Covid-19 pandemic poses gravest threat to world’s poorest countries

Jean Shaoul

The coronavirus has begun to take hold in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific Islands, threatening some of the most impoverished people on earth.

Many countries have introduced a combination of border closures, limitation or bans on international flights, shelter at home orders, shuttering of schools, universities and social venues and restrictions on movement for all but essential work and shopping. These measures, while necessary, are of limited value without testing suspected cases, tracking their contacts and treating the severely ill.

Crucially, even sheltering at home and self-isolation are impossible under conditions where one seventh of humanity lives in so-called informal housing—shacks, tents and shanty towns, constructed out of crude brick, straw, recycled plastic, cement blocks and scrap wood.

A Friday market in Goa, India. (Image Credit Flickr/Aaron C)

Most of the world’s urban poor occupy squalid, overcrowded slums, surrounded by pollution, excrement and decay, with limited or no access to sanitation, clean water and the basic amenities of modern urban life. The world’s most notorious slums include Ciudad Neza in Mexico City, with 1.2 million people; Dharavi in Mumbai, with 1 million people—the largest slum in Asia and location for the film Slum Dog Millionaire —Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, the largest favela in Brazil with 200,000 people; Makoko, Lagos, with over 300,000 people, many of whose homes are built on stilts in a lagoon.

Residents live in homes that were detrimental to their health and safety even before the onset of the coronavirus. Self-isolating or quarantining is a non-starter in a single room shack that serves as bedroom, kitchen and living space, often for an extended family, with no running water and a communal toilet shared with dozens of others.

As the director of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Social Protection department, Shahra Razavi, explained, “If the COVID-19 pandemic has sent the world one message, it is that we are only as safe as the most vulnerable among us.”

He warned, “Those who are unable to quarantine themselves or to get treatment endanger their own lives and the lives of others, and if one country cannot contain the virus, others are bound to be infected, or even re-infected. And yet, around the world, social-protection systems are failing miserably at safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable groups.”

Medical treatment, let alone the intensive care required to treat those most severely affected by the coronavirus, is simply not available in the oppressed countries. Some 40 percent of the world’s population have no access to health insurance, whether public or private, or public health services. Around 800 million people spend at least 10 percent of their household budget on health care each year. The cost of medical treatment frequently plunges families into debt, with 100 million people falling into poverty because of the expense.

Many people simply cannot afford to get the treatment they need when they fall sick, under conditions where HIV/AIDS, malaria, yellow fever and tuberculosis, to name but a few, are widespread. For those who can afford treatment, even in the best placed African cities, there are only two doctors for 10,000 compared with 41 doctors per 10,000 people in Italy.

Without sick pay, the majority of workers cannot afford to take time off work to recover, jeopardising their own health and that of others. Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, less than two-thirds have social insurance schemes that provide sickness benefits. More than half the world’s 7 billion population have no social protection whatsoever. Those who are ill must choose between sacrificing their own health and feeding their families.

Millions of people across the advanced countries have already been laid off or furloughed as a result of the closures of nonessential shops, cafes, restaurants and cultural and leisure facilities and the precipitous fall in demand for travel, tourism, hospitality and related business sectors. Only 20 percent of the world’s population can claim any unemployment benefits, however meagre, forcing them to take whatever work they can find in the informal economy at slave labour rates.

According to the ILO, some 2 billion people—more than 61 percent of the world’s employed population—work in the informal economy. Some 86 percent of Africa’s employment is informal, 68 percent in Asia and the Pacific, 69 percent in the Arab States, 40 percent in the Americas and 25 percent in Europe and Central Asia. Along with low, unstable and insecure income, such work is synonymous with long hours and appalling working conditions, including lack of workspace and frequent harassment and intimidation.

Many African workers rely on the tourism and travel industry, which accounts for more than 10 percent of global GDP and which is unlikely to recover any time soon. Demand for natural resources, which accounts for 30 percent of Africa’s GDP, is falling as a global economic slump takes hold. Copper and oil are already trading at their lowest prices for years.

The 2008 global financial crisis gives a foretaste of the economic impact of COVID-19, which is expected to be far greater. Angola saw its GDP growth of 13.2 percent in 2008 fall to -0.6 percent in 2009, while Nigeria went from 6 percent to 3 percent. Sub-Saharan African countries saw their GDP growth fall from 5 percent to 2.5 percent, not enough to keep pace with the population growth.

Remittances, which in some countries account for 10 percent of GDP, have already been affected. South Asia, the Philippines and the Middle East have seen a reduction in the flow of remittances and vital foreign currency earnings they bring, as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other economies that rely heavily on migrant workers to construct their buildings, care for their sick and elderly and prepare their food, shut down parts of the economy to contain the spread of COVID-19. Returning workers will add to burgeoning unemployment rolls.

The Gulf, whose migrant workers sent home some $119 billion in 2017, is the world’s largest source of remittances after the US. Foreign workers account for about a third of Saudi Arabia’s 33 million population and almost 80 percent of its private sector workforce. Expatriates account for about 80 percent of the UAE’s population.

Under these conditions, workers have no option but to seize whatever opportunities they can to continue working, typically without any personal protection equipment or sanitizers. Travelling to work means sitting, packed like sardines in over-crowded buses or shared service taxis, stuck in traffic jams and exposing more people to infection.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has called on the G20 countries to provide a $150 billion aid package for Africa—Africa Global COVID-19 Emergency Financing Package. Even were this sum to be allocated, it would not begin to address the sources of the current crisis, which lie in the economic and political relationships of imperialist domination, capitalist ownership and production.

The way out of the terrible poverty and brutal exploitation facing the mass of the population in the world’s poorest nations, including implementation of the measures necessary to combat Covid-19, is through a struggle against the corrupt national bourgeoisie--who live in grotesque luxury amid squalor--and the systematic imperialist exploitation over which they preside.

This demands the development of a social and political movement of the working class, fighting for state power and socialism. The allies of the workers of Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and the Pacific Islands are not the leaders of the G20, but the world’s working class—the only force that can overthrow of the existing social order and implement the global redistribution of wealth and internationally coordinated economic plan required to raise billions out of ever worsening social degradation.

Peruvian president authorizes military to use lethal force to enforce the national quarantine

Cesar Uco & Don Knowland

On the weekend, Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra pushed through a “Military and Police Protection Law” that exempts the armed forces and national police from any criminal liability for injury or death if they act “in compliance with their constitutional function and in the regulatory use of their weapons or other means of defense.”

Moreover, under this law, the “principle of proportionality,” which requires that the degree of force correspond to the level of resistance offered and the danger presented by the person being seized or the situation being controlled, is suspended.

The law shows that the ruling oligarchy, in anticipation of widespread unrest arising from the spread of the coronavirus and deepening economic crises, is prepared to employ repressive measures unencumbered by any legal restrictions or basic democratic rights.

On Monday, Vizcarra announced that more than 4,000 people were detained in police stations on Saturday March 28, and that 2,909 more were arrested on Sunday, March 29, for violating the compulsory social immobilization measures. These measures were adopted under the state of emergency that was put in place on March 16 in response to the coronavirus outbreak and extended last week to April 12.

Because of these large numbers, Vicarra said he was extending the current national curfew from 6 p.m to 5 a.m., and from as early as 4 p.m. in Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad and Loret.

The brutality of what is anticipated was made clear in a video prepared by the Peruvian armed forces that was released on the weekend and made available on WhatsApp under the hashtag #YoMe Quedo en Casa” (I remain in my house).

The video begins with a figure of a fully armed soldier wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying an automatic rifle. The soldier proceeds to loudly bark commands as he narrates five scenes, each one ending with the threatening words of “if he resists the authority, the armed forces’ patrols will proceed to vigorously subdue, handcuff and throw ‘the suspect’ onto the ground, place their boot on his neck and take him to the nearest police unit.”

The five scenarios in the video involve a youth passively “resisting” military detention, four youths playing soccer, a small party of young adults dancing and drinking, young adults breaking into a commercial store to steal a few boxes of merchandise and an attempted attack on soldiers by a lone suspect.

None of what is shown in the video is likely to occur in wealthy or upper-middle-class neighborhoods.

Bloomberg reported Monday that Peru is undertaking a record fiscal stimulus and, as announced by central bank President Julio Velarde, will seek a contingency line of up to $18 billion from the International Monetary Fund to contain the economic freefall arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

Velarde also announced that the Finance Ministry plans to draw down an existing $2.1 billion contingency line from the World Bank.

The Central Bank had already cut its benchmark lending rate by 1 percentage point to 1.25 percent in March, but that had little measurable effect.

Although Peru had been held up as a paragon of financial and fiscal rectitude, since the arrival of the coronavirus in early March its bonds have been battered, and its currency fell to its weakest in 18 years this month.

According to Bloomberg, the package of economic measures the government is now proposing totaling 90 billion soles ($26 billion), includes some health care spending, but consists largely of tax breaks and loan guarantees for businesses, to revive an economy that has ground to a virtual halt after the government ordered a nationwide lockdown on March 16.

The stimulus package will equal 12 percent of gross domestic product, Finance Minister Maria Antonieta Alva said on Monday, a percentage exceeding that of the rescue package passed on Friday by the American Congress.

The stimulus package will include “short-term” measures such as cash handouts, including up to 30 billion soles in government-backed loans to small and medium-sized businesses, and “longer-term measures” to “rebuild” some decimated industries such as tourism.

The cash handouts contemplated are short-term because the Peruvian ruling class sees that as an insurance sop to quell mass unrest. The latest dictatorial measures show that what the Peruvian state is really preparing for: a prolonged period of military repression.

Washington harnesses coronavirus pandemic to promote Venezuela coup

Bill Van Auken

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched on Tuesday a grotesquely cynical initiative, dubbed a “Democratic Transition Initiative,” aimed at furthering Washington’s longstanding campaign to provoke a proimperialist coup in Venezuela.

This so-called initiative is a blatant attempt to utilize the coronavirus pandemic as a weapon. It is seen by US officials as a means of intensifying the suffering of the Venezuelan people that has been inflicted by a succession of ever-tightening “maximum pressure” sanctions that have cut off the country’s oil exports, together with its access to food, medicine and other basic supplies on the world market. The result thus far, according to at least one estimate, has been the deaths of over 100,000 Venezuelans. With the spread of COVID-19, that toll can rise by hundreds of thousands more.

Last month, the State Department announced that it had initiated a policy of “Maximum-pressure March,” designed to utilize the pandemic along with the plummeting price of oil on the world market to force Venezuela into submission.

This policy found its most rabid expression in the US Justice Department’s announcement last month of indictments of President Nicolas Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials on trumped-up charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. While Washington has produced no credible evidence to support these charges, there is ample proof of its closest partners in the hemisphere, including the right-wing governments in Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala engaging in precisely such activities.

The rolling out of the “transition” plan in the wake of the indictments may be intended as some kind of carrot-and-stick strategy. US officials have suggested that it is telling Maduro to accept the scheme “or else.”

A top US official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity—in all likelihood the convicted war criminal Elliott Abrams, who is the Trump administration’s special envoy for Venezuela—called attention to the fate of Manuel Noriega. The late president of Panama and former CIA “asset” was indicted on drug-trafficking charges and then overthrown and seized through a 1989 US invasion that claimed the lives of thousands of Panamanians.

“History shows that those who do not cooperate with US law enforcement agencies do not fare well,” the official said. “Maduro probably regrets not taking the offer six months ago. We urge Maduro not to regret not taking it now.”

This is the Mafia-style operation that underlies the so-called “democratic transition.”

Its aim is to provoke a split within the Maduro government and, in particular, to convince Venezuela’s military to side with Washington in ousting the Venezuelan president.

This was also the central objective in the failed attempt to impose “transitional president” Juan Guaidó, a right-wing politician unknown to the vast majority of the population, who swore himself in at the beginning of 2019 and was immediately recognized by Washington and its allies. Guaidó’s repeated attempts to foment a coup, including a direct appeal for a military uprising a year ago, came to nothing, and his attempts to organize opposition rallies have manifestly failed to draw any significant participation in recent months.

The “democratic transition” is on one level a tacit admission that Washington’s strategy centered on bringing the US puppet Guaidó to power has proven an abject failure.

The mechanics of the “transition” are based upon Washington’s manipulation of various institutions in the Venezuelan state to produce the desired outcome of a regime subordinate to US imperialist interests.

It calls for the National Assembly, which the Maduro government has stripped of its legislative powers, to create a five-member “Council of State,” which, together with a “military advisor,” would assume all executive powers, thereby overthrowing the Maduro administration. This body is then supposed to organize elections within six to 12 months, with Washington and its regional allies ensuring the desired results.

The proposal makes an open appeal to the Venezuelan military, declaring, “The military high command (Defense Minister, Vice Defense Minister, CEOFANB Commander, and Service Chiefs) remains in place for the duration of the transitional government.”

It also makes clear that the “transition” will entail the reorientation of Venezuela back into the orbit of Washington’s regional military and financial domination. It demands the removal of all “foreign security forces,” an apparent reference to Cuban and Russian advisors in the country. It also states that in the course of the transition, “Negotiations begin with World Bank, IMF, and Inter-American Development Bank for major programs of support.” In other words, the plan is to shift Venezuela from its financial reliance on China and place it back under the thumb of Washington and Wall Street.

Trump held a telephone conversation Monday with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin which, according to Moscow, touched on the crisis in Venezuela. The Russian-based oil conglomerate Rosneft announced last week that it had sold all its interests in Venezuela to an entity wholly owned by the Russian government. It said it had done so to protect the interests of its shareholders. Rosneft’s subsidiaries had come under US sanctions because of the company’s providing the main vehicle for trading in Venezuelan oil as well as its providing gasoline for the Venezuelan market. Among its principal shareholders are British Petroleum and a Qatari oil company.

It is unclear what the significance of the trade-off will be. Russian officials insisted that it signaled no diminishing of Moscow’s support for the Maduro government, but rather an attempt to protect Rosneft from the US sanctions regime.

In presenting the “transition” plan to a State Department press conference Tuesday, Pompeo declared, “The United States has long been committed to finding a solution to the manmade crisis in Venezuela. The urgency for this has become all the more serious in light of the Maduro regime’s failure to adequately prepare for and address the global COVID-19 pandemic.”

Who does the US Secretary of State think he is kidding? When it comes to “failure to adequately prepare for and address the global COVID-19 pandemic,” there is no government in the world that can compete with that of the United States.

The Maduro government issued a swift rejection of Pompeo’s “transition.” Foreign Secretary Jorge Arreaza declared in an interview, “They can say what they want, when they want and how they want, but the decisions on Venezuela will be made in Venezuela, with its institutions and its constitution. We aren’t the puppets of the US.” He described the US plan as the product of Washington’s “obsession with taking control of Venezuela and its petroleum.”

In part, the “transition” scheme was no doubt floated in an attempt to deflect calls by the United Nations, the European Union, Russia, China and other countries and multilateral agencies for the US to lift a US sanctions regime that is tantamount to a state of war in order to facilitate the struggle against the coronavirus.

The Trump administration, it is clear, intends to do nothing of the kind. It is banking on the conditions that sanctions have created in Venezuela, shortages of medical supplies along with an increasing lack of access to clean water and electricity, to inflict a horrific death toll that can bring Venezuela to its knees. While the country’s threadbare public health system has thus far kept down the number of COVID-19 deaths, the United Nations has warned that Venezuela could be one the hardest-hit countries in the world.

Commenting on the “democratic transition” scheme advanced by Pompeo Tuesday, Juan Guaidó’s security aide Ivan Simonovis made the frank comment, “These are things that need to be done, so they can’t say they weren’t offered an alternative.”

The implication is clear. A fraudulent proposal for a “peaceful transition” is being floated in Washington as part of the preparation for the use of military violence to achieve the predatory aims of US imperialism. The danger of war is amplified by the interest of the Trump administration and the US ruling class in diverting outward the overwhelming popular anger over the failure of the existing capitalist order to protect masses of people from the ravages of the pandemic or to organize any adequate response to it.

Financial turbulence continues to grow

Nick Beams

When trading on Wall Street closed yesterday, with the Dow down by more than 400 points, it was the end of the worst quarter for stocks since the financial crisis of 2008. The market has fallen 20 percent since the start of the year.

What is most significant is not the size of the fall but the speed at which it has taken place. The quarter divides in two parts.

The beginning of the year was marked by a surge in the market. There was confidence that the Fed would continue to provide ultra-cheap money to finance its speculation and parasitism. At the same time, trade tensions with China had eased somewhat with the signing of a “phase one” deal on January 15.

The market was propelled to new record highs on February 12. It has undergone a precipitous fall in the seven weeks since then.

While the coronavirus was the trigger it was not the underlying cause. Markets had been set up for a crash by the rise and rise of financial assets, above all stocks, completely divorced from the process of production in the real economy.

It took just 16 days for stocks to fall 20 percent from their record high, compared to the previous record for a 20 percent fall set in 1929.

The Vix index, which measures volatility and is often referred to as Wall Street’s “fear gauge,” went to a record high in mid-March. It was one of the factors that led to Fed initiate a massive intervention in financial markets across the board.

This intervention helped prevent an even larger fall that would have seen Wall Street record its worst quarter since the Great Depression.

The Fed has now emerged as the chief backstop for all areas of the financial system.

It has cut interest rates to zero, resumed its multi-billion dollar purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, bought debt in the commercial paper market, entered the municipal bond market, resumed purchases of securities backed by credit card and student loan debt and, for the first time in its history, undertaken to buy newly issued corporate bonds.

In addition, it has intervened in the overnight repo market to the tune of trillions of dollars in order to try to prevent interest rates spiking, and setting off a freeze in credit markets as took place in the financial crisis of 2008.

The Fed first intervened in the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market in middle of last month with purchases of $68 billion. However, this was not enough to halt the wave of selling and it had to make an additional $168 billion worth of purchases last week.

This intervention, going well beyond that of 2008, has had unintended consequences because of its impact on hedges taken out by mortgage-backed securities traders.

On Sunday the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), whose members underpin the mortgage market, issued a letter warning that the housing market was “in danger of large-scale disruption” because of the Fed intervention.

The hedges involve the practice of shorting in which traders sell a security they do not have—borrowing it from brokers—on the expectation that its price will fall at which point they then buy it.

Such action is aimed to cover any potential losses that might occur between the time the security is initially bought and then sold off to the government-sponsored agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

However, the intervention of the Fed has increased the price of mortgage-backed securities, meaning that those who engaged in the hedge operations face potential losses. This has led to an increase in margin calls by brokers, forcing those engaged in the hedge either to sell their holdings at a loss or put more money into their trading accounts.

The MBA letter said that at the end of last week broker-dealer margin calls on mortgage lenders “reached staggering and unprecedented levels.” For a “significant number,” this was “eroding their working capital and threatening their ability to operate.”

The MBS market is not the only area of financial markets facing increased turbulence.

The Financial Times (FT) has reported that “big banks that helped asset managers package risky loans into investment products are sitting on billions of dollars of debt linked to companies most exposed in an economic downturn.”

Banks, including such major firms as Citigroup and Credit Suisse, have become involved in providing credit to the market in collateralised loan obligations (CLOs). This market operates in a similar way to the sub-prime housing market that helped trigger the financial crisis of 2008.

Highly risky loans are made to companies that because of their financial situation do not have high credit ratings.

These loans are then packaged together in securities that are sold off. The assumption behind these operations is that, while there may be defaults by some companies, there will not be a downturn across the board. This was the same kind of assumption made in 2008 that house prices would not fall across the US simultaneously.

The foundations of the CLO market have been blown apart.

The FT reported that between March 1 and March 20 the credit ratings of about 140 issuers with loans held in American CLOs had either been downgraded or put on notice for possible downgrades, about 10 percent of the total.

The value of these financial assets has plummeted as a result of doubts about the ability of heavily indebted companies to withstand big hits to the economy. One executive of a company involved in the CLO investments, cited in the FT report, described the situation as a “disaster.”

The corporate bond market is also being heavily impacted. Yesterday Moody’s cut its outlook on corporate debt to negative, warning that as a result of recession default rates will rise with sectors “most sensitive to consumer demand and sentiment the hardest hit.”

Among its bailout measures, the Fed said that for the first time in its history it would buy corporate debt. Moody’s said, however, that some highly indebted sectors would be still vulnerable because the Fed’s operations will be limited to investment-grade companies with high credit quality.

The Fed’s actions were “unlikely to prevent distress at businesses with less certain long-term viability,” it said.

Those companies will be hammered by what is predicted to be the most serious downturn in the American economy since the Great Depression.

Goldman Sachs further downgraded its forecast for the US GDP for the second quarter of this year. Little more than a week ago it forecast the economy would shrink at annualised rate of 24 percent from April to June.

Yesterday it forecast the annualised rate of contraction would be 34 percent with the US unemployment rate rising to 15 percent by the middle of the year.

St. Louis Fed says 50 million Americans could be unemployed by July

Gabriel Black

An estimate by St. Louis Federal Reserve economist Miguel Faria-e-Castro posted last week on the bank’s Web site predicts that 52.81 million Americans will be unemployed by the beginning of July. This would result in an official unemployment rate of 32.1 percent, exceeding the record 24.9 percent jobless rate recorded at the height of the Great Depression.

Faria-e-Castro made his forecast by averaging a more pessimistic prognosis (40 percent unemployment) and a more optimistic one (10 percent). The estimate excludes those who give up looking for work and does not calculate the impact of whatever support may be given to small businesses.

Meanwhile, as the public health and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic grows at an exponential rate, fueled by government delay, indifference and incompetence, and the ruling class’s focus on propping up the financial markets, major corporations in the United States are announcing massive furloughs and wage cuts.

* Macy’s, which owns Bloomingdale’s, announced it will furlough the majority of its 125,000 employees this week, citing the collapse of sales. All of the chain’s stores are closed. Its stock is down 68 percent since January.

* Gap, which owns Banana Republic and Old Navy, will furlough 80,000 of its 129,000 employees.

* Kohl’s will furlough 85,000 of its 120,000 employees.

* Landry’s Inc., which owns Del Frisco’s, Golden Nugget Casinos and Bubba Gump Shrimp, will furlough 40,000 of its workers.

* The parent-company of shoe giant DSW will furlough 80 percent of its workforce.

* Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel chain, is laying off tens of thousands of its 130,000-strong US workforce.

* Leaked documents from Delta show that airlines are making plans to reduce all workers’ pay by 20 to 35 percent. Currently, 21,000 Delta workers have been placed on unpaid leave.

These companies are only the largest that have announced layoffs. Hundreds of thousands of smaller businesses across the country and millions around the world have either laid workers off or placed them on indefinite paid leave. Hotels, airlines, restaurants, bars, casinos, resorts, coffee shops, airports, rental car services, museums, cinemas, conference venues and retailers have all shut down or significantly reduced operations, leaving workers without pay.

Goldman Sachs now predicts that between April and June, the US economy will contract at an annualized rate of 34 percent—one of the biggest contractions in history. During the week ending March 21, a record 3.28 million people in the US applied for unemployment benefits. Goldman Sachs expects that this week’s Labor Department report will show that during the week ending March 28, another 5.5 million people applied. The investment bank upwardly revised its estimate of unemployment from 9 percent to 15 percent by July.

In New York, the Department of Labor received over 7 million calls last week regarding unemployment and over 1 million just this past Monday. The program is reportedly so overrun that some workers have called thousands of times over several days and been able to speak to a representative for only five minutes.

The wave of layoffs and the dire economic forecasts expose the fraud of the claims by Democrats as well as Republicans that the bipartisan multitrillion-dollar corporate bailout enacted last week is a measure to protect the jobs and livelihoods of workers. While it hands over, directly and via the Federal Reserve, more than $6 trillion to the banks and corporations, it contains no serious protections against layoffs. Nor does it really prohibit corporate CEOs from funneling the cash windfalls stolen from the public purse into their own coffers and those of the hedge funds and big investors by means of stock buybacks and dividends.

The temporary extension of jobless benefits will not prevent the permanent loss of millions of jobs and the slashing of wages and benefits when workers are called back to work. In fact, the law explicitly permits companies that receive loans and grants to lay off up to 10 percent of their workforce through the end of September, with no restraints of job-cutting thereafter. And even this supposed “ban” on layoffs is rendered meaningless by the caveat that it applies only in so far as “practicable.”

Major retail chains around the world were already struggling before the global pandemic. Prior to the shutdown, Macy’s had announced plans to shut down 125 of its stores in the coming three years, and Gap was in the process of closing 230 of its stores. Coresight Research forecasts that a record 15,000 stores in the US will permanently close this year.

For US restaurant chains, 2019 recorded the lowest rate of growth in more than 20 years, following years of decline as market share was lost to online alternatives. Michael Halen, a Bloomberg analyst, said that in the restaurant sector, “You’re going to see a lot of bankruptcies. You’re going to see more chains go under.”

The pandemic is greatly accelerating transformations that were already taking place in the global economy. Replacing the lost jobs at brick-and-mortar restaurants and retailers will be even lower-paid, more-contingent “flex” jobs, such as those at Uber Eats and Amazon Fresh. Smaller businesses of all types, starved of sales and saddled with debt, will close down, further consolidating capital among a handful or gigantic banks and corporations.

The pandemic will also fuel the replacement of human labor with robotics and automation. A survey of corporate executives by the UK-based auditing firm EY found that 41 percent of companies were speeding up their transition to automation in response to the crisis. Supermarkets and restaurants will speed up the replacement of cashiers with automated check-outs and online delivery services. Manufacturing companies will accelerate the adoption of labor-replacing machines.

A report by the Economic Policy Institute predicts that the extent of joblessness will vary state-by-state. States such as Nevada and Hawaii that rely heavily on the tourism, entertainment and leisure industries will likely be devastated by the contraction, experiencing significantly higher rates of unemployment. In Nevada, 40 percent of all workers are in either the leisure, hospitality or retail sectors. States such as Texas that rely heavily on oil production will also be hard hit as the price of oil plummets and drilling grinds to a halt.

With 30,000 dead in Europe from COVID-19: Workers strike to demand safe working conditions

Robert Stevens

The worsening coronavirus crisis has taken the lives of over 30,000 people in Europe. This is accelerating the class struggle, as workers strike and protest to demand safe conditions.

With employers breaching social distancing measures and often not supplying even the most rudimentary personal protective equipment and hygiene supplies such as sanitisers and soap, strikes and protests have been mounted by Italian and Spanish auto and steel workers, Amazon workers, postal workers, bus drivers, supermarket staff and local government workers.

The Colosseum, that will be closed following the government's new prevention measures on public gatherings, is reflected in a puddle where a face mask was left, in Rome, Sunday, March 8, 2020. . (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP)

In Italy, the death toll reached 12,428 Tuesday as another 837 died. The number of infected rose by 2,107.

On Monday, 300 workers, mostly drivers, at Amazon’s Calenzano warehouse near Florence walked off the job, demanding a new face mask each shift, reducing deliveries to essential goods, and regularly sanitising all work areas and trucks. Protests continue in Amazon’s facilities in Piedmont, Lazio and Lombardy.

The heightened class tensions were expressed in a widely shared video of a father in lockdown beside his young daughter, who is eating a slice of bread. He tells Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, “We’ve already been inside for 15 to 20 days and we are at our limit. Just like my daughter, other children in a few days won’t be able to eat this slice of bread. Rest assured you will regret this, because we are going to have a revolution.”

In the UK, after the largest daily rise in deaths was reported, 381, it was announced that a 13-year-old boy who tested positive for coronavirus has died. He was the youngest to perish in Britain, following news that a 12-year-old girl had died in Belgium—the youngest in Europe.

On Monday, 80 postal and administrative staff at a sorting office in Alloa, Scotland, walked out in an unofficial strike. They refused to work in unsafe conditions in the sorting room and have not been given sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). They also have grievances over delivering junk mail. Fifteen postal workers walked out of another Royal Mail, depot, Lochgelly in Fife, for a second day Tuesday. There were strikes last week over the same issues at Southwark in London and Bridgewater in Somerset.

Warehouse and distribution workers have struck and protested at several sites. On Saturday, 500 warehouse workers employed by British fashion retailer ASOS walked out in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to protest unsafe conditions. Around 500 staff work each shift at the warehouse where 4,000 people are employed.

The GMB union commented, “The warehouse is now processing orders from the company’s German warehouse—which has closed—and hundreds of extra staff have been drafted in to deal with the million online orders Asos received over the weekend.” ASOS is owned by Scotland’s biggest private landowner, Anders Holch Povlsen, who has an estimated wealth of £6.1 billion.

Images have been widely circulated on social media showing workers going to the warehouse on public transport, with no social distancing, and then clocking in with large numbers gathered in a small area. The warehouse canteen serves hundreds of staff breaking at the same time.

One worker tweeted a message to company CEO Nick Beighton, “I am telling you me and my colleagues we are really afraid to go to work, it is impossible to keep a safe distance inside the warehouse. They told us [is] not [allowed] to wear mask because [this is] not part of our uniform. We gonna die there.”

Just days after issuing a call for workers to inform if their firms were still working without good reason, the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham received more than 300 email complaints from staff at 150 different companies.

The most basic health and safety measures are being flouted on building sites. Construction News (CN) reported, “Operatives on sites, which have not been adhering to two-metre distancing rules, are having suspected COVID-19 cases retrospectively confirmed by management, having discovered the information via word of mouth. On one site in the north of England, workers were not told that one of the team who they had been in close contact with was self-isolating because their relative had died from the illness. … There is currently no requirement from government for employers to inform staff if there is a suspected case of coronavirus in their workplace.”

The article states, “All the sources CN spoke to were terrified about losing their jobs, being docked pay and blacklisted from future work.”

In France, another 499 deaths were reported Tuesday, the biggest rise in deaths since the start of the pandemic. The virus has claimed 3,523 lives in total, with 22,757 still in hospital and 5,565 of these in critical condition.

After workers walked off the job at PSA, Renault and Toyota auto plants last week, strikes are continuing. Workers struck March 18 at Amazon’s distribution centre in Montélimar to demand safe working conditions. Now a nationwide sick-out is underway. Half of the firm’s workforce is now calling in sick, according to union officials, although Amazon management in France claimed that only 20 percent were refusing to work.

Workers at the Carrefour supermarket chain in Vitrolles, near Marseille in southern France, walked off the job Monday after two colleagues were diagnosed with COVID-19. They demanded an end to sales of non-food items and the disinfection of the facility before returning to work. Fati Poucel, a trade union official, said workers refused “to continue going to the front lines, risking their lives.” The action forced the company to issue a statement Monday that all its employees nationally will receive protective masks from a batch of 2 million it has ordered.

In Germany, 37 new deaths were reported yesterday, bringing the total to 682.

Workers of FraCareServices, a joint subsidiary of Lufthansa and Fraport, are opposing the lack of PPE at Frankfurt airport. One said, “The conditions at the airport are a scandal and incompatible with the country’s pandemic rules.” The 800 employees take care of passengers who need special help and support including the elderly, children or people with disabilities. One of their tasks is to help people with walking disabilities, something that cannot be done without physical contact.

“We are not provided with any disinfectant, no face mask, not even gloves,” a worker said, “although we naturally have more frequent contact with customers—it is often impossible to maintain the prescribed distance. Actually, the wheelchairs should be disinfected after each guest.” He complained, “There is no crisis management team, and a pandemic plan is not being followed.”

As flights from China, Iran and Italy still arrive in Germany, the worker had not observed any special measures for passengers from these risk areas. “Neither fever is measured on arrival, nor is particular attention paid to the safety distance.”

Truck drivers in Germany are protesting conditions at work. Due to the spread of the coronavirus, restaurants are closed along the motorways. If at all, only snacks are offered. The condition of the sanitary facilities is often horrendous, with showers and toilets not properly cleaned. Truck driver Bernhard Schumann told radio station NDR 1 Lower Saxony, “Before corona we were treated disrespectfully, now we are treated disrespectfully and inhumanely.”

A worker at stainless steel group Outokumpu in Krefeld, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the WSWS, “I know from my own experience that German companies are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to make a profit at the expense of their employees. They want to profit from closed competitor factories in the Asian region and, with full order books, even let their employees work overtime without regard for their health.” He counts himself among the risk group and complains that there are no disinfectants or other effective precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

Airlines, auto companies cut pay even as US government bails out corporations

Shannon Jones

Citing the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic, major employers in the US are announcing significant pay reductions and other cost-cutting measures despite the billions corporations are slated to receive from the recently enacted stimulus package.

Workers at major US-based airlines are having their hours and pay reduced and pay cuts and pay deferments are spreading to other sections of industry as well as state and local governments. The loans and grants provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) stipulate that to be eligible businesses must not reduce their workforce before September 30, 2020.

The CARES Act earmarks $58 billion for airlines; $29 billion in loans and $29 billion in grants, which is essentially free money.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll found that one-third of Americans reported a job loss by themselves or a family member and one half experienced a pay cut or reduction of hours due to the coronavirus pandemic. Further, the poll found a higher impact of job losses or pay cuts on lower income workers.

At United Airlines flight attendants will be paid the minimum required under the terms of their union contract, normally 71-78 hours a month. Typically, a flight attendant would work 85-110 hours or more. Management is therefore, in effect, cutting pay by 20-35 percent.

In a letter to employees United CEO Oscar Munoz said staff cuts would likely be imposed after September 30.

Delta is imposing a cut in the workweek to three or four days instead of the normal five. CEO Ed Bastian told employees the cuts would impact ground employees. Invoking demagogy about “shared sacrifice,” Bastion—who made $15 million in total compensation last year—said he would take a 100 percent cut in his base pay, although he will not forgo stock awards, option awards, and other types of compensation.

Some 21,000 of 91,000 Delta employees have reportedly taken voluntary short term unpaid leaves.

While Bastian framed the reduction in hours as “voluntary,” managers were reportedly telling employees the cuts were mandatory. In effect the company is furloughing workers, despite preparing to accept federal bailout money stipulating no job reductions.

Southwest Airlines has imposed similar measures and American Airlines is expected to follow the lead of United and Delta.

While going hat in hand to the US treasury, it is reported that the top 6 US airlines spent 96 percent of free cash flow over the past 10 years, not to reinvest in the business or improve employee pay, but on stock buy backs and dividends to benefit top executives and wealthy investors.

One angry Delta worker posted on Facebook “Call it whatever you want, but if your check is 25% smaller, it’s a PAY CUT.” Another wrote, “They will keep the bailout $$$ for CEO bonuses and shareholders. It will be a miracle if workers actually see it.”

Underscoring the hazards faced by airline workers, CNN reported last week that a Philadelphia-based flight attendant with American Airlines, Paul Frishkorn, died of suspected coronavirus infection. Friskhorn was in his 60s and had won awards from American Airlines for customer service.

The Detroit-based US auto companies have announced partial salary deferments for their white-collar workforce. In a letter to employees, Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley said that salaried workers not already affected by layoffs would be asked to take a 20 percent salary deferral, supposedly to be repaid by March 15, 2021. The move affects some 15,000 employees in the US.

The FCA boss hauled in $14.4 million in compensation in 2019, including a $1.3 million bonus and “incentive” of $9.6 million.

General Motors previously announced similar pay deferments for all of its 69,000 salaried employees. In addition, the company will furlough 6,500 salaried workers who are not able to work from home, paying them 75 percent of regular pay. Ford said it would cut pay for 300 executives and take other measures to try to generate cash. The company said that job cuts may be in the offing as conditions warrant.

These measures come on top of the savage job cuts already imposed in the auto industry on engineers and other white-collar employees as well as hourly workers. Last year Ford announced the cuts of 7,000 salaried workers from its global operations. Those job reductions were far short of demands by analysts for even more ruthless cost cutting.

The cuts to white collar workers presages inevitable demands by the auto companies for “shared sacrifice” by hourly workers including layoffs, wage and benefit cuts and attacks on already seriously eroded working conditions.

Demands for pay cuts are not limited to auto and airlines, but are spreading across the economy.

General Electric has announced it will cut 10 percent of jobs in its aviation division. The company also announced a hiring freeze, the cancellation of merit pay increases and will furlough half of its maintenance, repair and engine overhaul workers for 90 days. The layoffs will impact 2,600 hourly and salaried workers.

Aircraft maker Boeing last month announced it plans to cut 10 percent of its aviation division workforce. It has cancelled a scheduled salary merit pay increase and will cut non-essential spending while laying off its contingent workers. The company, meanwhile, had requested a $60 billion bailout by the government. Boeing has spent $43 billion on stock buybacks since 2009 and was responsible for hundreds of passenger deaths with its defective 737 Max aircraft.

The past weeks have seen state legislatures in a number of states, including Florida, Georgia and Tennessee reducing scheduled pay raises for teachers. The state of Kentucky seems poised to eliminate a promised $2,000 pay raise for teachers. Many other states appear ready to follow.

Planned protests by teachers demanding pay raises in Tennessee and South Carolina had to be cancelled because of concerns over coronavirus. In Kentucky, teachers drove their cars around the state capitol, horns blaring.

Even though the federal government has provided billions to bail out corporations and Wall Street, it has provided nothing to state and local governments whose tax revenues, as in the 2008-2009 financial crisis, stand to be devastated. In the wake of the Great Recession, state budgets were decimated and hundreds of thousands of teaching positions eliminated as the Obama administration refused any aid. Many states and localities never fully recovered.

In a sign of what is coming, Utah’s biggest healthcare provider, Intermountain Healthcare, announced cuts to the pay of some 2,400 doctors and nurse practitioners even as the coronavirus pandemic explodes in the US. In justifying the cuts, management said it needed to be “flexible” because the company wasn’t bringing in as much money due to cancelled appointments and the cancellation of elective surgery. One medical worker told the Salt Lakes Tribune the cuts were a “slap in the face” to workers who were risking their lives “on the front lines.” The company is not providing hazard pay to those working with coronavirus patients.

A former Intermountain patient Debra May wrote, “I am livid that the hospital organization I have used for years has chosen at this time when doctors and nurses are risking their lives to save others that your organization would have the audacity to begin cutting salaries,” calling the move “despicable.” Tara wrote, “What you have shown is that you are money hungry and you put your bottom line above the health and welfare of your workers.”

Over the past several days there have been a spate of announcements by smaller companies asking for sacrifice from employees. CEO Paul Bascobert of newspaper company Gannett in a companywide e-mail Monday called for “sacrifice” speaking of furloughs and other unspecified cuts. Gannet publishes USA Today, the Detroit News and Free Press and many other regional newspapers.

Other recently announced austerity measures include Kentucky-based Lexmark with pay cuts for all of its 8,200 global employees; small engine manufacturer Briggs & Stratton is cutting the pay of salaried employees by 25-30 percent and ending its 401(k) match; and the National Hockey League will temporarily cut the pay of league office employees by as much as 25 percent, starting April 1. The Philadelphia Orchestra said musicians are taking a 20 percent pay cut through the middle of September along with other staff.

Coronavirus deaths in US nearing 4,000 as Trump washes his hands of responsibility

Benjamin Mateus & Patrick Martin

The coronavirus killed at least 812 people in the United States Tuesday, the highest death toll since the pandemic began, while nearly 25,000 new cases were reported, bringing the total number infected to more than 188,000, the largest number in the world by far.

Along with the unprecedented scale of the infection, its sheer speed is staggering. On March 10, there were only 1,000 reported coronavirus infections in the United States. Three weeks later, it is nearing 200 times that level. Another such three weeks would see 40 million people infected in the United States.

The US death toll has not yet reached the level of Italy (12,428) or Spain (8,464), but that is only a matter of days. And White House officials continue to escalate their projections of the total number of deaths in a “best-case” scenario, setting the figure at a staggering 240,000, with Trump himself hinting that the total could be double that.

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, March 13, 2020, in Washington [Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci]

Four countries—Italy, Spain, the US and France—have now seen more deaths than China, where the epidemic first broke out in the city of Wuhan last December. After 3,305 deaths, China claims to have largely suppressed the outbreak through systematic testing, contact tracing and quarantining of those exposed to the coronavirus.

The American media and the Trump administration continually describe efforts to counteract the coronavirus as a war, where the frontlines are being drawn in emergency rooms and ICUs throughout the United States, and especially in the New York metropolitan area, where half of all COVID-19 cases are located. On Tuesday the death toll in New York City itself hit 1,096, and 10,000 people were hospitalized, with 2,700 of them requiring ventilators.

But in this war, under the incompetent “commander-in-chief” Trump and his hapless lieutenants among the state governors, the troops are being sent into battle haphazardly, without weapons, and largely without regard for their own safety. Healthcare workers lack sufficient personal protection equipment, and they are being infected and incapacitated at an alarming rate, with many deaths.

In Spain, the healthcare workers accounted for 14 percent of the country’s cases, while in Italy, they accounted for 10 percent. The same process is under way in the United States. NPR reported that 345 employees of Boston’s four largest hospitals have tested positive for COVID-19. In New York City, hundreds of workers have fallen ill. At Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Manhattan, 50 percent of the intensive-care staff have been infected.

The result is that in addition to the shortages of hospital rooms, ICU beds, masks, and ventilators, there is a growing shortage of medical staff who can cope with the increasing volume of patients seeking medical attention.

Meanwhile, hospitals and healthcare systems are threatening doctors and nurses who make their concerns over working conditions public. An emergency room physician, Dr. Ming Lin, in Washington state, was fired because he gave an interview to a newspaper complaining about inadequate protective equipment. Ruth Schubert, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Nurses Association, told Bloomberg, “Hospitals are muzzling nurses and other healthcare workers in an attempt to preserve their image.” Nurses who have spoken under conditions of anonymity with WSW S reporters said that they have been told they would be fired if they talked to the media.

In some cases, state governors have made statements that amount to a confession of bankruptcy. On CNN Live, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland said, “We are all trying to get more testing, but this is a pinch point on testing, on supplies, and materials, and PPE and ventilators. Everybody in America knows we don’t have enough of these things … and without the tests we are really flying blind. We are guessing about where the outbreaks are, what the infection rates in the hospitals are, and the mortality rates.”

However, the Trump White House manages to combine moronic expressions of optimism (largely in the form of testimonials to Trump’s personal genius) with ever more ominous declarations that the death toll in the United States will reach six or even seven figures.

On Sunday, White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said that 100,000 to 200,000 deaths was a midrange figure that could be substantially lowered if proper measures were taken. On Monday, White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said that 100,000 to 200,000 was now the floor, the best-case scenario if everything went perfectly, while Trump himself declared that a death toll in that range would represent “a good job” by his administration.

On Tuesday, Fauci and Birx presented a slide show to a press briefing indicating projections that without severe mitigation, total deaths due to COVID-19 could reach 1.2 million to 2.2 million. Birx admitted that even with strict mitigation efforts throughout the month of April, the number of deaths could range as high as 240,000. At the peak of such a “best-case” outcome, 4,000 to 5,000 people would be dying every day.

Shocking as such figures are, even more outrageous is the blithe indifference displayed by Trump personally and his closest aides to the likely results of their own policy of refusing to conduct a serious struggle to contain the pandemic, not merely mitigate it.

Trump himself, towards the end of the press “briefing” that lasted more than two hours—a clear indication, in and of itself, that the White House antivirus campaign is an exercise in political propaganda and media manipulation—made comments that amounted to a self-indictment for criminal negligence on a monumental scale.

“We’re going through the worst thing this country has probably ever seen,” he said. “Look, we had the Civil War. We lost 600,000 people, right? Had we not done anything, we would have lost many times that, but we did something, so it’s going to be hopefully way under that. But you know, we lose more here potentially than you lose in world wars as a country.”

Given that the US death toll in the Second World War was 405,000, Trump is saying, in his semiliterate and meandering way, that the US death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic could well be between 400,000 and 600,000.

There was remarkably little push-back from the journalists of the corporate media who appeared to be in a daze. While several media outlets had taken note that on Tuesday morning, more Americans had died from coronavirus than were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, not even this comparison, inadequate as it is, was made.

The US government’s response is best characterized as malign neglect to a pandemic that was both foreseen and preventable. With complete indifference to the fate of the people, the Trump administration’s primary focus was on ensuring the financial markets were protected. Only when the markets began to implode did the government’s machinery begin to churn to prevent its complete collapse. Everything else was deemed an afterthought.

First, on March 3, the Federal Reserve slashed rates by 0.5 percent, the most significant cut since the 2008 financial crisis. On March 12, the Federal Reserve added $1.5 trillion of liquidity into the banking systems by massively expanding short-term loans to the banks to keep money markets stable and provide banks with cash in hand. When the markets continued to plummet on March 15, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by a full percentage point down to almost 0.00 percent. They also resumed quantitative easing by purchasing $500 billion in treasuries and $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities. Then Congress rushed through a record $2.2 trillion economic “rescue” bill, whose main purpose was to provide the Treasury and the Federal Reserve the necessary authority to bail out corporate America and Wall Street.

Comparing the gargantuan and energetic efforts to save the markets with the slapdash, indifferent and grossly incompetent actions in relation to public health, it is easy to see what are the priorities of the American financial aristocracy.

But there is another force to be heard from in this crisis—the working class. Instacart, Amazon, and Whole Foods workers have initiated strike actions against forced work under unsafe conditions. Workers at General Electric have protested, demanding their company begin producing ventilators. Many other workers are rebelling against being forced to remain on the job without protective gear.

As the crisis escalates, the decisive question is for the working class to develop a conscious political response, recognizing that it must fight the capitalist system as a whole, based on a socialist program.

Papua New Guinea: 4,000 nurses to strike over COVID-19 readiness

John Braddock

Four thousand nurses are to strike across Papua New Guinea (PNG) this week over a lack of medical supplies and funding to handle the coronavirus outbreak. The action follows a sit-in by nearly 600 nurses in the capital Port Moresby on March 26 over the failure to provide personal protective equipment for medical staff.

PNG nurses are joining an emerging wave of stoppages, strikes and protests by workers internationally, including nurses in New York City, over the incompetence, unpreparedness and indifference of the ruling elites in the face of the deadly pandemic.

Gibson Siune, the general secretary of the PNG Nurses Association, said the majority of the members, which represents 20 percent of the nursing workforce, would participate in the protests for as long as it takes until their concerns are “heard by the national government.”

The association initially raised on March 6 that most hospitals do not have isolation units for handling COVID-19 patients and criticised the inadequate public health measures aimed at controlling the spread of the disease. Nurses are demanding the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), risk and travel allowances, food rations, and insurance as well as proper training to handle COVID-19.

The Pacific country recorded its first confirmed case on 20 March, a mine worker who had arrived from Europe, and was then sent on to Australia for treatment. Authorities have identified another 3,000 “persons of interest,” of which 2,230 are being actively monitored.

A 14-day state of emergency was imposed on March 23, placing a curfew on the country’s nine million residents and banning travel across the country. Restrictions have been placed on who can speak to the media. A senior doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Guardian Australia: “PNG is not prepared to fight the virus simply because it does not have the funds to do so,” adding that almost all hospitals lack basic medical supplies to attend to even ordinary illnesses.

Prime Minister James Marape has given vague assurances that PPE will be made available. However, the strike reflects wider alarm among the population over the lack of government preparedness to handle the pandemic. One resident told the Guardian the lockdown would simply lead to panic buying, while “other unfortunate ones are unable to do that now because they simply do not have the money to buy extra food and basic supplies.”

The government is recalling parliament on Thursday, six weeks early, to pass emergency legislation. No details have been released, but an Emergency General Provisions Bill and a proposed Emergency Defence Bill will be tabled, portending ramped-up authoritarian measures.

The developments in PNG come as the COVID-19 pandemic escalates across the Pacific. Last week the US territory of Guam was the first to report a coronavirus fatality with the death of a 68-year-old woman. The number of confirmed cases is climbing every day and currently exceeds 100 across the small Pacific island nations.

The impoverished, neo-colonial status of most Pacific nations, including lack of health facilities, make them particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks. Samoa’s devastating measles epidemic that over whelmed the health system and killed 83 people last year revealed how exposed they are. Vanuatu has only two respirators, and other countries are similarly poorly-equipped. Many are forced to send COVID-19 samples overseas for testing, with long delays for the results.

Guam’s total of confirmed COVID-19 cases has risen to 55 with 13 in hospital. A further 36 crew on the aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, that is docked in Guam with 5,000 people aboard, have tested positive.

French Polynesia, among the worst-affected Pacific territories, declared a curfew from March 28. Until April 15 everyone is required to remain indoors between 8pm and 5am. Anyone breaching the curfew risks being fined at least $US150, and a year in prison. On March 29 the number of people tested positive had risen to 35.

Fiji has four confirmed cases, three from one family including a flight attendant. A nationwide curfew has been imposed while the city of Lautoka is in lockdown with road blocks and patrols. Fiji’s military has been mobilised and 100 police checkpoints erected around the country. Dozens of people have been arrested for breaching the lockdown rules. Prime Minister Bainimarama has foreshadowed even harsher measures to control the population.

In Samoa a state of emergency has been declared and borders closed. Public gatherings are restricted to no more than five people. Failure to comply may lead to a fine of up to $US3,400 or imprisonment for two years. Six test results for COVID-19 have returned negative results while seven further samples have been sent to New Zealand for testing.

In Vanuatu the island of Aneityum is in lockdown following reports that passengers or crew from the cruise ship Voyager of the Seas interacted with locals during a visit on March 11-12. Seven passengers who subsequently disembarked the ship in Sydney were diagnosed with COVID-19.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has suspended all international flights indefinitely and declared the capital an emergency zone. Three suspected cases all tested negative and the government is now working with China to establish in-country testing for COVID-19.

In American Samoa, 42 of 145 passengers who arrived on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu last week have been quarantined. More than 100 residents who had earlier traveled to Samoa are also being quarantined.

The Northern Marianas, another US territory, has recorded two cases of COVID-19, while the French territory of New Caledonia has seven confirmed cases. In Tonga a state of emergency has been declared: borders are closed, nightclubs and bars shut and gatherings of more than 20 prohibited.

The Cook Islands’ alert status was upgraded on March 25 with the introduction of laws giving health authorities the power to control movements. The provisions were prompted by the surge of cases in New Zealand, to which the Cook Islands had not closed its borders. The major tourist resorts are closing this week creating a disaster for the industry, with hundreds of staff set to lose their jobs.

The escalating crisis prompted Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to express his concerns, not for the looming health catastrophe facing people in the Pacific, but for the geo-strategic interests of the imperialist powers. Canberra is seeking to use the emergency to buttress Australia’s neo-colonial domination of the region amid US-led preparations for war against China.

According to the Australian Financial Review on March 28, Morrison warned in a video conference with 20 world leaders that the Pacific islands must receive international support otherwise an “opportunistic China could muscle in to exert stronger influence over vulnerable states in the region.” Chinese health officials have reportedly briefed several Pacific nations on how to curtail the deadly virus—a humanitarian move deemed an imminent threat by Australia’s ruling elite.