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Contents feature
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Bernie Sanders and the End of Neoliberalism
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Editorial
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South Korea:
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Keynesianism and the Crisis of Capitalism Capitalism’s COVID-19 Catastrophe Model for COVID-19 Response? Governments Seize On Covid 19 to Extend Repressive Powers Capitalism and COVID-19:
We Need a Planned 28 Why Economy
reviews
32 No Shortcuts 39
The Socialist Manifesto By Bhaskar Sunkara By Jane McAlevy
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Editorial
Trump Pushes to Reopen No Matter the Human Toll Encourages Right-Wing Protests Kelly Bellin
D
ue to the coronavirus health and economic crisis, more than 30 million Americans have now filed for unemployment in the span of six weeks. This significantly understates the situation. Millions who applied for unemployment weeks ago have yet to receive payments. Millions of gig workers and “independent contractors,” representing over 30% of the U.S. workforce, are still in limbo despite Congress including them in the expansion of unemployment benefits. And millions of undocumented workers have no perspective of ever being able to apply at all. Widespread fear of being unable to afford essentials like food is already a reality for many, as food banks face skyrocketing demand and mass shortages. The majority of renters in the U.S. could not afford to pay April rent by the start of the month, and for those depending on stimulus money to afford May rent, millions are now navigating delays and uncertainty around when or if they will see stimulus money at all. As many frontline workers and others are paying for this avoidable health crisis with their lives, and intense fear of economic disaster grips millions, a debate has opened up in U.S. society around when it would be safe to lift shelter-inplace measures and re-open non-essential businesses.
Trump Eggs on Reactionary Protests
Over the last weeks, a small but very prominent wave of reactionary protests has spread across the country, demanding that the restrictions in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 are lifted. These protests, often taking place outside state capitol buildings or governors’ mansions, have featured slogans such as “live free or die in lockdown” and “give me liberty or give me COVID-19.” While tapping into very real economic hardship and fears, the rallying cry of these protests is the shocking claim that an increase in COVID-19 deaths is worth the benefits of reopening the economy. These reactionary, right-wing protests are a clear reflec-
tion of the political polarization in society, but they do not represent mass sentiment. In fact, the vast majority of Americans do not believe that it is yet safe to lift shelter-in-place measures. A recent Washington Post poll found that only 1% of people believe that it has already been safe enough to lift restrictions, an additional 9% believe it would be safe by the end of April, and 86% believe it will not be safe until the end of May or much later. These figures are not a surprise, as states across the country continue to see their highest-ever days of deaths and new cases of coronavirus. More than 20 states now have over 10,000 confirmed cases (8 have over 30,000), even while many of those who are sick are told to stay away from hospitals and forgo testing altogether due to the incapacity of the for-profit health care system to adequately treat this crisis. Increasingly, more and more Americans know someone who has contracted or has died from COVID-19, which makes the current health measures widely popular. Shelter-in-place orders, which more than 95% of Americans have been under since the end of March, are necessary under the current state of the COVID-19 crisis only because of the criminal misleadership of the ruling class. As international examples and epidemiological professionals point to, aggressive and widespread testing from the very beginning of this crisis, with contact tracing and quarantines where outbreaks occurred, could have protected the vast majority of those who are sick and who have died from COVID-19. Flowing from this, the necessity of mass lockdowns could have been avoided in the first place. Despite years of scientific warnings, there was no real plan in place to combat a health crisis of this magnitude. A stark example of the complete lack of preparedness, often pointed to by frontline healthcare workers, is the absurd scarcity of necessary medical equipment to treat those with COVID-19, despite billions of dollars in annual profits going to the very top of the healthcare industry. The profit-based U.S. healthcare system has made this crisis all the worse, necessitating the stark measures that significant sections of big business
Editorial
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Health care worker in Denver, CO blocks a car of protestors demanding Colorado’s reopening. now oppose. On the basis of public health and saving lives, there is no question that forcing people back to work and lifting coronavirus measures at this stage is playing with fire. Perhaps the most prominent opposition to the recent coronavirus protests has been frontline health care workers themselves, who will treat those who contract coronavirus in the wake of prematurely lifting shelter-in-place orders. There are several epidemiological models, which make estimates about how many people are likely to get sick, need a hospital bed or die from COVID-19, with different estimates of the severity of this first wave of coronavirus in the U.S. Yet all these models are based on continued shelter-in-place measures and aggressive testing, as there is broad scientific agreement these measures are absolutely central to preventing an even bigger outbreak.
Trump’s Criminal Negligence
Despite being in direct contradiction to health experts, scientists, and what the majority of Americans see as necessary, Trump has repeatedly supported and encouraged the reactionary fringe protests to lift COVID-19 protections. From his hyperbolic tweets calling to “LIBERATE” swing-states from the grips of shelter-in-place to White House adviser Stephen Moore repeatedly declaring these protestors “the modern day Rosa Parks,” the Trump administration has a laser focus on whipping up a narrow reactionary base, which coincides with the outlook of a section of the ruling class, and instilling con-
fusion around COVID-19. There’s no doubt that Trump’s priority is to reopen the economy without taking measures that would protect workers from COVID-19. Meat-processing plants have become a hot spot nationally for coronavirus infection, so much so that an estimated 33% of U.S. meatpacking capacity has been destroyed following mass COVID-19 infection of the workforce, forcing more than a dozen plants to shut down. Rather than taking drastic action to produce protective equipment or forcing companies to provide safe working conditions, Trump has now invoked the Defense Production Act, mandating that meat-processing plants reopen and stay open, immediately. This mandate is paired with providing protection, again not for the workers themselves, but to shield companies from legal liability for workers contracting COVID-19 on the job. Meanwhile, meat processing workers have no interest in going back to dangerous work conditions. One even asked of Trump’s plan “I’m still trying to figure out: What is he going to do, force them to stay open? Force people to go to work?” This situation is set to continue the workplace struggles that have happened throughout this crisis. Trump’s disastrous approach to the coronavirus crisis has already done enough damage. No doubt the constant spread of misinformation – for example stating from early on that the coronavirus was under control in the U.S. or his recent statement that injecting disinfectant may be an effective treatment – has contributed to the mass fear and confusion around