Wednesday, April 8, 2020

There is no vaccine to humanize capitalism

Excerpt from the statement "We demand free and public health for all" by World Federation of Trade Unions General Secretary George Mavrikos to mark World Health Day on April 7.

The pandemic, with the data available to date, strips the USA policy bare; the policies of a country that is at the top of the imperialist pyramid. USA admirers worldwide now see their admiration turn to disappointment.

This country has endless missiles, fighter jets, submarines and mercenaries.

But what do they have when it comes to masks?

Medical ventilators?

Public hospitals?

Social Security?

Hospital beds available for poor people?

There are huge shortages in all of this. Now they are requesting medical supplies from the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

The United States is the country with the worst healthcare system for the poor, the unemployed, and the economically weak. The worst in the world!


  • Nothing is free in their hospitals. One must pay for everything and, in fact, at very high prices for everyone, without exceptions.
  • There are 28 million uninsured people
  • 33 million people are underinsured.
  • There are 8 million people who, although they pay their taxes, do not have legal documents.
  • Unemployed, elderly, and low-income people receive basic assistance only if the application they must submit is approved.


And, while the popular strata in the USA suffer the pandemic and the policies of their government, President Trump announced a package of measures of 500 billion dollars for the strengthening of monopoly groups. In addition, packages of $ 29 billion were announced for airlines, $ 17 billion for security companies etc. At the same time, the gun lobby in the USA has filed a lawsuit so that gun stores continue their operation. In a country where, according to official data, in 2019, 40,100 people have lost their lives to guns, of which 24,100 have been suicides.

In this regard, capitalists in the USA, Brazil, the United Kingdom and other countries of northern Europe increase their pressure in order to make all companies work, arguing that no protection measures are necessary. The economy is everything, the life and health of workers is nothing. It is this strategy that statements like those of Trump, Bolsonaro and Boris Johnson serve, who affirmed that in a few days they would get rid of the pandemic....

...The inter-imperialist antagonisms for the production of the vaccine and effective medicines against the coronavirus are showing the true face of the transnational corporations. When it comes to jointly deciding on anti-labor measures and anti-worker policies they unite against their common enemy, the workers and their struggles. But when it comes to speculation, they are killing each other. Each one tries to steal the other’s secrets. They know that whoever discovers the vaccine first will skyrocket his/her profits. It is a dogfight for profit, not for the protection of public health.

Therefore, according to the above, it is confirmed that not all of us are equal in the face of the pandemic, nor does the slogan “all united to get out of the crisis” have any pro-worker content. If the rich become infected with the disease, they have the possibility of receiving a different treatment than the unemployed. Furthermore, in the crisis it is the simple people who will suffer the consequences at the labor, salary and economic levels.

So, it is certain that the bourgeois class and its mechanisms are going to take advantage of the pandemic to drastically limit the democratic rights and freedoms of workers and peoples.

In these circumstances it is important for workers to understand that capitalism only generates and reproduces disease, torment and exploitation. Capitalism is anachronistic, it is barbaric. It cannot be humanized. The reformists who present the modernization of the exploitative system as a solution become servants of social exploitation. There is no vaccine, nor will it be found, to humanize capitalism. It contains social inequality from its “womb”.

The pandemic stripped capitalism naked, removing its mask and fancy clothes.

So today, the duty of all militants is more necessary, more urgent. We must unite the workers and the peoples for a society without capitalists and capitalist exploitation. All the workers, together, we can do it. Our struggle against daily problems is just. Our struggle for the social liberation of the working class is necessary.

Read the full statement: http://www.wftucentral.org/april-7th-world-health-day-we-demand-free-and-public-health-for-all/

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