US officials use economic fallout from pandemic to slash school funding

Phyllis Steele & Jerry White

At least 46 states and the District of Columbia in the United States have completely closed schools due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting 54.5 million students. While the closures are necessary to slow the spread of the deadly disease, students are suffering from the loss of social interaction and access to counselors, nurses and a consistent food supply.

Some 22 million low-income students receive free or reduced cost breakfasts, lunches and in some cases dinners during the school year through a federal program run by the US Department of Agriculture. The school meals are the second largest federal anti-hunger program behind the government’s food stamp program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP.

A recent survey of directors of meal programs by the School Nutrition Association indicates that over 90 percent are concerned about students missing meals during the school closures. They are also concerned about the financial impact on their meal programs, which depend on cafeteria sales. Government reimbursements for the recorded number of students will be more difficult to collect during the closures.

Due to the school closures and lockdown orders, the country’s three largest districts in the US—New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago—along with urban and rural districts across the country have been forced to improvise using whatever resources are available to distribute meals as well as learning packets.

In New York City, with 1.1 million students, parents are being directed to 400 centers where they can pick up three meals from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Roughly three-quarters of New York’s students qualify for free or reduced price school breakfasts and lunches.

A public school educator from the New York City borough of Queens told the World Socialist Web Site, “Some schools haven’t even been able to figure out how to contact a significant percentage of the kids, never mind support those who are in real need, with their parents quarantined and losing their jobs.

“They had their ‘training’ of teachers last week that provided just one more example of the unpreparedness and really the backward character of the educational system in terms of tech. They have been focusing so much on assessing teachers based on an unrealistic standard, downsizing in every area and forcing principals to rate low that they didn’t bother training people to bring them up to current levels of tech proficiency. Now they say they are going to distribute 300,000 laptops.

“Why wasn’t there funding for that before? They’ve left teachers, schools, kids and families in overcrowded, run-down buildings, cramming 34 kids in a room.”

Districts are implementing e-learning programs that are chaotic and unprepared. Students will struggle to receive the online instruction because of the impact of social inequality, including access to computers and an internet connection. Where there are restrictions against social gathering, students will not be able to go to libraries or fast food restaurants to access a Wi-Fi network. In addition, students with special needs will not be able to get instruction from trained special education teachers.

A teacher in Kingston, about 100 miles north of New York City, said there is a lack of ChromeBooks to continue coordinated educational programs, and younger students are not being prioritized. Her class is primarily immigrants, and she has been actively speaking with struggling parents, some of whom are not citizens and/or single, who have to continue working, making it very difficult to find childcare and prioritize their child’s education.

The Trump administration and the Democratic Party have been focused on propping up the stock market and giant corporations with trillions of dollars, leaving teachers, parents and children to scramble with scarce resources. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) abruptly cancelled an online briefing with school superintendents, leading the head of the School Superintendents Association to say superintendents are feeling “total confusion" over conflicting statements from the administration.

This is not simply a matter of confusion, however. Plans are already being made to exploit the crisis in order to implement even deeper cuts to public education, while diverting more public resources to for-profit charter schools, “public-private partnerships,” e-learning businesses and other privatization schemes.

The 2008-09 crisis led to a sharp reduction in federal and state funding and the loss of 351,000 jobs in education by mid-2012 while student attendance rose by 1,419,000. According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, some of the jobs have been restored, but there is still a deficit of 135,000 school employees compared to 2008. The Obama administration used the financial crisis to goad cash-strapped school districts to lift the cap on charter schools and impose merit pay and punitive teacher accountability schemes, which punished teachers for educational problems caused by higher levels of poverty and decades of austerity.

Last week, Education Week published an article titled, “Districts Brace for Crash in State K-12 Revenue Due to Coronavirus,” which detailed plans being made to cut school district funding, particularly districts with low property values and tax revenues that are least able to afford it. “School districts should brace for a precipitous drop in state K-12 aid next year because of the coronavirus’s widespread impact on the economy—and they should start preparing now, funding experts warn,” the article states.

One school funding consultant told Education Week, “For districts, this is going to be a double whammy. There’s uncertainty on the revenue side as far as how much state aid districts are going to get … and, on the expense side, we’ve got to figure out how to respond to this new world. Districts need to begin planning for a new reality.”

State governments have already begun slash spending and reneging on pay raises promised to teachers after the wave of strikes over the last two years by more than 700,000 educators demanding wage increases and the restoration of state school spending to pre-2008 levels.

Last week, the Kentucky state Senate passed a budget bill that will withhold $1.3 billion from teacher pension funding unless the unions agree to cut retirement benefits for newly hired teachers. Protesting teachers were not allowed in the capitol because of coronavirus restrictions on large gatherings.

In Tennessee last week, Republican Governor Bill Lee cut in half the amount of money he wants to set aside for teacher pay raises and then got rid of a $250 million proposal to provide mental health services in schools. He instead set aside that money in the state’s “emergency fund,” Education Week reported.

“Maryland’s legislature, which raced to approve legislation this week before adjourning its session early, added a clause to an ambitious school funding overhaul that would pull all new funding in the case of a recession.” In Wisconsin a plan to spend more on special education was shelved.

Districts are also incurring large unexpected costs by delivering meals to students, setting up makeshift child-care centers, and purchasing distance learning materials for students, the article notes. In addition, costs are expected to rise next year when students, many emotionally traumatized and behind academically, return to school.

“Any substitute teacher or transportation savings districts might gain by shaving off weeks or months off the school year will be outstripped by new intervention and counseling costs, experts warn,” the article notes. “States are going to take a massive hit,” predicted Marguerite Roza, a Georgetown University school finance expert. “School districts will be fine through the end of the school year. But next year is going to be a come-to-Jesus moment.”

Like they did after the global financial crash in 2008, the teacher unions will collaborate in the new and far deeper attacks on teachers and public education that are coming. That is why educators and all sections of workers have to take up a struggle against the plans of the corporate and financial elite to exploit the crisis to funnel even more money into their bank accounts and instead take up the fight for a program that defends the interests of the working class.

In its statement “How to Fight the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Program for the Working Class,” the Socialist Equality Party calls for free and universal testing, immediate and cost-free treatment for all those infected, an emergency program to expand the healthcare infrastructure, the immediate closure of all schools, nonessential plants and workplaces, with full income for workers affected. We urge all educators who agree with this program to join the Socialist Equality Party and take up the fight for socialism.

Palestinians face humanitarian catastrophe from coronavirus

Jean Shaoul

Health authorities confirmed the first two cases of the coronavirus in Gaza this weekend—citizens who had returned from Pakistan and entered Gaza via Egypt.

The arrival of the coronavirus in one of the most densely populated places on earth heralds a humanitarian catastrophe not just for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but people all over the world who face similar atrocious living conditions and a lack of healthcare.

While hundreds of Gazans have returned home in the past two weeks, just 92 people have been tested, due to lack of test kits, suggesting that the number of cases is far higher. More than 1,270 people are in quarantine in hospitals, hotels and schools after crossing into Gaza from Israel and Egypt.

Two weeks ago, Hamas, the bourgeois clerical group that controls Gaza, closed schools and sent in sanitation crews to patrol the streets and public buildings and spray disinfectant. On Friday, it ordered the shuttering of weekly street markets and wedding halls and closed its borders, saying only patients requiring urgent medical treatment outside Gaza would be allowed to cross into Egypt or Israel.

View of Gaza (Photo: wikipedia.org)

Israel said it was its closing borders with Gaza and the occupied West Bank to commercial traffic, though some patients and humanitarian staff would be allowed to cross. It has sent a derisory 200 coronavirus testing kits to Gaza. Cogat, the Israeli military body that coordinates with the Palestinian Authority, said in a breathtakingly cynical statement, “Viruses and diseases have no borders, and so prevention of an outbreak of the coronavirus in Gaza [and the West Bank] are a prime Israeli interest.”

This foreseeable and foreseen disaster comes after Israel’s 13-year-long siege that has rendered Gaza almost uninhabitable, due extreme overcrowding, collapsed infrastructure, lack of electricity and water, poor sanitary conditions and the gutting of an already limited healthcare system. There is a chronic shortage of drugs, and Gaza’s barely functioning hospitals have struggled to cope with the thousands of horrendous injuries and amputations inflicted on Palestinians by Israel’s armed forces during the weekly “Great March of Return” that started two years ago.

Palestinians in Gaza, living in squalid makeshift camps and slums, have no possibility of either controlling the spread of the virus or accessing medical treatment and supplies. According to Abdelnasser Soboh, director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Gaza office, Gaza has only 62 ventilators, with all but 15 already in use, and needs at least another 100. He believes that Gaza’s hospitals can only handle the first 100 cases, if they come in gradually.

It is a death sentence for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Gaza’s nearly two million inhabitants. Israel is, as the occupier of Gaza and the West Bank, under the Hague Convention (1907) and the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) legally responsible for the safety and welfare of civilian residents, a responsibility Israel denies.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the West Bank, has reported 59 cases, mostly in Bethlehem, including 17 who recovered. It announced a 14-day curfew, ordering everyone except the security forces, medical staff and food sellers to stay at home and closing roads between cities, towns and villages. Bethlehem has already been under lockdown for weeks. Prisoners who had served half of their sentence for criminal offences were given a pardon and released to reduce the numbers in Palestinian jails.

Despite the severity of the situation, Israel sent just 100 testing kits for the coronavirus to Ramallah.

The situation is no less dire for Palestinians throughout the region. In Israel, where 20 percent of the population are Palestinian, health authorities have confirmed that 1,071 people have tested positive for the coronavirus, one patient has died and 18 are in serious condition.

With healthcare facilities decimated by decades of cuts and unable to cope, the caretaker government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered people not to leave their homes other than to go to work, shop for groceries or seek medical care and closed schools, universities and cultural and leisure facilities. It has banned gatherings of more than 10 people and entry to foreigners unless can prove they are able to self-quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival.

In neighbouring Jordan, which hosts one of the largest refugee populations—from Palestine, Iraq and Syria—per capita in the world, some 70 percent of the 9.7 million population is of Palestinian origin, with 3.2 million Palestinians registered as refugees. There are also at least 650,000 registered Syrian refugees, more than half of whom live in the squalid camps in Za'atari, Marjeeb al-Fahood, Cyber City and Al-Azraq, with at least another one million unregistered Syrians living in the country.

Amman has confirmed that 69 people have tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday, with Jordan’s already feeble economy in free-fall and healthcare facilities incapable of dealing with the virus, there was rioting at a prison in Irbid where two people were killed after visits were banned, King Abdullah signed an emergency law giving the government sweeping powers.

The government announced a nationwide, round-the-clock curfew, in from Saturday, closing schools, universities, leisure centres and workplaces, except for essential services, sealing the country’s borders and banning movement except for emergencies, saying, “The government will announce on Tuesday 24 March certain times when citizens will be allowed to run errands.” Those requiring urgent medical treatment would have to notify security authorities. Some 400 people have already been arrested for ignoring the curfew and face up to a year in jail.

In Lebanon, 10 percent of its 6.8 million population are of Palestinian origin, with most registered as refugees. They have long been denied basic rights—not allowed to attend public schools, work in a number of professions such as doctors and lawyers, own property or pass on inheritances.

The health authorities have reported 230 cases and four deaths in a country whose healthcare system lacks the most basic facilities. Only one hospital in the country is equipped with specialised isolation rooms compliant with international standards.

The pandemic comes amid Lebanon’s default on its $30 billion Eurobond and declaration that it needs its foreign currency reserves for key imports. Last week, the shaky new government of Hassan Diab, formed after protests brought down the government of Saad Hariri, announced a “state of medical emergency,” closing all public and private institutions except hospitals, pharmacies and bakeries, with supermarkets only open at specific times, in an effort to contain the coronavirus outbreak. The banks are closed until March 29.

On Saturday, after the government called in the army to enforce the stay at home orders, patrols drove through the streets of Beirut ordering groups of people to disperse, while army helicopters flew over other parts of the country calling out on loud speakers for those out on the streets to return home.

On Sunday, Syria, where there were 650,000 Palestinians before the nine-year proxy war to topple President Bashar al-Assad, confirmed its first case of the coronavirus. Damascus announced a ban on public transport and stepped up the lockdown introduced a few days ago that included the closure of schools, parks, restaurants and many public institutions. It has called off army conscription, issued a prisoner amnesty and ordered bakeries to close their stalls and deliver to customers at home.

A few weeks ago, a WHO spokesperson warned that Syria’s “fragile health systems may not have the capacity to detect and respond” to the pandemic. This is particularly the case in the crowded camps for tens of thousands of displaced Syrians.

The situation is no better in the rest of the Middle East and North Africa, where in country after country—Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Syria and Iran—healthcare systems have been ravaged by years of wars and/or sanctions, orchestrated by US imperialism. Their plight foreshadows what is to come in the poorest countries of the world, where as many as one billion people, one seventh of the world’s population, live in squalid, makeshift shacks, without proper sanitation or access to clean water, basic services and healthcare.

Germany: Appalling lack of protective equipment in COVID-19 outbreak

Markus Salzmann

The German government and the European Central Bank are pumping hundreds of billions of euros into the accounts of corporations and banks to protect them from the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. But when it comes to protecting the health of the population, government action is marked by criminal irresponsibility.

In Germany, for example, it is still virtually impossible to be tested for the life-threatening virus unless you can prove that you have been in a crisis area or have had contact with someone who is already infected. Even people with symptoms of the disease are refused tests.

The irresponsibility of the government is also shown by the lack of enough protective masks and other urgently needed equipment. Although doctors’ representatives and suppliers of protective clothing had warned of this weeks ago, the federal government reacted with ignorance and inaction. Now, the masks are becoming scarce in clinics, doctors’ offices and medical services—with fatal consequences for the fight against COVID-19.

As Walter Plassmann, head of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, explained last Tuesday, the federal government had promised to help with the procurement of protective equipment. In fact, nothing had happened. “We did not get a single mask,” news magazine Der Spiegel quotes Plassmann, who warned, “If we run out of protective equipment, we are finished.”

Achim Theiler, the managing director of a company that produces and sells hygienic clothing, mouthguards and respirators for hospitals and doctors, told Der Spiegel that the federal Ministry of Health had been ignoring the warnings of manufacturers and suppliers for weeks.

“We have issued warnings, and nobody has heard us,” said Theiler. “This is gross negligence and unnecessarily aggravates the crisis.” On February 5, he had contacted federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (Christian Democratic Union, CDU) by email and vigorously urged him to reserve the corresponding quantities, as Germany was threatened with a dramatic shortage. “I appeal to you not to underestimate the problem of this virus,” Theiler wrote.

On February 10, Theiler contacted the health ministry again and referred to an official announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that there was a threat of a shortage of protective equipment worldwide, especially respiratory masks. At the time, Der Spiegel had also reported on supply problems in Germany. Theiler requested that this information be passed on immediately to the appropriate authorities. “Nobody reacted,” he was forced to conclude.

Several doctors, such as the head of a Munich clinic, Axel Fischer, also complained that the federal and state governments had not acted despite the anticipated problems. It is known that around 97 percent of the world market production of face masks is located in China, whose government imposed an export ban on products of this type in January.

Although the number of infected and sick people is still rising rapidly, supply bottlenecks are already occurring, as clinics in particular generally hold only a small number of stocks for cost reasons.

Without adequate protective equipment, doctors and nursing staff are exposed to a high risk of infection. In the event of an infection, the doctor or employee in question is then absent, which further exacerbates an already strained situation. Moreover, there is a risk of the virus being transmitted to patients, i.e., sick and vulnerable people. This means that patient care is not possible without protective clothing. “Then we will have to close the hospital,” Elmar Wagenbach, head of Eschweiler hospital, told Der Spiegel.

The limited supplies are already largely used up. Should requested deliveries not arrive, they would run out in Hamburg at the weekend, KV boss Plassmann explained.

The hospital association in North Rhine-Westphalia sounded the alarm that in the state with the most COVID-19 cases, most hospitals only had protective material for about 14 days. In clinics, staff are often instructed to use only one mask per day, or the mask—which is designed as a disposable product—is used several times.

The situation in doctors’ surgeries is similarly dramatic. Here, too, there is an acute shortage. Even weeks ago, masks, protective clothing and disinfectants were no longer available. In some cases, family doctors bought breathing masks from the DIY store at their own expense, which are normally used by painters. According to a survey by the doctors’ news service, more than 80 percent of doctors in private practice are already complaining about a lack of protective equipment and are considering closing their practice.

If material can be ordered and delivered, then it is only at horrendous prices. While face masks normally cost between 50 and 80 cents per piece, up to 20 euros are now being charged. After large quantities of disinfectants and protective material have been stolen from clinics for fear of the virus, they now have to be kept under lock and key or guarded by security personnel.

The lack of urgently needed material is not limited to face masks and disinfectants. There are also increasing shortages of respirators, oxygen and medication.

Important drugs needed for intensive care are also becoming scarce and their price is rising. The anaesthetic propofol is no longer available in sufficient quantities and the price per ampoule has increased twenty-fold in the last few days. The WHO warned over a week ago of a shortage of medical equipment to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The statement by Health Minister Spahn that Germany is well prepared for an outbreak of COVID-19 turns out to be a brazen lie. Serious deficiencies are already evident in every area of the health system. COVID-19 tests, which in any case are not being carried out nationwide, cannot be carried out systematically due to the strain on doctors and health authorities. In the last 20 years, about one third of physician posts in the public health authorities have been cut, while pay is significantly lower than can be earned in a private clinic.

The staffing situation in German clinics and nursing homes was already catastrophic before the outbreak of the pandemic; 17,000 vacancies currently exist in nursing care. Poor pay and even worse working conditions are the main reasons for this. In addition, there has been a massive reduction in hospital beds in recent years. If the situation in Germany follows that in Italy, there would be nowhere near enough intensive care beds in the country.

This catastrophic position makes clear where privatisation, profit gouging, austerity measures and a market-focused orientation have led in the health care system. In order to combat the pandemic, substantial funds must be made available immediately to provide the material and staffing required in all clinics and medical facilities. The profit orientation in the health care system must be ended immediately and be replaced by a planned orientation toward the needs of society.

US Congress moves toward massive bailout of big business

Patrick Martin

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell closed out the Senate session Monday night without bringing his proposed $2 trillion bonanza for corporate America to a vote. There is, however, little doubt that the legislation will be passed by the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives within a day or two.

The highly publicized wrangling between Democrats and Republicans over the exact terms of the absurdly named CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) is only political theater, engaged in by both parties in order to disguise the highway robbery being carried out by corporate America, using the coronavirus crisis as a pretext.

This massive boondoggle has nothing to do with helping people endangered either medically or financially by the epidemic and the economic dislocation it has caused. The financial aristocracy has seized on the public health crisis as an opportunity to raid the federal treasury, plundering the American people and grabbing whatever it can.

Following the motto of Democrat Rahm Emanuel—“Never let a good crisis go to waste”—both parties are using the COVID-19 epidemic as a chance to obtain favors for their corporate masters beyond their wildest dreams and far beyond anything they carried out in the 2008-2009 bailout of Wall Street and the auto industry.

As it stands now, the bill drafted by the Republican leadership and endorsed by Trump—he urged Monday that it be passed exactly as presented by McConnell—would provide more than $1.8 trillion in financial aid and other appropriations, the bulk of it directed to the big corporations and the wealthy.

The provisions include:

* $500 billion for large corporations

* $350 billion for “small business”

* $300 billion in direct payments to households

* $250 billion for state unemployment benefit funds

* $136 billion in additional funds for federal agencies, including the military and the Department of Homeland Security

* $106 billion in payments to hospitals, the Veterans Administration and other public health agencies.

The biggest single slice, $500 billion in loans and loan guarantees for big corporations, has been widely termed a “slush fund” under the control of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. While the money is earmarked to some extent—$50 billion to passenger airlines, $8 billion to cargo airlines, and $17 billion to firms supplying the Pentagon or intelligence agencies with critical equipment and capabilities—the bulk of is to be distributed by the Treasury as Mnuchin decides.

Companies receiving aid are required to maintain the same employment levels as prevailed on March 13, 2020, but only “to the extent practicable,” a loophole that renders the requirement completely meaningless.

Other rules prohibit companies that receive federal bailouts from engaging in stock buybacks, bonuses and other measures to enrich their executives, but Mnuchin has the authority to waive all such requirements at his discretion. In addition, the identity of the companies receiving the cash is to be concealed, so that there will be no oversight except by the Trump administration.

There is no restriction, even of a formal character, on the gargantuan salaries of the CEOs and other top executives of major companies like Boeing. The former and current top officials of Boeing should be criminally prosecuted for such crimes as manufacturing what they knew to be the defective 737 Max jet, two of which crashed on takeoff, killing a total of 356 people. Instead, they are being rewarded by having their eight-figure incomes underwritten by the taxpayers.

When the Obama administration bailed out the auto industry in 2009, by contrast, the Democrats and Republicans demanded steep cuts in the wages and benefits of autoworkers, including a 50 percent cut in the starting pay for new hires. No such demands were made then of the auto executives, and there will be no cuts for the corporate CEOs this time around either.

As for the $350 billion for “small businesses,” the description of what constitutes such an entity—effectively any company with fewer than 500 employees—is so elastic that most hedge funds will be queuing up to shove their snouts in that particular trough. The Trump Organization, the president’s personal holding company, has about 500 direct employees, as do several of its subsidiaries. Asked whether his own company would benefit from the massive bailout bill, Trump would reply only, “We’ll have to see.”

There is no question that the lion’s share of the “small business” funding will be gobbled up by those able to hire the necessary lobbyists and lawyers, not by family-owned restaurants, dry cleaners or gas stations. These funds are particularly enticing because even the loan portion of the program can be “forgiven” at the discretion of the Treasury.

The main issues in dispute between the Democrats and Republicans are how much of the bill should be devoted to window dressing as opposed to the central purpose of the bill, aiding the corporations and the wealthy, which both parties enthusiastically support.

The Democrats advocate a bit more camouflage, in the form of funds for state and local governments and hospitals and direct payments to workers. The wrangling in the Senate has allowed even hardened right-wingers like Joe Manchin of West Virginia to posture as advocates of working people.

Among the provisions in the Senate bill that have drawn little attention is the exclusion from the $1,200 per adult cash payment of anyone who did not file an income tax return for 2018 or 2019. This includes millions of Americans, most of them poor, who relied entirely on nontaxable Social Security or retirement income, or who had no taxable income at all and were dependent on various forms of federal and state aid.

Another provision would bar any funds going to “nonprofits receiving Medicaid expenditures,” language that would exclude Planned Parenthood, a frequent target of attack by anti-abortion zealots among the Christian fundamentalists who exercise vast influence in the Republican Party. It could also exclude payments to agencies providing disability assistance, nursing home care and other social services.

In the maneuvers around the passage of the corporate bailout, Majority Leader McConnell telegraphed the real purpose of the bill by attempting to schedule a vote for 9:45 a.m. on Monday morning. He calculated that this would create the maximum pressure for passage, since the New York Stock Exchange opens trading at 9:30 a.m. and an immediate plunge would trigger a 15-minute “circuit breaker” halting trading.

This maneuver failed only because Democratic Minority Leader Charles Schumer delayed the vote until noon, but the message was clear: Wall Street wants this bill, and its ultimate passage is accordingly assured. (Schumer has received more campaign cash from New York financial interests than any other senator).

The backroom negotiations between McConnell, Schumer, Mnuchin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy continue under conditions of an all-out mobilization of corporate lobbyists across Washington, whose dimensions were summed up by the New York Times in the headline, “Coronavirus Stimulus Package Spurs a Lobbying Gold Rush.”

“The prospect of a bailout of a scale without precedent has set off a rush to the fiscal trough, with businesses enduring undeniable dislocation jostling with more opportunistic interests to ensure they get a share,” the Times wrote. Among the many claimants were the sportswear company Adidas, “seeking support for a long-sought provision allowing people to use pretax money to pay for gym memberships and fitness equipment,” and drone manufacturers, claiming that they can “deliver medical supplies or food without risking human contact that could spread the virus.”

Military, Trump administration ready plans for domestic crackdown as virus spreads across US

Eric London

According to a Politico report published Saturday, the Trump administration, through Attorney General William Barr, is urging Congress to pass legislation that would allow for the suspension of due process during the coronavirus crisis.

President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr, Monday, March 23, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The administration proposal calls for the suspension of habeas corpus, the centuries-old democratic principle protecting the right of a person under arrest to require the government prove the legality of the arrest in a hearing before a judge.

Justice Department documents call for giving the attorney general the power to override constitutional protections in federal court proceedings “wherever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any national disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.” This would apply to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings.”

The proposal underscores the criminality of the ruling class’s response to the dangerous spread of the virus.

On the one hand, the Trump administration has responded to the devastating impact of the crisis with a policy of malign neglect, ignoring warnings, refusing to provide adequate testing and failing to produce and distribute masks and other medical equipment needed to save millions of lives. Even after having declared a “national emergency,” the ruling class has made very little money available for disease prevention and mitigation and to protect the working class from the economic fallout of mass sickness and unemployment.

On the other hand, the ruling class has made trillions available to the banks and corporations and lowered interest rates to near-zero to prop up the stock market. Now, as the administration confronts growing anger over its response and a wave of walkouts by workers in key industries, it is preparing to defend the wealth of the rich through dictatorial forms of rule.

Politico cited civil rights lawyer Norman L. Reimer, who said that pursuant to the Justice Department proposal, “you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over.” He continued, “I find it absolutely terrifying … That is something that should not happen in a democracy.”

The Politico report claims the Justice Department’s requests “are unlikely to make it through a Democratic led-House.” This is cold comfort, however, considering that the Democratic Party is currently advancing similar anti-democratic measures, such as the EARN IT Act, a bipartisan bill that would abolish end-to-end encryption. The Democrats are, moreover, the most vocal in attacking free speech and calling for internet censorship.

The Justice Department’s request for extraordinary executive powers comes as two Newsweek reports by William Arkin detail how the US military is preparing to potentially take control of the day-to-day governing of the country and to deploy troops on US soil.

The first Newsweek report, published March 18, notes that “Above-Top Secret contingency plans already exist for what the military is supposed to do if all the Constitutional successors are incapacitated” by the virus, that is, if Trump and all those in the presidential line of succession become ill or are quarantined. “Standby orders were issued more than three weeks ago to ready these plans, not just to protect Washington but also to prepare for the possibility of some form of martial law,” the report continues.

It adds: “According to new documents and military experts, the various plans—codenamed Octagon, Freejack and Zodiac—are underground laws to ensure government continuity. They are so secret that under these extraordinary plans, ‘devolution’ could circumvent the normal Constitutional provisions for government succession, and military commanders could be placed in control around America.”

Newsweek also reports that should the military step in to subvert the Constitution, the commander of the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, “would in theory be in charge if Washington were eviscerated” by the virus.

The second Newsweek report, published March 20, states that the US military “is preparing forces to assume a larger role in the coronavirus response, including the controversial mission of quelling ‘civil disturbances.’”

The plans center on federalizing the state national guards, effectively nullifying the principle of posse comitatus, which bars the military from conducting domestic law enforcement operations.

Newsweek cites “a senior military planner working on coronavirus but not authorized to speak on sensitive planning matters,” who “says that deployment of federal troops in support roles is being prepared,” including to conduct traffic stops, home searches and seizures and arrests.

The report continues: “Once military forces are dispersed off bases in America, the senior planner says, they will have to contend with ‘force protection’ and will be thrust into difficult general law enforcement roles, particularly as shelter-in-place and other quarantine situations escalate.”

As necessary as quarantines and other protective measures are from a public health standpoint, the focus of the military’s response is to prepare to suppress democratic rights and put down social opposition.

Newsweek references an internal military plan for “Civil Disturbance Operations” called CONPLAN 3502. The plan relates to domestic military deployments in response to “riots, acts of violence, insurrections, unlawful obstructions or assemblages, group acts of violence, and disorders prejudicial to public law and order,” according to a military study, which cites as historical precedent the use of the military to crush strikes and labor protests.

According to a 2006 Homeland Security Department document not cited in the Newsweek report, titled “National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza,” the government has made specific preparations for the possibility of protests during a pandemic.

“Due to stresses placed upon the health care system and other critical functions, civil disturbances and breakdowns in public order may occur,” the Bush-era document reads. The pandemic security document also references CONPLAN 3502 and states: “Tasks performed by military forces may include joint patrolling with law enforcement officers; securing key buildings, memorials, intersections and bridges; and acting as a quick reaction force.”

On February 1, Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed a secret set of Warning Orders (WARNORD) putting NORTHCOM and units deployed to the eastern seaboard on alert that they should “prepare to deploy,” including to the “National Capital Region.”

Newsweek reports that “now, planners are looking at a military response to urban violence as people seek protection and fight over food and, according to one senior officer, in the contingency of the complete evacuation of Washington.”

The Trump administration has invoked the Stafford Act and the Defense Production Act, but has thus far refused to exercise those provisions by which the government can force corporations to mass produce equipment needed to address the crisis.

In a New York Times op-ed yesterday, Massachusetts physician Daniel M. Horn wrote that “without swift action, parts of the United States will run out of ventilators in the coming weeks,” as COVID-19 cases skyrocket. Horn warned that “there appears to be no firm plan other than re-purposing ventilators from surgery centers.” He added, “How can we build a nimble logistics operation that can rapidly deploy those machines the moment that a shortage appears imminent? The truth is: We have no idea.”

Instead of addressing the urgent need for mass production of medical equipment and protective gear for health care workers, the ruling class has responded to the crisis by pouring money into the stock markets and preparing to suppress social opposition. This is the response of a capitalist social order that poses a great risk to the fate of tens of millions of people.

Europe’s coronavirus death toll passes 10,000

Robert Stevens

More than 10,000 people have been killed by coronavirus across the European continent. The gruesome milestone has been reached just five weeks after the first death was recorded on the continent, in France, on February 15.

With yesterday’s 1,414 new deaths, the total for the entire continent reached 10,220 deaths from 192,663 cases. Among the European Union’s 27 countries, 9,720 deaths have been recorded from 172,407 cases.

Members of Military Emergency Unit arrive at Abando train station, in Bilbao, northern Spain, Monday, March 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

In Italy, 601 new fatalities brought the total to 6,077 deaths. Almost 5,000 new cases of the virus were reported. Many more lives are threatened even before these new cases, with 50,418 active cases and 3,204 classed as “serious, critical.” All told, 63,927 people have been infected in Italy.

In Spain, the death toll reached 2,206, with 434 new deaths reported, up from 391 the previous day. There were 4,321 new cases, making for a total of 27,528 active cases. Some 2,355 are classified as "serious, critical."

The inability of health and social care services across Europe to cope with the destructive impact of the virus—after decades of being underfunded, privatised and de-staffed—resulted in soldiers, drafted to disinfect and run residential homes in Spain, finding elderly people dead in their beds, abandoned to their fate with the country under a strict lockdown.

In France, there were 186 new deaths, an increase over the previous day’s 112, bringing the total to 860. The deaths included another two medics, one a GP and the other a gynaecologist. There are over 13,000 active cases in the country, 8,675 people in hospital and 2,082 people in critical condition.

A further 34 people perished in the Netherlands, bringing the total to 213, and 24 people died in Germany, bringing fatalities to 118.

In the UK, after it was announced that 54 more people had died, and 335 in total, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a lockdown of the country Monday evening. People can leave their homes only for “very limited purposes,” including “shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible” and “one form of exercise a day.” Only two people can be together, unless they live in the same household. Police can enforce the lockdown, “including through fines and dispersing gatherings,” said Johnson.

The Foreign Office advised the up to one million Britons on holiday or on business trips abroad to return to the UK immediately. They warned that otherwise there would likely be no more commercial flights available, with air routes likely shutting without warning Tuesday and Wednesday.

Johnson’s government has refused to take a number of critical measures to stop the spread of the virus. Its original plan, before being forced to retreat, was to allow the mass infection of the population, supposedly to achieve “herd immunity.” The government still advises all who suspect they have the virus not to seek treatment in hospital, but to “self-isolate” at home—without being tested.

More evidence is emerging that those who are contracting the virus and in some cases dying are from many age ranges, including younger, fitter people, from a baby who was born with the virus to a group of three 30-year-old junior doctors in the same UK hospital who were diagnosed Sunday and required ventilators.

In response, the ruling elite is putting into operation draconian attacks on civil liberties that set a dangerous precedent, while providing no real medical assistance.

Yesterday, the Johnson government was able to pass all stages in the House of Commons of the Emergency Coronavirus Bill, under which he and his ministers are granted extraordinary authoritarian powers, including banning any assembly of people, at any time and place.

This week, Hungary’s parliament will hear a bill under which far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán is set to receive dictatorial powers enabling him to rule by decree. The powers provide no defined cut-off date and include imprisoning those deemed to be spreading “fake news” for prison terms of up to five years.

No government in Europe or internationally is carrying out the mass testing required to successfully quarantine and then treat those infected, who may not be showing symptoms but who are still spreading COVID-19. Even front-line medical staff are not being tested. Due to health service cuts, there is hopelessly inadequate provision of basic medical facilities, including ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff.

In contrast, the banks, corporations and super-rich are being granted bailouts that eclipse those granted to the bankers and financial institutions after the 2008 global financial crash. In recent days, Germany, France, Britain and Spain have announced massive subventions to big business, under conditions in which millions of workers have already been laid off, with only those in essential services now employed in most European countries.

Well over a trillion euros have been made available in a matter of days to prop up the financial aristocracy and corporate billionaires. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has made available a package worth around €750 billion to protect Germany’s banks and major corporations. Emmanuel Macron’s French government committed €300 billion and Johnson’s Chancellor Rishi Sunak £350 billion.

Spain’s Socialist Party Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has committed $219 billion to the corporations, including €100 billion of guarantees for company loans. A further €17 billion of direct support for enterprises is available and €83 billion is reportedly being reserved for private sector investment.

These handouts represent a gigantic raid on the public purse for the second time in a decade. Germany’s bailout is the equivalent of 20.5 percent of GDP, Spain’s, 15.6 percent and the UK’s, 15 percent.

These bailouts followed the lead of the European Central Bank, which last week announced a €750 billion new money-printing programme aimed at keeping financial markets afloat. The ECB is committed to buying government debt and private securities with the new funds by the end of this year.

These vast sums are just a down payment, with government officials in treasuries in the main European counties stressing that there will be “unlimited” funds available. This was confirmed yesterday, as Johnson’s government agreed to nationalise the losses of every private rail franchise in Britain for the next six months initially. This transfers all revenue and cost risk to the government, but leaves private firms able to still reap profits and be paid a management fee under an “emergency measures agreement.”

Workers throughout Europe must demand a programme directly opposed to that of the corporations and the governments that act on their behalf. They must reject this unprecedented bleeding dry of the public purse for the purpose of funding big business and the bankers. These entities must be taken under public control and run by the working class in the interests of society.

In a statement Monday, “The spread of the pandemic and the lessons of the past week,” the WSWS proposed the measures necessary for workers to take forward the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic: “The working class must demand universal testing and free and equal access to health care; the closure of all nonessential production, with full income to those affected; safe working conditions in industries essential to the functioning of society; and an emergency program to build health care infrastructure and ensure that all medical workers have access to the necessary equipment.”

The IMF Abandons Venezuelans to the Threat of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Nino Pagliccia

No government that had to bow to the power of a financial institution like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) knows the harsh consequences to which it will have to submit. That includes the Venezuelan government. And yet last March 15 president Nicolas Maduro filed a formal request to the IMF for a financing facility of US$5 billion from the emergency fund of the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) with the following words in a letter sent to the IMF director Kristalina Georgieva and that Arreaza published on his Twitter account:

“Only under the spirit of solidarity, brotherhood, and social discipline, we will be able to overcome the situation that comes our way, and we will know how to protect the life and wellbeing of our peoples.”

To no avail. The IMF took the decision to reject the requested loan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela. Although predictable, it is shocking. (We make the side note that while we trust the source of the information, we have not been able to confirm it officially from Venezuela nor have we been able to find the information on the IMF website.)

What makes the IMF decision particularly disgraceful is the fact that the special RFI fund was set up precisely to respond to the current pandemic. Instead the IMF made a politicised decision totally contrary to its purported intentions and Venezuela’s legitimate request.

The Washington-based institution rejected the request with the unprincipled excuse: “Unfortunately, the Fund is not in a position to consider this request,” claiming that there is “no clarity” on international recognition of the country’s government. “As we have mentioned before, IMF engagement with member countries is predicated on official government recognition by the international community, as reflected in the IMF’s membership. There is no clarity on recognition at this time”.

The IMF has a membership of 189 countries. Venezuela has been a member since 1946 despite its intentions to withdraw in 2007. Only about 50 countries are reported to recognise self-appointed unelected “interim president” Juan Guaidó. The majority of IMF countries have recognised elected president Maduro. This leaves no doubt that the IMF decision responds to political pressure from dominant powers like the US, Canada, and several EU countries.

Iran had recently made a similar request to the IMF for the same amount. At the time of writing we do not know the decision. A recent analysis suggests that it will be very unlikely that the IMF will grant a loan to Iran as the IMF is seen as a “soft power tool” of the US. However, the analysis continues, “This is great PR for the Iranian government, specifically the hardliners. It allows the government to tell the general population that they tried to reach out for help, but that the international community turned their back on them.”

What makes the request for IMF special funding particularly crucial at this time is that these two countries have been forced into an economic situation similar to war time or a siege – despite their wealth in resources – is the fact that they are under severe US unilateral coercive measures (sanctions) that prevent them from purchasing medication and medical supplies ever more necessary in a situation of pandemic. Following the just announced drop of oil price below $25 a barrel, both countries can only expect the situation to get worse even if they were able to freely export oil without US intervention.

Venezuela, has been the object of escalating threats as well as financial and economic blockade by the US since 2017. Despite that, it has been able to confront the crisis with a series of internal policies and the solidarity of countries such as Cuba, China and Russia. Venezuela does not have a critical health situation due to CODIV19 virus with only 42 confirmed cases to date. All standard prevention programs and recommendation are in place but things can quickly change for the worst.

Venezuela’s heavy reliance on loans would be unnecessary if the government could have access to the financial resources it owns but have been blocked. US has imposed an oil blockade that has blocked the purchase of oil from Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA. It has also confiscated Venezuela’s US subsidiary CITGO, worth $8 billion. This is a huge blow for Venezuela, which receives around 90% of government revenue from the oil industry. The US government has also frozen $5.5 billion of Venezuelan funds in international accounts in at least 50 banks and financial institutions.

We must conclude that the IMF shamefully abandons Venezuelans to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic on a political decision. However, we also must recognise that the US has typically either created national crises or taken advantage of natural crises for its unrelenting regime change goal. There is no other explanation for the additional “sanctions” imposed on Iran at this time.

Entertainment industry in North America devastated by layoffs

Penny Smith

Due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the entertainment industry across North America has effectively shut down, leaving hundreds of thousands of already precariously employed workers suddenly without an income.

Over the last few days, all the major studios have announced widespread production closures. On March 13, streaming giant Netflix announced the shutdown of all scripted film and television production in the US and Canada for two weeks. Disney+ and Apple TV+ have halted all live-action productions indefinitely. Warner Bros. has shut down some 70 series and pilots “currently filming or about to begin,” according to the studio, and Amazon Original has paused on all its series currently in production. US-based networks NBC and FX shut down production of some 35 shows and four shows, respectively.

In Los Angeles, a raft of dramas, sitcoms and talk shows have canceled or suspended production, affecting over 200,000 workers. In Canada’s main film hub of Toronto, virtually all production had already been suspended, in total affecting 30,000 jobs. Forty-eight out of 51 productions have been shut down in British Columbia, mainly in the Vancouver area, affecting more than 20,000 workers.

Black Widow–one of the films whose release has been delayed

“Everyone is in a state of shock,” a key assistant location manager who was working on a television show in Atlanta that opted to end its season early told Variety. “We have no idea when things will start back up again.”

All sections of the entertainment industry have been impacted, including scheduled theater performances, cinematic releases and industry events. On March 12, Broadway theater in New York, notorious for extremely high levels of unemployment and poverty wages, announced it was shutting down after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered a statewide ban on gatherings over 500 people. On March 19, Montreal-based circus performance company, Cirque Du Soleil, announced it was laying off 4,679 workers.

Movie theaters, where many positions are part-time and the average worker makes the minimum wage, have mostly closed down. Two of the largest theater chains in the US, AMC Theaters and Regal Cinemas, have shut down nationwide after ticket sales plunged to the lowest in 20 years. Last Tuesday, Cineplex announced the temporary closure of all 165 theaters across Canada, followed by Landmark Cinemas, the country’s second-largest movie chain with 46 theaters.

The entertainment industry is a growing segment of the gig economy that almost by definition offers little or no job security. Live theater wages are cut-rate and the unemployment rate extremely high. Many workers typically rely on second jobs such as serving in a restaurant, many of which are now closed. An actress who works as an usher on Broadway told Variety that “my co-workers shared my anxiety, but we all knew this was not a fear of contracting the coronavirus, it was financial. ‘How am I going to make rent this month?’ became as common as ‘hello’ in the course of 24 hours.”

There have been few guarantees in the precarious film and television business either. The chaotic and frenzied production environment means workers are hurried in and out of employment, often with contracts that don’t extend beyond that day or that week. The studios increasingly rely on an expanding base of on-demand, low-wage production assistants and laborers.

An artist working in costly Vancouver, whose production closed down last week, told the WSWS, “I am not breathing easily as the coming weeks and months loom of financial commitments with no substantial and affirmative idea of what the financial supports will look like ... [I have] feelings of uncertainty, and overwhelming worry about the big ‘what ifs’ as this pandemic unfolds daily.”

Another Vancouver worker, whose production was still open and operating with a skeleton crew as of last week, told the WSWS, “I’m still working because I can’t pay rent otherwise. After this [production shuts down], there’s nothing.”

Workers in the communal setting of the entertainment industry are at great risk of exposure to coronavirus. The recommended practice of “social distancing” is a virtually impossible measure to take. Theaters and cinemas are transient, congested and poorly ventilated spaces. Film and television production houses are often like mini-villages populated by thousands of workers working in close confines, and there are dozens if not hundreds of cast and crew interacting on a single set during shooting. Fatigue and stress, which compromise the immune system, also render workers more vulnerable to infection.

Despite the serious threats posed to entertainment workers’ health and well-being posed by the coronavirus, many film and television productions were slow to react. In Georgia, where more than 5,000 film and television crew are employed, it continued to be “business as usual,” according to a state official, despite the fact that there had already been 31 confirmed and presumed coronavirus cases reported in the state, including one death. Those figures for Georgia have since grown to 555 confirmed cases and 20 deaths.

On March 10, the LA Times reported there had been no film permit cancellations in Los Angeles, even though the total number of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County recorded by public health officials that day was 17. On-location filming has since been shut down, as cases have climbed to 351 across Los Angeles County, including four deaths.

In Chicago, film permits were still being issued last week, ignoring the fact that a crew member working on the Fox series NeXt tested positive for coronavirus on March 10. The crew member had been working at Cinespace Film Studios, a massive 30-stage production facility operating with at least six productions. Only a week and a half later, Illinois state imposed a “stay at home” order after the state recorded over 700 cases. The Chicago Film Office has since temporarily stopped issuing film permits.

Film and television productions in New York City were still active as of March 13, undeterred by Mayor Bill De Blasio’s declaration of a state of emergency and admission that the situation in the city was “radically changing.” A matter of days later, New York state was declared the “epicenter” of the coronavirus crisis in the US as cases soared beyond 11,000.

Netflix has announced a pathetic $100 million fund to help its international workforce, small change considering the almost $8 billion in revenue the giant media-services provider and production company generated last year. Netflix’s pledge of two weeks’ pay to their own casts and crew members affected by the production suspensions will have little effect in the long-term. According to Dr. Amy Greer, Canada Research Chair in Population Disease Modelling at the University of Guelph, the population may be faced with up to eight months of “aggressive social distancing.”

The shutdown of film and television production is a global phenomenon. The Indian film industry, one of the largest in the world, announced a suspension of all film, television, advertising and web series as of March 19. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the India Motion Picture Producers’ Association “also advised all Indian film crews currently at work on projects overseas to return to the country within the next three days.”

In the UK, reports the Guardian, “the situation for ‘below the line’ crew appears equally catastrophic. Bectu (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union) estimates around 50,000 industry freelancers will have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.”

In the face of increasing closures of cinemas and production delays internationally, the film industry stands to lose at least $20 billion, even in the short-term. Productions that were at the beginning stage or at the midway point will claim losses against insurance, but for those companies without insurance that cannot absorb the cost of the disruptions, production is continuing. This is the motivating factor behind the studios’ decisions to close or not close a given production, not the overall threat posed to their crews’ general health and safety.

According to Forbes, the film industry made a record-breaking $100 billion last year. Today, a single blockbuster film can generate $1.5 billion or more at the international box office alone. But no matter how enormous the profit raked in by the studios, the conditions for workers worsens, with low wages, unemployment, underemployment and increasing reckless disregard for worker safety.

Earlier this month, as news broke of widespread and sudden job losses across the entertainment industry, Disney shareholders endorsed a $47.5 million 2019 pay package for former CEO Robert Iger, a decline from 2018, when he was paid $65.6 million. In late February, Iger stepped down as head of Disney. Now, various voices are claiming coronavirus could well be the reason Iger resigned. Analyst Neil Cybart, for example, suggested that “Iger’s surprise resignation as Disney CEO was related to coronavirus. He stepped down on February 25th. Disney had already seen the coronavirus impact in China. They knew Japan was next.”

Disney's Robert Iger (Photo credit–Angela George)

In relation to the pandemic, Disney has explained: “The impact of the novel coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) and measures to prevent its spread are affecting our businesses in a number of ways. We have closed our theme parks; suspended our cruises and theatrical shows; delayed theatrical distribution of films both domestically and internationally; and experienced supply chain disruption and ad sales impacts.”

The entertainment industry unions have reacted to the coronavirus crisis with their typical paralysis and ineptitude. The feeble initiatives such as temporary membership dues amnesty will hardly improve things for workers faced with long-term unemployment and poverty. The unions’ response to the sudden job and wages loss of their workers is to plead with the governments in the US and Canada for emergency relief.

The needs of working people must take absolute and unconditional priority over all considerations of corporate profit and private wealth. It is not a matter of what the ruling class claims it can afford, but what masses of people need.

The Socialist Equality Party advances the demand for accessible and universal testing and free treatment for all those infected, and an emergency program to expand health care infrastructure. The immediate closure of non-essential plants and other workplaces is essential, with full income for workers affected, including those working in the entertainment industry. No worker should be expected to place his or her life in danger, and should be financially compensated for loss of income.

We call on all workers and young people to join this campaign and support this fight. The building of an international socialist and revolutionary movement is the central question of our time. It is a matter of life and death.