April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 1

SOCIALIST Capitalism’s Bailout Solution for the COVID-19: Rich ACTION See page 4 VOL. 38, NO.4, APRIL 2020 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG. U.S $1 / CANADA $2

CAPITALISM IS THE VIRUS!

Nurses and their supporters protest the lack of personal protection equipment outside Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, Calif., on March 23, 2020. Chronicle Francisco Gonzalez/San Avila Carlos Pandemic explodes, Bail out working people, economy tanks not the corporate elite! BY JEFF MACKLER AND JAMES FORTIN unprecedented multi-trillion dollar sums The U.S. Senate’s March 25, $2 trillion to the 1 percent. BY JAMES FORTIN ical gloves, gowns and masks. But the Not a single Senator thought to divide Chinese government’s quarantine re- 97-0, COVID-19 corporate bailout vote [Editor’s note: The following article gifted the ruling rich an amount never ex- the 880-page package into distinct com- has been significantly edited due to lack sponse was radical, massive and effec- ponents that would embarrassingly ex- tive. ceeded in world history. The overwhel- of space. For the full text see socialistac- ming portion went directly into the pose exactly who got what. One lying tion.org.] Now the shoe is on the other foot and Democrat did note that in the panic rush the ruling class is prepared to sacrifice coffers of the billionaire elite for whom Now that the COVID-19 contagion has the lives of literally millions of Ameri- to approval no one challenged a pro- spread to the four corners of the globe, lives – certainly not theirs! – to protect vision that banned funding and/or forgiv- their system. cans are subordinate to their horror at the unpreparedness of the capitalist state seeing their casino capitalism stock mar- able grants to abortion rights groups like and the outright disregard by the ruling As of this writing (March 24), Trump Planned Parenthood. has refused to implement the Defense ket and associated paper fortunes evapo- class for the fate of the working people rate to the tune of 30 percent in a matter Days before, anticipating a first quarter, of the United States has come into full Production Act, which he activated on Jan.-Mar. Gross Domestic Product March 18. The law would give the gov- of days. view. Underscoring a perfect-storm sce- That some qualifying two-person work- (GDP) decline of 10 percent, followed by nario is the certain emerging global cap- ernment the authority to order any list of an estimated 25 percent or more GDP de- private companies to produce the protec- ing class households are to receive one- italist recession and the pain it will inflict time payments of $2,400 along with cline during the following quarter as the on the working class. tive items desperately needed by the doc- economy continued its free fall descent, tors, nurses and others on the pandemic promised temporary waivers of debt pay- From the very first U.S. confirmed case ments owed to the federal government the ruling class debated strategies to pre- of coronavirus infection, announced in front lines. Instead, Trump says the pri- serve their fortunes. vate sector will voluntarily produce these and other short term measures aimed at Washington State on January 21 to March modest and temporary relief for working The initial orientation, represented by 24, little more than a 60-day period, the (continued on Page 6) people was subordinate to guaranteeing the Donald Trump wing, considered eas- pandemic numbers have grown to 63,000 ing the increasingly stringent “shelter-in- total infections and 900 deaths. The U.S. place” restrictions that aimed at is on track to have the worst public health The demise of Bernie Sanders eventually slowing the spread of disaster in its history, and perhaps an eco- COVID-19. Sending workers, their per- nomic catastrophe replicating the Great BY JEFF MACKLER the U.S. imperialist war ma- ceived wage slaves, back to work while Depression. Bernie Sanders, face to chine and its deadly sanc- the COVID-19 curve was on the rise in In New York alone, the hardest hit state, face on March 16 with his tions murdered 1.5 million order to keep the wheels of their pred- Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on often-proclaimed “friend,” Iraqis. That, too, Sanders left atory system turning was initially their March 24 that the number of new cases Joe Biden, could only assert unmentioned. Nor did he first choice. has doubled every three days. that “Joe,” voted for the note that Iraq’s President The massive cost in millions of lives When the coronavirus pandemic was 2003 Iraq War. Saddam Hussein never had was but a secondary consideration, if at almost wholly found in China the tone of True! Sanders scored a “weapons of mass destruc- all. Said Trump, “We cannot let the cure reporting from the New York Times, debater’s point that a well- tion” that he was supposedly be worse than the problem itself.” The Washington Post and others was undis- scripted and lying Biden brushed off in planning to unleash against the U.S. “problem,” of course, was the massive guised smugness. (See March. 2020 So- a few words. Sanders left it at that. Tel- This demonizing and manufactured evaporation of their profits. All capitalists cialist Action). China was attacked as evision debates are rarely meant for his- pretext, deployed with the entire corpo- understand that these are derived from being backward for having a virus in the torical clarification of events long past, rate media in tow, was employed to the exploitation of human labor. first place. even if the subject is genocidal war. launch the most intensive bombing cam- Earlier versions of capitalism’s life and The Chinese were certainly unpre- Following Biden’s “mistaken” vote, (continued on page 3 pared, as evidenced by insufficient med- (continued on page 7

INSIDE Embassy defenders win mistrial -2 Monsanto - 5 Indigenous fight in Canada — 9 IDemise of Bernie Sanders - 3 COVID-19 — 6 & 7 VJulian Assange, Chelsea Manning - 10 SOCIALIST ACTION Bailout the Rich? -4 Northern Lights - 8 Cuba sets example for solidarity- 12 April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 2

System Change, Embassy defenders win mistrial WHERE TO FIND US Not Climate but struggle continues Brunswick, MAINE [email protected] BY KEVIN ZEESE for Venezuelans because they also Change! AND MARGARET FLOWERS have elections as they did in May of 2018 where President Maduro won 67 Buffalo, NEW YORK CLIMATE CRISIS COMMENTARY Last month, we along with Adrienne [email protected] Pine and David Paul were unsuccess- percent in a five-candidate field. B Y JAMES FORTIN fully prosecuted by the Trump admin- That election had more than 300 in- Central NEW JERSEY Australia still has dinosaurs. We did- istration for our protection of the ternational election observers who [email protected] n’t know what to make of this when we Venezuelan embassy in Washington, concluded it met all the requirements (609) 954-1872 heard it. Thinking fossilized, we were D.C., from April 10 to May 16, 2019— for democratic elections under inter- mostly right. The “dinosaurs” were ac- 37 days. national law. Chicago, ILLINOIS tually “dinosaur trees,” the very last re- The jury was unable to reach a unan- Kevin Zeese was in Venezuela for P.O Box 578428 [email protected] maining stand of prehistoric trees on imous decision and so we remain inno- the election and reported it was a well- that continent, heroically saved by fire- cent of the charge of “interfering with run election far superior to many U.S. fighters during the recent Australian the protective functions of the U.S. De- elections – especially the Iowa Cau- Detroit, MICHIGAN [email protected] wildfires. But it isn’t the trees that are partment of State.” The judge declared cus! fossilized, it’s the Australian political a mistrial. It was a partial victory. The U.S. charade claiming Guaido is leadership. They still deny that climate We appreciate the jurors who were the president and the judge refusing to Kansas City, MISSOURI challenge that fiction has dangerous [email protected] change exists. Dinosaurs. able to see through the cloud of misin- (816) 221-3638 Lighting up for climate. A Colorado formation in the courtroom and vote to and deadly consequences. The U.S. brewery is testing technology that acquit us. violated international laws when it in- vaded the Venezuelan Embassy in Lexington, Kentucky would capture carbon dioxide emitted After the trial, half the jury stayed [email protected] during fermentation. The CO2 would behind to answer questions from the Washington, D.C. and handed it over be chilled into a liquid and delivered to lawyers and the judge. What stood out to the leaders of a failed coup. The U.S. signaled to other countries Louisville, KENTUCKY pot-growing facilities where it would in their answers was confusion. The ju- [email protected] be released to speed photosynthesis of rors asked, “Why did you go there in that centuries of practice that uphold the plants. Ultimately, the goal is to May when the new president, Juan the inviolability of embassies no longer matter. It also signaled that elec- Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN spread the use of the process to avoid [email protected] spewing 1 billion tons of carbon diox- Taking judicial notice tions don’t matter. The U.S. believes it ide into the atmosphere by 2030. that Guaido is can decide who is the leader of another New York City Knowing this mellows many right-out. country and hand over the assets of Venezuela’s president that country to whomever it chooses. (212) 781-5157 Bill McKibben, 350.org founder, on when in the real world he A major goal of our action to protect why fossil fuel divestment: “Because OREGON money is the oxygen on which the fires is not, made this a the Venezuelan Embassy in Washing- ton, D.C., was to raise awareness that [email protected] of global warming burn. We’ve done a political case based on (503) 910-5988 good job fighting the fossil fuel indus- the U.S. was escalating its lawless ac- falsehoods. tions. [email protected] try head on, but it’s always going to be (971) 312-7369 a tenacious battle. Exxon doesn’t know Interference in the elections of how to do anything else, so they will Guaido, came to power in January?” another country, threats of military in- In the courtroom, the jury was told vasion and the imposition of coercive Norfolk, VIRGINIA fight to the last bridge. But the big [email protected] banks, asset managers, and insurance that Juan Guaido was the president of economic measures (aka sanctions) are companies? They’re just trying to make Venezuela. violations of the United Nations Bay Area, CALIFORNIA a little more money off the destruction While many have criticized Judge Charter. Failing to protect embassies Beryl Howell for that ruling, in reality, violates the Vienna Convention. P.O. Box 10328 Oakland, CA 94610 of the earth… But it’s simply not OK for [email protected] she was reflecting U.S. law, which The Embassy Protection Collective, them and Liberty Mutual and Black- (510) 268-9429 Rock and the rest to keep trying to cash says the U.S. president determines composed of hundreds of activists for in on climate destruction.” whom the U.S. recognizes as the leader peace and justice, did prevent the em- of a foreign government. North Bay, CALIFORNIA No hopping around the facts. An en- bassy in Washington, D.C. from being Taking judicial notice that Guaido is [email protected] vironmental engineering professor at given to the coup-supporters. It is Venezuela’s president when in the real the University of California, Davis, says empty today. world he is not, made this a political consuming liquor has less of an envi- April 24 has been set for a hearing case based on falsehoods. ronmental impact than drinking beer, wherein the government will decide to Socialist Action The judge explained that “elections mostly as a result of the refrigeration pursue a new trial, drop the charges or have consequences” as they grant this needed for beer but not for spirits. The offer a plea bargain compromise for CANADA and other powers to the president. greenhouse gas emissions from pro- the consideration of the four defen- [email protected] Judge Howell’s comment was ironic n ducing one six-pack is about equal to dants. driving a car eight miles. The profes- sor’s conclusion: When you drink booze, you drive less. And then there is enlightened Idaho. Join Socialist Action! Boise, Idaho has been ranked 13th on Socialist Action is a national organization of activists committed to the emancipation of workers and the oppressed. We the list of fastest-warming cities in the strive to revitalize the antiwar, environmental, labor, anti-racist, feminist, student, and other social movements with a mass- U.S. by Climate Central, outpacing action perspective. Recognizing the divisions that exist on the left and within the workers’ movement, we seek to form places like Houston and Minneapolis. united front type organizations around specific issues where a wide range of groups have agreement. In this way we seek Yet even as 97% of climate scientists to maximize our impact and demonstrate the power and effectiveness of mass action. agree that human-caused climate In the process we hope to bring activists together from different backgrounds into a revolutionary workers’ party that change is occurring, only 25 percent of can successfully challenge the wealthy elite – whose profit-based system is driving down living standards and threatens Idaho Republicans concur. Little all life on this planet. wonder that Idaho stands alone as the We are active partisans of the working class and believe in the need for independent working-class politics – not alliances only state to strike climate change from its classroom teaching guidelines. with the bosses’ parties. That is why we call for workers in the U.S. to break from the Democratic and Republican parties to build a labor party based on democratic fighting trade unions in alliance with the oppressed and exploited. More Signs of the Times. A recent cli- We support the struggle of those who are specially oppressed under capitalism – women, LGBTQI people, national minor- mate supporter in Seattle provides this - poster advice to the town’s bankers: “U ities, etc. We support the right of self-determination for oppressed nationalities, including Blacks, Chicanos, and Puerto Ri cannot breathe money.” And in Rio de cans. We are internationalists, and hold that workers of one country have more in common with workers of another than Janeiro another climate defender pro- with their own nation’s capitalist class. We seek to link struggles across national boundaries, and to build an international vided an educational illustration: a sign revolutionary movement that will facilitate the sharing of experiences and political lessons. We maintain fraternal relations that said “Rio 2050” and showing the with the Fourth International. city’s landmarks underwater, with the Socialist Action believes that the capitalist state and its institutions are instruments of the ruling class, and that therefore iconic Christ the Redeemer statue’s they cannot be used as tools of the working class but have to be abolished and replaced with institutions of direct working head poking out. class rule. That is why we fight for revolution. When we fight for specific reforms, we do so with the understanding that in Certainly nothing uncertain about the final analysis real social change can only come about with the overthrow of capitalism, the establishment of a workers’ this “uncertainty.” Interior Depart- government and the fight for socialism. Our ultimate goal is a truly democratic, environmentally sustainable, and egalitarian ment Deputy Secretary Indur Goklany society organized to satisfy human needs rather than corporate greed. We invite you to join us in the struggle to make the was appointed by Donald Trump to world a better place! “review” the agency’s climate policies. For info about Socialist Action and how to join contact: Socialist Action National Office, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA, 94610 His simple plan? Fudge the reports. His or call (510) 268-9429, [email protected] method? Insert misleading language into scientific reports casting doubt on many elements of climate change. In- SOCIALIST ACTION Closing news date: March 31 , 2020 terior employees have mocked his ac- Editor: Michael Coyle Canada Editor: Barry Weisleder Socialist Action (ISSN) 0747-4237 is published monthly by Socialist Action Publishing Association, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. tivity as “Goks uncertainty language.” Postmaster: Send address changes to: Socialist Action, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610. RATES: For one year (12 issues, (1st class mail) — U.S., Canada, Mexico Certainly appears to be climate denial- — $20. All other countries —$30. Money orders and checks should be in U.S. dollars. ism. n Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of Socialist Action. These are expressed in editorials. 2 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2020 April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 3

war machine that could intervene into als obtainable, the weakest government ... demise of Bernie Sanders World War 2. With an estimated 60 mil- restrictions, and the highest profit rates. ((continued from page 1) lied about his record with impunity at lion dead by the war’s end in 1945 and Those capitalists that do otherwise are the infrastructure of U.S. allies and effectively, if not brutally driven from the paign in world history. every opportunity—fully cognizant that enemies, alike, in ruins, the intact U.S. in- marketplace. That the U.S. continues to occupy Iraq he had Sanders beaten—extended the olive branch to his bewildered friend dustrial behemoth emerged as the sole These irrefutable fundamentals of cap- also went unmentioned. Biden, and in- world superpower. Three quarters of a deed all the Democrats’ primary contest “Bernie,” so they could unite against italist production everywhere are of no Donald Trump. century later, war production stands at the concern to Sanders, for whom the class contenders, supported that war which center of U.S. capitalism’s “stability.” they now proclaim was a “mistake!” Said Biden a few days after the debate, struggle is to be subordinated to his “Let me say, especially to the young In a 2015 speech, Sanders stated that dreamlike fantasies where he promises And the Vietnam War that Sanders’ his politics “builds on what Franklin De- Democratic Party “friends” now admit voters who have been inspired by Senator today’s trade unions that he personally— Sanders: I hear you. I know what’s at lano Roosevelt said when he fought for not a fighting working class in alliance was also a “mistake?” Sanders declined guaranteed economic rights for all Amer- to comment, not even to make a debater’s stake. I know what we have to do. Our with the oppressed!—will “double union goal as a campaign and my goal as a can- icans.” In truth, the rights that workers membership.” point about this obvious hypocrisy. won in the 1930s and beyond emerged Sanders’ list of items to score points didate for president is to unify this party Sanders will tour nation for Biden and then to unify the nation.” from pitched battles with the boss class against Biden did include the latter’s aimed at the unionization of capitalism’s Sanders and his “political revolution” sponsorship of the infamous and racist Sanders imminent withdrawal major industries are now dead in the water. His multi-tril- mass-incarceration-oriented 1994 crime The 1,991 delegates Sanders needs to Sanders’ 2015 speech continued, “So lion-dollar paper proposals did have the bill: the Violent Crime Control and Law win the Democrat’s nomination at its the next time you hear me attacked as a effect of inspiring a radicalizing genera- Enforcement Act. But Biden blithely summer convention are all but out of socialist, remember this: I don’t believe tion—who face a bleak—to question “the dodged that debater’s point because reach. Biden currently leads in pledged the government should own the means of system” and to search for solutions that Sanders declined to drive his point home by explaining how millions of poor and oppressed people were herded into the nation’s racist, increasingly privatized prison-industrial complex as a result. Mute on Cuba and Nicaragua The March 16 televised debate spec- tacle included Bernie Sanders’ failure to counter Biden’s accusations that Sanders supported the “authoritarian govern- ments” of Cuba and the Sandinistas of Nicaragua. That the U.S. armed and fi- nanced the brutal Mafia-connected Ful- gencio Batista dictatorship was not mentioned. That revolutionary Cuba, under Fidel Castro, defeated and removed that gov- ernment and proceeded to conduct the largest land reform in the modern era, na- tionalized capitalist property and used it for the common good; or that Cuba’s lit- eracy campaign and free healthcare for all system are the envy of the world’s people—were not mentioned by the “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders. Biden emerged unscathed because Sanders accepted his “authoritarian” red- delegates 1,132 to 817. Sanders’ fundrais- production, but I do believe that the mid- appear to challenge the status quo. His baiting without protest. He stood mute on ing efforts have all but ceased. His aides dle class and working families who pro- use of the term “socialism,” however national television while the imperialist daily proclaim that he is “assessing his duce the wealth of America deserve a fair much his politics have nothing to do with warmaker and Vice Presidential accom- options.” deal. I believe in private companies that its liberating, humane and majority class plice in Obama’s seven wars pilloried Some Sanders’ advisers indicated that thrive and invest and grow in America in- content, served to open the minds of mil- him for refusing to denounce Cuba and he intended to stay in the race to affect stead of shipping jobs and profits over- lions to further investigation. Nicaragua. Sanders was at a lost for the Democratic Party platform at the na- seas.” But like all “good Democrats,” Sanders words when Biden demanded that he re- tional convention and to continue his will soon tour the nation on behalf of a nounce the revolutions that removed Simply put, Sanders, in his own words, “political revolution.” Sanders did this man whose policies he has long repudi- these former U.S. neo-colonies from the is no socialist! There is no socialism in after losing to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 ated and whose ingrained hatred of so- imperialist orbit. the framework of a capitalist society primary race. where an elite handful of multi-billion- cialist revolution has been evidenced That Nicaragua’s U.S.-backed Anasta- The Democratic Party’s platform, aires own and control more wealth than throughout his career. sio Somoza dictatorship murdered 80,000 adopted during its convention proceed- the combined holding of the majority of Sanders’ proposed “solutions” were Nicaraguans in its final months in 1979 ings, is worth less than the paper it is the population. based on herding the innocent, and the went unmentioned by Sanders. That the printed on. The real platform of the Dem- Sanders’ so-called democratic socialism not so innocent groups on the left, into U.S. invaded Cuba in 1961, introduced ocrats, and the Republicans, however, is consists in his campaign pledge to tax the the graveyard of the Democratic Party dengue hemorrhagic fever in 1981, and decided behind closed doors by the direct wealth of the super-rich at the rate of one where the “left/progressive” and then swine flu that devastated Cuba’s pig representatives of the 1 percent, who percent, and impose this tax only on their right/centrist wings are indistinguishable population, and then a plague that devas- daily hammer out ruling class multi-tril- wealth that exceeds $32 million! Sanders regarding which class shall rule society. tated Cuba’s banana crop, went unmen- lion dollar budgets, trade agreements, proclaims that under his policy “a mar- All are dedicated to the imperialist sys- tioned. Add to this the innumerable corporate and bank bailouts and imperi- ried couple with $32.5 million would pay tem and its wars against working people attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, in- alist war strategies. a wealth tax of just $5,000.” Pocket at home and abroad. It has never been dubitably the most popular leader in the Sanders’ chief campaign strategist, Faiz change for billionaires! “There will al- otherwise. To think otherwise is pure uto- Western Hemisphere. Shakir, stated that “Sanders is focused on ways be billionaires in this country,” pianism. Sanders’ claimed longtime friend “Joe,” the government response to the corona- Sanders promises the ruling class. Indeed, Sanders and his supporters, the Obama’s anti-school-bussing, anti-abor- virus outbreak and ensuring that we take Sanders’ statement that “private com- AOC gang included, supported every tion, warmongering VP, was let off the care of working people and the most vul- panies that thrive and invest in America” Democratic Party candidate in the 2018 hook, except for Sanders’ staccato single- nerable.” Sanders is now calling for a are welcome as opposed to those that mid-term elections! They are pledged to phrase recitation of Biden’s “voting $2,000 monthly payment to every Amer- “ship jobs and profits overseas” is sheer do the same in 2020 when Biden will un- record,” which the lying Biden denied ican until the end of the COVID-19 pan- demagoguery. Leaving aside that any doubtedly be presented as the latest ver- and the corporate media dismissed as demic. Needless to say, Biden’s advisers self-respecting capitalist enterprise that sion of capitalism’s “lesser evils.” either irrelevant or long ago superseded will not be far behind Sanders’ paper pro- “thrives and grows” in the U.S. or any- For serious fighters today there is a se- by Biden’s more “progressive” views posals, none of which will see the light of where else in the world, does so at the ex- rious alternative. It lies in a commitment today. Why dwell in the past? day. pense of its always exploited workers, no to organize and mobilize working people Democrats &media close ranks Sanders is no socialist serious socialist advocates pitting foreign independently and in opposition to the There was no Sanders rage against the Media red-baiting notwithstanding, workers against U.S. workers. parties and polices of capitalism. It lies in iron-disciplined Democratic Party ma- Bernie Sanders is not now and has never We might add that even when U.S. cor- breaking with the two-party duopoly and chine that united to defeat him in 19 of been a socialist. Sanders has cast himself porations return their production to the fighting to re-build and transform the the past 24 primary contests. Gone in an in the tradition of Democrat President U.S. it is a qualitatively new production present labor movement into fighting or- instant were the likes of millionaire or Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his “New based on state-of-the-art factories where gans of struggle on behalf of the vast ma- billionaire racists and warmongers like Deal” politics that had the effect of sav- robots replace human beings en masse jority. Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Michael ing a failing Depression-era U.S. capital- and wages remain at near-poverty levels. Start today by joining a revolutionary Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and Elizabeth ism rather than abolishing it. Roosevelt’s That’s the nature of the system that socialist party that seeks to sink deep Warren, as they pulled out of the primar- social reforms were aimed at countering Sanders in incapable of addressing. The roots in all the struggles of the oppressed ies right before “Super Tuesday” and the deepening radicalization of U.S. entire complex of today’s globalized cap- and exploited! threw their support to Biden. workers, half of whom were unemployed italism, without exception, and in the Join Socialist Action! Donate to Social- No rage by Sanders against the servile or barely employed part time. context of ever-sharper and intensified ist Action’s Jeff Mackler for president in corporate media that red-baited Sanders Ultimately, FDR’s limited social “Re- competition, is compelled to operate with 2020 national campaign. socialistac- at will. Indeed, Biden, who repeatedly forms” transformed U.S. industry into a the cheapest labor force and raw materi- [email protected] socialistaction.org n SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2020 3 April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 4

BY JOHN POTTINGER Capitalism’s coronavirus response: Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap off tall buildings in a single bound! Su- perman? No, it’s the U.S. and the world Bail out the rich! capitalist economies. Or is it? As more states and more counties man- date stay-in-place orders, more and more people are out of jobs to the tune of per- haps 13 to 20 percent, compared to ten percent unemployment at the nadir of the 2008 Great Recession. In a record-setting economic retreat, over 3 million laid-off and furloughed workers applied for unemployment bene- fits the first week after the shelter-in- place order was announced. Additional millions were rendered par- tially employed. As for the Gross Domes- tic Product (GDP), an optimistic forecast (optimistic is a relative term) by Warwick McKibbin, an economist at the Australian National University who modeled the SARS pandemic, estimated that the coro- navirus might kill 236,000 people in the U.S. while shrinking the GDP by 2 per- cent. But if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention numbers are correct 1,000,000 people could die and the GDP could fall by 8.4 percent. Proofits before people Goldman Sachs, not to be outdone, said GDP could drop 24 percent for the second quarter. (Goldman Sachs counts dollars not lives.) Donald Trump suggests the same. Restart the economy by Easter, he tions’ line of credit? Will printing more states (NYT, March 25). Profits before So what’s the response from the money lead to inflation or perhaps an people! asset bubble more likely to burst? For now, millions of people are staying federal government? In other words, all this money being home with no paychecks. It means thrown at the capitalists over the course schools, libraries, restaurants, bars, all The Democrats and Republicans of time will end up in speculation—in sporting events, concerts, dentist offices, capitalism’s ever increasing casino-like barbers, hairdressers and many more are economy of over-priced shares, mort- closed. Better this, of course, than knee-jerk response is to throw gage-backed securities, assorted financial Trump’s unthinkable back to work solu- instruments, and who knows what. The tions—at the peak of the curve! money at the big banks. capitalist could invest in making widgets The pandemic also brought on a stock but with mass unemployment who will buy them? market crash which means among other mortgage-backed securities—all with the capitalist press and the Democratic things that people who were going to buy printed paper money, as usual. and Republican party politicians seem to What now? In the short term working a house or a car or SUV, won’t be able to Meanwhile on Capital Hill, Congress think turning on the tap and printing people need a moratorium on all evic- do so because their down payment had approved a $2 trillion stimulus package; money is now OK. While $1,200 checks tions, foreclosures, rent, mortgages, util- been invested in the stock market—and $500 billion for “distressed companies,” are a start and more money for the poor ity payments, debt payments, credit card pity the workers and retirees who are de- like airlines, cruiselines and hotels, $100 and unemployed is good, where will the payments and student loan payments. pending on their 104ks for future income. billion for hospitals, $150 billion to state rest of the cash go? But we will never be really safe until So what’s the response from the federal and local governments, $350 billion in government? The Democrats and Repub- Will the airlines spend it on wages or the banks and big corporations are nation- loans for small businesses, oh, and yes, a perhaps on buying a “distressed compet- alized under the control of working licans knee-jerk response is to throw $1,200 to workers who make up to money at the big banks. itor?” Will it prioritize jobs that produce people, where we can collectively and $75,000, plus $500 per child. Don’t spend real value or the further concentration of democratically construct a planned econ- The New York Federal Reserve is offer- it all in one place. ing $1 trillion for overnight loans and $1 finance capital to eliminate competition omy that operates for human need not trillion more in 14-day loans—all for the Does stimulus mean inflation? to drive up declining profit rates? capitalist profit. corporate elite at near zero percent inter- So quite unlike Medicare for All propo- Where’s the $500 billion the Fed spent We need a workers’ government that est rates. The Fed is also buying $500 bil- sals, which are always attacked as being on Treasury bonds going? Are they going plans for socialism and for that we need lion in Treasury bonds and snapping up “unrealistic” because it can’t be paid for, to tip the waiter or fund the big corpora- a revolutionary party. Join us! n

former Union Army drummer boy who in lost their jobs and countless more will ... Cuba’s solidarity in COVID-19 fight 1868, at age 18, joined the Cuban Army lose theirs in the weeks to come. Home- (continued from page 12) team to Chile after a terrible earthquake of Liberation in their revolutionary war lessness—already over 550,000—will that killed 5,000 people. Following the against Spain and died in battle eight rise sharply. Prior to this crisis, almost 90 and 50 to Surinam, as well as Grenada Chernobyl disaster in 1990, Cuba has years later. million U.S. adults had no health insur- and Angola. flown 18,000 affected people to Cuba to In 2017, the World Health Organization ance or were underinsured. That number The government of Brazilian far-right be treated and cared for. The country has gave the Brigade a prestigious public will only rise with the massive layoffs President Jair Bolsonaro has had to re- also undertaken massive nationwide health award “in recognition of its emer- ahead. Working people will suffer pre- verse its expulsions of a large contingent gency medical assistance to more than ventable illnesses, be forced to ration or of Cuban doctors who in recent years Cuba faces the same 3.5 million people in 21 countries af- forego vital medicines like insulin, and be have provided much-needed health care fected by disasters and epidemics” in the bankrupted by medical bills. in poor and remote communities there. coronavirus disease, but it is 12 years since its founding. Instead of prioritizing human needs and Bolsonaro had denounced the doctors as not infected with the disease During the Ebola outbreak of 2014, saving lives, U.S. capitalists will use this fakes sent to “create guerilla cells and in- of capitalism. No Cubans Cuba sent over 460 doctors and nurses to crisis as an opportunity to deepen their doctrinate people” and kicked the vast lead the fight in West Africa against the exploitation of the working class, bailing majority of the 10,000-strong delegation will be without health care of out themselves from the public coffers the highest quality. disease. The Henry Reeve Brigade repre- out of the country. sented the single largest medical opera- while trying to reap new profits out of the However, with the rise of Covid-19, tion on the ground in Sierra Leone, hides of the workers. Bolsonaro has had to quickly backtrack, blood donation drives to support inter- Guinea and Liberia. Contrary to Joe Cuba faces the same coronavirus dis- allowing the remaining 1,800 Cuban doc- national disaster response efforts. Biden’s bluster in the recent Democratic ease, but it is not infected with the disease tors in the country to return to the com- Party debate, it was Cuba, not the U.S., of capitalism. No Cubans will be without In 2005, Cuba created the Henry Reeve health care of the highest quality. No Cu- munities they had previously served. On International Medical Brigade, a vol- that led the response to Ebola. Cuba sent March 15, Brazilian Secretary of Health doctors to heal patients with Ebola, while bans will be driven into homelessness, untary force of Cuban doctors who spe- joblessness, or crushing debt. No one will João Gabbardo asked Cuba to send back cialize in providing medical care in the U.S. only belatedly sent its army. to Brazil the 8,000 expelled doctors. go hungry in the service of a feasting disaster situations, such as epidemics and Only socialism can fix this crisis elite. Long History of Medical Solidarity natural disasters. The doctors now fight- We have already seen the failure of U.S. Nationalize the hospitals! Nationalize Cuba has a long history of sending doc- ing Covid-19 in Italy and elsewhere are capitalism in its inability to respond to the drug companies! Nationalize the med- tors around the world to serve in disaster part of this group. this coronavirus crisis. The fallout for ical suppliers! Nationalize the banks! End areas, going back to 1960, a year after the The group’s namesake Henry Reeve workers will be terrible. Thousands of the Embargo of Cuba and all U.S. sanc- revolution, when Cuba sent a medical was a 19th century American soldier, a Americans will die. Many have already tions! Free Universal Health Care Now!

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In the United States, things continue to Glyphosate-based Herbicides… work a little differently. “This is our sys- tem for ensuring that pesticides are safe,” concludes Conis. “They are innocent and Spray now, ask questions later on the market until proven guilty. Close relationships between industry and our regulatory agencies help keep BY MARK HARRIS tibiotics led to the phenomenon of anti- impact of high-level exposures in hu- biotic resistance, rendering many such mans, with only limited data available on them there. By the time enough inde- There’s a lot of talk in the Trump era pendent science has produced evidence about the “war on science.” But this war, drugs ineffective against infectious dis- the impact of long-standing, low-level ease, the extensive commercial use of exposures, such as might occur with res- of harm, it’s far too late to reverse the such as it is, extends far beyond unin- damage done.” formed Republican attacks on climate Roundup and similar products has en- idential lawn applications or from resi- gendered the emergence of glyphosate- dues in food, water, and air. Where is the democracy in this? Why change science or Donald Trump’s mock- should humans, wildlife, and the environ- tolerant weeds. In response, there’s thus In fact, it’s difficult for researchers to ing insults of Greta Thunberg, the teen ment be potentially put at risk by the far been a compensatory increase in the even study the health effects of glypho- climate activist nearly 60 years the old long, slow pollution of the planet by volume of the herbicide’s commercial sate-based herbicide products since man- bully’s junior. agrochemical corporations, whose pri- applications. ufacturers are not required to provide full This war involves not only outright mary driver is their own enrichment and disclosure of their ingredients. This lack science denial, but the myriad ways It’s worth noting the EPA had actually profits? In light of charges by some civil classified glyphosate as carcinogenic in of data is a burden for toxicology studies, science is corrupted to serve corporate in- litigants that Monsanto suppressed ev- 1985. Subsequently, the company spent say experts. terests instead of the public good. idence of known health risks, the story One of the latest salvos came this past the next several years working to per- As Vanessa Fitsanakis, PhD, a neuro- lurches even more into the realm of cor- December when the Environmental Pro- suade the EPA to reverse its position on toxicologist at Northeast Ohio Medical porate criminality. tection Agency (EPA), under the leader- glyphosate, which it eventually did in University, told The Scientist in 2018, ship of a Trump-appointed coal industry 1991, writes science historian Elena “From a research perspective, I can’t tell Health of the public lobbyist, asked a federal appeals court to Conis, PhD, for The Washington Post which component might need to be Certainly, independent scientific re- reverse the lower court ruling that held (April 9, 2019). changed [to reduce possible toxicity] in views of agrochemical products, free of Bayer AG, now owner of Monsanto’s “In the decades that followed, the com- those formulations because I don’t know corporate influence or collusion, should Roundup herbicide, responsible for a pany commissioned its own science from what some of those components are.” be demanded of all chemical products to California man’s cancer. The German- its preferred scientists and asked federal This is a concern as glyphosate-based confirm their essential safety before based conglomerate purchased Monsanto regulators to base decisions on that products, formulated with other “inert” being introduced into use. The health of in 2018 for $63 billion. science,” reports Conis, who is affiliated substances, show evidence of being more the public, including the occupational The friend of the court brief, filed in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice, argues the California state law re- quiring a health warning label for gly- phosate-based herbicides was unnecessary since the EPA does not cat- egorize glyphosate as a carcinogen. In fact, Bayer AG has already lost three recent lawsuits filed by individuals who developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system, after long- standing use of the Roundup product. The company now faces over 40,000 lawsuits over Roundup’s potential health risks. The legal challenges to glyphosate- based herbicides are based on a growing body of epidemiological evidence that link exposure to non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other health effects. Most notably, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an affiliate of the World Health Organization, determined in 2015 that glyphosate was “probably carcino- genic to humans.” The agency’s position was based on about 1,000 studies of glyphosate expo- sure among largely agricultural workers, such as farmers and pesticide applicators, primarily in the United States, Canada, and Sweden, along with evidence from animal studies. The link to cancer risk for humans was based on what IARC de- scribes as “limited,” but “statistically sig- nificant” evidence. Further, the Environmental Working Group (EGW), in an Aug. 21, 2019 state- with the Center for Science, Technology, In an economy driven health of workers, and protection of the ment to the EPA, cites evidence from five Medicine and Society at the University natural environment should always come of eight epidemiological studies of an el- of California, Berkeley. “In one instance, by “free market” first. evated risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma the EPA ceded to industry requests to re- In an economy driven by “free market” among those exposed to glyphosate- move a certain scientist from a glypho- capitalism, healthy capitalism, healthy living and the protec- based herbicides. One recent study, a sate safety review panel. In another, an living and the tion of nature is always at risk. Over the 2019 meta-analysis done by researchers EPA scientist promised Monsanto it course of time industrial capitalism has at the University of California, Berkeley would block a planned glyphosate safety protection of nature is exposed humans to leaded gasoline, as- and the University of Washington, found review. The president whose EPA made always at risk. bestos, cigarettes, DDT, smog, toxic those with the highest cumulative expo- this promise? Barack Obama.” chemicals in water and food, and fossil sure to glyphosate, such as agricultural Science in service of profit fuel pollution that now threatens to den- workers, had a 41 percent greater risk of potent than glyphosate alone, according igrate the climate to the point of no re- The latter point is a reminder that developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma. to Fitsanakis and other researchers. turn. science in service to for-profit corporate World’s leading herbicide This is especially concerning for re- All of this and more has been brought interests is hardly the exclusive preserve searchers who want to better understand to us courtesy of the manufacturer’s Today, glyphosate-based herbicides are of Trump Republicans. In fact, as Conis the potential for what are described as the safety assurances and the backing of “au- a ubiquitous global presence. The use of reminds us, since the 1970s the EPA has “subtle and accumulative” health effects thoritative” science. allowed companies to register new pes- this group of herbicide products has over years of exposure to these commer- Unfortunately, when the latter is in the ticide products “conditionally;” in other grown approximately 100-fold since first cial products. paid employ of private industry, and pub- words, without submitting all the other- introduced in 1974. According to the U.S. lic health agencies work, however subtly wise required safety and testing data. Faith-based democracy? Geological Survey, the volume of gly- or indirectly, to facilitate the interests of To start the new year, France’s health phosate-based herbicides in use in the As for the pesticide industry, Conis the corporate marketplace over public and environment agency announced a United States increased from less than 25 notes that more than two-thirds of the health, those who are not scientists are ban on dozens of glyphosate-based her- million pounds in 1992 to over 250 mil- 16,000 pesticides used in the United left in the position of being expected to bicides, explaining there was insufficient lion pounds in 2016. States were initially registered under just have faith in the good intentions of Significantly, the advent in 1996 of conditional status. This includes glypho- data to establish they were not harmful to profiteers and their experts. n Monsanto’s genetically engineered sate. human health. The ban so far covers “Roundup Ready” crops, tolerant of the With human exposures to glyphosate about three-quarters of the volume of Mark Harris, former staff writer for So- Roundup herbicide, has only accelerated increasing, many researchers believe glyphosate products annually sold in cialist Action newspaper, is a Portland, the herbicide’s use. there is a vital need for updated assess- France. In recent years, more than three Oregon-based writer and member of the Of course, nature has a way of adapting ments of the potential toxic risks associ- dozen nations have similarly moved to Association of Health Care Journalists to even the most effective of human in- ated with glyphosate-based products. ban or restrict glyphosate-based herbi- (AHCJ). www.harrismedia.org. markhar- terventions. Just as widespread use of an- Indeed, most studies have evaluated the cides. [email protected]. s SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2020 5 April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 6

(continued from page 1) demic reports were assigned by Trump to Vice President Pence, whose office was items. This has left state governments no ... pandemic explodes to provide “clearance” before release of alternative but to approach manufacturers information from CDC scientists. In one in their states to voluntarily re-tool, man- visor Larry Kudlow who chimed in, “We million cut, representing 40% of its cur- instance Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom the ufacture and ship needed gear before their have contained this,” and “It’s pretty rent obligation, to the U.S. contribution public has grown to trust, had to cancel a health institutions and personnel collapse. close to airtight.” to the World Health Organization. number of television appearances when Perhaps even more ominous is Trump’s Trump’s proposals, while debilitating in his comments had not been pre-approved now-repeated public statement that he A short time later the corona virus had become a “hoax” perpetrated by his po- nature, follow a decades-long pattern of by the vice president. This blatant attempt soon will re-evaluate the need for social bi-partisan underfunding of the public to stifle public access to the facts was distancing. This is the last remaining so- litical enemies. Within days Trump went on to appoint a task force consisting of a health system. Relying heavily on federal massively ridiculed and questioned, re- cial tool available to slow the pandemic’s funds, state public health departments sulting in the group news conference for- spread and is promoted uniformly as ef- few talented experts encased by political appointees to oversee his newly-found have lost more than 55,000 staff since mat now presented daily, including fective by the entire U.S. medical world. 2008 together with an overall funding de- presidential-correcting comments by the “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE U.S. viral problem. Mike Pence – who botched the response to the HIV epidemic cline. ever-candid Dr. Fauci. WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM IT- Ongoing efforts to privatize the health SELF,” tweeted Trump. “AT THE END in his home state of Indiana–would lead Unable to deny the facts that a horrible it. delivery system has resulted in the loss of pandemic was about to consume the na- OF THE 15-DAY PERIOD, WE WILL thousands of hospital beds across the MAKE A DESCISION AS TO WHICH Deadly failures by the CDC tion, Trump finally acknowledged there country, and with that, a reduced ability was a problem, declared an emergency WAY WE WANT TO GO.” A few days There is no doubt the communal spread to accept a surge of patients in the present later Trump projected ending key restric- and even speculated that the county might of the coronavirus in the U.S. was exac- crisis. Simon Haeder, a professor and enter into a recession. On March 16 a bi- tions on shelter-in-place and a major re- erbated through repeated mistake by the health policy expert at Pennsylvania State turn to work by Easter. partisan congressional bill for $8.3 billion Centers of Disease Control and Preven- University estimated there could be only for the federal health agencies was ap- According to the Washington Post, tion (CDC) over a six-week period. The one hospital bed for every six seriously Trump’s behavior, contrary to the proved, followed by a $100 billion advice of his own medical advi- for jobless assistance, limited paid sors, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, leave, health care assistance and free Director of the National Institute of coronavirus testing. By March 26, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is $2 trillion was approved, with a bi- being fed by his close friends, con- partisan agreement that this was servative media pundits, and some only an initial step, with perhaps members of Congress. They argue another $2 trillion to come soon. that the steps being taken to con- Needless to say these unprecedented tain the virus are too damaging to sums were overwhelmingly directed the economy. at bailing out the institutions of the This behavior is nothing less than corporate elite. a brutal, public rendition of “profits Workers take the biggest hit before people” by the most reac- Beyond the human health tragedy tionary mouthpieces of American of the COVID-19 pandemic the capitalism, from whom Trump working class stands to take the big- continuously seeks advice and ap- gest hit. For starters, 74% of work- proval. Whether Trump follows ing people in the U.S., working through with his threat to impale paycheck to paycheck, have inade- the American working class with quate savings to see them through a the spear of profit and disease re- crisis wherein they get much advice mains to be seen – by Easter, he from the likes of Trump and the says – April 12! mouthpieces of the ruling class, but Early signs of trouble ignored virtually no help. Trump’s earlier responses were And while any assistance from also laden with deadly errors. Fed- Congress is better than none, the eral health employees without training, CDC’s first attempt to mass produce a ill patients, and possibly only one for current measures for working people protective gear or experience in epi- diagnostic test kit failed to perform, after every seventeen if the pandemic reaches coming from Washington are closer to demics were dispatched in late February hundreds of the kits already had been sent worst case proportions. none than better. Stipends to the working to two military locations in California to state laboratories for use. Several more If all of this were not bad enough, re- class in sums not greater than $1,200 where quarantined evacuees from over- weeks elapsed before replacement kits peated delays in testing for the disease, might slightly deflect the impact of the seas were being processed. The re- were provided. primarily caused by the repeated bungled crisis but would not ward off the overall sponders moved freely on and off base, But the CDC imposed narrow and strin- roll-outs of testing kits at the CDC, has devastation. “It’s nice and it’s needed, but and some were later allowed to leave gent criteria on who could be tested, put health care workers in the unsafe po- it’s just a Band-Aid,” admits Beth Ann without self-testing for the virus, possibly thereby limiting the numbers who ac- sition of not knowing who is infected and Bovino, chief U.S. economist at S&P spreading the infection. tually were tested but needed to be. The who it not. At the University of Califor- Global, a research and analytics provider Even more disturbing was the outbreak CDC declined to purchase kits that did nia, Davis, 24 nurses and staff had to be to institutional investors and commercial at a 190-bed nursing facility at about the function properly because they were of quarantined as a result of a patient who banks. had not been tested later exposed them to same time in Kirkland, Washington, a German manufacture. Only “made in The payment would not stretch very far the virus. suburb of Seattle. The nursing home in USA” products would do. By this point in the budgets of most working people, question had long been the subject of rep- scientists acknowledge that the virus had Newspapers and TV report almost daily she added. On the other hand the $2 tril- rimands from state health officials for un- probably spread significantly and without pleas from medical personnel for critical lion dollar bailout for the corporate elite, acceptable performance in the area of detection. items they are soon to run out of – items in the congressional hopper as we go to infection control. State inspectors noted While Kirkland became the first coro- such as gloves, masks & gowns. Not a press, is likely to be graciously accepted. in a report written nine months earlier that navirus epicenter, ten other nursing single state has adequate numbers of ven- With a whiff of $2 trillion in the air, the they found an oxygen mask, tubing and homes in Washington State quickly fol- tilators. Dow Jones, which had lost an unprece- nebulizer (vaporizer) jumbled up with a lowed suit. As of this writing there are The bi-partisan roll-back of public dented 35% of its “value” (11,000+ bed cover sheet and patients socks in one 129 cases in at least 73 nursing care fa- funds for public health is also shamefully points) in the past few weeks, soared back instance. In another, they observed a reg- cilities around the country. As quarantines displayed by the lack of ongoing, current over 3,000 points on March 24-25. istered nurse entering an infected pa- expand and mortality rates rise, the 2.5 training of nurses. A survey of 6,500 tient’s room without protective equipment million nursing home and assisted living nurses was recently conducted by Na- The coming fightback residents in the U.S. live in incarcerated despite notices prominently displayed re- tional Nurses United, the largest organi- But given the deep crisis of the system terror of what awaits them. quiring masks, gloves and gowns. zation of registered nurses in the U.S. itself, increasingly apparent even before Physicians who suspected a possible co- Rollback of public health programs Among many other shortcomings it was the COVID-19 pandemic, few expect the ronavirus outbreak were unable to con- The context in which these failures reported that only 44% had been provided market’s rise to continue. The whiff of re- firm it. They had no dependable test kits, have occurred is frighteningly telling. by their employers information about cession also looms high among the super only kits that had been improperly man- Under Trump’s administration an anti- novel coronavirus and how to recognize rich as every index of a healthy economy ufactured by the CDC. At about the same science, anti-foreign schema of ignorance and respond to possible cases. Only 30% tanked at an unprecedented pace. time emergency responders who had been and inaction rules the day. CDC leader- reported that their employer had suffi- Massive layoffs, plant closures, evic- to the facility, numbering a quarter of the ship has been shriveled, a hiring freeze cient personal protective equipment tions, foreclosures, ruin for small busi- suburb’s firefighters, ended up in quaran- imposed at the CDC has resulted in hun- (PPE) stock on hand to protect staff if nesses, huge cutbacks in national sales tine after it was determined the flu-like dreds of unfilled vacancies, and the Ex- there is a rapid surge in patients with pos- and in international trade, coupled with outbreak at the Kirkland home was in- ecutive Branch’s entire pandemic sible coronavirus infections. A mere 29% an inevitably increasingly pandemic-af- deed the coronavirus. As COVID-19 response team was eliminated in 2018. report that there was a plan in place to flicted population in the context of a gov- started its spread, likewise, the outpour- CDC budget cut requests have become isolate a patient with a possible COVID- ernment with nothing but reactionary ing of half-truths and misinformation annual events — 19% in 2020, and 10% 19 infection. solutions, do not bode well for capitalism from Donald Trump commenced. each in 2019 and 2018. This included a Although the CDC has written guide- today. Ignorant of what to do and mostly con- Trump proposal to cut $100 million from lines on how the agency should com- The still latent working class anger and cerned for his own image and political federal spending on zoonotic infectious municate during a health crisis, disgust at the system’s fundamental fail- standing, Trump at first asserted that the diseases such as COVID-19. which include sharing scientific infor- ings will in time open the door to socialist number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is Pre-dating the current COVID-19 crisis, mation “in an open, timely, and appropri- solutions that advance the cause of the “going very substantially down, not up,” Trump proposed a 16% cut to the CDC’s ate way,” these guidelines have been vast multitude as opposed to the profi- a position reinforced by his economic ad- finances for 2021 as well as another $65 largely circumvented. COVID-19 epi- teering few. n

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the town and province was implemented, followed soon after by a near lockdown of the entire nation. ... bail out working people A prioritized, unprecedented effort began to construct hospitals for quaran- tine and treatment purposes using prefab- ricated sections. A workforce approaching 10,000 has been mobilized to work 24 hours a day. In this effort the 1,000-bed Huoshenshan Hospital was constructed and made operational in just 10 days. At another site 25 miles distant the Leishenshan Hospital with 1600 beds was built in two weeks. So exhaustive has been the response to keep the virus contained that the head of the WHO praised China for having “bought the world time” and that other nations should make the most of it. To date, the reported number of new cases has been slowed or halted to the point where a number of the new hospitals have been closed for lack of patients. The graphic “curve” registering the initial rapid rise in reported COVID-19 cases in China has, according to some reports, been “flattened.” Few nations on earth have proved ca- pable matching China’s success. Despite the massive campaign by the Chinese government to stop the spread of the virus, its efforts were initially met by the U.S. mainstream media with bias and de- rision. Yet a few weeks after pillorying (continued from page 1) Sommar continued: “The Fed’s new The World Health Organization’s China for its “draconian” forced quaran- policies are so large, and operate on so (WHO) tabulations as of March 30 indi- tine measures, the U.S. government itself, death equations were uttered by the many fronts, that they are difficult even cate that more than 790,000 individuals United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris along with virtually all fifty states, if not to catalog. In addition to lowering short- in 200 countries and territories, spread ac- the entire world, have recommended and Johnson, who suggested that allowing term interest rates to nearly zero, the cen- ross all continents, have contracted the COVID-19 to “burn out naturally,” that is increasingly implementing similar tral bank will buy Treasury securities, disease. While over 37,816 deaths have measures. Trump himself sent a letter of is, without medical intervention, would government agency securities and corpo- been reported as of March 31, the daily have the effect of the surviving pop- appreciation to China’s President Xi Jin- rate bonds. Beyond that, the newly- percentage increase in deaths exceeds 12 ping, for China’s accomplishments. ulation being left with a “natural immu- enacted [$2 trillion] fiscal stimulus percent worldwide! No one denies that nity” to future COVID-19 encounters! package will enable the Fed the infection rate and the daily death rate U.S. stock market’s wild gyrations Survival of the fittest? to increase its already immense firepower are far from peaking. The U.S. stock market has taken its Johnson’s reactionary/racist/classist by as much as $4 trillion.” In addition to China, one of the hardest greatest hit since the Great Recession of “herd immunity” or “survival of the fit- In short, the government of, by and for hit nations is Iran, where the rate and 2008, with the Dow Jones industrial test” thesis, would have allowed COVID- the capitalist class, incorporated in its number of infections, scientists estimate, index initially losing some 10,000 points, 19 to run its course through the entire plans an additional promissory $4 trillion, won’t peak until May, by which time or thirty-five percent, in a matter of population, taking the lives of the weak- or roughly one-quarter to the nation’s an- some 3.5 million people could die. weeks, only to “recover” some 3,000 est and oldest people, leaving the survi- nual GDP. Italy, with 101,739 cases reported, as of points (as of March 31) in the days fol- vors, presumably now endowed with Said Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. March 30, the total number of reported lowing the news of the $2 trillion bi-par- resistant antibodies, to continue as cap- Powell “When it comes to this lending, deaths stands at 11,591. tisan bailout. italism’s workforce. we’re not going to run out of ammu- Rising death toll The anticipated and continuing massive This was neatly explained in an origi- nition.” Powell was blunt. At least for layoffs of tens of millions of workers, In the U.S. as of March 31, over 3,700 most with only short term promises of nally secret UK government report that now, the corporate powers, whose gov- deaths have been reported, according to stated: “As many as 80% of the pop- ernment they own and control, were government relief, informs us that the al- the NYT, triple the number reported just ready pre-COVID-19 era scent of a com- ulation are expected to be infected with ready to literally print money or its paper three days earlier. With 185,000 citizens COVID-19 in the next 12 months, and up equivalent, to match 100 percent of the ing recession, will be qualitatively infected, and the worst yet to come, the magnified for an indefinite period – at to 15% (7.9 million people) may require expected quarterly U.S. GDP decline, that U.S. ranks first in the world in the hospitalization.” The document projected is, the full amount of the total value of the least several months, if not longer. number of confirmed cases, and this at a How long it will take to bring the cur- a UK death-toll as high as 531,100, a sup- goods and services no longer expected to time when test kits still remain largely un- posedly acceptable number, provided be produced by U.S. workers. rent pandemic to a halt is the major so- available. cial, political and economic question only that the “fittest” – the elite with With the Labor Department’s latest The actual number of people who have posed before the world today. Indeed, any guaranteed access to the best medical published figures indicating that 3.28 mil- contracted the virus and remain asympto- momentary timeline projection leaves care that their money can buy – were lion workers had filed for unemployment matic is unknown. Researchers have aside the terrible fact that absent a real therefore to be excluded from meeting insurance in the past week, five times the warned that left unchecked COVID-19 cure – an effective vaccine akin to those with the grim reaper. numbers ever reported in U.S. history, could kill some one to two million people that have saved countless millions of and with additional millions expected to Trump’s initial sympathy for this view, in the U.S. in the months ahead. Trump lives over the past century – COVID-19 follow suit in the weeks and months along with his projected “return to work administration figures, including Trump’s will inevitably return as a “seasonal” pan- ahead, no one could deny that the coming by Easter, April 12,” scenario, was con- top medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, demic where a declining “curve” indi- months, if not years, portend unprece- sidered by his betters, to be excessive. To reported that a best case scenario U.S. cates that an end to the near worldwide dented changes in consciousness. achieve capitalist objectives and avoid a death toll figure might be 100,000 to quarantine is warranted! predictable working class furor at being The initial shock that stunned U.S. 200,000. In the meantime the most elementary sacrificed on the alter of profit, Trump workers has just begun to permeate work- Germany’s Angela Merkel reported two aspects of survival for the vast majority and Co. decided on other means a few ing class consciousness. Incipient groups weeks ago that as many as 80 percent of are tragically absent or in dangerously days later. of Chicago tenants, for example, unable the German population could be af- short supply – from basic hospital facil- Trump’s Republicans soon after, and to pay their rent, took the first steps to or- flicted. ities, protective gloves, face masks, sani- joined at the hip with the Democrats, ap- ganize a rent strike. At an estimated fatality rate of one to tizing hand swipes, mass testing and basic proved the $2 trillion first step bailout, an In a similar manner, groups of Amazon two percent, tens of millions could die in life-saving medical devices, like venti- extraordinary amount roughly equal to 10 warehouse workers in Staten Island, New a relatively brief period. In a single lators, to productive and decent paying percent of the U.S. GDP of $22 trillion. York, and some Instacart grocery delivery month, October 1918, 195,000 Ameri- jobs to sustain life in capitalist America, Again, this was seen as only the govern- workers nationwide walked off their jobs cans died during the worldwide influenza where the large majority of working ment’s first step in saving capitalism. last week to demand stepped-up COVID- pandemic, the deadliest month in U.S. people survive from paycheck to pay- New York Times columnist Jeff Sommar 19 protection and pay increases as they history. Some 500 million worldwide fell check. clearly explained this strategy: continue to work in dangerous conditions sick during this 15-month horror, which At a time when the combined scientific “On Monday, March 23 the Fed an- while much of the country is asked to iso- reduced the earth’s population by 3.5 per- research capacities of the world are over- nounced that it would, essentially, take late as a safeguard against the coronavi- cent. whelming allocated to an endless variety whatever actions were needed to restore rus. After initial hesitation the Chinese gov- of military, as opposed to healthcare and stability in the markets, as well as the Amazon employs some 800,000 ware- ernment began a mobilization of doctors, medical research, prospects for rapid pro- economy.” Referring to the monetary pol- house and delivery workers, almost all government workers, Communist Party gress are dim to say the least. Endless icies known as quantitative easing, which low wage and non-union. Tens of thou- members, and units of the Peoples Lib- wars are the most profitable of all capital- the Fed employed to combat the global fi- sands more are expected to be hired as eration Army and local police to carry out ist enterprises. Mass destruction of na- nancial crisis of 2007-08, Sommar said, home deliveries skyrocket in the face of widespread screening of the population in tions’ infrastructure in the ongoing seven “The new policy amounted to quanti- a nation increasingly quarantined. the heavily impacted zones of Wuhan and wars presently waged by the U.S., along tative easing to infinity and beyond.” Workers in some eleven warehouses have its province, Hubei. with drone wars, Special Operations (NYT, March 27, Emphasis added.). had workers test positive for COVID-19. Simultaneously, an initial quarantine of (continued on page 10)

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BY BARRY WEISLEDER services. No one should have to buy their The shit has hit the fan. COVID-19 healthcare or medications. Sick leave, now afflicts multitudes. World War C is quarantine leave, and parental leave here. It has triggered the shutdown of all Northern Lights should be at full pay. The same for any- but “essential” production, leaving mil- one laid off due to closures. lions without jobs and income. In Ca- News and views from Socialist Action Canada Put a moratorium on residential rents nada, the “value” of stocks plunged more website: //socialistaction.ca and mortgage payments. No evictions. than $1 trillion in a month, severely No cut-off of heat, electricity, water, or undermining pensions and retirement internet service. Cancel student debt. funds. Make post-secondary education free. A record nearly 1,000,000 workers ap- COVID-19 crisis shows Freedom of communication, es- plied for unemployment insurance bene- pecially vital at a time like this, means fits just in the third week of March, putting an end to bandwidth limits, long compared to the usual 35,000 for that distance phone fees, restricted minutes time of year. This is just the tip of a Trudeau’s sick priorities and exclusionary paywalls. Nationalize deadly iceberg. Economists predict up to the telecoms. 35 percent unemployment, far above the Tax the rich. Expropriate the big peak joblessness rate of 27 percent in banks, the big oil and gas corporations, 1933 during the Great Depression. It and seize “dead” capital sitting in off- seems the term Recession just doesn’t cut shore and domestic accounts. Use these it anymore. resources to fund mass testing for And let’s be clear: the current economic COVID-19, to develop a vaccine against downturn preceded the virus. It was al- it, and to encourage farmers to grow ready underway in December. GDP healthy food. Transition energy produc- growth, capital profitability, capacity util- tion towards a break with fossil fuels and ization, volume of working hours, etc., nuclear fission. Move rapidly to green, indicated the onset of a recession. In sustainable energy systems, under public 2019, countries like Germany saw the lo- ownership and workers’ control. west growth rates since 2009, the peak of The Migrant Rights Network ad- the global financial crisis. In addition, vances a number of demands that deserve mass layoffs in the global automobile in- full support: dustry were no longer simply the result of It is agricultural, food, domestic, ware- computerization or the transition to e-mo- house, delivery, cleaning, gig and app bility, but reflected a slump in economic workers, bus and taxi drivers, healthcare activity. Capitalism and crisis are insep- and other workers who are ensuring that arable. we get our basic needs. It is critical that all of them get income supports. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has his urgent need for life-saving ventilators, G20 summit in Toronto. priorities, which happen to be the prio- disease testing kits, and protective medi- Under Disaster Capitalism, the ruling Programs announced by the govern- rities of big business. His $82 billion cal masks and gowns. class seldom wastes an opportunity to ment will not ensure that we get money spending plan provides a bail-out for the It would simply consult workers’ profit from a crisis (politically and econ- before rent day, and the amounts prom- energy sector (which is beset by an oil leaders, coordinate the necessary re- omically). ΩJustin Trudeau initially ised are very little. We need decent pay price war between Russia and Saudi Ara- sources across a publicly-owned, demo- sought special powers for his ministers, for everyone in the country, including bia), and relief for big banks and giant cratically-planned economy, and calmly for the next 20 months, to raise taxes and migrants arriving and being placed in corporations. Trudeau is not canceling implement decisions along the production spend money without a vote in Parlia- quarantine, and we need it immediately. pipeline construction, nor is he cutting chain to make it happen. ment. Be certain, this was not to help the Many people do not qualify for Em- one budgetary dime from the military and Have you noticed how suddenly the working class. Say NO to the elitist ployment Insurance or Canada Rev- its operations overseas. There’s only a government discovered the virtue of pro- schemes of the Liberal government. It’s enue Agency managed programs pittance for new research efforts to find a viding childcare for parents deemed to be time to stand up for the majority. ‘Physi- including homeless and undocumented vaccine to defeat COVID-19. “essential” workers? So, what then is the cal distancing’ is a healthy precaution. It people, migrant workers, unemployed, Which begs the question: Why is the argument against providing permanent, ought not be an appetizer to political temporary and precarious workers, dis- government so slow to ramp up COVID- quality, cross-country childcare? The passivity. The struggle continues! abled people, cash work and more. That’s 19 testing? Massive testing, and stepped cost? Workers should not let our ‘leaders’ off not fair! up manufacture of necessary medical Witness the current cost of recent cuts the hook. Press the unions, the labour- Everyone needs full access to health- supplies and equipment, should have to public health services. Look at the toll based New Democratic Party (NDP) and care and community supports, includ- started weeks ago. taken by the loss of hospital beds and In- other working class mass organizations to ing housing. And that a real crisis Revolutionary Cuba sent thousands of tensive Care Unit capacity, the lack of ad- seize this opportunity to fix and improve response must mean an end to detentions doctors and nurses door to door to check equate childcare services, the dearth of social amenities across the board. Now and deportations, and permanent status on the health of their population. It even decent social housing, and the reliance on would be a good time for unions to organ- for all. dispatched doctors to aid disease-ravaged price-gouging Big Pharma. Shame! ize “essential workers” who do not yet Under the present mode of production, Italy. The maniacal right-wing President While capitalist politicians are trying to belong to a union, and to support it is capitalism for the poor, and socialism of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, is begging Cuba make a name for themselves as saviours members who refuse unsafe working for the rich. The Coronavirus plague, and to resume the service of Cuban doctors he of the public interest, we need to be vigi- conditions. In opposition to government the relentless rise of climate catastrophe, recently ordered to leave. At the same lant against a power grab. The Emerg- bail outs of big business, labour and the show that capitalism has outlived its use- time, he votes with Ottawa, Washington encies Act, the successor to Pierre NDP should demand nationalization of fulness. and the European Union to block Vene- Trudeau’s War Measures Act, may be in- key sectors: finance, industry and com- It must be replaced by a cooperative zuela from buying the medicine it needs. voked in the name of health. merce. commonwealth, a genuine economic Because we live under capitalism, But it will likely be used to curtail pro- Socialists advance an action democracy–a goal the rich and powerful whose engine is the pursuit of profits tests and to step up police surveillance of programme that includes: will resist tooth and nail. Only a socialist rather than the meeting of human needs. the population. History is replete with Basic Income for all. Every adult de- revolution can overcome their lethal ob- Under socialism, a workers’ government such warning signs, from the WW1 Con- serves a decent, living wage – without struction, and release the full potential of would not have to plead with corporate scription Crisis, to October 1970 in Que- any cuts to special social program entitle- a liberated humanity, in harmony with na- executives to re-tool in order to meet the bec, to the Olympics in Montreal, to the ments, and without privatization of public ture. n

The response on October 24 was a huge mobilization of close to 2 million people Chile in the vanguard of world-wide protests in central Santiago. Hundreds of thou- sands demonstrated in other cities, no- BY ROBBIE MAHOOD whether in healthcare, education, trans- rights struggle of the Mapuche people, tably Antofagasta and Valparaiso, the Among the mass protests that erupted port, weak unions, or miserable pensions the campaign to de-privatize pensions next two big urban centres. in various parts of the globe in 2019, the and pillage of the country’s natural and resistance to corporate ecocide. The unions were late to respond to this case of Chile is outstanding. wealth by foreign money in league with Youth take the lead popular uprising. Early calls for a general domestic capital. Chile has long been regarded as a neo- As elsewhere, the rebellion in Chile was strike by the Union Portuaria (dock- There has been growth in Chile over the liberal success story, a country that had ignited by the youth who face the brunt workers) went unheeded by the CUT past 30 years as measured by GDP. But left behind the brutal years of the Pino- of precarious social conditions in the neo- (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores) until the index of inequality is very high. chet dictatorship and carried out a “demo- liberal era. The fare hike in Santiago’s November when the first of two short cratic transition,” with the return of Wealth is concentrated in the hands of metro system was like a match to dry lived nation-wide strikes took place. civilian rule after 1990. a few rich families, while 50% of Chilean tinder. Young people began jumping over Pinera adds a carrot to the stick workers earn less than 670 $CDN per But the fundamentals of Pinochet’s turnstiles and dangling their feet over the Faced with a spreading insurgency, and month. The cost of living is comparable 1980 constitution were left intact. The subway platform. Public transit ground to realizing that repression alone would be to western Europe and North America, major political parties, whether of the left a halt. insufficient to re-establish control, Pinera but the social wage is much weaker. or the right, have alternated in power with Only a week earlier, President Pinera adopted a conciliatory line. the tacit agreement that there would be no The current uprising, although larger had described Chile as an oasis of stabil- The government launched an “Agree- serious questioning of the economic and and more sustained, rests on diverse ex- ity. Now, he declared, the country was at ment for Social Peace and a New Consti- social legacy of the Pinochet era, i.e., periences of struggle over the past decade war! Declaring a state of emergency, he tution.” He withdrew the army from the Chile-style neo-liberalism. that have shaken up Chilean society: suc- brought the army into the streets and en- streets, ended the curfew, reversed the Chile’s neo-liberal model rests on ex- cessive waves of student protest, a mili- forced a curfew, rekindling memories of treme commodification of social services tant feminist movement, the indigenous the dictatorship. (continued on next page)

8 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2020 April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 9

Key lessons of pro-Indigenous uprising

BY GARY PORTER enforce “the rule of law” and attack the problem, resisting any solution. Many are We have witnessed the beginning of an indigenous people and their allies, Tru- Meanwhile, a beginning to look to socialism as the way historic shift. It is a turning point for in- deau proposed negotiation. After two out. Belatedly, some large labour organ- digenous rights, for climate change resis- weeks with no progress, Trudeau, too, ran victory of mass izations are expressing solidarity. Even tance, and for a new generation of out of patience. The police began arrest- the Ontario New Democratic Party issued fighters for justice. It is a powerful step ing activists, young and not so young. a statement of support for the Wet’su- forward in social protest in Canada for a The last of the protests, the 17-day 24- militant wet’en. new generation of militants. hour blockade of the BC legislature was But the BC NDP government of John In mid-February, the RCMP, Canada’s ended by a dirty trick by the NDP attor- solidarity action Horgan has boldly stepped forward as the federal police force, moved to attack the ney general. He invited 5 key leaders in- prime defender of the global oil cartel blockade erected by hereditary chiefs of side to discuss the removal of and their methane operations in BC. the Wetsuwet’en people and their sup- the blockade. They went, but when no has occurred Horgan and his Cabinet are teaching porters who were there to stop the con- agreement was reached, they were ar- painful lessons about the social demo- struction of a methane pipeline across rested, as had been previously arranged recently published an in-depth booklet on crats who run the NDP, their fundamental their unceded land. with Parliamentary security service. the history and struggle against colonial- commitment to capitalism and to private As all of this unfolded, negotiation with settler oppression, occupation, theft and An unprecedented wave of protest profit, over human rights and human the Wet’suwet’en continued in the north. murder of indigenous people by the Ca- broke out across Canada. From Halifax need — whatever they may say in elec- The Federal and BC governments, in the nadian state. It explains how our com- to Victoria, thousands of indigenous tion speeches. end, accepted the contention of the Wet- mon struggle against capitalism is people, especially the young, acted in Behind Horgan stands Justin Trudeau, ’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, that they inextricably bound up in theirs, and vice- solidarity with their sisters, brothers and ready to intervene when necessary, in alone, and not the Band councils set up versa. There can be no reconciliation siblings in northern British Columbia support of the imperatives of big busi- under the Indian Act of 1876, have final under capitalism, and there can be no so- (BC). The number, size and militancy of ness. The lessons of this experience must authority over their unceded land. cialism without reconciliation. the actions caught the federal and British be drawn and the fight for a socialist, la- Socialist Action also published a new Columbia provincial capitalist govern- A major victory bour-controlled NDP should be acceler- booklet on the life and death struggle ments off guard. The Supreme Court of Canada had al- ated and invigorated. against climate change, how eco-catas- ready agreed with this view in a prior At the same time, the fight in the streets More unexpected was the huge turnout trophe originated in the ceaseless drive of decision, but finally the two governments must continue. Our task is to build even of young whites and others in solidarityy capitalism for capital accumulation accepted it, at least for the future. This is broader unity against the LNG project, with the oppressed indigenous peoples. through profit. The very survival of capi- a major victory. and against the Trans Mountain pipe- Together they blocked highways, closed talism depends on it and drives the rapid line. bridges, occupied key railroad arteries, However, no agreement was reached on expansion of green house gases that may shut ports, choked ferry access, blocked the pipeline, and even though the rightful kill us all. Again, socialism, a system of Meanwhile, a victory of mass militant the BC legislature, and more. title holders had never agreed, the con- rational and democratic operation of a solidarity action has occurred. The gigan- These actions continued for over 2 tractor started up work and the RCMP planned economy, is the only way out of tic tar sands project proposed by Teck weeks. It was the largest outpouring of added new forces on the unceded land, the present crisis. Frontier, was cancelled. In the face of solidarity with the indigenous people both being clear provocations. The fight the gritty militancy of the fighters for in- New generation of fighters against their capitalist oppressors in Ca- subsided in the context of the current digenous rights and climate sanity, and nadian history. COVID-19 pandemic, but the Wet’su- The new generation of indigenous the falling price of oil, the oil barons wet’en stated they are not standing down people, and many young descendants of withdrew their application and killed the The rule of law and not asking their allies to step down. the colonial settlers, are fighting side-by- deal. Although John Horgan, the New The struggle continues. side for climate sanity and indigenous This fight is not over. When it comes Democratic Party (NDP) Premier of BC, Socialist Action (SA) has been expect- rights. Many are beginning to understand back, these largely young indigenous and a social democrat, was inclined simply to ing and preparing for such struggles. SA the capitalist system is at the heart of the Canadian militants aim to fight to win.

(continued from previous page) scheme, the March 8 Coordination, and victims mark the sites where demonstra- vanguard of several tens of thousands hike in metro fares, bumped up the mini- some sections of the environmental tors have been killed by the cops. continues to agitate. Hundreds of neigh- mum wage and promised pension and movement. The Struggle Continues bourhood committees, and in some cases healthcare reform. Moreover, he invited Pinera is responsible for the widespread wider coordinating councils still function. Looking back over the first 4 months of Chileans to participate in drafting a new deployment of police and their arsenal, There is the ongoing toll of injury and the rebellion, we can say that some of the constitution pending a plebiscite in April. seeking to wreak maximum havoc among death as demonstrators resist police. most important demands of the protest In this maneuver, Pinera received back- the demonstrators. At least 50 have been movement have not been taken up by the The mobilization for International ing from some of the parties of the ‘left,’ killed and close to 4,000 injured by police major forces in the opposition, for Women’s Day on March 8 will be an im- including the Socialist Party, Christian violence. example, the demand for the ouster of portant barometer of the potential for the Democrats and the newly minted Frente Among the casualties are over 400 who Pinera or for a general strike. movement’s resurgence. Amplio (the latter suffering a serious split sustained severe eye trauma from the rub- And ahead is the struggle for a Consti- because of this participation). The political initiative has passed at ber pellets fired by police. Covering an tuent Assembly that reflects the popular For its part, the Communist Party kept least partially to the government. While eye with a hand is a common gesture of will, one that is “free, sovereign, joint and its distance from Pinera, but without cal- the protests are anti-neoliberal, it lacks a solidarity in Chile today, even making its plurinational,” as opposed to Pinera’s ver- ling for his ouster. It preferred to exert clear anti-capitalist program, except for debut on TV game shows. sion that he hopes will salvage the regime pressure from within a broad unity front, the small forces of the revolutionary left. There have been over 3,000 arrests, inherited from the dictatorship. the Unidad Social, in which are grouped with reports of torture and sexual viol- Nevertheless, because of the depth of the CUT, the No + AFP movement ation of those detained. Memorial the crisis of the regime, the movement is Robbie Mahood, a leader of SA/LAS in against the current scandalous pension posters, flowers and photos of the young ongoing, if on a smaller scale. A mass Montreal, recently visited Chile.

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BY MARTY GOODMAN the UK and was a global day of protest in Feb. 15 was the first large event in New NY Free Julian Assange Rally more than 25 cities. In New York the NYC York City calling for freedom for Wikileaks Free Assange Committee held a mid-day founder Julian Assange, who faces 175 rally at the UK Consulate in Manhattan. years imprisonment under the Espionage Registers Broad Support About 75 attended. Act of 1917 for exposing U.S. war crimes, Global day of protests torture, and human rights abuse. The size Speaking at the demonstration was Mar- and enthusiasm of the event shows support garet Kunstler, civil rights lawyer and co- for Assange and free speech rights is grow- author of the indispensable book, In ing. Defense of Julian Assange. The N.Y. Assange panel included many “Delivering real journalism is a risky un- well-known free-speech and justice advo- dertaking with uncertain rewards,” Kunstler cates and attracted over 200 to the campus said. of the City University of NY Law School “Truth has become a revolutionary thing. (CUNY). Sponsors were the Courage Assange is accused of espionage and faces Foundation, a national whistleblower de- a show trial under a law that has a lugu- fense group; the National Lawyers Guild, brious record (the Espionage Act-MG)… and FAIR, a media watchdog organization. .Everyone who has ever been tried under Also endorsing was the very active N.Y.C.- the law has been found guilty. There is no based Free Assange Committee. defense. WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are Speakers at the CUNY panel included under the threat of extinction but our rights Jim Goodale, who provided a unique per- are threatened too.” spective on the responsibilities of journal- Speaker Ben Norton, a journalist at Gray- ism as the former General Counsel for zone, told the crowd: “WikiLeaks has en- the New York Times during the release of riched our understanding of the crimes of the Pentagon Papers; Glen Ford, Executive this government that claims to act in our in- Director, Black Agenda Report; Renata tion of Assange to the war waged by fascist power, the right to police the world and to terest, but of course it doesn’t and we have Avila, international lawyer, public and legal dictator Mussolini against leftist writer An- imprison and kill anyone that opposes its their own U.S. State Department cables that advocate for Assange; and Max Blumen- tonio Gramsci, whose court prosecutor fa- global supremacy. Assange and WikiLeaks prove it. When U.S. politicians from both thal, a journalist at The Grayzone. mously said, “We must stop this brain from were put at the top of the Empire’s hit list. the Republican and Democratic parties go Video interviews for the program were working.” Said Chomsky, “Assange faces Assange became the Empire’s public on TV and say Julian Assange is a spy, projected onto a screen, which featured that and possibly even worse. If the notion enemy number one.” [that] Julian Assange is responsible for Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whis- freedom of the press means anything this is During the Q&A period links were made whatever accusations they smear him with, tleblower on Vietnam and Cambodia, and a textbook example of an effort to under- between journalist Assange and journalist that is a lie because Julian Assange has MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, mine it.” Mumia Abu-Jamal, framed-up by racist done the noble duty that the vast majority linguist and political philosopher. Alice Walker, who visited Assange in the Philadelphia cops on a murder charge in of journalists refused to do.” Alice Walker addressed the audience via 1982 and, like Assange, Mumia’s health a live telephone hook-up. Ecuadoran Embassy, stated “This is a man Other speakers at the rally included Mi- of character. We should continue with all was callously ignored by prison authorities. chael Smith, a member of the National Stop this brain from working our might to get him out of incarceration to Also discussed was whistle-blower Ed- Lawyers Guild (NLG) and co-author of Daniel Ellsberg told the audience, “Julian reconnect him with his father and his chil- ward Snowden, forced to flee the U.S. for Who Killed Che?; Kim Ives, editor of Haiti Assange is now the first to ever actually dren. This is incredibly vital and crucial to Russia; the case of Black Liberation Army Liberte newspaper; Marty Goodman of So- have been indicted as a journalist and that our freedom of speech.” member Assata Shakur, who fled to Cuba cialist Action and others. will mean essentially that we won’t have a Panelist Glen Ford helped put it all in in 1984, and the jailing and murder of Contact NYC Free Assange on Facebook free press.” context: “U.S. imperialism is unprece- members of the Black Panther Party. or email [email protected] for Noam Chomsky compared the persecu- dented in world history in claiming the Feb. 24 was Assange’s first day of trial in details on future events. n

BY MARTIN PENGELLY On March 12 Federal District Court Chelsea Manning free at last! Judge Anthony J. Trenga ordered that Chelsea Manning be released from jail in iff, said the incident “was handled appro- testify in March that year. Virginia. priately by our professional staff and Ms. She was released and then taken back Manning, the former U.S. Army analyst Manning is safe.” into custody, telling the judge she would who leaked hundreds of thousands of Manning served six years in military “rather starve to death” than appear be- documents and diplomatic cables to Wi- custody for her part in the 2010 Wiki- fore the grand jury. kiLeaks in 2010, had been held in prison Leaks disclosure, which was made via In February this year she petitioned for since May last year, when she was re-ar- media outlets including The Guardian. her release, comparing her experience rested for refusing to testify to a grand Barack Obama commuted the rest of her with the Trump administration’s defiance jury investigating the pro-transparency 35-year sentence shortly before the end of congressional subpoenas. organization. of his time in office. Manning wrote that she had been “sep- Ordering Manning’s release, Trenga Manning attempted suicide twice while arated from my loved ones, deprived of wrote: “The court finds Ms. Manning’s held on the original charge, during which sunlight, and could not even attend my appearance before the grand jury is no time she was held in solitary confine- mother’s funeral.” longer needed, in light of which her de- ment, mounted a hunger strike and com- She added: “It is easier to endure these tention no longer serves any coercive pur- pleted her gender reassignment. hardships now than to cooperate to win pose.” After her release, she mounted a run for back some comfort, and live the rest of The judge cancelled a hearing that had center. In a statement, Manning’s repre- Senate in Maryland, a failure which she my life knowing that I acted out of self- been due for Friday, March 13. Trenga re- sentatives said she “has previously indi- told The Guardian left her “closer and interest and not principles.” jected a request by Manning to cancel cated that she will not betray her closer to being on the edge of really deep, fines imposed for her refusal to testify, or- principles, even at risk of grave harm to dark depression.” An extradition hearing for Julian As- dering instead that a judgment be entered herself. Her actions today evidence the She also said she had been “exhausted” sange, the founder of WikiLeaks, con- against Manning for $256,000. strength of her convictions, as well as the when, in May 2018, she tweeted a picture tinues in London. In the U.S., Assange is On Wednesday, March 10, representa- profound harm she continues to suffer as apparently showing her standing on a charged with violating the Espionage Act. tives for Manning said she had attempted a result of her ‘civil’ confinement.” ledge several storeys above the ground. (Originally published in The Guardian, suicide at the Alexandria adult detention Dana Lawhorne, the Alexandria, VA sher- Manning was first jailed for refusing to March 12, 2020)

national collaboration and coordination as arena their excuses no longer find recep- and debt payments ... bailout workers! opposed to competition would be the tive ears. Anger, voiced rightful indigna- • Abolish ICE and close all deportation (continued from page 7) norm. Patents and related measures to tion, and civil outbursts begin to occur. centers. No deportations. No human protect “intellectual property rights” How this pandemic will play out amidst being is illegal death squad wars, privatized mercenary would be deemed absurd and inimical to the growing international radicalization is • Empty the prisons • Rehabilitation not army wars, not to mention militarily-en- the interests of society. Funding and co- a question on the table for all of us. racist and classist mass incarceration forced sanction wars, in the context of a ordinating research would be public and Socialist activists and working • Not one penny for imperialist war, highly monopolized military-industrial massive, with the resulting solutions and deadly sanctions, embargos and block- complex, make for the highest profit rates class fighters demand: vaccines the common property all hu- • Free quality healthcare for all • Na- ades • Cut the military budget by 100 per- on earth. manity. cent The U.S. sanctions on Venezuela alone tionalize the health care system and sci- Free vaccines would be available to all • $Trillions for a rapid conversion from cost the lives of an estimated 50,000 entific research institutions and place via hospitals and clinics, workplaces, the present deadly fossil fuel-based Venezuelans. And this was before the them under the control of working people schools, and community centers. Gone energy system to a clean sustainable na- present COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. not the corporate profiteers • $Trillions would be the televised advertising bom- tionalized system under workers control $1 trillion annual military expenditures now for critical medical supplies, equip- bardment for high-priced drugs from the to preserve life on earth itself account for 68 percent of all government ment, free COVID-19 tests, food for the U.S. pharmaceutical cartel where critical • Full pay for all workers during the discretionary spending. hungry and housing and care for the breakthroughs are sometimes suppressed homeless transition to new jobs building a clean Science at the service of society because a healthy population is not con- • Bail out the working class not the cor- and sustainable energy infrastructure In a socialist society scientific research ducive to profits! porate elite. $Trillions for full pay and • Close all military bases and convert would be conducted for the common The right to a decent job and be free benefits for all workers who lose their them to free hospitals for all good, not capitalist profit. All discoveries from deadly pandemics like COVID-19 jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • End racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, would be immediately made known to the is a prime expectation of all humanity. • A national moratorium on all evic- LGBTQI and senior citizen discrim- scientific community worldwide. Inter- When governments fail in this critical tions, foreclosures, rent, mortgage, utility ination. n

10 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2020 April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 11

tion conducted a survey. They asked, The War Party is both Democrat and Republican “Would you be in favor of a U.S. invasion of Iraq if it resulted in the death of thou- BY GLEN FORD sands of Iraqi civilians?” Big majorities (Speech to the New York City Feb. 21- of whites said, “Yes,” go ahead and in- 23, 2020 UNAC national antiwar confer- vade. Sixteen percent of Hispanic-Amer- ence at People’s Forum. Glen Ford is the icans said they supported an invasion, Senior Editor of Black Agenda Report.) even if it kills thousands of civilians. But Most of us in this room consider our- only seven percent of Black Americans selves socialists of one kind or another, were for an invasion that would wreak and all of us claim to be anti-imperialist. such carnage. And most of us have been talking about But, then came Obama. For the first the global “crisis of capitalism” for most time, Black people identified with the of our adult lives. Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Empire. There is no doubt that capitalism is in When Obama threatened to bomb Syria, crisis. Many of the contradictions of cap- supposedly in retaliation for a chemical italism have become acute...Certainly, weapons attack—an attack that was ac- capitalism is in a crisis of legitimacy. tually staged by the Islamic jihadists that Young people don’t believe in it anymore. Obama had deployed as foot soldiers of They see no future for themselves in this empire—another poll was taken. It system, and are explicitly rejecting it. showed, for the first time in U.S. polling Polls show about half of young people history that Blacks were more in favor of have a favorable view of socialism, or bombing Syria than whites. Only a mi- consider themselves socialists. They may nority of all Americans favored the not be clear about what socialism is, but bombing. But 38 percent of Blacks went they do know that they oppose the system along with Obama’s proposed air strike, of capitalism that they live under. versus about 36 percent of whites, if my But crises of legitimacy do not, by memory serves me. themselves, bring down the system. It is Obama’s war on Syria a sign that the people are not happy. Mass Even though Black majorities were not unhappiness may bring down an admin- in favor of Obama’s war on Syria, his istration, but it doesn’t change a system very presence in the White House created one bit. a huge distortion in Black views on war The people of the United States cer- and peace. For that, and many other rea- tainly are tired of the endless wars that sons, we at Black Agenda Report were have multiplied in the 21st century. The glad to see Obama go. We hoped that polls show it. We see this war weariness Black America would return to its histori- in surprising places. cal consensus in favor of social justice Back in 2016, when Donald Trump was and peace. running for president, he claimed to be Malcolm X opposed all this country’s wars. Martin Luther King broke with sometimes-ally However, the Democrats—who are opposed to U.S. regime change wars, and President Lyndon Johnson, to denounce the Vietnam war. that he wanted to pursue peaceful rela- now the most aggressive war party— tions with Russia. He didn’t mean it, but First Black President. Before Obama— Johnson, to denounce the war. The Black have succeeded in linking Donald Trump he said it. That scared the hell out of and for all of Black history on this con- Panther Party proclaimed revolutionary to Russia, and then lumping all critics of Trump’s fellow oligarchs and the Na- tinent—Black people have been su- solidarity with the Vietnamese, and with U.S. warmaking with Russia and, tional Security State. premely skeptical of the motives of the all peoples’ struggling against U.S. impe- thereby, with Trump. That’s the evil ge- U.S. government and its wars against rialism. nius of Russiagate, a CIA-concocted lie The twin parties of war people of color around the world. The heavily-Black U.S. Army in Viet- designed to maintain the momentum of The War Party, which is both Democrat War propaganda and the demonization nam refused to be cannon fodder. Black Obama’s military offensive around the and Republican, had worked hard to put of peoples targeted by the United States troops fought pitched battles with white planet—without Obama. the U.S. back on a constant war footing did not work among Black Americans. military police in Da Nang and other Fortunately, we now have a fighting or- after George Bush was forced to with- We knew that the U.S. powers-that-be places. They burned down the military ganization that upholds the historical draw from Iraq. Their instrument to get constantly lied about us, and that they prison in Long Binh—because U.S. “mil- Black consensus against imperial wars, the endless wars back on track was Ba- were probably lying about the people itary justice” is also mass Black incarcer- and connects these wars to the militarized rack Obama, who fooled the people into they were invading and bombing. ation, just like the U.S. civilian system. oppression of Black and brown people believing he was a peace candidate, and Our anti-war posture was homegrown, They took out officers and NCOs in what here at home. The Black Alliance for then continued all of George Bush’s wars were called “fraggings.” Black troops Peace fills a huge void that has existed and started a whole series of his own— because we were the eternal domestic victims of U.S. coercive power—from made the U.S. Army in Vietnam useless. since the loss of Black Voices for Peace. this time, using Islamic Jihadists as his foot soldiers. white mobs and white media and the po- By 1970, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were Russiagate presents the peace move- But, the bipartisan War Party and the lice. You don’t have to be as old as I am demanding an all-volunteer Army, so that ment in general, and Black anti-war National Security State were thrown into to remember when, in Black conver- they could recruit the kind of solders that forces in particular, with unique diffi- a panic. They decided that Donald Trump sations about U.S. wars, it wasn’t “What would do their bidding. culties. The Black Misleadership Class is could not be trusted with the keys to the are WE doing over there?” but rather, In the late 1960’s my unit, the 82nd Air- all-in with the CIA and the Pentagon. But empire. So, they all piled into Hillary “What are THEY doing killing folks” in borne Division, was 60 percent Black, as the masses of Black folks still identify Clinton’s over-stuffed campaign tent. For other people’s countries? We didn’t iden- were other elite units. By the time of the with the oppressed people of the world, the first time ever, current and former tify with the U.S. war machine. Iraq War, the 82nd had become the and see themselves as among the global heads of the CIA got directly involved in Black organizations were early oppo- whitest division in the U.S. Army. Blacks oppressed. presidential election politics—as Demo- nents of the Vietnam War. SNCC was still made up 20 percent of the U.S. mili- Black Americans remain anti-imperi- crats. anti-war before the first U.S. troop tary, but they were now mainly in support alist at their core. And they are more pro- When Trump won his victory in the buildup. Malcolm X opposed all this units, not the combat arms line units. socialist than any other ethnicity. That’s Electoral College, the CIA produced a country’s wars. Martin Luther King broke Two weeks before George Bush in- a winning combination. n document claiming the Russians and Wi- with sometimes-ally President Lyndon vaded Iraq, the Zogby polling organiza- Power to the People! kileaks had tried to rig the election. In doing this the Democrats and the Na- tional Security State created a real crisis Subscribe to SOCIALIST ACTION newspaper of legitimacy for the whole bourgeois democratic system in order to delegiti- mize, not just the Trump administration, New low subscription prices! but all dissent in the United States. The Democrats became the more ag- gressive War Party, and the party of cen- r $5 for six months r $10 for 12 months sorship and fear-mongering: The New McCarthyite Party. And, right at the core Name Address of that Democratic Party is Black Amer- ica, which has historically been the most pro-peace constituency in the nation, and City State Zip at the forefront of leftist dissent. This new posture for the Democratic Party has Phone E-mail created a bizarre Black Democratic pol- itics. It has made the Black Misleadership Class more ridiculous and cartoonish than r I want to join Socialist Action! Please contact me. they have ever been. r I would like to make an extra contribution of: r $100 r $200 r Other Black Misleadership Class This turn towards war by the Black Misleadership Class was set in motion, Clip and mail to: Socialist Action newspaper, P.O. 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SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2020 11 April 2020 issue.qxp_Layout 1 4/1/20 7:59 AM Page 12 SOCIALIST ACTION Cuba: A model of solidarity in COVID-19 fight

BY NICK BAKER Since the first coronavirus cases were In his speech “On Revolutionary Med- On March 22, a group of discovered in three Italian tourists, the icine,” Che Guevara said, “The life of a Cuban government has been sending single human being is worth a million 52 Cuban doctors and nurses thousands of health workers, including times more than all the property of the medical students, to go door to door at richest man on earth.” arrived in Italy to treat patients every house and apartment across the is- While the U.S. condemns its population land, asking if anyone inside is sick or with reluctant and haphazard “free mar- in Lombardy, the epicenter suffering from respiratory illness that ket” responses to a global pandemic that could be coronavirus. demands comprehensive, organized, cen- On March 20, with 21 confirmed cases trally directed action, Cuba is showing of the Italian outbreak of coronavirus, Cuba announced that it the world a different route. It is carrying was closing its borders for one month. On forward the legacy of its legendary rev- level including college. Housing and jobs combinant that was developed by Cuba March 23, Cuba announced that all olutionary doctor with what the British are guaranteed to all. in the 1980s and which can be used to schools would be closed for four weeks newspaper the Independent called last As a result, Cuba has a higher life ex- treat leukemia, melanoma, HIV, and Hep- and all travel between provinces sus- week “true global solidarity.” pectancy than the United States and lower atitis B and C. It began to be used very pended. Tourists currently on the island When a British cruise ship was stranded infant mortality—two basic markers of early in the outbreak and has been cred- have been instructed to stay inside their in the Bahamas in mid-March with over the quality of a country’s health care sys- ited with saving the lives of 1,500 people hotels. Public health measures were also 1,000 people onboard, including five con- tem—despite being a beleaguered island in China. Cuba and China have an- announced based on plans MINSAP had firmed Covid-19 coronavirus cases and whose economy and resources are se- nounced a partnership to produce as developed in January, when Cuba was 52 passengers and crew showing symp- verely limited by the 60-year strangula- much of the medication as is needed working with China to respond to the toms, Cuba was the only nation to extend tion of the U.S. embargo. globally to treat the pandemic. Interferon virus and before it had spread globally. the hand of friendship to the stranded According to the U.N., the embargo has Alpha 2b is currently being used to treat The Ministry of Health has also been people. Every other nearby Caribbean na- deprived Cuba’s economy of over $1 tril- Covid-19 by many countries, including releasing daily numbers of people being tion, including the U.S., refused. lion—an amount roughly equal to 14 South Korea, Italy, Germany, and Pan- quarantined in public health centers and Cuban officials said that the decision to years of GDP for Cuba! Every year, the ama. hospitals—currently at 1,603 people—in- help came from humanitarian concern for U.N. votes to condemn the embargo and Planning key to response cluding those who have had contact with demand that the U.S. end it, with only the infected people and Cubans returning the sick passengers and represented “a Twenty-two drugs produced in Cuba shared effort to confront and stop the U.S. and Israel voting against—some- from abroad. times joined by a far-right, U.S.-sup- are part of the country’s planned protocol spread of the pandemic.” When the boat to treat the coronavirus outbreak. The Brigades Treat Covid-19 Patients docked in the port of Mariel, passengers ported coup government, most recently head of BioCubaFarma, a Cuban pharma- In normal times, more than 50,000 held aloft a sign that read “Te Quiero Brazil under Bolsonaro. ceutical producer, has said that the island Cuban doctors serve in over 60 countries, Cuba.” While most passengers flew back A Cuban official recently told News- has plenty of medications on hand to treat providing vital support to those countries’ to the UK, those not well enough to travel week that the embargo is “the main ob- thousands of patients if needed, and that health care systems. In times of crisis, were taken to nearby hospitals for treat- stacle not only to respond to major health they “are preparing to significantly in- Cuba’s health care workers are always on ment. UK Foreign Minister Dominic crises like COVID-19, but the main ob- crease the production of those [medicat- the front lines, demonstrating the inter- Raab, no friend of Cuba, thanked the stacle to the country’s development in ions] with less coverage.” national solidarity that is a fundamental country profusely for its aid. any area.” Cuba is repurposing textile factories to element of Cuban socialism. As Cuban Cuban biotech serves the People These are times of solidarity make facemasks, and, in an example typi- Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Par- The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs Despite this, the Cuban healthcare sys- cal of Cuba’s resourcefulness in the face rilla tweeted recently, quoting Fidel Cas- said in a statement, “These are times of tem is among the best in the world. Cuba of embargo-caused shortages, the Mini- tro, “In international relations we practice solidarity, of understanding health as a produces more doctors per capita than stry of Health has even released a video our solidarity with actions, not with beau- human right, of reinforcing international any other nation and is a world leader in with step-by-step instructions on how to tiful words.” cooperation to face our common chal- preventive and primary care medicine. make surgical facemasks at home with a On March 22, a group of 52 Cuban doc- lenges.” An official at the Ministry of Cuban biotechnology, working in the in- sewing machine. tors and nurses arrived in Italy to treat pa- Public Health (MINSAP), Dr. Alberto terests of people’s health and needs rather At the time of this writing, Cuba has 67 tients in Lombardy, the epicenter of the Fernández Seco, added, “We Cubans are than insidious profit-seeking or waste- confirmed cases of Covid-19, with one Italian outbreak. In the days before the proud to step up in a situation like this.” fully inventing meaningless tweaks to death, an Italian tourist who arrived ill. doctors arrived, Italy had reached out to The example that Cuba sets shows us preserve pharmaceutical patents, has de- As tourism is a major industry for Cuba, health officials in Cuba for help planning how differently this crisis can be ap- veloped many advanced and highly effec- all of Cuba’s cases so far have been for- the country’s response to the outbreak. tive medicines. proached by a workers’ state. Cuba is a eign tourists who arrived infected, Cu- In the past week, Cuba has also sent socialist nation, where decisions are One example is one of the primary bans arriving from abroad, or by contact emergency response teams of 136 doctors based on the needs of the many, not the medications used in China to treat the with people visiting Cuba. There have not to Venezuela and 144 doctors to Jamaica, profits of the few. Healthcare is free and Covid-19 outbreak, a drug called Inter- been any cases of Covid-19 transmission universal in Cuba, as is education at every feron Alpha 2b (IFNrec), an antiviral re- between Cubans on the island. (continued on page 4) 12 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2020