Kriminal Kapitalism Kills
COVID-19’s Racist Class War
by Dr. Nayvin Gordon
December 10, 2020
In the country that refuses to designate the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a terrorist organization, Covid-19 is killing black and brown people at more than three times the rate of whites. The pandemic is now the leading cause of death in The US, killing Americans at 3 per minute. This is the most intense period of mass death in the country’s history. It is killing disproportionally the elderly the poor and the working class. Given the US government’s deliberate refusal to take massive emergency action, the catastrophic death toll will approach one half million in the next few months. Vaccines will have little effect on this impending death toll. Despite what the politicians say this catastrophe is not inevitable, it is preventable. Only one way has been shown in other countries to crush the pandemic--immediate, massive emergency action carried out by the government to protect the people and save lives. In the words of President-Elect Biden’s advisor Dr. Osterholm ---"We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that," Osterholm said. "If we did that, then we could lock down for four to six weeks."
https://abc11.com/michael-osterholm-us-lockdown-nationwide-is-under/7896126/
The government’s refusal to sacrifice the short term profits of Wall Street to prevent this mass slaughter is simply social murder. No clearer example in modern history demonstrates the malignant nature at the heart of the capitalist economic system then the homicidal policy of allowing the pandemic to spread throughout the country. The US government has so far pumped up Wall Street to the tune of $7 Trillion dollars since March 2020. For every fourteen dollars given to Wall Street, the 60 million unemployed workers got one dollar in unemployment benefits. There are millions now jobless, hungry, facing eviction and massive debt. Clearly working people are not a priority, but war is: the US Congress, Democrats, and Republicans, recently voted unanimously for the largest military budget in history-$741billion!
The government of Wall Street will only respond to millions mobilizing to demand protection and trillions of dollars for testing, tracking, and support for those out of work. A popular movement of working people can take independent action to end this epidemic, and achieve health and life, not profits and death. Let us build a society of equals, no rich and no poor, no rulers and ruled, an egalitarian society driven only by the needs of the people, economic, social, and political equality for all.
12/10/20
Dr. Nayvin Gordon writes on health and politics. gordonnayvin@yahoo.com