CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM

P. GREANVILLE—The 3M™ N95 masks (model 1860) are cleared for use as surgical masks and are approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The union launched an exhaustive search for masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) five days ago in response to pleas from frontline healthcare workers that they need more protection and feel unsafe on the job as they treat the growing number of COVID-19 patients. SEIU-UHW has 97,000 members who work in hospitals across California.

VIJAY PRASAD—Meanwhile on 19 March, Marco Rivadeneira, an important leader of the agricultural worker and peasant movement in Colombia, was in a meeting with peasants in the municipality of Puerto Asís. Three armed men burst into the meeting, seized Marco, and assassinated him. He is one of more than a hundred leaders of popular movements who has been assassinated this year in Colombia, and one of 800 murdered since 2016 when the civil war was suspended.

MICHAEL K. SMITH—The grossly exploitative nature of gig employment is nowhere more apparent than in the current crisis of Uber drivers during the corona virus pandemic. The unofficial “plan” is to let these drivers work right up to the moment they get sick, then hope they don’t die as they shelter in place at home awaiting a compensation check based on their collapsed earnings. In short, a token tiny payment inside a get-well card. 

DANNY HAIPHONG—calling the U.S. the failed state delegitimizes the imperial narrative that prevents the people from learning key lessons from countries constantly disparaged as “authoritarian,” “dictatorships,” and the like. COVID-19 proves that the United States’ war on the world is a drag on humanity. China’s ability to curtail the rapid spread of the virus over the course of two months showed the world what a functioning centralized state can do in service of the people.

HIROYUKI HAMADA—Since people’s minds and their collective mode of operations are deeply indoctrinated to be a part of the capitalist structure, any crisis would strengthen the fundamental integrity of the structure.  I heard a Trump supporter saying that “people should be shaking up a little”. That’s actually a very appropriate description.  You shake their ground, people try to hold onto whatever they think is a solid structure. Some of us might however try to hold onto a Marxist perspective for example. That of course provokes triggering reactions by those who go along with the capitalist framework, because they are particularly threatened, sensing that their entire belief system might fall.