .

It is the nature of epidemics like this that people who don't have symptoms
spread the disease, and this is much worse than other examples because the
symptoms seem to hit people differently. A large number of people are said
to have already had it and shaken it off in a few days, while it can be
fatal for a significant minority of those who get it. Gathering in large
numbers spreads the virus quicker. Not doing this is to avoid crashing the
resources of an ill-prepared health care system, including the people
needed to run it.

Beyond these obvious medical realities, this pandemic is not only slamming
us, but it's starting to pull down their economy, bit by bit, and I heard
one of the talking heads on the idiot box are discussing the possibility of
coming out of this with an unemployment rate of 20% (and they're thinking
in government figures).

When I look out on the absence of mass demonstrations in the streets today,
it looks precisely like the absence of mass demonstrations in the streets
before the pandemic hit. There are other reasons we don't have large
numbers in the street than the distancing brought on by the pandemic.

Building a movement is part of a process. Take this time of isolation to
read a book and discuss it online. And/or hold online classes. Make and
retain contacts for the future. There's much productive to be done in the
here and now that will be useful in the future, particularly with a work
force that will be wiser, angrier, and hopefully more ready to take to the
streets..

What will not be useful at this point is getting those willing to gather in
large groups disproportionately infected or putting them in a position to
get their family, friends and coworkers sick.

Solidarity,
Mark L.
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[Marxism] Re] "personal distancing plus social solidarity"

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From what i understand, what makes this virus somewhat unique is that a
carrier is contagious  even during the incubation period, in other words
before the person shows any symptoms. Plus the virus seems to attach very
easily. Thats what causes the exceedingly rapid spread and is why large
crowds are very unadvisable.
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[Marxism] Covid-19 pandemic: let’s protect our lives not their profits!

2020-03-18 Thread Ken Hiebert via Marxism

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http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article6457 



One error crept into the translation, 2nd last paragraph.
I expect
“...by opposing peasant agro-ecology and agro-forestry…” should be “…by 
imposing peasant agro-ecology…"
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[Marxism] Will the dollar collapse?

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Usually, inflation happens when there is more of a currency chasing around
after relatively fewer goods. That's been happening for years here in the
US as the statistics in this article show. However, the international role
of US capitalism and of the dollar has propped it up. With the power of US
capitalism declining on the world scale, that can't continue forever.
Strange changes in the prices of stocks, bonds and gold indicate that this
could possibly be the tipping point. Possibly. Does the example of Matt
Colvin represent the immediate future for US capitalism?

https://oaklandsocialist.com/2020/03/18/will-the-dollar-collapse/

John Reimann
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[Marxism] Who Gets Forgotten in a Pandemic


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The Nation, March 18, 2020
Who Gets Forgotten in a Pandemic
The only certainty is that rich countries and rich classes will focus on 
saving themselves to the exclusion of international solidarity and 
medical aid.

By Mike Davis

COVID-19 is finally the monster at the door. Researchers are working 
night and day to characterize the outbreak but they are faced with three 
huge challenges. First the continuing shortage or unavailability of test 
kits has vanquished all hope of containment. Moreover it is preventing 
accurate estimates of key parameters such as reproduction rate, size of 
infected population and number of benign infections. The result is a 
chaos of numbers.


There is, however, more reliable data on the virus’s impact on certain 
groups in a few countries. It is very scary. The ‘corona flu’ that Trump 
waves off is an unprecedented danger to geriatric populations, with a 
potential death toll in the millions.


Second, like annual influenzas, this virus is mutating as it courses 
through populations with different age compositions and acquired 
immunities. The variety that Americans are most likely to get is already 
slightly different from that of the original outbreak in Wuhan. Further 
mutation could be trivial or could alter the current distribution of 
virulence which ascends with age, with babies and small children showing 
scant risk of serious infection while octogenarians face mortal danger 
from viral pneumonia.


Third, even if the virus remains stable and little mutated, its impact 
on under-65 age cohorts can differ radically in poor countries and 
amongst high poverty groups. Consider the global experience of the 
Spanish flu in 1918-19 which is estimated to have killed 1 to 2 per cent 
of humanity. In contrast to the corona virus, it was most deadly to 
young adults and this has often been explained as a result of their 
relatively stronger immune systems which overreacted to infection by 
unleashing deadly ‘cytokine storms’ against lung cells. The original 
H1N1 notoriously found a favored niche in army camps and battlefield 
trenches where it scythed down young soldiers down by the tens of 
thousands. The collapse of the great German spring offensive of 1918, 
and thus the outcome of the war, has been attributed to the fact that 
the Allies, in contrast to their enemy, could replenish their sick 
armies with newly arrived American troops.


It is rarely appreciated, however, that fully 60 per cent of global 
mortality occurred in western India where grain exports to Britain and 
brutal requisitioning practices coincided with a major drought. 
Resultant food shortages drove millions of poor people to the edge of 
starvation. They became victims of a sinister synergy between 
malnutrition, which suppressed their immune response to infection, and 
rampant bacterial and viral pneumonia. In another case, British-occupied 
Iran, several years of drought, cholera, and food shortages, followed by 
a widespread malaria outbreak, preconditioned the death of estimated 
fifth of the population.


This history—especially the unknown consequences of interactions with 
malnutrition and existing infections—should warn us that COVID-19 might 
take a different and more deadly path in the slums of Africa and South 
Asia.  The danger to the global poor has been almost totally ignored by 
journalists and Western governments. The only published piece that I’ve 
seen claims that because the urban population of West Africa is the 
world’s youngest, the pandemic should have only a mild impact.  In light 
of the 1918 experience, this is a foolish extrapolation. No one knows 
what will happen over the coming weeks in Lagos, Nairobi, Karachi, or 
Kolkata. The only certainty is that rich countries and rich classes will 
focus on saving themselves to the exclusion of international solidarity 
and medical aid. Walls not vaccines: could there be a more evil template 
for the future?


Ayear from now we may look back in admiration at China’s success in 
containing the pandemic but in horror at the USA’s failure. (I’m making 
the heroic assumption that China’s declaration of rapidly declining 
transmission is more or less accurate.) The inability of our 
institutions to keep Pandora’s Box closed, of course, is hardly a 
surprise.  Since 2000 we’ve repeatedly seen breakdowns in frontline 
healthcare.


The 2018 flu season, for instance, overwhelmed hospitals across the 
country, exposing the shocking shortage of hospital beds after twenty 
years of profit-driven cutbacks of in-patient capacity (the industry’s 
version of just-in-time inventory management).   Private and charity 
hospital

[Marxism] Syria: Shaky ceasefire in Idlib (Green Left)

2020-03-18 Thread Chris Slee via Marxism

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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/syria-shaky-ceasefire-idlib

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[Marxism] The Socialist Specter in Present-Day US Politics - CounterPunch.org


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By Victor Wallis.

The dominant tendency in US political rhetoric is to view socialism not 
as the dissolution of capitalist class-relations, but rather as an 
expansion of the scope of government. A favorite strategy of those – 
like Bernie Sanders – whose proposals are attacked as being socialist is 
to respond by denouncing billionaires as benefiting, via government 
subsidies, from so-called “corporate socialism” or “socialism for the rich.”


Socialism is thus equated with government subsidies rather than with an 
alternative vision of society. While the privately owned banks and 
corporations are attacked for their hypocrisy and their special 
advantages, there is no assertion that such icons of capitalist power 
should cease to exist.


Similarly, the target of attack, in Sanders’ rhetoric, is not the 
capitalist class but rather the “billionaire class.” Capitalism as such 
escapes the blame.


https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/18/the-socialist-specter-in-present-day-us-politics/

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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity" Re: Fwd: [pen-l] If we want everyone to stay home during a coronavirus crisis, we need deep change to make that possible