"Socialism is imperative for our health!" -- International workers' parties call for socialist solutions to the capitalist coronavirus crisis

As the capitalist coronavirus crisis unfolds it is clear that, after a generation of brutal neo-liberalism, our governments are not up to the task of making sure that people are placed first. For decades they have destroyed the social safety net, eliminated hospital beds and gutted civil society to give tax cuts to the wealthy and wipe out regulations and workers' rights on behalf of the corporations.

In many countries, like Greece and the United Kingdom, there have been years of relentless, vicious austerity.

Working people, their parties, unions and movements need to mobilize in unprecedented ways to demand immediate steps be taken to ensure that workers are not left behind like they were after 2008 when the corporations were bailed out and it was the people who paid the price.

Around the world leftist, anti-capitalist and workers' parties are making demands for a just and fair response to what we are facing.

While some solutions are, of course, specific to given countries, many are more universal and can be raised everywhere.

Greece:

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and its General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas released two statements yesterday and today.

As the Central Committee statement noted:

The truth is that the real danger stems from the tragic shortcomings of the health system that were known before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. These shortcomings did not occur accidentally, they are not objective. They are the result of the anti-people's policy pursued by all governments, based on the EU directions for the commercialization and privatization of Health, to support the profitability of business groups and safeguard the surpluses. This policy cancels out, in practice, the great scientific and technological possibilities that exist today to meet all the needs of prevention and healthcare of the people. So, for example, today there are only 550 beds in the Intensive Care Units, while 3,500 were needed before the coronavirus outbreak.

This lack of hospital beds is also tragically true in places like Ontario, Canada.

Koutsoumbas stated:

It has been tragically proved that social goods, such as the highest good of life and health, cannot be left to the mercy of profit, to the unaccountable market laws. It is characteristic that the current state cannot even provide the simple, minimum prevention and protection measures. It has to resort to various business groups, domestic and international, for medicines, masks, antiseptics, raw materials and more. Even in conditions of soaring prices and huge profiteering.

The KKE demands include opening all closed beds of the Intensive Care Units, immediate re-opening of the hospitals closed by the ND - PASOK governments in 2013,  protecting the income and rights of the workers in quarantine, the ending of all evictions and foreclosures, and extra funds for pensioners, the unemployed and the self-employed.

Paraguay:

In a statement on March 17 the Paraguayan Communist Party noted "the main lesson of this crisis is the need to overthrow the power of the bosses and build the popular power of the working majority. To this project, the members of the Paraguayan Communist Party are fully committed, with the firm conviction that the labor movement, together with the peasant and popular movement, is the only alliance capable of overcoming our miseries and building a Paraguay with social justice."

They are calling for 12 steps that include an additional tax on banks, obliging private health centers to attend to those affected by coronavirus, increasing the minimum wage by 40%, subsidies for small businesses, and  severe penalties for pharmacies and healthcare product distributors that engage in price speculation.

Turkey:

In a statement entitled Socialism is imperative for our health! the Communist Party of Turkey writes:

The capitalist world and Turkey are sliding into a desperate chaos against the novel coronavirus outbreak. We are not doomed to this situation. In socialist Turkey, the outbreak would be brought under control easily and prevented from turning into a social disaster for the workers.
But how? In this way;

1. All the private hospitals and institutions would be nationalized.
Today, the state is functioning with half-power because most of the medical institutions are private. Even the state hospitals have been restructured for market-oriented profits. The first task would be to nationalize and reorganize all of them on the basis of pro-people principles to serve for the struggle against the outbreak.
2. The banks, the industrial plants and the service sector would also be nationalized.
These nationalization practices would largely enhance the state power in the struggle against the outbreak. Today, the capital-oriented government is busy with cutting off the public expenditures to transfer the resources to the crisis of the bosses. Under current circumstances, however, all the resources should have been used for developing and protecting the public health.
3. The nationalization practices would enable central planning. 
Central planning means the political will of the working people. This is the only way to cope with a social problem in a rational way by use of every means available. In addition to the production, the cities, the public spaces and the transportation would be on the agenda of the planning. 
4. Institutes would be established immediately for vaccination, treatment and the criteria of diagnosis against the coronavirus.
Turkey can neither produce vaccination nor medicines for treatment. To what extent the criteria of diagnosis is functioning properly is doubtful, and it has been impossible to receive reliable information in this respect so far. One of the initial affairs of the socialist Turkey would be to gather the scientists to focus on this task in institutes where rapid developments would be provided.
5. Health services would be completely free of charge. 
All the people would have free health services. Everyone would unconditionally be under social security. Masks and disinfectants against the outbreak would be provided free of charge. Access to health services would be provided not only in medical institutions but also in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.
6. Religion and state affairs would be separated.
In socialist Turkey, the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) would not have an effect on decision-making processes. The people returning from the Umrah pilgrimage would be put in quarantine healthily, the students would not be evacuated from their dormitories at midnight.
7. The implementation of quarantine would not be arbitrary but a compulsory social task. 
The implementation of quarantine, the most efficient method against the outbreak, would not be arbitrary for the people, it would be a compulsory and accurate practice as a social task.
8. The media would be reorganized in a way to broadcast the truths to the public.
The media would not be a trumpet of the ruling power, it would be reorganized for enabling the people to reach true information. Therefore, the people could reach reliable information with regards to the prevalence of the outbreak.
9. The plundering of the markets and stockpiling would not be allowed.
The people have emptied the shelves to stock food and health materials since they do not trust in the state against the outbreak. In socialist Turkey, however, the shares of everyone would be guaranteed and delivered even under severe conditions. Stockpiling would not be allowed.
10. Economic crises would not emerge.
There would be no bankruptcies since the nationalized enterprises would not seek profit. There would be no dismissals because of bankruptcies and the bosses’ greed for profit.
11. Selfishness would be condemned, the spirit of sharing and solidarity would prevail. 
The conscious people of the socialist society would initially care about the individuals in need of protection, and mobilize altogether to meet their needs in such states of emergency. The measures would rapidly prevail over the conscious society, and the current eclipse of reason would not be experienced.
12. A socialist society would be hopeful.
It would be possible to talk about a confident and cold-minded society that trusts in science and the future against such challenges instead of a mental state of panic, helplessness and hopelessness led by the coronavirus.
Once again, we can see the importance of all these facts in these current days of outbreak. We believe that humanity will overcome these days. Humanity will stand out with and only with these values.
The Communist Party of Turkey calls for such a social order.

Mexico:

"The Communist Party of Mexico considers that in capitalism the problems of the human race are unsolvable, that socialism-communism is necessary for there to be deep and far-reaching solutions; But we also know that in an emergency situation, the proper organization of workers and popular sectors is the only alternative, which is why it is necessary to get down to work."

Their statement then goes on to demand (excerpts):

-...that all financial, logistical and technical resources necessary to strengthen the public health system be earmarked shortly...Rural areas and indigenous communities where infrastructure is most precarious deserve special attention...
...It must be guaranteed immediately that the entire public network of hospitals, and in every workplace, have the necessary supplies to reduce the probability of contagion, such as disinfectants, antibacterial gels, mouth covers and drinking water.
-The work centers must guarantee and assume the costs for prevention measures. Under no circumstances should workers or their unions pay for such supplies.
-The cutting of water and electricity services must cease immediately for working class...Drinking water and electricity are basic and essential at this time.
-The migrant concentration camps must be stopped immediately, where thousands of migrant brothers of other nationalities are detained on the southern and northern borders of the country. Our fellow migrant workers must be freed from these potential sources of contagion.
- ...salary and insured benefits must be guaranteed for all workers
- In Mexico City, and the great metropolises of the country, free nightly operation of the public transport network must be established to be able to go to hospitals in case of emergency.

They conclude, in part:  "The cost of this pandemic must be paid by those who benefit from the product of our work. We can expect nothing from a government at the service of the capitalists."

 Austria:

The Party of Labor of Austria states:

It is an absolute priority that the working class should not have to bear the cost of the measures. All workers and employees (as well as freelancers, freelance artists and self-employed) in the private and public sector who:
- fall ill themselves,
- are particularly at risk due to health factors,
- have to care for sick minors or elderly members of their families,
- have to care for their children due to school closures, or
- are prevented from working due to measures and regulations,
should be given immediate release from work with full pay or compensation for loss of earnings.
It is also important to prevent the situation from being exploited by companies to undermine workers' rights and make employment relationships more flexible. It is precisely now that it is important to defend and assert our rights.

Belgium:

The Communist Party of Belgium begins its statement with a "salute the heroic mobilization of the medical profession which has worked and continues to work in exhausting and dangerous conditions to respond to the emergency."

Rightly they say "there is no question of national unity with those who have attacked our rights for decades, speculating against our health, exerting employer pressure that exhausts us and stresses us, thus weakening our immune defenses. Workers do not have to pay for their crisis."

They continue that this "is why the Communist Party of Belgium supports the immediate demands of the workers:

- Immediate measures for precarious people directly effected by government restrictions. Among other things: suspension of repayment of outstanding mortgage loans, foreclosures, relaxation of the rules for debt mediation.
- Urgent measures for the homeless: requisition of empty buildings, collection and distribution of scarves when a mask is not available, distribution of disinfectant gel, use of state and EU food stocks to compensate for the closure of the day relief agencies
- Distribution and equipment to workplaces of disinfectant gels, masks and gloves, adaptation of equipment to avoid contact or projections, systematic cleaning of keyboards, screens and other equipment
- Maintaining the full wages of workers through a crisis tax on dividends
- Replacement income for delivery and precarious workers (Uber, Deliveroo, etc.) to be paid by the platforms themselves, which will make a profit thanks to the crisis
- Recruitment of medical staff and doctors

Ecuador:

The Communist Party of Ecuador called for the government to accept Cuban assistance and pharmaceuticals.

They note:

In the face of world panic, Cuban medical science shines once again, despite international campaigns and blockades by the North American empire. Where are the pharmaceutical transnational companies that profit from human pain? And why are the corporate news media not talking now about Cuba and the scientific success of the millennium?
...Socialist Cuba and communist China are an oasis in the midst of universal despair. We are witnesses of this reality. China and Cuba assisting Italy, one of the most affected countries, and offering their aid to the world.