Re: [Marxism] Democracies’ Covid-19 cures could be worse than the disease

[RKOB via Marxism]

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You are welcome!

However, as far as I know you also have political differences with the 
bourgeois government of South Korea. While you agree with their 
abolition of mass gatherings, you critizise their failure to lockdown 
people as Xi, Macron and Sanchez are doing. I would prefer if you 
critizise the Korean government from the left and not from the right!


By the way: While I am writing these lines, a comrade from UK sent me an 
article from "The Times" reflecting the drastic developments of 
militarization in the imperialist metropolises which are going on under 
the pretext of fighting COVID-19.


"Police will have the power to detain and quarantine people for up to 
six weeks under new emergency laws designed to stop the spread of 
coronavirus." 
(https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-can-quarantine-you-for-six-weeks-under-emergency-laws-nzgcdtxgb) 



If people would not loose their mind in the current athmosphere of 
panic, they could recognize the political counter-revolution which is 
taking place right now under the pretext of fighting COVID-19. That 
would help them to OPPOSE this counter-revolution instead of belitteling 
or even justifying it!


Am 19.03.2020 um 18:54 schrieb Louis Proyect via Marxism:

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On 3/19/20 1:45 PM, RKOB via Marxism wrote:


https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/democracies-covid-19-cures-could-be-worse-than-the-disease/ 





Thanks for posting an article that makes my case: "While mass 
gatherings are halted and museums, schools and universities are 
closed..."


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Re: [Marxism] Italian & German mortality rates

[RKOB via Marxism]

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This is very true. One of our comrades with medical background drew 
attention to this in a recently published article:


https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/no-most-likely-it-is-not-covid-19-that-is-going-to-kill-you/

Bloomberg reports: "More than 99 per cent of Italy’s coronavirus 
fatalities were people who suffered from previous medical conditions, 
according to a study by the country’s national health authority." 
(https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3075851/coronavirus-italy-says-99-people-who-died-had-other-illnesses) 




Am 20.03.2020 um 03:08 schrieb Chris Slee via Marxism:

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An article by Sarah Newey in the Telegraph cites several factors, including 
high rates of air pollution in northern Italy, high rates of smoking, and the 
high proportion of old people (Italy has the second oldest population in the 
world, and 87 percent of deaths are patients over 70 years old).

Staffing levels in hospitals are inadequate.

But there is also an issue in recording the cause of death.  In Italy all who 
die in hospital with the virus are assumed to be dying as a result of the 
virus, though most of them also have at least one other disease.

Chris Slee

From: Marxism  on behalf of John Reimann via 
Marxism 
Sent: Friday, 20 March 2020 10:56:34 AM
To: Chris Slee 
Cc: John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com>
Subject: [Marxism] Italian & German mortality rates

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I was just checking the latest mortality statistics. According to the site
below, the mortality rate of those counted is a massive 8.3% in Italy,
while it's a minuscule 0.28% in Germany. Presumably a large part of that
difference is due to Italy having missed thousands of cases, thus having
reduced the total number. But that massive of a difference? Does anybody
have any idea how to explain it?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR2kuIKZC6pBYubhUdS_M-Rsp3OOwZ9b0mHCzgLD-dTr64gAhBMR-vI34ss#countries

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Re: [Marxism] The White, Male Deaths of Despair | by Helen Epstein | The New York Review of Books

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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Why Americans Are Dying from Despair
by Atul Gawande
New Yorker, March 16, 2020
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/23/why-americans-are-dying-from-despair


On Sat, Mar 7, 2020 at 11:02 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

>
> Reviews of:
>
> Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
> by Anne Case and Angus Deaton
> Princeton University Press, 312 pp., $27.95
>
> We’re Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of America
> by Jennifer M. Silva
> Oxford University Press, 206 pp., $24.95
>
>
> https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/03/26/left-behind-life-expectancy-crisis/
>
>
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Re: [Marxism] religious responsibility "personal distancing plus social solidarity"

[Marla Vijaya kumar via Marxism]

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There is no dearth of fanatics in India, claiming that the solution to all 
problems can be found in the Holy Vedas. There is a steep spike 
in stupidity, what with the Hindu fanatics holding power. One Hindu fanatic 
organisation declared that drinking the urine of holy cows
 is an antidote against COVID19 virus. Another group went further and advised 
people to take bath in water mixed with Holy cow dung 
to disinfect themselves. A function was organised in Kolkata and people were 
served Holy urine of the sacred cow. One person fell 
seriously ill and the organiser was promptly arrested. All temples, Churches 
and Masjids in India are locked up to prevent spread of 
infection. One group declared that KOVID Virus is the viscous bite of the Kala 
Sarpa (the eternal serpent) and have started a yajna
(fire worship) to drive away the holy serpent.
Long Live stupidity!!

Vijaya Kumar Marla
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Re: [Marxism] Italian & German mortality rates

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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An article by Sarah Newey in the Telegraph cites several factors, including 
high rates of air pollution in northern Italy, high rates of smoking, and the 
high proportion of old people (Italy has the second oldest population in the 
world, and 87 percent of deaths are patients over 70 years old).

Staffing levels in hospitals are inadequate.

But there is also an issue in recording the cause of death.  In Italy all who 
die in hospital with the virus are assumed to be dying as a result of the 
virus, though most of them also have at least one other disease.

Chris Slee

From: Marxism  on behalf of John Reimann 
via Marxism 
Sent: Friday, 20 March 2020 10:56:34 AM
To: Chris Slee 
Cc: John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com>
Subject: [Marxism] Italian & German mortality rates

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I was just checking the latest mortality statistics. According to the site
below, the mortality rate of those counted is a massive 8.3% in Italy,
while it's a minuscule 0.28% in Germany. Presumably a large part of that
difference is due to Italy having missed thousands of cases, thus having
reduced the total number. But that massive of a difference? Does anybody
have any idea how to explain it?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR2kuIKZC6pBYubhUdS_M-Rsp3OOwZ9b0mHCzgLD-dTr64gAhBMR-vI34ss#countries

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Re: [Marxism] Italian & German mortality rates

[Tristan Sloughter via Marxism]

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A major issue in Italy is the overwhelming of the health care system and 
doctors having to choose who to give required care to.

Did Germany start testing and social distancing early to keep the number of 
cases to be under the available resources in the hospitals?

Tristan

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[Marxism] The Prospect of Death Concentrates the Mind Wonderfully to Socialism | manuelgarciajr

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://manuelgarciajr.com/2020/03/20/the-prospect-of-death-concentrates-the-mind-wonderfully-to-socialism/

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Re: [Marxism] Fw: Cuba & the Coronavirus (Green Left)

[Doug via Marxism]

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Interesting.
Have a look here: HavanaTimes.org
doug

On Thu, 19 Mar 2020 at 23:17, Chris Slee via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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> *
>
>
>
> https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/cuba-shows-lead-solidarity-amid-covid-19-crisis
>
>
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[Marxism] Italian & German mortality rates

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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I was just checking the latest mortality statistics. According to the site
below, the mortality rate of those counted is a massive 8.3% in Italy,
while it's a minuscule 0.28% in Germany. Presumably a large part of that
difference is due to Italy having missed thousands of cases, thus having
reduced the total number. But that massive of a difference? Does anybody
have any idea how to explain it?

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR2kuIKZC6pBYubhUdS_M-Rsp3OOwZ9b0mHCzgLD-dTr64gAhBMR-vI34ss#countries

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[Marxism] Coronavirus Capitalism

[Dayne Goodwin via Marxism]

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Coronavirus Capitalism
Naomi Klein
The Intercept, March 16
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/16/coronavirus-capitalism/

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[Marxism] on Agamben

[Gary MacLennan via Marxism]

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The word everyone is avoiding is "stupid"

comradely

Gary
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[Marxism] Fw: Cuba & the Coronavirus (Green Left)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/cuba-shows-lead-solidarity-amid-covid-19-crisis


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[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Acevedo-Field on Farriss, 'Tongues of Fire: Language and Evangelization in Colonial Mexico'

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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-- Forwarded message -
From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 2:06 PM
Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Acevedo-Field on Farriss, 'Tongues of
Fire: Language and Evangelization in Colonial Mexico'
To: 
Cc: H-Net Staff 


Nancy Farriss.  Tongues of Fire: Language and Evangelization in
Colonial Mexico.  New York  Oxford University Press, 2018.  432 pp.
$99.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-088410-9.

Reviewed by Rafaela Acevedo-Field (University of Montana Western)
Published on H-LatAm (March, 2020)
Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz

The book _Tongues of Fire: Language and Evangelization in Colonial
Mexico_ by historian Nancy Farriss is a truly interdisciplinary work
by a single author who delves into the archival record armed with
language and linguistic understanding most historians can only aspire
to have as well as a theologically informed understanding of the
evangelization process in early colonial Mexico.[1] The book is at
times deeply historical and at times deeply linguistic. Some chapters
focus on profoundly historiographical debates by engaging with the
likes of the classic history monographs in colonial Mexican
historiography, such as Robert Ricard's _La conquista espiritual de
México_ (1966), while other chapters delve into technical
linguistics concepts, such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and
semantics. The book examines the process of evangelization in the
period after the conquest of Mexico in 1521 through the lens of
language contact. The author provides a detailed exploration of the
intertwined histories of language contact and evangelization in
central Mexico and Oaxaca. Farriss focuses on the region of colonial
Oaxaca where the languages, mostly from the Zapotec language family,
have not been studied with as much depth as the Nahua-speaking
regions in the areas of central Mexico. The majority of the book
examines the first two generations of the indigenous populations
after the conquest in the sixteenth century. Consequently, the focus
also falls on the first two generations of the regular clergy, mostly
of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, who carried out most of the
early evangelization. Throughout the book, the author interprets key
sixteenth-century Zapotec-language texts used for evangelization,
particularly those by Dominicans Juan de Córdova and Pedro de Feria.
She compares them with parallel Nahua- and Mixtec-language texts that
other historians have interpreted. As for methodology, Farriss uses
not only traditional historical text analysis and interpretation but
also the often technical analytical tools of linguistics, making this
a truly interdisciplinary work.

Ethnohistorians have studied most of the processes associated with
language learning, evangelization, and indoctrination examined in
this book in central Mexico's Nahua-speaking regions. The
contribution of this work is to examine the history of language
contact and evangelization in the lesser-studied Zapotec-speaking
region of colonial Oaxaca. This gap is partly explained by the
linguistic differences between the Nahua and Zapotec language groups.
Farriss's contribution begins with her description of the complexity
involved in learning to speak and read Zapotec and other related
languages spoken in the Oaxacan area. Not only are these languages
much more complicated to learn for speakers of Latinate-based
languages, in part because they are tonal--meaning that tone carries
meaning--but the area of Oaxaca was also relatively peripheral
compared to Nahua-speaking regions, which were so central to Spanish
colonization.

The book is organized chronologically mapping the process of language
contact and evangelization in the sixteenth century. It revisits how
that process took place in the Nahua-speaking region and then
explains how it occurred later in Oaxaca. It is divided into four
parts with two to three chapters each and a concluding chapter adding
up to eleven chapters. Each section explores part of the long and
arduous intertwined processes of language contact and evangelization:
"Language Contact and Language Policy," "Evangelization in the
Vernacular," "The Means and the Message," "Lost and Found in
Translation," and a concluding section titled "Doctrinal Legacies."

Part 1, "Language Contact and Language Policy," consists of three
chapters in which Farriss describes some of the early attempts at
communication and evangelization in the central Nahua-speaking areas
through rudimentary methods of gestures, words, and pictographs. This
section highlights the lack of cross-cultural understanding on the
part of early Spanish missionaries including the Franciscans,
Dominicans, 

Re: [Marxism] religious responsibility "personal distancing plus social solidarity"

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Mar 19, 2020, at 6:04 PM, John Obrien via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> I encourage all right wing religious fanatics to gather together inside their 
> churches and temples
> to spread their love to each other and hope the virus brings them to their 
> god much sooner!
> 
> They want to be in their paradise - and I share that view that they should.
> 
> Very revealing that the religious hypcrites are in fear of this virus - they 
> do not trust their god
> and do not want to be with their god sooner.
> 
> They want their consumer goods instead of their god - just shameeful lack of 
> faith!

I appreciate the sentiment here, but this only really works if they stay there. 
Once they disperse, they become another set of vectors. 

And yes, I know you know that.
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Re: [Marxism] Italian Philosopher writes in Il Manifesto against the lock down and state of emergency policy

[MM via Marxism]

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> On Mar 19, 2020, at 12:58 PM, Jeffrey Masko via Marxism 
>  wrote:
> 
> From the comments below the article:
> 
> "I have deep respect for philosophers, and the ideas expressed here have
> been known for a long time: how people in power use the fear to dominate
> masses. However, as facts have demonstrated since this was published in feb
> 26, Mr Agamben couldn’t be more wrong in this case. Intellectuals sometimes
> are taken away by their intelligence, to the point that they fail to see
> reality in front of their noses. hope this gentleman will publish another
> article soon acknowledging that what he calls a simple flu is killing (and
> will kill many more) thousands of human beings around the world."
> 
> Well put.

Couldn’t agree more. MP’s apparently firm resolve to find a way to disregard or 
minimize the significance of epidemiological realities is disconcerting to say 
the least, and at this point is doing more damage to his credibility than 
anything else, in my view.

The fact that ruling class forces will attempt to use an epidemiological crisis 
to consolidate and extend their power in no way reduces the danger that an 
aggressive and potentially fatal virus poses on its own to working people. 
Infectious diseases don’t give a fuck about the balance of class forces, and we 
have to work out strategy and tactics on that basis of that reality.
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[Marxism] [UCE] 3330. The Coronavirus Pandemic as the Crisis of Civilization

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://forhumanliberation.blogspot.com/2020/03/3330-coronavirus-pandemic-as-crisis-of.html

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[Marxism] religious responsibility "personal distancing plus social solidarity"

[John Obrien via Marxism]

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I encourage all right wing religious fanatics to gather together inside their 
churches and temples
to spread their love to each other and hope the virus brings them to their god 
much sooner!

They want to be in their paradise - and I share that view that they should.

Very revealing that the religious hypcrites are in fear of this virus - they do 
not trust their god
and do not want to be with their god sooner.

They want their consumer goods instead of their god - just shameeful lack of 
faith!



*

We can always ask the Pope to pray for us.  That worked well in the
fourteenth century, didn't it?
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[Marxism] IMF refuses aid to Venezuela in the midst of coronavirus crisis (counterpunch)

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/19/imf-refuses-aid-to-venezuela-in-the-midst-of-the-coronavirus-crisis/



https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/19/maximum-pressure-march-us-hybrid-war-on-venezuela-heats-up


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[Marxism] Six Key Demands from the UK pro-NHS group: 'Keep Our NHS Public'.

[hari kumar via Marxism]

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This is from the Chair of the British group:
  'Keep Our NHS Public" - Dr John Puntis - who is based in Leeds.
   I only give here the short preamble; and 'Six Key
Demands'; a link to a petition; and teh conclusions. If anyone wants the
whole pamphlet let me know off-line.
Cheers Hari Kumar
_
It’s clear that an urgent intervention is needed on the government’s
Coronavirus response. Despite the massive threat posed by the pandemic,
Boris Johnson isn't doing what’s needed to support our health workers as
they confront this crisis. This is doubly alarming given that our NHS is
going into action following a decade of under-funding, under-staffing, and
undermining from Conservative-led governments.


That’s why a new petition putting *six key demands* to the government has
just been launched. The demands are:

1.*Covid-19 testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) must be
available for all NHS and social care staff now*

2.*Those relying on social care (or ‘Direct Payments’) must be given
immediate support if carers go sick *

3.*NHS support staff (including those outsourced) must receive at least
living wage, paid sick leave for illness or self-isolation and an increase
in statutory sick pay *

4.*Bring private health resources into public service without
compensation to fight COVID-19 and aid NHS response *

5.*Make all information that the Government is basing its strategy on
wholly available for public scrutiny*

6.*An immediate end to legislation enforcing eligibility checks and
charging in the NHS, including those related to residency status or
national origin, allowing all patients to use the NHS without fear*

*Please click here to sign the petition* and – most importantly of all –
share it now to all your friends and contacts. .

*CUT*


*Conclusion*



By the 4thth March 2020, 3,400 Chinese health workers were infected with
coronavirus and 13 had died including the brave Dr. Li Wenliang who first
brought the disease to the attention of the authorities, for which he was
severely reprimanded. It is vital that all health and social care staff
coming into contact with patients have the best possible protection. This
must include PPE as outlined in the current guidance from the DHSC, but in
addition, staff must also be given the choice of wearing FFP masks as an
alternative to FRSM. Solving problems of production and distribution
together with provision of fit testing must be speedily resolved by NHS
England with the support of government.


*END*
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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

[Ken Hiebert via Marxism]

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First, as I recall you made the point that the mass testing in South Korea was 
effective in combatting the coronavirus.
You advocate mass testing as opposed to social distancing.
The point has been made elsewhere that South Korea has a single payer system, 
which is much more effective in dealing with this crisis than the US system.
The US system is not going to change in the short term.
Also, one of the obstacles to mass testing in the US has been the fact that 
they have very few test kits.
This is not going to change within days, or even within 2 weeks.

Secondly, are you suggesting that the virus will pass through the population at 
the same rate whether or not we stay in our homes or go out and mix with other 
people?

ken h
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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

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

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We can always ask the Pope to pray for us.  That worked well in the
fourteenth century, didn't it?
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Re: [Marxism] New Study claims that Fatality Rate in Wuhan was much lower

[hari kumar via Marxism]

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re: Message: 11
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2020 16:03:08 +0100
From: RKOB 
To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition

Subject: [Marxism] New Study claims that Fatality Rate in Wuhan was
much lower
Message-ID: <8d6064fc-2929-18c8-22ee-2a72d9a04...@rkob.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

One of my comrades with medical background drew my attention to an
interesting new study from Chinese scientists. It says that the fatality
rate of COVID-19 in Wuhan has been 1.4%, i.e. substantially lower than
initially reported (4.5%)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0822-7

Dear Michael:

1) The overtly fascist Modi government has long attacked even any semblance
of opposition in Kashmir. It does not need the COVID 19 excuse; and nor
does the Kashmiri opposition, get fooled by pretences this has anything to
do with COVID-19. But you have written a lot on this matter - which broadly
I agree with - so you know this.

2) Algeria - like Chile - yes there may be national variations.

3) Your article linked to below is of marked interest. It is a letter -
which does go through a peer review process, but in my experience is
usually not quite as 'sharp'.
Nonetheless, thank you for alerting us to this.
There are a couple of things about this that, however, warrant a close
reading. It does not show what superficially may be thought to show: "
fatality rate was much lower in Wuhan".

i) This is modelling data. Yes this mythology does have a role - but it
then critically depends upon what assumptions and what inputs you enable to
enter the model. And actually for the most part, the authors are very
humble about it (see my point iii) below.

ii) One thing they do not really come clean about is the following issue.
 As I read it, this is a
paper that *only* uses data of people who flew out of Wuhan - and were not
part of the Wuhan susceptible pool for the final data-set. So if I
understand it right,  it sets them up as a 'captive' population. Thus -
you would I assume - want this population to have the advantage of 100%
testing - to put that set of data into the modelling. But is this what
happened? Actually it is buried away, in 'supplementary Tables' - that it
is not what happened. it is not known what proportion of those passengers
flown out were indeed tested:

"See: *Supplementary Tables 1–9. ** Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Germany,
Belgium and Malaysia had tested all the passengers and a few
pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic cases were confirmed. For other countries,
it is unknown whether they had tested all the passengers or only those
showing symptoms. “ Supplementary Table 3. [See: Supplementary Information *-
https://static- 
content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41591-020-0822-

7/MediaObjects/41591_2020_822_MOESM1_ESM.pdf *

iii) To avid this becoming an overlong mail, I only then ask that the final
section of the letter be looked at carefully. They themselves
acknowledge many limitations, which is why I said they were humble about
this finding. They say this: "Several important caveats are worth
mentioning, as follows. First, and most importantly, our modeled estimates
have necessarily relied on numerous strong assumptions".

As I had said in my article, there is a lot we (collectively) and
more especially I (the narrow me) still do not know. We need to
be cautious. And once more I am not an ID specialist. I know a reasonable
amount of trail-based epidemiology, but the epidemiology involved in
ID gets more and more distinct.

In solidarity, Hari Kumar

PS: Louis: I am sorry if this again turns out to be too narrowly spaced. I
tried to obey your injunctions

to format better. If still poorly formatted, I will again try something
different.


>
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Re: [Marxism] New Study claims that Fatality Rate in Wuhan was much lower

[hari kumar via Marxism]

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So sorry - 'point 3(i) should not read the word 'mythology' - but
'METHODOLOGY.."
i) This is modelling data. Yes this METHODOLOGY does have a role - but it
then critically depends upon what assumptions and what inputs you enable to
enter the model. And actually for the most part, the authors are very
humble about it (see my point iii) below. "

I blame Apple's automatisms - not any latent bias on this particular point..

H

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 3:06 PM hari kumar  wrote:

> re: Message: 11
> Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2020 16:03:08 +0100
> From: RKOB 
> To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
> 
> Subject: [Marxism] New Study claims that Fatality Rate in Wuhan was
> much lower
> Message-ID: <8d6064fc-2929-18c8-22ee-2a72d9a04...@rkob.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
>
> One of my comrades with medical background drew my attention to an
> interesting new study from Chinese scientists. It says that the fatality
> rate of COVID-19 in Wuhan has been 1.4%, i.e. substantially lower than
> initially reported (4.5%)
>
> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0822-7
> 
> Dear Michael:
>
> 1) The overtly fascist Modi government has long attacked even any
> semblance of opposition in Kashmir. It does not need the COVID 19 excuse;
> and nor does the Kashmiri opposition, get fooled by pretences this has
> anything to do with COVID-19. But you have written a lot on this matter -
> which broadly I agree with - so you know this.
>
> 2) Algeria - like Chile - yes there may be national variations.
>
> 3) Your article linked to below is of marked interest. It is a letter -
> which does go through a peer review process, but in my experience is
> usually not quite as 'sharp'.
> Nonetheless, thank you for alerting us to this.
> There are a couple of things about this that, however, warrant a close
> reading. It does not show what superficially may be thought to show: "
> fatality rate was much lower in Wuhan".
>
> i) This is modelling data. Yes this mythology does have a role - but it
> then critically depends upon what assumptions and what inputs you enable to
> enter the model. And actually for the most part, the authors are very
> humble about it (see my point iii) below.
>
> ii) One thing they do not really come clean about is the following issue.
>As I read it, this is
> a paper that *only* uses data of people who flew out of Wuhan - and
> were not part of the Wuhan susceptible pool for the final data-set. So if I
> understand it right,  it sets them up as a 'captive' population. Thus -
> you would I assume - want this population to have the advantage of 100%
> testing - to put that set of data into the modelling. But is this what
> happened? Actually it is buried away, in 'supplementary Tables' - that it
> is not what happened. it is not known what proportion of those passengers
> flown out were indeed tested:
>
> "See: *Supplementary Tables 1–9. ** Japan, Singapore, South Korea,
> Germany, Belgium and Malaysia had tested all the passengers and a few
> pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic cases were confirmed. For other countries,
> it is unknown whether they had tested all the passengers or only those
> showing symptoms. “ Supplementary Table 3. [See: Supplementary
> Information *- https://static- 
> content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41591-020-0822-
> 
> 7/MediaObjects/41591_2020_822_MOESM1_ESM.pdf *
>
> iii) To avid this becoming an overlong mail, I only then ask that the
> final section of the letter be looked at carefully. They themselves
> acknowledge many limitations, which is why I said they were humble about
> this finding. They say this: "Several important caveats are worth
> mentioning, as follows. First, and most importantly, our modeled estimates
> have necessarily relied on numerous strong assumptions".
>
> As I had said in my article, there is a lot we (collectively) and
> more especially I (the narrow me) still do not know. We need to
> be cautious. And once more I am not an ID specialist. I know a reasonable
> amount of trail-based epidemiology, but the epidemiology involved in
> ID gets more and more distinct.
>
> In solidarity, Hari Kumar
>
> PS: Louis: I am sorry if this again turns out to be too narrowly spaced. I
> tried to obey your injunctions
>
> to format better. If still poorly formatted, I will again try something
> different.
>
>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Revolution?r-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
>> (?sterreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thec

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

[Jeffrey Masko via Marxism]

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 "But your BS about "the Lockdown Left" chases a discussion that wasn't
taking place into a rhetorical swamp, intoxicates itself with the fumes of
own abstractions, and falls face first into the mud."

And as much as I respect *Homo Sacer, *even Agamben can't save the
"Lockdown the left" from the above.
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Re: [Marxism] Leninism under Lenin by Marcel Liebman

[Vladimiro Giacche' via Marxism]

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> Il giorno 19 mar 2020, alle ore 17:53, Aaron Kyereh-Mireku via Marxism 
>  ha scritto:
> 
> 
> I have just had the pleasure of reading 'Leninism under Lenin' by Marcel 
> Liebman. 
> A big weakness in the book is that it barely covers Lenin's economic policy, 
> which is a glaring omission. 

On the matter I take the liberty of drawing your attention to this book of 
mine, published in German language :  

Lenins ökonomisches Denken nach der Oktoberrevolution
https://neue-impulse-verlag.de/shop/item/9783961700189/lenins-okonomisches-denken-nach-der-oktoberrevolution-von-vladimiro-giacche-englische-broschur
 

 

(the original version is in Italian, and was published as the quite long 
introduction to an anthology of Lenin’s economic texts (1917 to 1923): 
https://www.ilsaggiatore.com/libro/economia-della-rivoluzione/ 
 )

I  think it could be of interest for someone on this list

VG 


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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

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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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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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

[Mark Lause via Marxism]

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 Look, it's been very chilly around here and nobody appreciates the hot air
more.  I get it, you want a massive expansion of the health care system
unlike the reformists.  And you suggest mass actions to do this.

But your BS about "the Lockdown Left" chases a discussion that wasn't
taking place into a rhetorical swamp, intoxicates itself with the fumes of
own abstractions, and falls face first into the mud.
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Re: [Marxism] Democracies’ Covid-19 cures could be worse than the disease

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 3/19/20 1:45 PM, RKOB via Marxism wrote:


https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/democracies-covid-19-cures-could-be-worse-than-the-disease/ 





Thanks for posting an article that makes my case: "While mass gatherings 
are halted and museums, schools and universities are closed..."


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[Marxism] Democracies’ Covid-19 cures could be worse than the disease

[RKOB via Marxism]

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https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/democracies-covid-19-cures-could-be-worse-than-the-disease/

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[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-Slavery]: Harcourt on Martin, 'The Birth of a Nation: The Cinematic Past in the Present'

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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-- Forwarded message -
From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 1:09 PM
Subject: H-Net Review [H-Slavery]: Harcourt on Martin, 'The Birth of a
Nation: The Cinematic Past in the Present'
To: 
Cc: H-Net Staff 


Michael T. Martin.  The Birth of a Nation: The Cinematic Past in the
Present.  Bloomington  Indiana University Press, 2019.  344 pp.
$20.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-04235-4.

Reviewed by Felix Harcourt (Austin College)
Published on H-Slavery (March, 2020)
Commissioned by David M. Prior

Growing out of a 2015 symposium convened by the Black Film
Center/Archive at Indiana University, Bloomington, the loose
organizing principle of the essays in _The Birth of a Nation: The
Cinematic Past in the Present _is to consider the impact and enduring
legacy of D. W. Griffith's 1915 film _Birth of a Nation _on the
racism and xenophobia that remain part of the mainstream of US
cultural life. Bringing together authors from a range of scholarly
enterprises and academic disciplines, editor Michael T. Martin makes
clear that this collection is intended to speak to our current
moment. For Martin, both the symposium and the publication of this
volume were prompted by a pressing need to address the enduring
"hegemonic structures in the American social formation that support
and maintain white supremacy and social inequality" (p. ix).

To that end, the scholarship here is divided into three sections,
explained by Martin as _Birth of a Nation _as "text, artifact, and
cultural legacy," _Birth _in "historical time--then," and _Birth _in
"historical time--now" (p. 18). In practical terms, this provides the
reader with five chapters in the first section examining _Birth of a
Nation _as a tangible filmic enterprise, with particular attention to
audience response, whether in the form of outrage or inspiration. In
the third section, we find five chapters focused on _Birth _in
conversation with a range of modern filmmaking efforts, and the ways
in which the 1915 film continues to exert influence. This tripartite
construction unfortunately leaves just two chapters in the limbo of
the second section of the collection, seemingly excommunicated as
neither beast nor bird despite perhaps best embodying the stated
goals of the book.

The avowedly presentist and "imminently practical" (p. ix) ethos of
the collection can make for an uneasy balance. Where the focus is on
_Birth of a Nation _as historical product, as in the first five
essays, the effort to explicitly tie the film to current events can
feel forced. In Cara Caddoo's excellent consideration of Black
protest against the film, for example, a final few paragraphs on the
violence of Charleston and the actions of Bree Newsome seem an
unnecessary addition. By the time Newsome appears, Caddoo has already
made a convincing case as to the contemporary lessons that can be
learned from anti-_Birth _activists. More than simply the legalistic
battles of middle-class NAACP officials that have often taken center
stage in discussions of Black response to the film, Caddoo point us
toward a far wider range of individuals, interests, and tactics in
the struggle for social and cultural power.

This balance tips in the other direction in the final five chapters
of the collection. Concerned primarily with race and racism in
current cinema, these essays engage both with films that readers may
expect to find (Quentin Tarantino's 2012 _Django Unchained _or Steve
McQueen's 2013 _12 Years a Slave_) and some more unexpected choices
(the 2015 Will Ferrell/Kevin Hart comedy _Get Hard_). These pieces
have some significant points to make about _Birth_. David C. Wall,
for one, makes explicit the key point that _Birth's _"aesthetic is
its racism" (p. 260) and that the two cannot be disentangled. At the
same time, though, _Birth of a Nation _itself often appears something
of an afterthought in a number of these chapters--a peg upon which to
hang otherwise thoughtful and useful analyses of the cinematic
language of race. This can lead to some puzzlingly ahistorical
claims, including the idea that effective satires of the Ku Klux
Klan's racism are a purely modern phenomenon.

This leaves our two orphaned chapters as the Goldilocks of the
collection--neither too hot nor too cold. Linda Williams's
contextualization of _Birth _and Oscar Micheaux's _Within Our Gates
_(1920) as racial melodramas competing over the thesis of whether
Black lives matter offers a measured balance of the two competing
tendencies of the collection, speaking comfortably to the present
about the past. Lawrence Howe, who places _Birth _in the tradition of
the Southern romance, provides a compelling

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

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Look, it really should not be so difficult to understand.

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.


The response from the ruling classes, in general, is different: their 
first line of defense is militarization. This is the policy from the 
regimes in Beijing, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Vienna, and soon other 
countries too: Lock the people up, restrict freedom of movement, 
surveillance, etc. Of course they support also some forms of health care 
but much less, more expansive, with less and costly testing, etc. Surely 
this extreme state of emergency can not go on forever as it is bad for 
the economy. But they need some time now to implement a new form of 
state bonaparist regime with less democratic rights (in those countries 
where such exist). After they have implemented the most important 
draconic measures they will relax some conditions with some 
normalization of social life. But they will certainly try to retain a 
number of these militarization measures.


The reformist bureaucracy fully supports the militarization policy (see 
e.g. Podemos in Spain’s government). The radical left is divided. Surely 
they all support the expansion of the health care sector etc. But the 
Lockdown Left supports also the militarization, i.e. the most important 
anti-democratic attack today. This is the dividing line today.


Am 19.03.2020 um 16:26 schrieb Tristan Sloughter via Marxism:

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It was never my intention to push anyone to go on the street. Every one
shall be free to stay home. People who want to lock themselves up should
do so.

Sounding like a anti-vaxxer now. Everyone needs to distance or it doesn't work!

This virus has shown to be more contagious, live longer on surfaces and the air 
and be more deadly (many of those hospitalized are in their 20s and 30s and 
lose lung capacity).

China appears to have gotten over the hump, the idea that we shouldn't do the 
same is ridiculous, not to mention the same selfishness of not vaccinating 
involved in thinking its ok for those who don't want to stay inside to go out 
and risk everyone else's health.

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[Marxism] Leninism under Lenin by Marcel Liebman

[Aaron Kyereh-Mireku via Marxism]

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I have just had the pleasure of reading 'Leninism under Lenin' by Marcel 
Liebman. It was an enjoyable and highly informative read. Liebman does a great 
job of putting Lenin's political thought and practice into its context. The 
Lenin we are presented with is an extremely able tactician, adept at detecting 
sudden changes in the nature of the class struggle and adapting his praxis 
accordingly. It also shows that Lenin was no fetishiser of organisational 
forms. Nothing like those who imitate the Bolsheviks today! In 1903 he 
championed a tight, disciplined, centralised party so as to organise militant 
workers in the face of Tsarist repression. Yet in 1905-6 he was in favour of 
opening up the party to the masses against the will of the conservative 
'committee-men'. Lenin had to fight the very apparatus that he had created. 
This was again the case in 1917, when the Bolshevik bureaucracy represented by 
Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev was trying to hold the masses back and had no 
interest in launching an insurrection. Yet there is a contradiction which 
Liebman never picks up on. We stress the indispensability of the Bolshevik 
Party in making possible the success of the revolution. But the more one reads 
about the revolution one is drawn to the conclusion that it was really the 
indispensability of Lenin. I think this poses a problem when looking at the 
question of revolutionary organisation. No political organisation should be so 
dependent on one individual. It is a weakness of the Bolshevik organisation 
that it relied so much on the force of one man's personality for the seizure of 
power to be possible. Prior to that, the apparatus had, with mixed success, 
been trying to hold back the masses. Without Lenin there would still most 
likely have been an insurrection, but it is unlikely to have had the 
coordination that it did with Lenin's presence and direction. (And even then, 
it was something of a farce, and clumsily executed.) Local party committees and 
branches were already acting on their own, ignoring orders from above. It is 
appalling to think that without Lenin the already tenuous link between the 
party centre and the localities would have snapped completely.

One thing which leaped out to me was Lenin's extraordinarily flexible 
interpretation of 'democratic centralism'. It was nothing like the 
interpretation that so many 'Leninist' organisations (my own ex-comrades in 
Socialist Appeal included) adopt. As a matter of fact, a week before the 
insurrection on October 25th, the party bigwigs were still squabbling about 
whether to launch an insurrection or not. At a meeting of the Petrograd 
Committee of the Bolshevik Party and the Military Organisation on October 17th, 
it was Sverdlov who stood up and put an end to the prattling, saying firmly 
that the Central Committee had decided on a course of action, insurrection, and 
that the purpose of the meeting was to work out how to implement that decision, 
not question it. The fact that Zinoviev and Kamenev, two long-standing Old 
Bolsheviks who should have known better, felt bold enough to go to the press 
with the date of the insurrection, potentially sabotaging the plans being drawn 
up, proves that 'democratic centralism' for the Bolsheviks had nothing of the 
rigidity that is now adopted by almost all 'Leninist' formations. And they 
weren't expelled for their transgressions! Many a dissident in most Trotskyist 
organisations has been thrown out for less.
A big weakness in the book is that it barely covers Lenin's economic policy, 
which is a glaring omission. I checked the index and 'War Communism' is only 
mentioned three times. I think that certain aspects of War Communism were 
clearly ideological in nature and cannot be reduced to objective necessity, and 
any study of Lenin's political thought must take his economic policies into 
account. (Incidentally I checked my copy of Samuel Farber's book 'Before 
Stalinism' to see if he had read this book. Lo and behold, it appears in the 
bibliography, indicating that he read it and drew similar conclusions.) Liebman 
has an unfortunate tendency to gloss over some of Lenin's more questionable 
decisions and accept at face value the charge that the Bolsheviks had no choice 
but to implement certain policies despite the fact that they laid the basis for 
Stalinism. This is particularly the case when he is analysing the foreign 
policy of the USSR under Lenin. I was disappointed that he did not question the 
wisdom of sacrificing the Turkish communists to Ataturk's butchers. That is not 
to say he does not criticise Lenin at times. 

All in all, I think it is a very scholar

Re: [Marxism] Italian Philosopher writes in Il Manifesto against the lock down and state of emergency policy

[Jeffrey Masko via Marxism]

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From the comments below the article:

"I have deep respect for philosophers, and the ideas expressed here have
been known for a long time: how people in power use the fear to dominate
masses. However, as facts have demonstrated since this was published in feb
26, Mr Agamben couldn’t be more wrong in this case. Intellectuals sometimes
are taken away by their intelligence, to the point that they fail to see
reality in front of their noses. hope this gentleman will publish another
article soon acknowledging that what he calls a simple flu is killing (and
will kill many more) thousands of human beings around the world."

Well put.
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[Marxism] Italian Philosopher writes in Il Manifesto against the lock down and state of emergency policy

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Giorgio Agamben: The state of exception provoked by an unmotivated emergency

Here is an interesting article by Giorgio Agamben, a 77-year old Italian 
philosopher influenced by Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault. The 
article has been published in Il Manifesto and translated into English 
here: 
http://positionswebsite.org/giorgio-agamben-the-state-of-exception-provoked-by-an-unmotivated-emergency/



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[Marxism] Moderator's note

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 3/19/20 12:16 PM, Walter Daum via Marxism wrote:


Yesterday Ralph Johansen raised two issues: how to address the Sanders 
enthusiasts; and what about the Democratic Party majority who are wary of 
Sanders’ far-reaching reforms? I’ll take up just the first for now.
Agreed, the Bernie activists aren’t bound by the No Vote for Capitalist Parties 
principle. This particular document wasn’t addressed to them directly, although 
it does indicate our approach. It was addressed to a left audience (and 
therefore posted here) in order to explain why our traditional position needs 
changing – a position we’ve shared with many on the left.
The Sanders movement is an important development that no one on the left, 
including my group, found a satisfactory (i.e., revolutionary) way to connect 
with. The DSA by and large dove in uncritically. The ISO in 2015-16 stayed 
aloof, counterposing the Green Party. But that went nowhere, since the Sanders 
activists believed that his campaign offered genuine hopes of transforming 
America politics and achieving concrete reforms that could relieve the economic 
precariousness they were facing. The Greens weren’t a contender. Socialist 
Alternative straddled those two approaches, pretending not to be working in the 
Dem Party but in reality behaving more like DSA. Both SAlt and the ISO called 
for Sanders to run independently, knowing full well (I assume, since he made it 
absolutely clear) that he would support the Democratic nominee, both last time 
and this. That meant reinforcing illusions in bourgeois politics.
What should have been tried, in my opinion, is an approach like Lenin’s 
“critical support.” Not just offering a few criticisms (or even worse, 
“reserving the right to criticize” without doing so), but telling the truth 
about the racist, imperialist, anti-working-class Dem Party and the candidates 
who accommodate to it. We and others could not get much of a hearing if we said 
it’s a capitalist party so don’t vote for its candidates. We might have gotten 
a hearing if we’d said, OK, let’s put Sanders to the test of office. Let’s 
elect him and see whether the Democrats adopt his program and whether he 
mobilizes his movement to come out into the streets to fight for it. He hasn’t 
done that so far, even though there were several key opportunities during 
Trump’s reign when that deserved to be done. Why hasn’t he? Because his 
strategy is purely electoral. His “political revolution” means political in the 
everyday bourgeois sense, i.e.,electoral. But his supporters will more easily 
see the limitations of his strategy if he gets into office. That would be a 
step forward toward creating an independent working-class party.
Now that Sanders is in all likelihood out of the race, the issue for the 
Sanders activists is what to do next. This I think our statement does deal 
with. We’re not advocating critical support for Biden in the Leninist sense. 
Voting for him would be purely defensive, to get rid of Trump. A few years ago 
it might have been comforting to think that Trump’s incompetence tempered his 
malevolence. In the present crisis they reinforce each other. Keeping him in 
power would not only boost the drive to autocracy, as we argue in our 
statement. It could doom us all.


This week I have sent private messages to 2 other Marxmailers about the 
need to skip lines between paragraphs. I am now making it public in 
order to save me the trouble of contacting others who might not be aware 
of the importance of readability.


Walter's post is difficult to read.  If you are reading an article or a 
book, there are lines in between grafs. We should follow the same 
standards here.


In addition, you need to clip extraneous text. There have been too many 
posts recently that failed to do this. We instituted this formatting 
rule back in the early 2000s when many people were still using phone 
lines to go online. By removing extraneous text, the mail downloaded 
quicker.


Even though most people are using high-speed connections now, I still 
want to keep this rule in place because brevity is the soul of wit. 
Thank you very much.

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[Marxism] Army in UK and Germany prepares for intervention in COVID-19 Crisis

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Some more examples of the militarization which takes place right now in 
Europe under the cover of the COVID-19 crisis


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-defense-minister/german-army-on-standby-to-help-with-coronavirus-crisis-idUSKBN21623J 



https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-military/up-to-2-uk-military-personnel-to-go-on-standby-for-coronavirus-idUSKBN2160Z1

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-uk-supermarkets-po/exclusive-uk-supermarkets-expect-police-support-if-london-in-lockdown-industry-source-idUSKBN2161V5 



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Re: [Marxism] Rethinking Voting for Democrats

[Walter Daum via Marxism]

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Yesterday Ralph Johansen raised two issues: how to address the Sanders 
enthusiasts; and what about the Democratic Party majority who are wary of 
Sanders’ far-reaching reforms? I’ll take up just the first for now. 
Agreed, the Bernie activists aren’t bound by the No Vote for Capitalist Parties 
principle. This particular document wasn’t addressed to them directly, although 
it does indicate our approach. It was addressed to a left audience (and 
therefore posted here) in order to explain why our traditional position needs 
changing – a position we’ve shared with many on the left. 
The Sanders movement is an important development that no one on the left, 
including my group, found a satisfactory (i.e., revolutionary) way to connect 
with. The DSA by and large dove in uncritically. The ISO in 2015-16 stayed 
aloof, counterposing the Green Party. But that went nowhere, since the Sanders 
activists believed that his campaign offered genuine hopes of transforming 
America politics and achieving concrete reforms that could relieve the economic 
precariousness they were facing. The Greens weren’t a contender. Socialist 
Alternative straddled those two approaches, pretending not to be working in the 
Dem Party but in reality behaving more like DSA. Both SAlt and the ISO called 
for Sanders to run independently, knowing full well (I assume, since he made it 
absolutely clear) that he would support the Democratic nominee, both last time 
and this. That meant reinforcing illusions in bourgeois politics.
What should have been tried, in my opinion, is an approach like Lenin’s 
“critical support.” Not just offering a few criticisms (or even worse, 
“reserving the right to criticize” without doing so), but telling the truth 
about the racist, imperialist, anti-working-class Dem Party and the candidates 
who accommodate to it. We and others could not get much of a hearing if we said 
it’s a capitalist party so don’t vote for its candidates. We might have gotten 
a hearing if we’d said, OK, let’s put Sanders to the test of office. Let’s 
elect him and see whether the Democrats adopt his program and whether he 
mobilizes his movement to come out into the streets to fight for it. He hasn’t 
done that so far, even though there were several key opportunities during 
Trump’s reign when that deserved to be done. Why hasn’t he? Because his 
strategy is purely electoral. His “political revolution” means political in the 
everyday bourgeois sense, i.e.,electoral. But his supporters will more easily 
see the limitations of his strategy if he gets into office. That would be a 
step forward toward creating an independent working-class party.
Now that Sanders is in all likelihood out of the race, the issue for the 
Sanders activists is what to do next. This I think our statement does deal 
with. We’re not advocating critical support for Biden in the Leninist sense. 
Voting for him would be purely defensive, to get rid of Trump. A few years ago 
it might have been comforting to think that Trump’s incompetence tempered his 
malevolence. In the present crisis they reinforce each other. Keeping him in 
power would not only boost the drive to autocracy, as we argue in our 
statement. It could doom us all. 
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Re: [Marxism] What some hospital workers are saying

[STEVEN ROBINSON via Marxism]

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As far as UHW-W is concerned, what you have described is in large part 
attributable to the after effects of the takeover of that local union by the 
national SEIU leadership almost ten years ago now. Before that time, there was 
a rather strong steward network - especially at Kaiser but in other hospitals 
as well.  Those stewards had a pretty good practice of keeping their members 
informed and activated.  The takeover swept away much of that network, although 
I know that a handful remain in various places and are still doing their best, 
notwithstanding problems with the local union's problematic leadership.

The national leadership wanted to replace the stewards with call in centers.  I 
wonder if that has been implemented.

Still, what you describe is troubling given that healthcare is supposed to be 
one of the strongest sectors of the labor movement right now.  SR




> On March 18, 2020 at 4:37 PM John Reimann via Marxism 
>  wrote:

> 
> 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 (

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Re: [Marxism] "personal distancing plus social solidarity"

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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RKOB is certainly right about one thing: The world capitalist class and all
their representatives are watching this and thinking about how they can use
it. Already, it seems the strike of graduate students in the University of
California system is collapsing. It's simply not possible to run a strike
virtually. Not only that, but a huge number of workers are now working from
home. I think that is a very regressive policy since it separates workers.
I think that will continue after this is over.

We should all remember Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine". For all its
weaknesses (and there was one serious one), it made an excellent point:
That capitalism will use any shock that comes about, whether socially made
or made by the forces of nature, to advance its agenda. Most certainly it
will use this pandemic. And that is despite the fact that while it has been
brought about by a pathogen and the fact that this sort of zoonotic disease
is becoming increasingly common, the means of transmission of those
pathogens (wildlife encroachment and factory farming, are a direct result
of capitalist development.

John Reimann

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[Marxism] On the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic

[Joseph Green via Marxism]

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On the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic (excerpts)
(from Detroit/Seattle Workers Voice list for March 18, 2020)

by Frank Arango, Seattle Workers' Voice

(full text at http://www.communistvoice.org/DSWV-200318.html)

As everyone knows, the novel coronavirus is sweeping the world. It can be 
carried  
by people who show no symptoms. There's no vaccine for it. And it's a killer.  
..  
while the responses of  governments around the world vary, the general response 
to this global pandemic  has been that governments have acted too slowly and 
haven't done enough.  Indeed, the spread of the coronavirus appears to be out 
of 
control in a large  number of countries, including the United States.

Lack of preparations
-

* The CDC. For years WHO and others have been warning of pandemics caused  
by new pathogens. But few countries have taken these warnings seriously,  
particularly the United States. Indeed, while the Centers for Disease Control 
and  
Prevention (CDC) has a tiny budget of around $6 billion, Obama was already  
squeezing it while he was president (1), and Trump has continued on this path. 
In  
February this year--in the midst of the growing coronavirus pandemic--he even  
proposed a 9% cut in the CDC's funding for next year. But that's now history.

* Hospitals beds. Large numbers of people with COVID-19 have to be 
hospitalized in serious or critical condition. But the U.S. only has 2.77 
hospital 
beds per 1000 people (number 32 in the world), whereas Italy has 3.18 beds per 
1000 people, and Italy's hospitals have been overwhelmed! ...

* Test kits. The CDC's handling of testing has been a murderous scandal. It 
should  have ordered crash production of large numbers to test kits in January, 
but it  didn't. The Trump administration then refused the test kit offered by 
the 
World  Health Organization. Then, after weeks of delay, in February the CDC 
sent 
out a  flawed test kit. Moreover, during all this time local labs were 
prohibited from 
using  their own tests.  ...

In Seattle, Dr. Helen Chu and colleagues, bless them, eventually defied the CDC 
 
prohibition and began testing. But had they been allowed to test earlier, this 
might  
have gone a long way toward stopping the spread of the coronavirus throughout  
Washington and the rest of the country.

* Masks, protective clothing and hospital supplies. The CDC or Trump should 
have ordered mass production of these too, but they didn't.

What has been done?
-

Despite their late start, governments and even employers around the country  
have taken unprecedented actions in trying to stop the spread of the 
coronavirus.  
They've all suddenly found money that they've previously denied having. Sick  
leave is being given where it was never been given before. ...

But there are also many failings and bureaucratic blockages in the measures  
taken so far, and they've been taken too timidly. For example, the bans on 
public  
gatherings were often bans on gatherings of 250, 500, or even 1000 people--too  
large of crowds. The CDC then recommended that events of 50 or more people  
not be held for some two months, and Trump has now reduced that number to  
10. Similarly, there was timidity about lockdowns. Hindsight is easy, but it 
appears  
that part or all of King County should have been locked down many weeks ago.  
One reason I say this is that a genome study showed that someone from this  
area carried COVID-19 to California, creating a new cluster there.(2)

And there have been fiascoes. Most notably, Trump's travel ban on flights from  
Europe was probably necessary. But it did not include U.S. citizens and  
permanent residents. Thus, at terribly inflated prices, thousands and thousands 
of  
them flew back to this country from heavily infected Europe. Their temperatures 
 
were not taken as they got off the planes (a strategy used in Asia, but does 
the  
U.S. even have enough thermometers?), and they were packed into huge lines in  
the terminals with no social distancing. More, at Dulles International the line 
for  
infected people was just inches away from the line for (presumably) uninfected  
people. As a local activist commented, "if you were trying to spread COVID-19  
across the country, you couldn't do any better [than this]."

What is to be done?
-

In ordinary times the U.S. government cares very little about the health of the 
 
people. (Witness the minuscule CDC budget, or the fact that the richest country 
in  
the world stands at number 29 in the quality of its health care, or that we do 
not  
have univer

[Marxism] Hungary to deploy military personnel to 140 state companies during pandemic

[RKOB via Marxism]

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-hungary-military/hungary-to-deploy-military-personnel-to-140-state-companies-during-pandemic-idUSKBN2161C8 



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[Marxism] [Reviews] The All-Seeing Eye, by Max Nelson | Harper's Magazine

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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A really savvy article on the films of Abbas Kiarostami. You're entitled 
to read one free Harper's article a month.


https://harpers.org/archive/2019/06/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/

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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

[Tristan Sloughter via Marxism]

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> It was never my intention to push anyone to go on the street. Every one 
> shall be free to stay home. People who want to lock themselves up should 
> do so. 

Sounding like a anti-vaxxer now. Everyone needs to distance or it doesn't work!

This virus has shown to be more contagious, live longer on surfaces and the air 
and be more deadly (many of those hospitalized are in their 20s and 30s and 
lose lung capacity).

China appears to have gotten over the hump, the idea that we shouldn't do the 
same is ridiculous, not to mention the same selfishness of not vaccinating 
involved in thinking its ok for those who don't want to stay inside to go out 
and risk everyone else's health.

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[Marxism] New Study claims that Fatality Rate in Wuhan was much lower

[RKOB via Marxism]

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One of my comrades with medical background drew my attention to an 
interesting new study from Chinese scientists. It says that the fatality 
rate of COVID-19 in Wuhan has been 1.4%, i.e. substantially lower than 
initially reported (4.5%)


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0822-7


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[Marxism] Algeria uses coronavirus outbreak to ban anti-government protests

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https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/3/18/algeria-uses-coronavirus-outbreak-to-ban-anti-government-protests 



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[Marxism] Civilization Ruffled by Another Perfect Epidemiological Storm - CounterPunch.org

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It is the beginning of the twenty-first century and most humans remain 
inhabitants of what James C. Scott calls the ‘Multispecies Resettlement 
Camp’ – the aggregation of men, women, children and their domesticated 
plants and animals that was made possible by the development of 
agriculture. His book, Against the Grain – A Deep History of the 
Earliest States, 2017, takes a jaundiced look at sedentism – the staying 
put that initially gave rise to urban culture and that would, some 
millennia later, come to define modernity. This progression represents 
our understanding of the development of Western Civilization which we 
are accustomed to celebrate – or did, until a couple of months ago when 
we reaped its corollary of epidemiological terrorism. As city dwellers, 
and more broadly, as subjects of highly interdependent, globally 
connected states, we remain prey to the “chronic and acute infectious 
diseases that devastate the population again and again,” which Scott 
identifies as a primary characteristic of the very earliest states.


https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/19/civilization-ruffled-by-another-perfect-epidemiological-storm/

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[Marxism] Syrian opposition split over Russia-Turkey patrols in Idlib

[RKOB via Marxism]

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The unsurprising lines of divisions between the pro-Turkish groups, 
civilians and HTS


https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/03/cease-fire-agreement-idlib-division-opposition-ranks-sit-ins.html 



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[Marxism] India locks down disputed Kashmir region after first coronavirus case reported

[RKOB via Marxism]

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https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/3/19/india-locks-down-kashmir-region-on-coronavirus-fears--1 



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[Marxism] The Mutilated World Is Moved by the Nurses and Doctors : The Twelfth Newsletter (2020).

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://mailchi.mp/thetricontinental.org/the-mutilated-world-is-moved-by-the-nurses-and-doctors-the-twelfth-newsletter-2020

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[Marxism] 'Tip of the iceberg': is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19? | Environment | The Guardian

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-for-covid-19-aoe

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[Marxism] In the Time of Monsters | by Namwali Serpell | The New York Review of Books

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On the surface, both Watchmen projects have the same arc: a murder 
prompts an investigation of the hero’s past that reveals that there’s no 
form of heroism—not even a knightly fantasy of law and order—that isn’t 
drenched in blood. As a young girl, Angela identifies the terrorist who 
bombed her parents, then asks to listen when he gets shot by the cops. 
She’s rewarded with a badge and a future job offer. As a cop in Vietnam, 
she falls in love with Dr. Manhattan, knowing he committed the genocide 
that motivated that man’s act of terrorism. As Sister Night, she beats 
suspects during interrogation. As a mother, she reminds her adopted son 
that they live in a black-and-white moral universe. The show seems to 
justify Angela’s violence with her identity and her history as a black 
American woman. What if it had been bold enough to say outright: she too 
is a monster? What if we’d been asked to see her—as we are asked to see 
every superhero in the comic—as an antihero?


https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/04/09/watchmen-time-of-monsters/

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[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-War]: Moore on Chrissanthos, 'The Year of Julius and Caesar: 59 BC and the Transformation of the Roman Republic'

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
- - -
Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via 
https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/

Begin forwarded message:

> From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
> Date: March 19, 2020 at 8:59:32 AM EDT
> To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> Cc: H-Net Staff 
> Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]:  Moore on Chrissanthos, 'The Year of Julius 
> and Caesar: 59 BC and the Transformation of the Roman Republic'
> Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> 
> Stefan G. Chrissanthos.  The Year of Julius and Caesar: 59 BC and the 
> Transformation of the Roman Republic.  Witness to Ancient History 
> Series. Baltimore  Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.  
> Illustrations, maps. 179 pp.  $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-4214-2970-0; 
> $74.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-4214-2969-4.
> 
> Reviewed by Rosemary Moore (University of Iowa)
> Published on H-War (March, 2020)
> Commissioned by Margaret Sankey
> 
> The end of the Roman republic is perhaps the best-known period of 
> Roman history--not simply for its historical significance, because 
> what replaced the republic as governing body was a monarchy, but also 
> for its dramatic appeal, with the sort of story and charismatic 
> characters that have supported many movies and television series. 
> This period of Roman history also happens to be about as well 
> documented as any for ancient Rome, meaning that instructors have 
> ample room to discuss historiography and source criticism through a 
> narrative that engages even the most casual students of history. 
> 
> Stefan G. Chrissanthos selects one year, that of Julius Caesar's 
> first consulship, 59 BC, as his subject, arguing that the events of 
> this year were pivotal to speeding the shift at Rome from republic to 
> monarchy. While arguments can be made for other years, for example 49 
> BC, when Caesar led his army across the Rubicon River, thus 
> initiating civil war, or 44 BC, the year he was assassinated, the 
> republic in 59, though dysfunctional, still generally operated 
> according to traditional procedure. At the same time, it was in 59 
> that deadlock resulting from a toxic and divisive political 
> environment, the opportunism and ambition of politicians, and the 
> ruthlessness of one politician in particular, Caesar, brought about a 
> series of events from which the regular operation of the republic 
> would not return. 
> 
> Striking a balance between maintaining narrative momentum and 
> presenting a level of detail sufficient for understanding the 
> implications of events and decisions is not easy, but Chrissanthos 
> manages to do both. Especially helpful for readers are descriptions 
> of the physical context, as they not only enable readers unfamiliar 
> with Rome's physical setting to imagine themselves in loco but also 
> reinforce the symbolic significance of Rome as a place in Roman 
> politics. Only occasionally does the detail seem excessive, as when 
> Chrissanthos notes that Roman chariot races were usually seven laps 
> long (p. 37).   
> 
> The short period covered permits a high level of detail in a book 
> that is quite manageable in size--179 pages. The prose is clear and 
> direct, with ample references in an up-to-date bibliography. The 
> book, recently published in the Witness to Ancient History series 
> (edted by Gregory Aldrete) from Johns Hopkins University Press, is 
> aimed at a nonspecialist audience and succeeds in providing a 
> readable yet precise narrative of the year to this group. The 
> appendixes, 70 pages in all, in addition to the endnotes, make the 
> text useful to a more advanced (think early graduate student) 
> audience, while also increasing the volume's utility for 
> undergraduate courses. Among the appendixes are a timeline, glossary, 
> helpful notes on notable characters as well as ancient sources, and 
> about as useful a chart diagramming the magistracies and assemblies 
> of the republic as I have seen. The appendix "Suggestions for Further 
> Reading" lists reliable books and journal articles, to which I would 
> add Henrik Mouritsen, _Politics in the Roman Republic _(2017), 
> probably too recently published to be included. Chrissanthos favors 
> the populist-oriented view of politics begun by Fergus Millar; more 
> advanced students would benefit from more bibliography from other 
> perspectives. Considering the role soldiers played in this and other 
> years of the late republic, more bibliography on Roman soldiers and 
> generals would also be helpful in addition to the two sources listed. 
> One book to include here is Arthur Keaveny's _The Army in the Roman 
> Revolution _(2007). 
> 
> As useful a text as thi

[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-War]: Peifer on Rüger, 'Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea'

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
- - -
Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via 
https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/

Begin forwarded message:

> From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
> Date: March 19, 2020 at 8:59:15 AM EDT
> To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> Cc: H-Net Staff 
> Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]:  Peifer on Rüger,  'Heligoland: Britain, 
> Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea'
> Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> 
> Jan Rüger.  Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the 
> North Sea.  Oxford  Oxford University Press, 2017.  Illustrations. 
> 370 pp.  $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-967246-2.
> 
> Reviewed by Douglas Peifer (Air War College)
> Published on H-War (March, 2020)
> Commissioned by Margaret Sankey
> 
> Heligoland--or Helgoland to the Germans--is not simply a geographic 
> reality but a "product of the imagination," according to Jan Rüger, 
> a scholar of Anglo-German relations and professor at Birbeck, 
> University of London (p. 6). The small archipelago is located in the 
> heart of the German Bight, some forty-three miles from Cuxhaven at 
> the Elbe River's outlet and five hours by sea from Hamburg. The 
> archipelago consists of two small islands once connected to each 
> other, a low-level uninhabited sand dune and a slightly larger 
> inhabited island famous for its towering, scenic red sandstone 
> cliffs. The Royal Navy seized Heligoland from the Danes during the 
> Napoleonic Wars, with Britain retaining the island for much of the 
> nineteenth century until exchanging it with the German Empire in 1890 
> in return for German concessions in East Africa. Rüger's micro-study 
> is more than a study of a small island located in the strategic 
> southeastern corner of the North Sea. It is a beautifully written 
> examination of Anglo-German relations over the course of the 
> nineteenth and twentieth centuries, using the real and imagined 
> Heligoland to analyze the local and global interplay of British and 
> German Romanticism, nationalism, imperialism, navalism, culture, and 
> tourism.  
> 
> Rüger draws on art, poetry, film, music, maps, and popular culture 
> alongside diplomatic and military records to examine the meaning 
> British and German visitors, officials, and statesmen attached to the 
> island. Inhabited since prehistoric times, the island was home to 
> inhabitants who spoke a Frisian dialect, stubbornly defending their 
> historic rights and identity, as ownership of the island shifted from 
> the Kingdom of Denmark to the British Empire to imperial Germany. 
> Heligoland provides a prism for assessing Anglo-German relations as 
> Germany evolved from a confederation of states following the 
> Napoleonic Wars to an empire dominated by Prussia during the final 
> decades of the long nineteenth century to a republic following the 
> First World War, then becoming the Third Reich, then two Germanies 
> anchored in opposing Cold War alliances, and finally a united, 
> democratic Germany after 1990. Consciously shifting the focus of 
> analysis away from politicians, diplomats, and admirals, Rüger uses 
> Heligoland to paint a nuanced, differentiated picture of Anglo-German 
> cooperation, confrontation, and interaction over two centuries.  
> 
> The book is organized chronologically, with nine chapters framed by a 
> prologue and epilogue taking the reader from the early nineteenth 
> century to the post-World War II period. The opening chapter does a 
> superb job explaining how and why Great Britain acquired Heligoland, 
> taking the reader back to the life and death struggle between Britain 
> and Napoleonic France. Following Trafalgar, Austerlitz, and 
> Jena-Auerstedt, France could no longer directly threaten the British 
> Isles with invasion while Britain faced the grim reality of a Europe 
> dominated by France. Faced with economic warfare and fearful that 
> Denmark with its powerful fleet might align with France, in 1807 the 
> British government decided to preemptively sink the Danish fleet 
> while seizing Heligoland as an outpost to northern Germany. The 
> little island became a hub for anti-French activities, allowing 
> Britain to insert spies, support sympathizers, and undermine 
> Napoleon's Continental system. Britain courted the cooperation of 
> Heligolanders by assuring them that the British Crown would recognize 
> the rights they had enjoyed under Danish rule. By 1810, hundreds of 
> vessels moved back and forth between the island and the German coast, 
> with the Royal Navy protecting the smuggler's haven. Rüger estimates 
> the value of goods shipped through the island over the three-year 
> per

[Marxism] Fwd: H-Net Review [H-War]: Fialka on Mendez, 'A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War'

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
- - -
Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via 
https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/

Begin forwarded message:

> From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW 
> Date: March 19, 2020 at 8:58:49 AM EDT
> To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> Cc: H-Net Staff 
> Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]:  Fialka on Mendez, 'A Great Sacrifice: 
> Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War'
> Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org
> 
> James Mendez.  A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their 
> Families, and the Experience of Civil War.  New York  Fordham 
> University Press, 2019.  262 pp.  $35.00 (paper), ISBN 
> 978-0-8232-8249-4.
> 
> Reviewed by Andrew Fialka (Middle Tennessee State University)
> Published on H-War (March, 2020)
> Commissioned by Margaret Sankey
> 
> Despite emphasizing "sacrifice" in the title, James G. Mendez 
> ultimately tells a positive story of black Union soldiers and their 
> families, one of resilient devotion and service in the face of 
> racism, financial strain, and atypical violence. The statistics on 
> Northern black volunteers who enlisted "in proportionately greater 
> numbers than white volunteers ... [or] 15 percent of the [North's] 
> entire black population," are all the more impressive when juxtaposed 
> with their family's empty bank accounts, rumbling bellies, fear from 
> race riots, and desperate pleas for relief (p. 43). Combined with the 
> Confederacy's threats to send black troops into slavery or execute 
> black prisoners of war and the very well-documented massacres of 
> black soldiers, Mendez shows how great these men and their families' 
> sacrifices were, indeed.   
> 
> Mendez's work is soundly structured, following current trends in the 
> field to meld the battlefield and home front and take seriously Union 
> occupation during Reconstruction. Mendez's inclusion of black women's 
> voices throughout an expanded time frame is particularly intriguing. 
> He devotes time to explain Northern blacks' prewar "activist 
> environment" in which they confronted the "white establishment and 
> actively work[ed] to secure their rights" (p. 13). He also unveils 
> dozens of black women's struggles to secure their husbands' bounty 
> payments and back pay during the war, as well as widow pensions long 
> after the war. In doing so, Mendez stacks up more evidence in support 
> of black soldiers, veterans, and their families "asserting what they 
> felt were their rights" and achieving "nearly full participation as 
> citizens" (p. 6).  
> 
> Along with family, money (or the lack thereof) plays a central role 
> in _A Great Sacrifice_. Three issues in particular permeate the book: 
> unequal pay with white soldiers, the army's failure to pay on time, 
> and blacks' inability to secure their volunteer bounties. All three 
> drastically affected black soldiers' family's precarious financial 
> situations while they already dealt with the loss of their main 
> breadwinner and limited access to philanthropic and state relief 
> funds (as with the three hundred black Philadelphians who rushed to 
> join the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiments and therefore 
> "became ineligible for financial relief from their home state," p. 
> 70). Problems with money dominate black family members' letters to 
> the Union military; Mendez's pages are full of quotes from letters 
> asking for discharges so soldiers can come home to work, requesting 
> information on when their husbands could expect their paychecks, and 
> submitting documentation for pensions. 
> 
> The book is at its best when sticking to its intended purpose of 
> analyzing "the effects of the Civil War on northern black families as 
> they sacrificed for a Union victory" and drawing from its largest 
> primary source base of letters Northern black women wrote to Union 
> military officials (p. 2). Alas, the book is less successful in 
> presenting "the interrelation of the battlefront and the Union home 
> front," mainly because it is unclear what audience Mendez is 
> targeting (p. 3). The forcefully written introduction clearly lays 
> out a historiographical argument for an academic audience while 
> entire chapter's worth of historical context from secondary sources 
> is much better suited for a popular audience. Long descriptions of 
> the 54th Massachusetts's regimental history, the inner workings of 
> the Fugitive Slave Act, and traditional military history feel 
> redundant to the Civil War historian. In trying to appeal to both 
> audiences, Mendez has done full service to neither. However, my 
> issues with these editorial decisions 

[Marxism] Crop-protecting insects could be turned into bioweapons, critics warn | Science | AAAS

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/crop-protecting-insects-could-be-turned-bioweapons-critics-warn

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[Marxism] The Enduring Racialization of the Roma and the Banality of Evil | Lefteast

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/radicalization-roma-hungary/

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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Are scientists above class interests?

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 3/19/20 5:04 AM, RKOB via Marxism wrote:


“But many scientists support this!” Is it really the case that 
scientists are above classes and class interests? 



I know that one scientist is above class interests. His Marxist politics 
have prevented him from getting a cushy job. I speak of Rob Wallace, who 
is a FB friend and author of books and articles on agriculture and 
epidemiology, including this:


https://secure-web.cisco.com/1DVhuP2i7SBGLv68K9O6KABC3jEBWa8udfaEVihNJpQuGCLuEmdBye-oPttl7I7UGEgbcf_us1_cgA3Q9jIRjToIVu7_xWkE4rG5LMuWG4RtYf7KPfgO1Bx4bpcSxmW-fN9aSXYGeeZ4eIS_6K6EGF9Ht6MwRfhsokIUJdhIzH_uFBpJjKqfqF8KX1_jZdTTBMHjDNChARKTQv13x-rKUCFE6CGZAn8zEJ9J9R-bqiZOrE2aO68l2nztjgSMRM-Ec9t7luplB-Fazm32gZy0YvQolCpf4yx3wmD7Eseu2pK0Gn9s7YbNulmAJu9n5JumJX6zf6hq6-Tjjdjqo_3A0ZTHivueYAhmkTuM6hzbhfE2ZK7yR3TOjudryf1MQ6klY/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.counterpunch.org%2F2020%2F02%2F24%2Fconnecting-the-coronavirus-to-agriculture%2F

He has also posted this on FB. You'll note that he describes home 
quarantine, etc. as the "best-case scenario" for preventing deaths. For 
my own sake at least, I will be following his lead:


The death load I quote below is for the best-case scenario under 
mitigation strategies alone: case isolation, home quarantine, and social 
distancing of the elderly. The authors do not offer an estimate when 
adding a suppression strategy of, for instance, closing schools and 
universities. However, as we are unlikely to match the best of either 
strategies, the death toll will likely still shock us. Especially as we 
have orders fewer critical care beds available than COVID-19 cases 
likely to come.



Prepare for the worst.

Neil Ferguson's modeling group out of Imperial College has some very bad 
news http://secure-web.cisco.com/193nZo89C_ZrsNaNWupN009tnZ7aWrGt-ovYQZwX8DXOnCQcKFqFb4EHvbI7m-V-UiN5zIwAxMiFY-um211L-xcO5y5hg-ANyb87kZM6HCAGbf4oLxeUsK8twbzs086VQaEmXBc3LcY54AECKX2HH6qO3m89FedsKUoZ9bL8dchcXGSL5b2Sb3i9d1LwT2zplevLvCz9JS1vuLwyM-R8pMct8oMKWn3bGawaLgRgK5PuFBO4403io8ozHvEKwLGArpCC3ka9Omf68iFfFohXsZeaAlHvJF_dG5bBxGB7YrDfqgSgD8rD447S6Yv5YbWOD02rn9rRIAcPcI2DIsSoox97-4PT5RjcmO6Mli13-g7WNgVRWoCREfKcmrYl41wqS/http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F33lM7CE%3A


"Perhaps our most significant conclusion is that mitigation is unlikely 
to be feasible without emergency surge capacity limits of the UK and US 
healthcare systems being exceeded many times over. In the most effective 
mitigation strategy examined, which leads to a single, relatively short 
epidemic (case isolation, household quarantine and social distancing of 
the elderly), the surge limits for both general ward and ICU beds would 
be exceeded by at least 8-fold under the more optimistic scenario for 
critical care requirements that we examined. In addition, even if all 
patients were able to be treated, we predict there would still be in the 
order of 250,000 deaths in GB, and 1.1-1.2 million in the US."


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[Marxism] bellingcat - How Coronavirus Scammers Hide On Facebook And YouTube - bellingcat

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-world/2020/03/19/how-coronavirus-scammers-hide-on-facebook-and-youtube/

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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

[RKOB via Marxism]

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I certainly accept that several comrades participating in this 
discussion (mostly living in North America) have a different point of view.


I am also aware that the pressure of the public opinion is currently 
extremely strong. Many modern Marxists have looked with ridicule to the 
European social democrats who wavered in summer 1914. But they could not 
imagine the immense pressure of public opinion which existed at that 
time (and which was shared and supported, by the way, by most scientists).


As a result, many of the left (who have a radical point of view about … 
what should have been done in 1914 when they were not born) share the 
idea today that this time really we should accept being imprisoned at 
home and not fight against the ruling class. This time, the rulers 
surely will not lie because they also want to fight the pandemic.


“But many scientists support this!” Is it really the case that 
scientists are above classes and class interests? Is it really the case 
that all scientists support mass lock down? Well, everyone with some 
interest in the issue can see that this is not the case. I for my side 
listen to my comrades with medical knowledge. And, fortunately, I have 
also the chance to hear about the political discussions from my comrades 
in very different countries – from South Korea to Mexico and from 
Britain to Kenya. This allows me having a better understanding about 
global discussions (and not only those in the imperialist West).


It was never my intention to push anyone to go on the street. Every one 
shall be free to stay home. People who want to lock themselves up should 
do so. It is just annoying to hear self-proclaimed Marxists supporting 
the measures of the ruling class to forbid anyone to fight on the 
streets as it happened until very recently in France, Chile, and many 
other countries. And all this at a moment when a new 1929 takes place 
before our eyes! (And is it really accidental that the bourgeoisie 
imposes these measures at exactly the same time as we have a new 1929?! 
Is no one suspicious about the timing?! And this from people who 
consider themselves as intellectuals and academics!)


Allow me to predict that the bourgeoisie will say for quite some time 
that there should be no mass demonstrations. Surely, only for health 
risks reason. And, guess what, there will be a number of scientists who 
will support this. Guess who pays them?! And during all this time, when 
we are locked up for weeks and months, they will advance their 
counter-revolutionary agenda (from austerity to surveillance etc.)


So when will you support mass actions again? Probably when most of the 
left will do so. Because than it would be not “sectarian” to call for 
this. And when will the left call for mass action? Probably when 
Sanders, Corbyn etc. think it is OK. Because than it would be not 
“sectarian” for them to call for this. And when will Sanders and Corbyn ….


Finally, the South Koreans demonstrated that it is possible to fight the 
COVID-19 epidemic with mass and free testing, with free health care, 
with basic rules for hygiene but without mass lock down. I am sure that 
the virus in South Korea is not less aggressive and transmittable than 
in the U.S.! South Korea succeeded in this DESPITE a reactionary 
evangelic cult which (deliberately or reckless) spread the virus as much 
as possible. The acts of such a criminal cult made it even more 
difficult for South Korea to fight the epidemic (the cult leader, a 
self-proclaimed brother of Jesus, told his supporters not to cooperate 
with the health service and not to tell them where they had been, i.e. 
whom they might have infected). Why do comrades still claim that the 
reactionary lock down policy is TINA (“There Is No Alternative”)? If 
comrades support the lock down policy, they should at least not also 
lock down their brain!


Am 18.03.2020 um 23:10 schrieb 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