COVID-19 health disaster and political crisis intensify in Australia

Mike Head

A dramatic increase in officially-reported COVID-19 infections in Australia, taking the same trajectory as the exponentially rising toll in Italy and internationally, has further exposed the criminal lack of preventive public health measures by the federal and state governments, while forcing them into partial economic shutdowns.

Yesterday the soaring rate of infections triggered an open rift in the self-styled “national cabinet” formed by Liberal-National Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his state and territory counterparts, five of whom are from the Labor Party.

The premiers of the two most populous and badly-infected states, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, yesterday announced shutdowns of all “non-essential” industries. But Morrison browbeat them at last night’s online cabinet meeting into agreeing to only limited closures. Major infection sites such as shopping malls, schools, factories and mines will remain open across the country.

What none of the government heads mentioned is that, at the current rate of infections, which are quadrupling each week, the number will exceed 1.4 million within five weeks. Just yesterday, another 281 people were recorded as testing positive, bringing the total to 1,354 by last night.

A fortnight ago, COVID-19 cases in Australia totaled 91. A week ago, it was 376. The number will exceed 1,500 by tonight. Rather than “flattening the curve,” as the governments claim, their measures have permitted the total to skyrocket. Seven people have died so far.

These figures seriously understate the true spread of the virus because testing is being strictly limited to those already displaying COVID-19 symptoms or who have been in “close contact” with a confirmed infected patient.

All the government heads, Liberal-National and Labor alike, are trying to blame the public, especially young people, for allegedly ignoring “social distancing” messages. But the record shows that it is these governments and the capitalist class they serve that are responsible for the spiraling health disaster.

These governments have muddied and undercut the public health precautions by their indifferent responses, driven only by private profit concerns. Just over a week ago, Morrison was encouraging people to join football crowds. It is no wonder that the already historic levels of distrust of the political leaders, accentuated by the bushfire catastrophe, have deepened.

Even while Morrison and the Labor leaders denounced people for going to beaches and bars, they were still sabotaging their own quarantine systems, always in the interests of corporate profit. One of the most grotesque examples was the federal and NSW governments allowing five huge cruise ships to dock in Sydney this month and herd passengers off without any infection checks.

In one case alone, that of the Ruby Princess, about 2,700 passengers, some already displaying COVID-19 symptoms, were rapidly offloaded last Thursday. At least 23 have since tested positive for the virus, too late to avert its spread.

Far from any concern about the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, the total preoccupation of the government leaders is with trying to shore up major corporations, such as the cruise line operators, and the financial elite as a whole. This includes forcing school teachers to keep working in dangerous classrooms, while handing billions of dollars to the banks and business.

From midday today, all states and territories have shut pubs and clubs, as well as cinemas, nightclubs, casinos, gyms, indoor sporting venues, churches and places of worship, while cafes and restaurants can only be open for takeaway orders. Yet schools are supposed to remain open, although the outrage of teachers and parents has forced governments to allow parents to keep their children home from school without penalty.

Each government, except for Victoria and NSW, has shut its borders or imposed tight restrictions on movement. Even here, exceptions are being made for big business. The Western Australian government has given a carve-out to the mining companies, allowing 2,500 fly-in, fly-out workers to continue to enter the state to work on mine sites and oil and gas rigs.

To try to boost the financial elite, the federal government announced another $66 billion economic “survival” package yesterday, but it was immediately rendered impotent by the shutdown announcements. Over the past 10 days, Morrison’s government has allocated $198 billion in such packages, three-quarters of it for corporate tax breaks and subsidies, on top of billions of dollars more in state and territory government handouts.

The cynical pretence by Morrison and the Labor leaders that these measures would help keep workers employed was shattered this morning. Massive queues formed outside the government’s Centrelink welfare offices and the MyGov website crashed. Hundreds of thousands of workers, laid off already by businesses large and small, have started anxiously lining up to register for dole payments.

At the same time, not a cent of the multi-billion dollar packages is to be spent on addressing the ever-more urgent emergency situation in the health system, which will soon be overwhelmed.

Even if the spread of infection is limited to the official “best-case” scenario of 20 percent of the population (that is, five million people), the estimated 2,023 intensive care beds across the country fitted with ventilators could not meet the need. Judging by international experience, one million people could require hospitalisation, needing up to 50,000 ventilators.

This health system breakdown is well underway. Doctors, nurses, paramedics and aged care workers are reporting acute shortages of personal protection equipment, such as masks and gowns, and other essential medical resources. In many cases, supplies have dried up because of the worsening global pandemic, underscoring the lack of preparation by governments in Australia and around the world.

Many people will die, or suffer life-long health damage, as a direct result of the big business-driven gutting of public health services for decades, and the refusal of governments to provide the necessary medical facilities, despite waves of pandemics, such as SARS, since the turn of the century.

Under yesterday’s “survival” package, small and medium-sized businesses can apply for wage subsidies of up to $100,000 each—if they keep workers employed—and for government-guaranteed loans capped at $250,000 each. But as the Centrelink queues demonstrate, employers have quickly thrown vast numbers of workers onto the scrapheap.

Nicki Hutley of Deloite Access Economics told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that 75 percent of jobs would be eliminated in affected industries. Neither wage subsidies nor loans would avert that, she said. By earlier estimates, more than two million workers will soon be jobless or “under-employed.”

These workers, like other welfare recipients, will have to wait until April 27 to receive an extra $550 a fortnight in Jobseeker (formerly Newstart) payments. After keeping Newstart recipients on sub-poverty level benefits for years, the federal government will double the payments from that date, but just for six months. This will be far too little for most workers, whose households are deeply in debt, mainly due to exorbitant mortgage repayments or rents.

Likewise, all welfare recipients will get a second one-off extra payment of $750, but not until July. Morrison contemptuously claimed that these pittances meant the government was “supercharging our safety net and supporting the most vulnerable to the impacts of the crisis.”

All this is being done with the bipartisan support of the Labor Party. Its leader Anthony Albanese and other parliamentary leaders joined hands at a meeting with Morrison and his senior ministers yesterday to agree to quickly legislate the government’s economic packages today in a rump session of parliament and then shut it down indefinitely.

This is part of an anti-democratic and authoritarian official response. Acutely aware of widespread discontent, the federal and state governments are deploying police units, joined by military forces, onto the streets in the name of enforcing shutdown and quarantine measures.

Morrison told a media conference yesterday: “I’ve already had the Defence Forces being deployed into the states to assist with medical check-ups and chase-ups, contact tracing.”

Writing in News Entertainment newspapers on the weekend, George Megalogenis summed up the fears in ruling circles. “The question of recession is now redundant; the challenge is to maintain social order for the six months of Australia’s isolation.”

If the cash splashed on the banks and employers was instead poured into the health system, lives could still be saved, but that would be intolerable to the capitalist elite. This shows the necessity for the working class, including health and education workers, to take matters into their own hands, as part of the fight for the complete socialist reorganisation of society.

Two Sri Lankan prisoners killed and six injured amid national coronavirus lockdown

Saman Gunadasa & K.Ratnayake

Two prisoners were killed and six more injured on Saturday when guards opened fire during unrest at Anuradhapura Prison in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province. One of those shot died at the prison, which is about 200 kilometres from Colombo, while the other died in hospital.

Citing the coronavirus threat, Sri Lankan prison authorities imposed a ban on all visitors on March 18. Committee for the Protection of Prisoners President Senaka Perera told the media that the Anuradhapura prisoners were angry over the poor-quality food supplied by the authorities since the bans.

Perera said that Sri Lankan prisons are so congested that, in some cases, 5,000 inmates are crammed into facilities meant to accommodate 800 people. According to brief media reports, tensions also rose last week inside Kegalle jail after rumours spread that a coronavirus-infected individual had been brought to the prison.

Anuradhapura prisoners began protesting on Saturday morning after they heard that four inmates had been infected with coronavirus. Authorities claimed they opened fire when some prisoners tried to escape. It is not yet clear whether prison guards or Special Task Force police fired on the unarmed inmates. Army personnel have been deployed near the prison since Saturday night.

The Anuradhapura prison riot occurred as President Gotabhaya Rajapakse imposed a nationwide lockdown, beginning on Saturday morning. While it will be lifted in several parts of the country today, the northern districts and several districts in north-western and western province, including Colombo, will remain under lockdown until Tuesday morning.

Rajapakse initially refused to impose a national lockdown, claiming that his administration could control the situation. He also rejected calls for a postponement of the previously scheduled April 25 general election, hoping to exploit the inability of other parties to campaign. On March 19, the Electoral Commission announced, after the closure of nominations that day, that it was postponing the national poll.

Last night, the number of people in quarantine in Sri Lanka—at hospitals and homes—rose to nearly 12,000 and confirmed infections reached 82. No deaths have been reported.

Amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 nationally and internationally, the Rajapakse administration finally decided to impose a short-duration national lockdown.

The callous and criminally irresponsible attitude of the Rajapakse government was reflected in the president’s national address on the pandemic last Tuesday. Rajapakse demagogically declared his administration could control the pandemic and then, in a reactionary call, blamed “outsiders” for bringing it to Sri Lanka.

Rajapakse said a Chinese tourist was found infected in January and released in early February after having recovered, unintentionally revealing that the government took no precautionary measures during this time to protect the rest of the population.

The president also blamed migrant workers and tourists for the spread of the virus, asserting: “Our biggest problem is the travelers, almost 2,000 in number, who had entered the country from high risk countries for about two weeks before we actually started quarantine.”

Rajapakse, who insisted that his administration “will be able to completely control this situation,” did not announce any additional funds to improve the healthcare system.

As of Friday, the government has allocated just 500 million rupees ($US2.67 million) for coronavirus health expenses, even as the number of hospital beds for treatment of those infected is rapidly decreasing.

The main quarantine centres have been improvised at armed forces-controlled camps, or institutions like the Kandakadu rehabilitation centre and Batticaloa University. There are currently 22 quarantine centres in Sri Lanka but many of these are unlivable because of the high tropical heat and minimal facilities.

In contrast to Rajapakse’s claims about “preparedness,” World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh cautioned countries in South Asia, including India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, to “urgently scale-up aggressive measures” and to “do more, and urgently” to fight the virus. She said testing was very limited in these countries, which is one reason for the low number of reported cases.

Rajapakse also used his speech to push election propaganda for his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and to promote “a strong government led by [his older brother and former president] Mahinda Rajapakse.”

The Rajapakses are fighting to secure a two-thirds majority in the election in order to remove existing constitutional restrictions on the executive presidency and to ruthlessly impose the burden of the escalating economic crisis on workers and the poor.

COVID-19 is intensifying the global crisis of capitalism and drastically impacting on the Sri Lankan economy. On Friday foreign investors withdrew funds from Sri Lanka, placing pressure on the rupee. The Central Bank also announced an immediate three-month ban on non-essential imports, including cars and electronic goods, to halt the drain of foreign reserves.

President Rajapakse is using the pandemic to further militarise his administration. Prior to his March 17 national address, he held a meeting with members of the Special Task Force set up to combat the pandemic. The new agency is packed with senior military officers.

Brushing aside calls for a total lockdown of Sri Lanka, Rajapakse said: “We managed to defeat LTTE terrorism, unlike other countries in the world. Other countries may have the best medical facilities but we managed to cure infected people, through our efforts.”

Former army commander General Daya Ratnayake, who is current head of the Ports Authority, declared: “This is a time that belongs to the military… The military must get the upper hand.”

On the same day, Rajapakse formed the National Operation Centre for the Prevention of COVID-19 and appointed Army Commander Major General Shavendra Silva to head it.

Rajapakse’s reference to defeating the LTTE, in Colombo's brutal decades-long war against the Tamil population, is an attempt to whip up communalism. Its aim is to divert attention from his government’s refusal to adequately respond to the coronavirus. “I’m the one who runs this country. Those holding responsible posts should do as I say,” he told the meeting.

While ordinary Sri Lankans face enormous hardships, Rajapakse cynically announced a miniscule reduction of the retail price of a kilo of dhal to 65 rupees and a tin of fish to 100 rupees. In the same breath, he announced massive concessions to big business and investors: “I am also ordering banks and finance companies a recovery period of six months for loan facilities taken out by businesses… [and] steps are being taken for banks to give capital at four percent interest.”

Sri Lankan workers and the poor, like their counterparts around the world, cannot rely on governments and the ruling elites to provide an adequate healthcare system, financial support and other vital resources for the sort of internationally coordinated effort required to defeat the coronavirus pandemic.

That is why the working class must take the initiative by uniting with its class brothers and sisters around the world in the fight for a socialist program and the abolition of the capitalist profit system.

Russian cases of coronavirus surge as economic crisis hits

Clara Weiss

As of Sunday evening, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Russia has climbed to 367, up from 253 on March 20. Starting today, Russia is closing its borders for all international travel. The ban is set to stay in effect until May 1.

According to official statistics, Russia has performed well over 100,000 tests with over 50,000 people having been under medical supervision over the past month. Numerous reports and individuals, often affiliated with the liberal opposition of the right-wing politician Alexei Navalny, suggest that these numbers are a significant understatement of the real number of cases. In particular, a reported 37 percent spike in pneumonia cases in Moscow in January sparked rumors that the real number of coronavirus infections is being covered up.

There has also been conflicting information about what was initially reported as the first person to have died from COVID-19. The 79-year-old woman had been a lecturer at the Gubkin Oil and Gas University and reportedly continued her job, including interaction with students and faculty, until the day before she was hospitalized. The fact that she had preexisting conditions was used by the state-controlled press to downplay the incident, and although she had contracted COVID-19, the officially reported cause of death was a blood clot.

All of Russia’s 85 regions have by now declared high-alert status. All large gatherings are banned, schools and universities are moving to remote-learning, and individuals are encouraged to work from home. Russians returning from abroad are mandated to self-quarantine for two weeks. All cultural establishments with seats for more than 50 people have been closed.

A national referendum initially scheduled for April 22 on far-reaching constitutional measures proposed by President Vladimir Putin is likely set to be postponed. Like bourgeois governments internationally, the Kremlin seeks to exploit the crisis for a further crackdown on democratic rights. The proposed constitutional changes already entail a significant strengthening of the propagation of right-wing Russian nationalism and a consolidation of the role of the Orthodox Church, a hotbed of far-right and fascist tendencies. Since the crisis began, the Russian parliament has extended the potential terms for Vladimir Putin, who has been president or prime minister since 2000, indefinitely.

Last week, Putin urged an intensified struggle against “cybercrimes” to fight “extremism” and “terrorism,” a barely veiled announcement of already extensive internet surveillance. Putin stressed, “It is essential to continue to foil any actions aimed at destabilizing the situation in society, at violating traditional spiritual and moral values, provoking interethnic and interreligious discord.”

The government has also sought to whip up xenophobia over the coronavirus. One of the first responses by the local government in the major industrial city of Yekaterinburg, for instance, was to deploy a “Cossack patrol” in neighborhoods with many Chinese immigrants. Last week, reports also emerged that at least 79 Chinese nationals had been detained and deported for allegedly violating quarantine. About half of them were university students. The usual penalty for such violation is just a fine of less than $10.

The Russian oligarchy is promoting nationalism and xenophobia and pushing for greater surveillance and dictatorial measures, as social tensions are set to escalate over both the medical and socioeconomic impact of the pandemic.

The dissolution of the Soviet Union and restoration of capitalism were the beginning of what has now been three decades of unending cuts to social spending in education and healthcare, in particular.

The destruction of social services and staggering poverty levels have left the population in overall poor health. The average life expectancy is 71.6 years, five years less than in the US or EU. For men, it is only a little above 65 years. The largest HIV epidemic outside of sub-Saharan Africa has been raging in the country for years, with an estimated two million people or more affected out of a population of 140 million.

Russia still has more hospital beds and ventilators per capita than countries such as the US or Italy. Thus, there are some 40,000 ventilators in Russia, or 27.3 per 100,000 residents, compared to 18.8 per 100,000 residents in the US, 12.9 in the UK and 8.3 in Italy. However, leaving aside the fact that even these numbers would be insufficient, in the likely scenario of a further dramatic exponential rise in the number of cases, much of the equipment is old.

Comparing the Italian and Russian healthcare systems, the anesthesiologist Vladimir Budyansky told the liberal newspaper Meduza, “Let’s say we take your average ICU: 20 beds, and each one has one person on artificial ventilation. We have the same equipment they do [in Italy], there are doctors, there are nurses. I think that in a lot of situations, we’ll have it worse for a variety of reasons. For example, when they say they don’t have enough nurses for them, that means there used to be one nurse per patient, and now, there’s one for every two. Well, we’ve got one nurse serving three or four or five already. So what’s twice as bad as usual for them is two times better than what we have normally.”

Budyansky also pointed out that while some ventilators are modern devices, others are “old-fashioned” and unfit for use for lung ventilation procedures. “All else held equal, we’ll have a relatively spotty situation with treating critically ill patients in some regions of the country.”

Like virtually all countries affected by the pandemic, Russia is also facing serious shortages in masks. According to a report by Gazeta.Ru, the lack of masks may last all the way through the pandemic. Currently there are neither masks in pharmacies nor in the hands of manufacturers, and it is unclear when they will be produced and delivered again. Before the crisis began, about 80 percent of masks on the world market were produced by China. Russian newspapers report that the government is now drawing in military personnel, prisoners and students to sew new medical masks.

As a result of a combination of Western sanctions and failed import-substitution policies, there has also been a severe shortage of medicines in Russia.

In early March the ruble experienced its most significant devaluation in years after Russia and Saudi Arabia failed to reach an agreement on world oil prices. About 60 percent of exports and 30 percent of GDP depend upon oil and gas, making the Russian economy highly vulnerable to the world economic crisis and oil price collapses.

Russia already experienced a recession in 2014-2016, largely as a result of the economic warfare by the US and EU over the Ukraine crisis. Since 2014, real wages have continuously declined, and those counted as extremely poor have grown to over 20 million now, out of a population of 140 million. Now, the economic and social conditions for tens of millions of workers are set to further worsen dramatically through both the economic repercussions of the recession and the measures taken by the government to curtail the coronavirus pandemic at the expense of the working class population.

A reader of the World Socialist Web Site in Moscow noted, “Universities and schools have now all moved to remote instruction. But not all teachers and students can work remotely. Moreover, not all institutions provide the teachers with the [necessary] technological equipment and access to video communication services. Many people have to buy the technological equipment and subscribe to the software with their own money. There were reports that there are no notebooks left in some stores. … Companies and organizations which cannot guarantee remote work for their workers are reportedly sending them on vacation without pay. …. There are reports indicating that three million businesses could go bankrupt. Because of these developments social tensions may rise. The prices for products of mass consumption were already constantly rising before the pandemic.”

Canada registers 500,000 Employment Insurance claims in one week, as Coronavirus triggers jobs massacre

Roger Jordan

In just four days last week, Canada’s federal government received 500,000 applications for Employment Insurance (EI) from laid-off workers. The figure is far higher than the 425,000 total jobs lost in the eight months immediately following the eruption of the 2008 global financial crisis, and points to the countrywide job massacre that has been triggered by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe, last week’s EI applications equaled 2.6 percent of the total Canadian labour force. This is in line with percentage of the workforce that lost their jobs in July 1932, the worst month for layoffs and plant closures during the Great Depression.

But in reality, the current jobs crisis is even worse. As a result of the cuts made to unemployment benefits by Liberal and Conservative federal governments over the past 40 years and the rise of precarious contract work, just 40 percent of jobless workers qualify for EI, although this figure tends to rise in the first stages of a pronounced economic crisis, when many longtime workers lose their job.

All this suggests that the true number of workers who lost their jobs last week is many hundreds of thousands more than half-a-million, and could possibly be as high as a million.

Economic analysts are now projecting that Canada’s economic output will contract by a staggering 11 percent in the second quarter of 2020. In the United States, far and away Canada’s most important trading partner, output is expected to plunge 24 percent, according to Goldman Sachs.

The layoffs have swept across the entire economy. In the airline sector, Air Canada is laying off 5,100 flight attendants, while Air Transat will cut 2,000 jobs. Longview Aviation Capital, which manufactures twin-engine aircraft, will cut close to 1,000 positions at its production sites in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. In the auto industry, tens of thousands of workers at the Detroit Three plants in Ontario and related parts suppliers have been, or soon will be, laid off, after workers protested over being made to work in unsafe conditions, packed together on assembly lines.

In the arts and entertainment sector, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is laying off 400 workers. Hundreds of thousands of low-paid workers in theaters, cinemas, restaurants, the film and television industries, and tourist services are now out of work.

The best the many hundreds of thousands of workers of newly unemployed can hope for is that they receive 60 percent of their former salary, as under the current EI system, with the maximum benefit capped at $573 per week.

This will leave the vast majority struggling to make ends meet. For those not eligible for EI, the situation is even more dire. Last week the government announced a temporary Emergency Support Benefit, whose details were worked out in close consultation with Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff. It is supposed to provide support for short-term contract, gig, and other workers who don’t qualify for EI. However, the details are vague, no benefits will be paid out until sometime next month, and people have to apply online through their Canada Revenue Agency account, providing additional obstacles, especially for lower-paid and immigrant workers, to accessing support.

As a companion to its Emergency Support Benefit, the Trudeau Liberal government also announced last week a temporary Emergency Care Benefit. Its stated aim is to provide support to workers who miss work because they: are ill with the conoravirus or have to go into quarantine, but don’t have employer-paid sick-leave; need to care for a family member sick with COVID-19; or must tend to their children because of conoravirus-forced school closures.

This benefit will pay just $450 per week, barely enough to meet the cost of rent in a large city, never mind expenses for groceries and other necessities of life, for a maximum of 15 weeks. Like the Emergency Support Benefit, the Emergency Care Benefit will not even begin providing support till sometime next month.

“My biggest worry is my rent,” a self-employed makeup artist now out of work told the National Post. “I can only survive for a month on what I have now.” Referring to the Trudeau government’s emergency benefits, she added, “It doesn’t give me much reassurance.”

While Trudeau’s Liberals are proposing to place workers who lose their jobs on rations, their generosity towards big business knows no bounds. With a $50 billion program to purchase mortgages from the banks, a regulatory change halving required bank-capitalization levels, and other measures, the Bank of Canada, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, and other arms of the government have already placed $500 billion at the disposition of the financial elite. This does not take into account $10 billion in direct aid to business through a Business Credit Availability Program and $55 billion in tax deferrals that will overwhelmingly benefit big business and the rich. Just a fraction of the gargantuan sums being handed over to business and the financial elite, $26 billion, would suffice to pay all new 500,000 EI claimants $1,000 per week (roughly equivalent to the current average weekly wage) for the next 12 months.

Trudeau claimed at a press conference Sunday that more financial assistance is being prepared and will soon be announced. But there is no indication to suggest that any of these new measures will alter the Trudeau government’s policy of opening the Treasury wide to the financial elite and providing meager rations for working people.

The ruling class agenda is fully endorsed by the trade unions, which played a key role in crafting the Trudeau government’s pro-big business measures. As he began talks with the Liberals and representatives of the corporate elite on the government’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, CLC President Yussuff said that it was necessary to establish a “collaborative front” to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

This “collaborative front” aims to protect the wealth of the capitalists, while offering a pittance to laid-off workers and Canada’s overstretched healthcare system.

The ruling elite has done virtually nothing to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic, squandering the two-month “window” offered by China’s efforts to halt the disease’s spread. Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland only wrote to the provinces two weeks ago to inquire about the state of their stocks of medical equipment and supplies. Moreover, decades of austerity, implemented by all the establishment parties, from the Conservatives, and Parti Quebecois and CAQ to the NDP, have left Canada’s dilapidated hospitals ill-equipped to deal with the pandemic.

With 1,400 confirmed coronavirus cases in Canada and 19 deaths, doctors are already issuing dire warnings. On Saturday, doctors at the Royal Columbian Hospital in the Vancouver suburb of New Westminster warned that the rapid spread of the disease in Canada’s third most populous province and shortages of equipment and personnel could soon lead to the health care system being overwhelmed as in Italy. “Tragically,” wrote the Royal Columbian’s head of medicine, Dr. Gerald Da Roza, on behalf of the hospital’s physicians, “Italy has had to choose who can receive intensive medical care based on age and risk profile; please do not force us to implement similar policies here as our hospitals become overrun.”

The Liberal government’s placing of workers on rations, and its refusal to systematically mobilize society’s resources—currently monopolized by big business—to halt the spread of the virus, ensure the best treatment for all COVID-19 patients, and shield working people from the pandemic’s economic fallout underscore the urgent necessity of the working class intervening independently to assert its interests. A comprehensive program of testing, tens of billions of dollars to strengthen the healthcare system, and hundreds of billions to provide a secure, livable income to the millions of workers and their families impacted by the crisis are essential measures. They will only be realized in bitter struggle against the socially criminal policies pursued by the capitalist class and all their political representatives.

Catastrophic worldwide medical ventilator shortfall despite years of warning

Steve James

The rapid spread of coronavirus is threatening to overwhelm health services around the world, exposing the gutting of social provisions by the financial oligarchy.

A major component of this crisis is the catastrophic and criminal shortage of medical ventilators in quantities sufficient to confront a long predicted and inevitable pandemic.

Medical ventilators are relatively complex devices, normally costing up to $50,000. Under normal circumstances, the entire annual global production is estimated at between 40,000 and 50,000. A small number of companies, based in a handful of countries, build the complex devices, which require pressure generators, flow regulators, filters, valves, alarms, numerous sensors and software to allow control and display of the device’s activity and reports of the patient’s breathing. Production is generally licensed and subject to scrutiny and regulation.

Specialist clinical engineers and qualified medical staff are required to install and operate the devices, which need careful calibration and skilled supervision, without which the patient has little chance of survival.

But under conditions of crisis, when every country is suddenly trying to acquire thousands of the devices, suppliers and global supply chains are being stretched far beyond their capacities.

British hospitals, for example, have only 5,000 ventilators attached to intensive care beds. But British Health Secretary Matt Hancock conceded that “many times more” than current levels of supply were likely to be needed in the period immediately ahead. German hospitals have around 25,000, with another 10,000 on order. The US has 62,000 and an additional 99,000 obsolete machines in storage. France is still conducting a nationwide survey of its capacity.

While peak demand might be is impossible to predict, it will be many times current production capacity. Swiss-based Hamilton Medical—one of the world’s main producers, usually making 15,000 ventilators a year—has increased production by up to 40 percent. CEO Anthony Wieland warned Reuters of “a huge discrepancy between available ventilators and the need.”

Charles Bellm, managing director of ventilator component supplier Intersurgical, explained that one respiratory product sold by his company has attracted more orders since the start of 2020 than in the previous 15 years.

A 2015 survey in New York State, population 19.5 million, concluded that, based on an epidemic similar to the 1918 flu pandemic, 18,600 ventilators would be needed in that state alone. While in total the state could muster some 9,000 ventilators, most of these would already be in use. Therefore, at the peak of the disease, there would be a shortfall of nearly 15,600 machines—in a single US state.

Capacity in most countries is catastrophically inadequate, is likely to remain so, and medical staff will be forced, as has already occurred in Italy, to repeatedly choose which patients are left to die. Only the patients deemed most likely to survive with the use of ventilators will have access to treatment.

Making things worse is the fact that the common response to the escalating crisis is for each country to assert its own national interest.

In Italy, where over 1,300 people are already reliant on intensive care, the government has ordered 500 ventilators a month from the country’s only manufacturer, Siare Engineering in Bologna. The company anticipates being able to deliver 2,000 devices by July, twice its annual production, but has cancelled all international orders. German manufacturer Drägerwerk AG said that its order from the German government would take up its entire annual production.

The Financial Times noted that were even one country to impose an export ban on ventilators, prices would immediately ratchet up and global supplies collapse. Yet, last Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an export authorisation scheme to prevent vital medical equipment leaving the European Union (EU).

This move was made in the context of the revolting flag-waving stunts mounted by US President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and others to attempt to enrol sections of industry in patriotic drives for ventilator production.

In Britain, the result has been the blackest farce. The Conservative government hosted a conference call with around 60 leading figures from vehicle makers JCB, Land Rover, Honda, Ford and domestic gadget maker Dyson.

During the conference call, Johnson failed even his own abysmal standards of behaviour by jokingly referring to the scheme as “Operation Last Gasp.” His words perfectly captured his government’s sociopathic indifference to working people’s lives.

A two-page specification document for a “rapidly manufactured ventilation system” was circulated, along with the Brexit-inspired requirement that the devices should be “made from materials and parts readily available in the UK supply chain.”

The document helpfully included links to a YouTube video about ventilator design! The government also put up a web contact form for prospective ventilator makers, encouraging them to list their experience in medical matters.

Even among the assembled captains of industry, there was open incredulity. One executive warned that his company would need a “certified design” and “we can’t make one up.” Another car industry leader was blunter: “What makes them think we carmakers know how to make ventilators and that a car factory assembly line is even vaguely appropriate?”

Robert Harrison, professor of Automation Systems at WMG, University of Warwick, was quoted on The Manufacturer magazine website: “JCB, Rolls Royce or others could potentially manufacture ventilators. They have relevant skills and capabilities, but given that all the design and manufacturing related information could be supplied to them, getting the parts and the tooling to manufacture such a thing will be a significant task, perhaps taking many months.”

Craig Thompson, of Oxfordshire-based ventilator manufacturer Penlon, told the BBC, “The idea that an engineering company can quickly manufacture medical devices, and comply with the rules, is unrealistic because of the heavy burden of standards and regulations that need to be complied with.” Penlon has said it could eventually double production.

By Thursday, it was reported that three companies, Meggit, an aerospace consortium including GKN, Airbus and Thales, along with car makers Nissan and McLaren, had taken up the offer and intend to start work on a basic design. Five thousand of the rudimentary devices are intended to be available by the end of the month, far below requirements if they even work.

In the US, President Donald Trump last week invoked the Defense Production Act, pretending to compel manufacturers to make ventilators. Leading US corporations went along with the charade. But after a meeting at the White House, GM spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan was distinctly non-committal. Ginivan said the automaker “are already studying how we can potentially support production of medical equipment like ventilators.”

Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, took the opportunity to advance the proposal for unpaid labour, suggesting on Fox News that car workers might be mobilised to make equipment “on a voluntary basis for civic and patriotic reasons.”

Even should viable equipment be produced, there are equally pressing shortages of staff to install and safely operate the machines. Nicki Credland, chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses, told Nursing Times that there were not enough qualified intensive care staff to look after patients on the new machines, even if they get built. Current guidelines are for a nurse to patient ration of 1:1 or 1:2 depending on the condition.

Dr. Rinesh Parmar, chair of the Doctor’s Association UK, warned that systematic under-resourcing of the National Health Service and the exodus of staff has “ultimately left the country with a severe lack of intensive care nurses and doctors.” The same issues are posed in every country.

Retail and service industry workers demand safety measures, store closures and full compensation during coronavirus pandemic

Trévon Austin

As the coronavirus spreads rapidly throughout the United States, retail and service industry employees, primarily low-wage workers, have vociferously denounced corporations for continuing to stay open and not providing proper safety measures. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned against large gatherings, but many retail workers across the US are put at risk by employers still requiring employees to work.

Retail workers, particularly in grocery stores, are at high risk of contracting COVID-19 as they interact with hundreds of customers on a daily basis. Many have stated they do not have paid sick leave, meaning workers are forced to choose between their paychecks and their safety. The predicament is compounded by employers’ failure to supply cleaning and sanitation supplies.

Baristas at Starbucks voiced their frustration last week with the company’s decision to only implement limited closures and safety measures in response to the pandemic. Starbucks has justified the decision to stay open by describing itself as an “essential business.”

A sign informs customers that the Starbucks is open for takeout. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Aniya Johnson, a Starbucks barista in Philadelphia, told the World Socialist Web Site her experience has been “terrifying” and stated her coworkers were fearful of catching and spreading the virus.

“We know that most young people can be asymptomatic, leaving the elderly and babies at risk. Even with all the ‘precautionary measures,’ there are still ways that it can be spread. Management hasn’t really been too helpful. Store managers sympathize with you because they have to come to work, too. However, they have the advantage of not always being on the floor. Upper management gets to work from home and still go on about their day, as if store level concerns don’t exist. It’s frustrating.”

Johnson started a petition demanding that Starbucks suspend business at all locations and pay its workers during the duration of the coronavirus outbreak, and called for workers to stay at home today in protest. The petition has gathered over 37,000 signatures and compelled Starbucks to announce Friday the closure of its café stores and the limiting of its services to mobile ordering and drive-thru. Even with limited service, some Starbucks workers are still encountering hundreds of customers throughout their workday.

The company has also offered 30 days of paid leave to workers who feel unsafe. After that one month is up it is not clear what options will be available to workers. If a Starbucks worker comes into contact with someone who later tests positive for COVID-19 or contracts it themselves, they could qualify for “catastrophe pay.”

Dave, another Starbucks worker, did not feel that the company’s recent decision went far enough to protect workers and their communities. Dave responded to what he felt was an inadequate response by calling for a customer boycott and starting a social media group called “The Baristas Collective for Starbucks workers” to organize and make demands.

“The situation surrounding COVID-19 is stressful. We’re being told constantly that we need to stay home and practice social distancing. We hear that from every government and health authority, but Starbucks is saying otherwise. They gave us 30 days off as a publicity stunt.”

Last year the global coffee chain spent $12 billion on stock buybacks and dividends, rewarding its investors and pumping up its stock valuation. This same amount would be enough to cut every single employee around the world a $41,000 check, making clear that what the company is now offering is a mere pittance.

Dave spoke with multiple baristas across the US who say they are being actively discouraged from taking the 30 days paid leave and feel pressured to keep working at Starbucks.

“Baristas are in danger, their families are in danger, and their loved ones are in danger. Yet Starbucks doesn’t care. This corporation is putting thousands of lives at risk for a quick buck, and that’s why we’re organizing. It’s time to stand up,” he said.

Workers at the Whole Foods grocery chain, owned by Amazon CEO and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, also conveyed their dissatisfaction with the way the company is handling the outbreak. A longtime employee who wanted to remain anonymous described upper management at Whole Foods lagging behind other grocers in their reaction. The worker said that the most immediate responses came from workers in the stores.

“I feel like we took on sanitation at my store before directions were handed down from above. As soon as our cooler emptied, we started scrubbing walls, floors, prep areas, everything. We sanitized all tables and shelves as they emptied. Our store leader hired a third-party company to sanitize as well,” the worker said.

“Regional and global leadership are disastrously inept. Full of yes men who have failed upward. No minds of their own for the most part. Most of them in my opinion are too young to have perspective on this real-life crisis—due to a cycle of continuous firing and rehiring. We are held together by the glue of a very few extremely competent folks, but most of the regional and global management is a disaster.”

Workers at retail giants Walmart and Target have also spoken out about the two companies not doing enough to protect staff during the outbreak. In several interviews with other news publications, workers said they were anxious about working in crowded conditions. Their frustration was aggravated by increased workloads, under-staffing and inadequate sanitation practices.

Several Target workers spoke to the Guardian about management dismissing workers’ fears of contracting or transmitting the coronavirus to family members. A Target employee in New Mexico told the publication he had been wearing a N95 protective mask out of concern for his niece, who is going through chemotherapy. Management told him he needed to obtain a doctor’s note in order to be permitted to continue wearing it.

“They said I would not be allowed to work with it until I had brought back this paper form. I told them it was not worth it to me to risk the life of a little girl. I told them, while trying to hold back tears, that this wasn’t right,” he said.

In a few cases, some workers have forced companies to shut down stores. Video game store chain GameStop recently announced that it would close all of its US locations after workers threatened to walk out because of unsanitary conditions. However, many retail workers remain in a vulnerable position on the front lines of the pandemic.

Africa threatened by sudden surge in coronavirus cases

Kumaran Ira

Coronavirus spread rapidly this weekend in Africa, jumping to over 1,300 detected cases, while there are over 335,000 confirmed cases and 14,000 deaths worldwide. At least 33 of the continent’s 54 countries are affected, though it is certain that many undetected cases or asymptomatic coronavirus carriers are circulating in Africa.

The continent’s entire population is at risk of becoming infected, a development which would rapidly swamp its inadequate and underfunded health systems. A horrific death toll would result if the virus spreads in the countryside, densely packed slums and working-class areas of the continent’s massive cities. A coordinated, international struggle to halt the spread of coronavirus in Africa is now an urgent necessity.

Africa must “prepare for the worst” as community spread of the virus has already begun, World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned last Wednesday. Most African countries have now closed their borders to people arriving from countries hard hit by coronavirus, including the United States and the European countries

In North Africa, Egypt—the continent’s hardest-hit country, where Africa’s first case was recorded on February 14—has at least 294 cases and 6 dead. The military regime of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is contemplating a curfew and generalized stay-at-home orders for the population to try to halt the pandemic’s spread. Egypt is followed by Algeria (201 sick, 17 dead), Morocco (109 cases, 3 dead) and Tunisia (75 sick, 3 dead). The number of cases in Libya, a country devastated by the ongoing civil war provoked by the 2011 NATO war nearly a decade ago, is unknown.

Authorities in these countries have closed schools, mosques and universities, suspended flights towards high-risk countries, and banned mass gatherings. In Tunisia, the state is even asking its impoverished population to finance the struggle against the virus with donations.

Many West African countries are also hard hit. Senegal has confirmed 56 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, and authorities are considering outlawing the sale of bread in neighborhood groceries in an attempt to halt the spread. They have also banned all public demonstrations on Senegal’s entire territory for 30 days.

The number of the sick is surging in other West African countries as well, including Burkina Faso, a country destabilized by French imperialism’s war in Mali; it has seen 75 cases including four dead, the first in sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana has 21 cases and Nigeria—Africa’s most populous country, with over 200 million inhabitants—has 30 confirmed infections.

In East Africa, the spread of the virus also poses enormous dangers with dozens of cases detected in many countries: Rwanda (17), Ethiopia (11), Kenya (15), Tanzania (12), Sudan (2), Seychelles (7), Somalia (1) and Mauritius (24 sick and two dead). Yesterday, Rwandan authorities closed their borders, imposed confinement orders on the population and put the country on lockdown.

According to Radio France Internationale, Kenyan authorities have arrested several individuals accused of profiteering or inciting panic over the pandemic. They arrested a 23-year-old man who had posted messages to Twitter accusing the state of lying about the first COVID-19 cases recorded in the country, and who now faces a $50,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. Last night, the Kenyan government also moved to suspend all flights out of the country indefinitely starting Wednesday at midnight.

Cases have also been detected in Central Africa notably in Cameroon (40), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (23) and in the impoverished Central African Republic (3). Governments there are taking preventive measures to suspend all flights to and from at-risk countries and close schools, places of worship and bars.

Coronavirus is particularly threatening to Africa not only because of the lack of adequate health infrastructure in working class areas, slums and the countryside, but also because of the many AIDS and tuberculosis patients. These and other individuals with weakened immune systems risk developing extreme serious cases of COVID-19 that they could not survive without intensive care in a hospital equipped with respirators and other advanced equipment. With this equipment largely lacking as the virus rapidly spreads, a catastrophe that could claim millions of lives threatens the continent.

The COVID-19 contagion has spread significantly in South Africa, a country of 59 million people, with more than 274 cases as of this writing. “We must alert all South Africans that the risk of internal transmission has now arrived,” commented Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. “Once this infection begins to spread in taxis and buses, it will create a new dynamic.”

“We have seven million HIV+ people, and 2 million are not currently under treatment,” recalled professor Susan Goldstein, a health specialist and assistant director of the Wits Center for Health Economics and Decision Science, in an interview with Al Jazeera.

“Nor do we know either how things will go in very poor regions where there is no space for quarantines,” Goldstein added.

The coronavirus pandemic is again revealing the bankruptcy of the world capitalist system. African governments defend the interests of a narrow layer of capitalist elites, closely tied to imperialism, who have overseen the exploitation of low-wage labor by corporations from the old European colonial powers, American imperialism, and emerging Asian economies. They collaborate as well in imperialist wars launched in Africa by Washington or the European imperialist powers.

As a result, decades after these countries won formal independence from imperialism, basic social services and social infrastructure remain at best deeply inadequate. Most of the African population does not have health insurance and depends on public clinics or hospitals. Even in South Africa, one of the continent’s wealthier countries, 82 percent of the population does not have insurance. Public hospitals are critically short on staff and are frequently overwhelmed by epidemics.

It is essential to coordinate an international campaign to provide the medical equipment and staff necessary to stop the contagion in Africa.

Professor Mosa Moshabela of the School of Nursing Sciences and Public Health of the University of Kwazulu Natal, told Al Jazeera: “We cannot contain COVID-19 with our health system alone. If we look at how Italy [Europe’s coronavirus hotspot] is coping with the virus - we can’t do it.”

Addressing the catastrophic situation in Italy, where thousands are dying as hospitals are overwhelmed by the rapid onrush of patients in critical condition, the professor added: “We will be similar to that with the difference is that we don’t have a big old population but a high number of people who have TB and HIV. Those who are going to be affected the most are going to be between 20 and 60.”

It is urgent to sound the alarm on the danger of that without immediate action the disease could spread, become endemic, and potentially lead to a catastrophic loss of millions of lives. This danger is not, moreover, a threat for the African population alone. Given the close links in a globalized economy—notably between Europe, America and Africa through which this disease has spread—the growth of COVID-19 in any individual country poses an enormous threat of contagion to workers of all countries.

Italy’s health workers denounce ruling elite’s negligence on coronavirus

Marc Wells

The coronavirus pandemic escalated this weekend in Italy, with 1,500 dead and 13,000 new cases. Hospital systems are submerged, lacking basic supplies like safety masks that leave them completely unprepared for the massive epidemic.

The Conte government announced Saturday evening that all non-strategic production will be suspended: “Outside activities deemed essential, we will only allow work to be carried out in smart working mode and we will only allow production activities that are deemed in any case relevant for national production. … It is the most difficult crisis that the country has been experiencing since the second post-war period. The death of many fellow citizens is a pain that is renewed every day.”

In stark contrast with a tardy and inadequate response from the state, overworked health care workers are showing extraordinary dedication to patients. But the contradictions of a crippling system are bursting at the seams. Medical staff are increasingly discussing broader political questions, and that the pandemic is not only a health but a social and political crisis.

A patient in a biocontainment unit is carried on a stretcher from an ambulance arrived at the Columbus Covid 2 Hospital in Rome.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The WSWS spoke to Italian health care workers facing the growing wave of severely ill and dying patients. Monica Gigliofiorito is a registered nurse at the emergency room of the San Giovanni Addolorata hospital in Rome, currently deployed at the intensive care coronary unit.

Gigliofiorito said, “We have created special areas for the COVID-19 emergency, a buffer zone for those suspected of being infected. After a test and a CAT scan, we assess whether the patient needs COVID-19 specific care. If positive, then the patient gets transferred to Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases, since, outside ventilators and NIVs, we don’t have that specific type of intensive care.”

She explained that her hospital is not equipped to directly treat coronavirus patients, though they work with positive cases to send them to appropriate facilities for treatment: “We health care workers are absolutely exposed to risk. In my hospital we’ve reported two doctors testing positive, however it’s unclear whether they contracted it in the hospital. More than the doctors, we nurses are particularly exposed to the virus. Upon a new patient’s arrival, we wear an FPP2 mask, whose filter is weaker than an FPP3. But we are in Italy.”

Gigliofiorito observed, “We have excellent training for doctors and nurses in Italy, but the Lazio Region does not give us sufficient tools … Today I worked in the morning. We had 3 FFP3 masks, 2 FFP2s and several surgical masks. So, with a nursing staff of 20 in my unit, you can see how many have been exposed all day.

She added, “I love my job for many reasons. Unfortunately, I didn’t go all the way for a medical degree and I regret it. Still, as a nurse I received an excellent training and execute difficult tasks. But we are underpaid for what we do. After 24 years of service, I get 1,800-1,900 euros a month. In the last few years, governments shut down many public hospitals, moving towards privatization. The system has been a vehicle for exploitation: the entire ruling class took all the fat, there’s nothing left.”

She indicted the ruling elite’s neglect of the population: “At the beginning of the coronavirus phenomenon, it was known that it would spread from China everywhere, including to Italy.” However, she said, “No one sounded the alarm. I can show you official documents from the Gazzetta Ufficiale [official journal of legal record] that clearly warned of the problem as far back as at least February 5. And now I am terrified by the prospect that it will spread down south. One can only pray to God on that, as the death toll will be way higher than Bergamo.”

Gigliofiorito stressed the criminal negligence of the state: “The president of the Lazio Region, at the beginning of February, had the nerve to say that this was a simple and banal flu, that we were making too much noise. They did not want to test even us, medical personnel. In my department we had the first death from COVID-19, an 89-year-old woman, certainly with cardiac preconditions. When she died, they tried to hush the news, but couldn’t.”

She added, “Of course, the hospital was engulfed in a scandal. But no one worried about us, 25 nurses placed in quarantine. They only worried about testing us and giving us the results for one purpose: to rush us back on the job.”

The WSWS also spoke to a technician from Lombardy, who wished to remain anonymous: “I work with cancer patients who need to be treated with radiation. We have 150 to 200 patients a day. We don’t have an emergency room, so we don’t work exactly in the frontline. However, our demographic is most vulnerable to COVID-19, so we must take strict precautions.”

He explained, “I’ve had two patients who tested positive, although without symptoms. I also have two coworkers who have tested positive. We have been in daily contact, so we have all been exposed. They are now quarantined, but it’s very possible we’ve all been contaminated.”

“Tests are only given to those with clear symptoms: one must have high fever and heavy cough, or shortness of breath. Testing the full population is difficult. However, there has been a sort of abnegation, in addition to shortage of supplies, compounded by a difficulty of getting these supplies on the world market.”

He criticized the European Union’s role: “Europe is not so much a Union. They forgot about the alliance and are acting on the basis of ‘to each his own,’ if one looks at how the EU ignored our emergency.” In contrast, he said, “I also must say China’s contributions have been noteworthy.”

He described how EU governments ignored World Health Organisation warnings: “The priority is given to the stock values of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, but when the scientific community warns that half the world population will be affected by a deadly virus it’s considered crazy. This is a history classic.”

He said, “The loss of lives is the saddest part of all this. I cannot hide my anger when I read the daily death toll. After that, one gets news from the stock market, how this affects finance.” He added, “I get irate when in such a pandemic they think about a decline in their stock value. The situation in the real world is not rosy, but the response of the ruling elite is absolute folly, from my viewpoint ... 95 percent of the population doesn’t know whether it’s positive [i.e., infected].”

Pointing to the massive resources expended on bank bailouts after the 2008 Wall Street crash, such as for the failing Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank in Italy, he said, “History teaches a lot: the dramatic consequences we saw in Greece were caused by the speculations of a rapacious financial elite. They speculated on a people’s hunger to make money. … Our own micro-world has changed since the Lehman Brothers collapse.”

In contrast with the indifference of the financial aristocracy, he said, “I am in the business of health care. Frankly, I see human misery every day. People looking into my eyes and begging for help. ... I do not accept financial speculations on starvation and people’s deaths, or bets on the failure of an entire people.”

German government prepares for internet censorship and deployment of the armed forces

Ulrich Rippert

The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the class character of politics. The health care system has been cut to pieces, hospitals privatised and trimmed for profit, laboratory capacities and nationwide treatment options massively restricted.

Despite warnings from China, no preparations have been made to protect the population. The government cares only about the interests of big business and is making unlimited financial resources available to corporations and banks. Although the danger of the virus was known, and public life has been drastically restricted, many workers are being forced to continue their work without adequate protection.

Resistance is growing against this criminal irresponsibility by the government and employers. Various opposition groups are forming on the internet to refute government propaganda and describe and fight against the dramatic conditions in hospitals, rescue stations, care facilities and factories, but also the devastating effects of government measures on workers in precarious employment.

Angela Merkel (Wikipedia Commons)

Politicians have responded to this opposition with calls for censorship and dictatorial measures.

At the beginning of the week, Lower Saxony’s state Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (Social Democratic Party, SPD) called for sanctions against the distribution of so-called “fake news” in connection with the Coronavirus pandemic. He demanded that the government urgently intervene, saying, “It must be prohibited to publicly spread false allegations about the supply situation of the population, medical care or cause, ways of infection, diagnosis and therapy of COVID-19.”

According to Pistorius, the government must examine whether bans could already be based on the infection protection law. If not, the penal code or the law on administrative offences should be amended “as quickly as possible.”

The greatest misinformation currently being spread comes from the government itself. It claims that the German health care system is well prepared for the spread of the pandemic, and no one need worry. For weeks, the government played down the dangers.

Now that reality has refuted its propaganda, any criticism of it is to be criminalised and suppressed. If Pistorius has his way, the government will rigorously enforce its monopoly on information and opinion. This is a call for censorship and dictatorship.

Pistorius has long been known as a right-wing social democrat in the tradition of Gustav Noske, who during the November Revolution in 1918 allied with the German army and far-right Freikorps to suppress working-class opposition to the bourgeois order.

For seven years as Lower Saxony’s interior minister, he has been advocating a strict right-wing course against refugees and for stepping up the repressive powers of the state. In summer 2017, he presented an SPD position paper on domestic policy, the central point of which was strengthening the federal police force financially and with more personnel. One year later, more than 10,000 people demonstrated in Hanover against the new police law of Lower Saxony, which Pistorius had drafted, because it massively expands the powers of the security authorities while at the same time restricting elementary civil rights.

With his call for censorship and police-state measures, Pistorius speaks for a party that has always responded to crisis situations and resistance from the population by calling for the strong state and dictatorial measures. Pistorius comes from the same political stable as former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who brutally smashed up the welfare systems with the “Hartz” laws. For the past three years he has also been living in a relationship with Schröder’s fourth wife, Doris Schröder-Köpf, from whom the former chancellor separated in 2015.

There is no doubt that the fight against the pandemic requires the restriction of social contacts and individual freedom of movement. However, it must not be allowed that the conditions for a dictatorship are created under the slogan “necessity knows no law!” The coronavirus pandemic, its ominous health, social and economic consequences and the drastic measures required to combat it raise the question of who exercises power and controls the state—the financial oligarchy or the working class?

The ruling class everywhere is trying to use measures against the Corona crisis to strengthen its power. According to information from DPA and Der Spiegel, the president of the Bundestag (federal parliament), Wolfgang Schäuble (Christian Democratic Union, CDU), for example, has proposed to the leaders of the parliamentary groups that they expand the Emergency Laws by amending the constitution.

The Emergency Laws, which were passed in May 1968 in the midst of the largest workers’ strikes and student protests of the post-World War II period, give the state quasi-dictatorial powers in crisis situations (natural disaster, uprising, war). Among other things, they allow for the Bundestag and the Bundesrat (the upper chamber of parliament) to be replaced by an emergency parliament, the “Joint Committee.” This committee consists of only 48 selected members but has the full powers of both chambers of parliament and would thus largely override the existing parliamentary system. Schäuble has now brought up the idea of including a similar regulation in the constitution for the case of an epidemic.

The deployment of the Bundeswehr (armed forces), which Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced at a press conference on Thursday, must also be seen in this context. For the time being, the focus is on logistical tasks. The Bundeswehr has five hospitals of its own, 3,000 doctors, mobile military hospitals as well as logistics and transport capacities that can be used in the fight against the virus.

But Kramp-Karrenbauer has more in mind. In addition to the deployment of up to 50,000 soldiers, there is also talk of mobilizing 75,000 reservists. At the press conference, the defence minister emphasized that the troops will only be properly deployed when the civilian authorities and organizations “have reached the end of their capabilities.” She claimed that in the area of security and order, assistance from the military would “only be available under strict conditions,” but in a daily order to the troops she wrote, “We will help with health care and, if necessary, with ensuring infrastructure and supplies as well as maintaining security and order.”

Chief of Staff Alfons Mais wrote to soldiers saying the Bundeswehr now had the task of maintaining operational readiness for any required support. “We are at the beginning of a road whose direction and length we cannot yet estimated,” he declared.

In Bavaria, the conservative state government declared a disaster situation last Monday. This enables them to take far-reaching measures against the spread of the coronavirus and to call on citizens to help in the form of “services, material and work.” However, the disaster situation also means a far-reaching encroachment on democratic rights, which can be used to suppress social and political opposition. The working class must be on its guard.