COVID-19 deaths in Scotland 79 percent higher than official figures

Stephen Alexander

Yesterday, Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon advanced plans for ending the coronavirus lockdown in Scotland.

While noting that a “return to normal” is not possible, the First Minister said it is necessary to “transition” to a “new normal” which will see people “living alongside this virus but in a form that keeps it under control.”

“It may be that certain businesses in certain sectors can reopen, but only if they can change how they work to keep employees and customers two metres distant from each other.”

Nicola Sturgeon (Vimeo.com, theSWP)

Sturgeon continued: “Similarly, with schools, classrooms may have to be redesigned to allow social distancing, so maybe not all children can go back to or be at school at the same time.”

Sturgeon made these comments days after it was revealed that the COVID-19 death toll in Scotland reached 1,616 as of April 19, according to weekly figures published by the National Records of Scotland (NRS). This figure is almost 80 percent higher than official data reported on the Scottish government’s web site. The government’s official figures stood at 903 on the same date—recording only laboratory-confirmed cases in hospitals. NRS figures include all deaths where a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection has been listed on the death certificate.

Although 56 percent of all COVID-19 deaths occur in hospitals, 33 percent, 537 deaths, have occurred in care homes. About 10 percent, 168 deaths, have occurred at home or in non-institutional settings. Care home deaths have been excluded from official figures for weeks.

Data has belatedly emerged from other European pandemic hotspots showing that such fatalities account for as much as 40 to 60 percent of all COVID-19 deaths. This trend is confirmed by NRS figures, which show that the proportion of deaths occurring in Scottish care homes has risen significantly from the 24.6 percent recorded in last week’s figure.

Several Scottish residential care homes have reported double-digit COVID-19 deaths, including the Berelands Care Home in Prestwick, Crosslet House Nursing Home and the Castle View Care Home in Dumbarton, Burlington Court Care Home in Cranhill, Elderslie Nursing Home in Paisley and Guthrie House in Edinburgh. Multiple deaths have occurred in at least a dozen other care homes, and 44 percent of Scotland’s care homes have now registered suspected COVID-19 infections.

One carer recently died of a COVID-19 infection at the Pitkerro Care Centre in Dundee. At least one other care worker and two nurses have died in Scotland, part of a ghastly death toll of at least 118 health and social care workers across the UK. At a single health board, National Health Service Ayrshire & Arran, 216 staff have tested positive for the virus.

Nurses, doctors, carers and other essential workers are being pressured to work in perilous conditions without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection control protocols, risking their own lives and the lives of their families. Moreover, it remains impossible to track the true extent of the contagion due to the lack of a systematic regime of testing and contact tracing across the UK.

At every stage of this crisis, the devolved SNP government, for all its professed “progressive” political agenda, has aped the reactionary “herd immunity” policy of Boris Johnson’s Conservative government at Westminster. Sturgeon has consistently resisted mass testing and supported the Tories’ genocidal policy of financially incentivising largely privatised, for-profit care facilities to accept the rapid discharge of elderly patients from hospitals, without first testing them for COVID-19.

The impact of this deadly policy has fallen overwhelmingly on the poor, densely populated areas in deindustrialised centres of the working class. Glasgow is particularly exposed due to its high population of elderly and disabled people, combined with some of the worst poverty, mortality and health indices in the developed world.

The Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board has recorded 513 COVID-19 fatalities, followed by Lothian (including Edinburgh) with 256 deaths, Lanarkshire with 228 deaths, Ayrshire and Arran with 120 deaths and Tayside (including Dundee) with 106 deaths. This amounts to a death rate (per 10,000 of population) of 4.4 in Glasgow and Clyde, 3.5 in Lanarkshire, 3.2 in Ayrshire and Arran, 2.9 in Lothian and 2.5 in Tayside. Deaths have been recorded in all health board areas.

Across Scotland there have been more than 800 “excess deaths” in the past three weeks that cannot be accounted for directly by COVID-19 infections. Postponement of cancer screening and a 72 percent drop off in urgent cancer referrals by doctors has led to concerns that people are dying because they cannot access life-saving health care through fear of being infected or because of overstretched health services. In the week ending April 19, there were 38 excess cancer deaths, 11 cardiac deaths, 83 deaths related to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and 101 “other” excess deaths, according to NRS.

A deadly crisis is looming for sufferers of drug addiction. Thousands face the life-threatening prospect of unsupervised drug withdrawal as the pandemic is expected to interrupt supply chains in the black market. Scotland has the highest per capita drug deaths in the world, yet addicts have not been put on the list of high-risk priorities for critical care. There are already indications of a spike in deaths of despair, including suicides and alcohol-related deaths as a result of the pandemic.

The situation is poised to deteriorate, with Scotland’s chief economist, Dr. Gary Gillespie, warning of a 20 to 30 percent collapse in economic output in the space of one month. As unemployment and financial instability soars, applications for Universal Credit benefits have increased from the usual 20,000 per month to more than 110,000. Demand on food banks has risen by as much as 100 percent in some areas.

The catastrophic dangers from a global pandemic of a novel influenza virus have long been the subject of scientific warnings. Yet capitalist governments internationally, including Holyrood, have decimated vital social services and scientific resources required to fight the pandemic. At the same time, they have made available hundreds of billions in public revenues to prop up the obscene fortunes of the financial and corporate elite.

In 2015, the Scottish government, together with health and social care authorities, undertook an exercise—Silver Swan—which revealed significant gaps in the country’s preparedness for a pandemic. In a follow up report, NHS Lanarkshire warned, “An influenza pandemic is considered to be one of the highest public health risks for the UK” and recommended the development of “flexible” contingency plans for personal protective equipment testing, and infection control procedures that would “require testing on a regular basis”.

Months into the global pandemic, the SNP government is nowhere near implementing any of these protections. Yet Sturgeon is already raising the possibility of lifting lockdown restrictions, based partly on instruction from German government advisors. Ignoring the guidance of the Robert Koch Institute, the country’s leading authority on disease control and prevention, Germany is already lifting lockdown restrictions on shops and schools, motivated by the demands of big business for a revival of the economy. COVID-19 deaths continue to rise exponentially in Germany and are now in excess of 5,100.

It will not be long before Scotland and the rest of the UK follows the German path so that big business and the banks can resume raking in profit from the exploitation of the working class, to be paid for with an escalation in deaths from COVID-19 and a likely second wave of the pandemic.

US House overwhelmingly passes $484 billion “relief” package, refilling corporate slush fund

Jacob Crosse

Following Tuesday’s unanimous consent vote in the Senate, lawmakers of both big business parties in the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the “Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act” on Thursday.

Taking every precaution to assure their personal safety and well-being, as opposed to the absence of such precautions for hospital workers, Amazon workers, transit workers, grocery workers and those being sent back into the auto plants, the Democrats and Republicans came together in the House chamber and voted 388-5, with one abstention, to send the approved bill to President Trump’s desk for his signature as early as Thursday evening.

Three of the Republicans who voted against the measure are leaders of the ultra-right Freedom Caucus, including Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado and Jody Hice of Georgia. The fourth Republican to vote against the bill was Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who had protested against the passage of last month’s CARES Act on procedural grounds.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The only Democrat to vote against the measure was New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In another theatrical display, Ocasio-Cortez gesticulated wildly while castigating Republicans for “not fixing this bill for moms and pops,” before every other member of her party, including the rest of the so-called “squad”—Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omar—voted for the bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom Ocasio-Cortez fondly refers to as “mama bear,” tweeted her support for the bill following its passage, writing, “Today’s historic, bipartisan vote on our latest #FamiliesFirst package is essential to protecting families across America and ensuring more small businesses have acces to the resources they need."

Far from putting “families first” and guaranteeing paychecks for workers, this second round of corporate handouts, as the first, will be largely siphoned off by larger businesses, while the Wall Street banks that process the government-backed loans rake in billions. The vast majority of family-owned entities—restaurants, barber shops, beauty salons, gas stations, etc.—will not receive a dime.

The central provision of the newly passed measure is the replenishment of the so-called “Paycheck Protection Program” (PPP) with an additional $310 billion in funding. The initial $349 billion allocated to the program, supposedly geared to aiding businesses with fewer than 500 employees and keeping their workers on the payroll for eight weeks, ran out after less than two weeks, leaving the vast majority of small business applicants high and dry. Only 6 percent of small business applicants received loans.

It then emerged that large restaurant chains such as Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Shake Shack and Potbelly, each with over 5,000 employees and hundreds of millions in revenues, were put at the front of the line of applicants by the Wall Street banks chosen by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to dispense the loans and collect the lucrative fees. These companies received between $10 and $20 million in free money. The big banks raked in $10 billion in fees.

Other multimillion- and billion-dollar publicly traded firms also received loans. The biggest recipients were two interlocked real estate investment trusts, Ashford Hospitality Trust and Braemar Hotels & Resorts, which received a combined total of $53 million in loans. The firm controls more than 100 properties, including luxury hotels such as the Ritz Carlton Atlanta, which markets itself as “celebration” of “contemporary Southern luxury.” Single night August reservations begin at $341, while a one-night reservation for the Skyline Suite goes for $3,000.

That this fraud was perpetrated by both parties was underscored by the role of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York in making sure that large companies received a disproportionate share of the loan money. The New York Times reported Thursday that the provision inserted into the CARES Act allowing restaurant and hotel chains to receive “small business” PPP loans, as long as all of their units employed fewer than 500 people, was negotiated by Schumer and the right-wing Republican chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, Marco Rubio of Florida.

Schumer, often referred to as the “senator from Wall Street,” is one of the biggest recipients of investment banking campaign cash. According to OpenSecrets.org, between 1989 and 2016, he received nearly $600,000 from Goldman Sachs.

Prior to Thursday’s House vote, in an attempt at political damage control, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and the SBA announced that they had set new “guidelines” for the PPP loans that would supposedly bar large firms with alternative credit sources from benefiting. Mnuchin called on the restaurant chains and other large businesses that had received loans in the first round to return the money or possibly face investigation.

This is yet another cruel deception. Schumer, Pelosi, Mnuchin and the rest know that the $310 billion in the new bill will be exhausted in a matter of days, leaving in the lurch most small businesses staring bankruptcy and closure in the face. And even for businesses that receive loans, the money will cover payroll, rent and utilities for only eight weeks. The pandemic and economic contraction will last far longer, leading to the shutdown of tens of thousands, if not millions, of small businesses and the permanent layoff of millions of workers.

The bill also includes a paltry $75 billion in aid to hospitals and derisory $25 billion earmarked for COVID-19 testing. There is nothing in the bill to aid state and local governments, which are facing massive deficits and preparing to slash funding for schools, health care and other essential services and cut the jobs and pensions of public employees.

US coronavirus deaths approach 50,000

Benjamin Mateus

Between 1955 and 1975, there were 47,424 US combat deaths from the Vietnam War, a defeat that continues to perplex and stigmatize American imperialism. In approximately one month, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed 49,751 people in the United States. Despite all talk about a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, the number of new cases has remained consistently over 25,000 per day while the number of daily deaths has kept pace. This pandemic, like Vietnam, is conflagrating the consciousness of the working class.

In a similarly gruesome vein, Europe’s numbers have continued at a steady pace with nearly 29,000 cases and over 3,000 deaths daily. Italy had been Europe’s epicenter in mid-March, reaching its zenith on March 21. One month later, new cases in Italy are at half their peak. Europe’s fatalities are also declining at a similarly sluggish trend. Spain follows suit while the UK emulates the United States’ trajectory.

Globally, at the speed with which new cases are being tallied, before the month’s end the pandemic will have reach 3 million cases. Over 200,000 people have lost their lives, which could have been prevented had the ruling elites of the global capitalist nation-state system decided to act in concert to heed the warnings of their own World Health Organization.

Dr. Ala Stanford administers a COVID-19 swab test on Wade Jeffries in the parking lot of Pinn Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Wednesday, April 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Presently, the only effective measure to stem the health crisis is to continue to shelter in place, which takes its toll on the flipside by creating economic hardship for the population. On Thursday, an additional 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment, bringing the total to 26 million in the five weeks since lockdowns were imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Financial Times, the number of approved claims for unemployment insurance accounts for 11 percent of the entire workforce, approximately 16 million thus far.

Millions more are attempting to navigate the online or telephone application processes that have created a massive gridlock. Up to 17 percent of Michigan’s workforce is receiving unemployment benefits. Florida saw a tripling of unemployment benefit applications last week to 505,000, second only to California with 534,000. The hardest-hit states are Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, Alaska and Washington, with estimated unemployment rates exceeding 20 percent.

According to the Federal Reserve Board, in the Divisions of Research & Statistics and Monetary Affairs, the leisure and hospitality sector has seen 4 million job positions lost, accounting for over 30 percent of all employees in that industry. Construction and manufacturing have lost almost 700,000 jobs since mid-March. When the April jobs report is released on May 8, JPMorgan Chase is predicting a loss of 25 million jobs, triple the loss experienced in the 2008–2009 Great Recession. An economist at ING, James Knightley, said, “Less than half of working-age Americans will be earning a wage next month. In an election year, this means that the call for politicians to reopen the economy is only going to get louder, irrespective of the health advice.” This call is arising from the financial sectors.

In a CBS News poll published yesterday, 70 percent agreed that it was essential to slow the spread of the epidemic through social distancing measures, even if the economy was hurt in the short term. Almost two-thirds stated that they are concerned that the outbreak will get worse if stay-at-home restrictions are lifted too fast. The majority said widespread public testing is required before implementing reopening measures. Yet, the United States has lagged behind many countries in adequately ramping up testing. By conservative estimates, the country would need to conduct 500,000 to 700,000 tests per day to begin reopening. And a recent Harvard report calls for at least 5 million tests per day, rising to 20 million a day, “to fully remobilize the economy.”

The National Governors Association (NGA), chaired by Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan, insists any large-scale plan to return the population to work will require assistance from the federal government to much improve the distribution of testing supplies as well as fortify crumbling public health measures. A report from the NGA states, “Opening prematurely—or opening without the tools in place to rapidly identify and stop the spread of the virus—could send states back into crisis mode, push health systems past capacity and force states back into strict social distancing measures.”

The uncertainty the NGA has voiced in connection to the back-to-work drive underscores not just the public’s psychological concerns. The weight of the evidence and experience that the efforts imposed thus far have only provided temporary breathing room against the onslaught of the last four weeks, which stunned the country as a whole with the terrifying rapidity with which the virus tore through communities. As eagerly as many governors have demonstrated their agreement with Trump’s assessment of the cure being worse than the disease, the disease stands ready on the field.

With a vaccine against the virus, in the best-case scenario potentially available only this time next year, efforts to find a treatment to lessen the impact of the infection on the population have taken on a frenzied state. Despite Trump’s maniacal and negligent attempt to push hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, the drug is proving to be more harmful than doing nothing. The Veterans Affairs study of over 300 people showed the rate of death higher for those on the medication while not impacting the rate of ventilation.

Similarly, Gilead’s Remdesivir, an antiviral medication against RNA viruses, appears not to speed the improvement of patients with COVID-19 nor prevent them from dying. The study results had been inadvertently released, leading to a statement by Dr. Merdad Parsey, chief medical officer of Gilead Sciences, who said, “Today, information from the first clinical study evaluating the investigational antiviral Remdesivir in patients with severe COVID-19 disease in China was prematurely posted on the World Health Organization website. This information has since been removed, as the study investigators did not provide permission for the publication of the results. Furthermore, we believe the post included inappropriate characterizations of the study.” Gilead Sciences Inc. shares fell 4.34 percent on the news.

The utter depravity of the ruling classes was captured in Trump’s remarks during the White House brief yesterday, giving it its most succinct senseless expression. After Bill Bryan, who leads the Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology division, presented data that higher temperature, higher humidity, disinfectants and sunlight adversely impact the virus’s ability to survive on surfaces, Trump began to gesticulate and suggest, the sitting press in disbelief, “So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous—whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light—and I think you said that hadn’t been checked because of the testing … and then I said, suppose you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too … I see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”

The working class faces a threat not only from a pathogen that is highly lethal and infectious, but a capitalist class that is not only disinterested in their welfare, but has also lost the ability to comprehend reality and should be committed to an asylum. Science and scientific socialism are the tools that the working class must use to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of capitalist society.

US unemployment up 26 million in five weeks

Evan Blake

An additional 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total number of people who have filed jobless claims over the past five weeks to 26 million. Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 7.1 million people were already unemployed in the US, meaning that roughly 33 million are now officially unemployed, or over 20 percent of the labor force. The social impact of the pandemic on the US has in some ways already dwarfed that of the 2008 financial crisis, and the unemployment rate is rapidly approaching that of the height of the Great Depression in 1933, roughly 25 percent.

As of Thursday, there were 880,204 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 49,845 deaths in the US, with cases and deaths continuing to grow rapidly.

The official unemployment figures, while staggering in themselves, are known to be a significant underestimation of the true levels of unemployment in the US. Approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants live in the US and are barred from applying for unemployment benefits. An untold number of these workers have been laid off, cast into destitution without any supports whatsoever.

Together Omaha food pantry workers load supplies into a vehicle driving up to the pantry in Omaha, Neb., Thursday, April 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

In addition, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of workers have been unable to navigate the complicated online application process, which in some states such as Michigan is the only possible way to apply, as phone applications have halted. It can take days and hundreds of call attempts just to speak with someone. For those whose claims are denied, there is no simple appeals process in most states, and little if any assistance is provided to help these workers.

Millions of workers whose claims have been approved have yet to receive any actual payments. In this regard, the most egregious state has been Florida, where less than 16 percent of all claimants who filed since March 15 have received benefits.

In Ohio, claims for the supplemental $600 provided by the federal government through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program will not be processed until May 15. Pennsylvania only began accepting applicants for this program a few days ago and has not said when benefits will be paid.

For the millions of Americans that have yet to receive unemployment benefits, most are facing financial ruin. A January survey by Bankrate found that only 41 percent of Americans had enough saved to cover a $1,000 emergency. Millions face the prospect of eviction or sliding deeper into debt, which will only compound the immense suffering wrought by the pandemic.

A particularly stark expression of the rapid growth of mass poverty in the US has been the miles-long lines at food banks in cities across the country, as millions now struggle to afford food for their families.

Similar processes are unfolding on a global scale, with the number of unemployed rising astronomically in every country. On Tuesday, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) warned that up to 265 million people around the world are in danger of starvation and death stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jay Bryson, acting chief economist at Wells Fargo & Co, told Bloomberg News that the number of weekly unemployment claims is beginning to slow down, but “if we open up too soon and this coronavirus comes roaring back then we may in fact see those sorts of numbers again.”

As states such as South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Minnesota and Montana already begin to reopen their economies, amid growing calls by sections of the media and political establishment for a nationwide reopening without adequate safety measures in place, the ruling class is pursuing policies that threaten to produce a mass upsurge in the number of cases in May, with ensuing mass deaths shortly thereafter.

Efforts to quickly reopen the economy are driven solely by the profit motive, and the mass unemployment levels are being used as a cudgel to try to force workers to toil in unsafe conditions. In most states, if workers refuse work that is available, they become ineligible for unemployment benefits, placing enormous pressure on them to return to work despite facing unsafe conditions.

In the White House press conference Thursday, in response to a question about mass unemployment in the US, Trump stated, “I think our economy will start to pick up very substantially as soon as the states start to open.” He went on to make the threat, “They’re going to get back to work, and very fast.” At Monday’s press conference, Trump acknowledged that his administration is working to exempt corporations from legal liability for workers that contract COVID-19.

Georgia began to reopen barbershops, nail salons, tattoo parlors, gyms and other businesses today, with restaurants scheduled to reopen on Monday, under orders from Republican Governor Brian Kemp. More than 860,000 unemployment claims have been filed in the state since mid-March, costing over $500 million.

Employment lawyer James Radford commented to Reuters, “I think that one of the big drivers of this decision by Kemp is to get people off unemployment rolls and having the private sector keeping these people afloat.”

In the drive to restart the economy, capitalism is presenting the working class with the false dichotomy: return to work facing lethal conditions that put you and your family at risk or accept economic ruin with no social safety net whatsoever.

Workers in the US and internationally must reject the mounting calls for them to either return to work facing unsafe conditions or be thrust into abject poverty without any future. The only alternative path, which will become ever clearer in the eyes of millions, is that of socialist revolution. By taking control of the situation and seizing the wealth of the financial aristocracy, the working class can rapidly implement the measures necessary to contain the pandemic globally, provide safe working conditions to all essential workers, and ensure the health and well-being of all those whose labor is not essential.

Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) program 2020 for Young African Developers

Application Deadline: 13th May 2020

About the Award:  The aim of this program is to continuously engage with aspiring and existing developers to help them become professional developers with skills that can get them opportunities after the program.
To continue advancing through the sessions to get access to more courses and mentoring, you’ll need to prove you’re dedicated to learning these tech skills. You can do this by:

• Registering for your selected track
• Completing all requirements to advance to the next phase
• Participating in Andela challenges and meetups when you can

Advancing to each subsequent phase will help you master in-demand Google developer skills with expert-authored Pluralsight content. You’ll gain skills that can help you get opportunities after the program. 
Learners who complete the program may be eligible for an opportunity to take a Associate Android Developer or Associate Cloud Engineer Google certification exam with the certification exam fee paid for by Google.

Type:  Training

Eligibility: In order to participate in the Google Africa Certification Scholarship program, you must be at least 18 years of age and be a resident of a country in Africa.

Selection: Acceptance into this program is limited, so get started today to ensure you don’t miss out! Applicants will be prioritized for advancement based on onboarding survey completion, amount of Pluralsight content consumed and other target demographics.

Eligible Countries:  African countries

To be Taken at (Country):  Online

Number of Awards:  Not specified

Value of Award:  The Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) program gives you free access to Pluralsight course content plus support from the Andela Learning Community in your chosen skills development track. After completing your desired track, you may be eligible to receive a Google certification grant to take Google’s Associate Android Developer or Associate Cloud Engineer certification exams. Mobile web learners will not be eligible for certification.

How to Apply:

• Register at this link and meet the program criteria.
• Take the Andela onboarding survey with the same email you used to register on Pluralsight. Make sure to select which track you’re focusing on.
• Watch one or more hours of Pluralsight content in the track you chose.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

How the Acceleration of Death Precipitated by Covid-19 Exposes State Crime

Neve Gordon & Penny Green

It did not take long. Three weeks after the outbreak, the Hungarian parliament conferred formidable executive powers on prime minister Viktor Orbán, allowing him to rule by decree. Israel was even faster. Immediately after the government announced a nation-wide lockdown, the Justice Minister barred the courts from convening, a move that indefinitely postponed the corruption hearings against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, in Chile the government sent the military to public squares once occupied by protesters.

The introduction of emergency measures to address the Covid-19 crisis is undoubtedly necessary, but numerous governments have also exploited the pandemic to undermine democratic principles, violate human rights and perpetrate crimes against citizens and migrants.

Yet the pandemic has not only unleashed new state crimes; it is also exposing underlying and largely hidden crimes. Like an earthquake that shatters a city, filling the streets with debris and leaving only the bare infrastructure exposed, Covid-19 has been uncovering the structural violence that states have instituted against their own populations. Also like an earthquake, the destruction and death in the pandemic’s wake are neither inevitable nor entirely natural.  

Structural Violence as State Crime

Despite being less visible than violence employed by state agents, such as the police, military and security forces, structural violence is nonetheless lethal. This form of violence is embedded in social institutions and policies and tends to harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. It often leads to many fatalities, while disproportionately affecting specific populations.

People frequently fail to recognise that the violence emanating from social structures is a manifestation of state crime, which, in our research, we define as a form of violence that involves human rights violations perpetrated by states to advance organisational goals. They don’t see this criminality because structural violence tends to precipitate social death, which is gradual, and therefore fails to generate the kind of visceral shock we are currently experiencing as the pandemic spreads across the globe.

The attritional violence perpetrated against the Rohingya in Myanmar—initially through stigmatization and the denial of access to education, livelihood and health care—was, for instance, effectively hidden from view. It was only after the genocidal violence of 2017 that Myanmar’s systemic violence was widely exposed for the world to see. Similarly, Covid-19 has illuminated the structural violence informing our societies through its acceleration of death.

Indeed, local newspapers in the worst affected countries immediately began reporting on their own health services, providing countless graphs of government investment in healthcare infrastructures and personnel. In the UK we learned that there are only 2.5 hospital beds and  only 2.9 doctors per 1,000 people, compared with an OECD average of 5.4 and 3.4 respectively. A connection was then drawn between the Tory’s austerity policies and the mounting body bags, and the British people could readily see that their government’s policies kill.

Exposing existing inequalities

The fatal consequences of treating healthcare as a commodity rather than as a basic right and of distributing healthcare unevenly within society have now become devastatingly clear. Although data is still limited, the claim that Covid-19 is an equalizer, killing the rich and poor, black and white alike is simply untrue. Numbers released on April 7 suggest  that in Chicago, black Americans account for 68 percent of the city’s 118 deaths and 52 percent of the roughly 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, despite making up just 30 percent of the city’s population.

The fact that African Americans are dying at double the rate of their percentage in society underscores their systematic marginalization, a strategy characteristic of most forms of state crime. And while structural racism may be more pronounced in the United States, preliminary data in the UK suggests that  black people are significantly over-represented in Intensive Care Units.

In a similar vein, the representation of the elderly during the crisis reveals that they are perceived as dispensable, while the pandemic has also laid bare how poverty renders people more exposed. Poor people have neither the resources to cope during this crisis, nor do they have a safety net to catch them.

Of course the situation in the global south will likely be much worse. Wide scale exploitation of resources, political corruption, repression and poverty create an intensified vulnerability to ‘natural’ disasters like earthquakes, floods and pandemics.

Adam Hanieh, points out that this disaster is largely human-made. The poor state of public health systems across most countries in the South, which tend to be underfunded and lacking in adequate medicines, equipment, and staff are due to ‘the subordination of poorer countries to the interests of the world’s wealthiest states and largest transnational corporations’.

UK State Crime and the pandemic

Social and economic structures are rarely understood as state crimes, because crime is generally perceived as a discrete act defined as criminal by law. But, as we have witnessed in the past few weeks, austerity measures that starved the NHS of necessary resources, while not formally illegal, have led to many unnecessary deaths and should be considered a crime.

Thus, the acceleration of death precipitated by Covid-19, while wreaking its own havoc, is also exposing the structural crimes of our governments. Although welfare packages—unthinkable just two months ago—will help some people get through this crisis, the most vulnerable remain without support. What we need now is to dismantle the very structures that precipitate the crimes. What we need, at the very least, is a Green New Deal.

Combating COVID-19: Bangladesh Perspective

Saifur Rahman Saif

Hotchpotch is my favourite food. But hotchpotch in service is not good, rather more than bad. In combating COVID -19, hotchpotch is seen everywhere in Bangladesh.

Theft of relief materials by ruling Awami League men has become a regular phenomenon in the country. Shortage of testing kits for COVID -19 is another problem.

American national Sally Dugman, who is noted writer, in an email to me expressed her deep concern about the matter.

In her email, sent about a week back, wrote – I read a few weeks ago data about different ways that different countries are equipped or not so to confront Covid-19. I was appalled that your country was at the utmost bottom of the list with only ten virus test kits for every one hundred thousand people of whom many of those thousands may need the test.

This being the case made me angry and very sad. In fact, I find this condition intolerable since it, obviously, is, she continued.

Professor Dr Anwar Hossain, vice-chancellor, Jashore University of Science and Technology, who leads a folk of researchers to test COVID -19 cases, also expressed his worry about the matter to me. `We’ll not be able to continue tests of COVID -19 if kits are not supplied in time,’ he told me on Wednesday.

The university, in its laboratory, has already been tested over 250 samples since April 17, after having government’s approval for testing of pandemic COVID- 19, the VC informed me.

Noted virologist Nazrul Islam told New Age, a popular newspaper, ‘though six weeks have passed since the first confirmed case, we are still in the dark about the prevalence and trend of the infection due to unorganised testing methods.’

‘It is still unpredictable about when the country will reach the peak of infections due to the faulty method and low number of tests,’ he told New Age.

10 more people died of COVID-19 and 390 more got infected with the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours till 8:00am on Wednesday.

With the new figures, the death toll rose to 120 and the number of infections rose to 3,772, said Directorate General of Health Services additional director general Nasima Sultana in the daily bulletin on COVID-19 situation, New Age reported.

I saw folks of people at several places outside their residences across the country although the country is enjoying a lockdown.

Jobayer Hossain, assistant teacher, Government BL College in Khulna divisional town described the folk as a fair like gathering.

Trader Selim Hossain told that he did not observe social or physical distancing at market places in Nawapara industrial town in bordering Jashore district.

KM Rafiqul Islam, executive magistrate and also assistant commissioner, in -charge of Abhaynagar land office, however, told me that the mobile court was trying hard to maintain social distancing.

The Guardian reported that the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research said that it had recorded a total of 3,772 cases so far.

With a population of 160 million, including close to 1 million Rohingya refugees, but with reportedly just 1,100 intensive care beds, Bangladesh is apparently ill-prepared for the Covid-19 outbreak, according to The Guardian.

In these circumstances, stranded foreigners are being taken to their countries by special aircrafts.

Left Democratic Alliance had handed over a memorandum to the deputy commissioner of Jashore on Wednesday describing famine like situation at the area, asking the government to come forward with appropriate supports. But the situation says the government is unable to do that. I cannot think the reality about the days to come. The world should come forward to contain it at that time. But it’ll not a wise decision, if the first world countries really want to do so, they should do it now.

‘Republic of hunger’ in the Time of ‘Lockdown’

Shashi Kant Tripathi

When some media outlets reported about starvation of the stranded workers during the lockdown due to the coronavirus, several other heartbreaking incidents came to light. 39 year old Ranveer Singh died midway as he walked from Delhi to Morena in MP. He was a delivery boy in a Delhi restaurant and left the capital because there was no social and economic security left after everything was shut. This poignant case is just one example of deaths which could have been completely avoided, that happened not because of the virus, but because of the not-so-thought-out, unplanned lockdown.

Millions of peoples who were worked in the gig economy now are unemployed. Since these jobs are not permanent, workers don’t have any provision of monthly income or social security related to labour laws. More than 90 percent of the workforce in India is working in the ‘informal’ sector. The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008 and the Code on Social Security, 2019 are unable to protect their livelihood. Moreover, millions of ‘street children’ and homeless people are living on the roads without any considerations or adequate provisions. Wherever they are ‘dealt’ with, they are stuffed together in huge numbers without any guarantee of food and hygiene. When Prime minister Narendra Modi announced the three (now five) weeks lockdown, his government did not think about informal sector workers, street children and homeless people. Although the main argument of government on lockdown is to save lives and control the pandemic, in reality, out of sheer negligence, it left certain sections to starve and even die.

As per the Global Hunger Report 2019, India’s position in the index is 102 out of 117 countries. Neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh are better than India in this index. The portion of undernourished in the population is 14.5 percent. 37.9 percent children under five years are stunted and 20.8 percent children under 5 year are wasted. Another serious food related issue is anaemia. More than 50 percent of women and children are struggling with anaemia. Another study regarding diet related deaths by Lancet shows 310 deaths per one lakh in 2017. In 2016, 28.1 percent of the total deaths are caused by cardiovascular diseases.  Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading cause for deaths due to lack of a complete diet. According to the National Sample Survey, 68 percent population of rural India are not able to access 2200 calories(benchmark nutritional norms to define poverty) in 2011-12 and 65 percent of the urban population are not able to consume 2100 calories in same year. This data shows that India’s condition is bad as it is and that lockdown will only worsen the health condition of people further.

Availability of food is another pertinent problem in India. Per person food absorption has been declining slowly after economic reforms in the country. Data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Family welfare shows that the net availability of food grains per person per year was 177.9 kg in 2016 while 186.2 percent in 1991. While, in 2015, China and Bangladesh’s food availability per capita were 450 kg and 200 kg respectively. This picture is alarming for healthcare in India. Utsa Patnaik, in her article “ The Republic of Hunger” (2004), stated that “this country with was once a developing economy, but which has been turned into the Republic of Hunger.”

The stock of foodgrains in central pool till December 2019 was 564 metric ton. This highlights the incompetency and more importantly, a lack of will of the government to not distribute available  food grains to its population. As Jean Dreze writes, “how would you feel if a family were to let its weakest members starve, even as the House’s granary is full to the brim.” He stressed the need for the central government to unlock the godowns and supply food to the States. Although there are some measures like food distribution by state governments, disbursal of Rs. 500 to 4.07 crore women as ‘ex-gratia’ in PMJDY account holders, these are not sufficient to tackle the hunger related problems.  Quoting Utsa Patnaik, “When as a ground reality, the incidence of hunger rises, a ‘denial mode’ amongst those who govern and amounts those who are associated with making or influencing policy… is common as to be expected.”

Already, India is struggling with severe hunger problems, the lockdown will push further deprivation amongst the people. Workers think that they will die of hunger before the virus kills them. While historically, hunger and poverty has been used as tools of ‘disciplining’ a population, civil society as an institution to criticise policies and demand rectification also has its hand tied because of the lockdown. Most media outlets are far from responsible journalism and are busy communalising the pandemic. Workers are scattered, scrambling to make ends meet and there is literally no way for activists to come out and protest against the enormity of injustice with the poor.

For the sake of saying, the virus does not discriminate between people, but in reality, it does. To begin with, it was a rich man’s disease that has now been passed on to the poor who lack the strength to fight it, both physically, and financially. People who are daily wage labourers and barely manage two square meals a day are incapable of stocking ration and supplies so that they can sit at home and practice social distancing norms (most of them, not ironically, do not even have homes).

A decent life is a fundamental right of the people. But the government is leaving the masses to think that even ‘survival’ is a privilege. If India doesn’t want to label the death of these workers as ‘collateral damage’, the government must ensure universal nutritious food for all and also ensure minimum income for majority whereby people can purchase non-food essentials. Only ‘cards’ based ration cannot solve the problem of hunger in India. What is urgently required is the politicisation of the issue of hunger, otherwise, through neglect and unsound policies, the government will lead large sections of its own population to death.

Rural Women Respond To Covid-19 With Great Enterprise

Moin Qazi

The COVID-19 crisis has spurred an entrepreneurial wave across the country. Rural women, particularly the farmers among them, have also jumped on board. They are, in fact, better placed to cope with the pandemic as their own uncertain lives pose every day challenges and keep testing their resilience. They carry the greater burden of nature’s cruelties and also have the emotional range to come up with amazing responses.

Swayam Shikshan Prayog (SSP) has been one of the front rank nonprofits training rural women in the drought-prone Marathwada belt of Maharashtra to adopt climate-smart and drought-resistant farm practices. These women are now stewards of a new revolution that is resurrecting traditional farming and reviving time-honoured knowledge that has sustained these communities over centuries.

Many of these women saw COVID-19 as an opportunity to scale their work and use their insights to prepare their communities for the long battle ahead and to steer them through the impending food crisis.

Here are a few stories from villages in Maharashtra where women are serving as beacons in the smog that envelopes the hinterland.

Cultivating nutrition gardens during the #COVID19 Pandemic

Jijabai is an Arogya Sakhi from Madki village in Nanded district. With her training on nutrition gardening, she grows her own vegetables and fruits. She has empowered other women with her example to start their own gardens. Today, these kitchen gardens are helping families cope with the hunger crisis.

Arogya Sakhis, Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Community leaders, in partnership with Swayam Shikshan Prayog and government front-line workers, are helping vulnerable families in rural villages by creating awareness about crucial aspects like prevention, hygiene, social distancing, combating stigma and providing dry food and hygiene essentials.

Families in our village are aware about the seriousness of COVID-19, says Geeta Chavan 

Geeta Chavan is working in Mohtarwadi village in Osmanabad district as a Community Resource Person (CRP) with Swayam Shikshan Prayog. She works with the Gram Panchayat in her village as a leader. She has been creating awareness about pre and post safety measures for the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the support and contribution from her Mahila Shetkari Gat (Women’s Agriculture Group) members, she collected grains and vegetables for the neediest families. The group also collected funds from big farmers in her village and distributed them to over 80 families. The members also stitch masks for free distribution.

Leadership is the key to success, says Priya Khot

 

The nationwide lockdown paralyzed the life of the poor, making daily survival difficult. Panchincholi is one such village in Latur District, Maharashtra.

“Why aren’t people coming to help the poor?” asks Priya Khot, a Community Resource Person of Swayam Shikshan Prayog from Panchincholi village, who gave her PDS-allocated food items to three poor families as a sign of solidarity. Motivated by Priya’s action, 14 women from Mahila Shetkari Gat (Women’s Agriculture Group) came forward and mobilized food for 25 poor families. Priya runs a flour mill and provides free service so everyone in the village can grind wheat flour on the 15th and 16th of every month.

A training on mask-making was provided by Bhagyashree Mahila Griha Udyog, an NGO in Nilanga. Priya came back to her community and trained six women in mask-making. The group made 600 masks that are being collected by the NGO for distribution. When Panchincholi Gram Panchayat Sarpanch, Mr. Shrikant Salunkhe noticed Priya’s commitment and actions, he recommended the neighbouring Panchayat to use her skills in community mobilization and relief effort for COVID-19.

“I was so shy to go out and meet people. The changes came over me when I started getting involved in SHG meetings and become a Community Resource Person,” she says. Priya is overwhelmed with the response and recognition she has received. She has encouraged CRPs in neighbouring villages to work with the communities and support the gram panchayat.

“I am proud of what I am doing. Panchayat and community has shown me respect and I must give it back to my community,” says Priya Khot.

Selfless in the times of crisis…

 

Work-from-home has hit the widows – and their children – in Marathwada the most. They had lost their daily wage jobs and small businesses faced closure.

In the neighbouring district of Solapur, 20 widows in Boramani village had no one to look to. They would lose their dignity if they asked their neighbours for financial aid. Seeing their plight, Usha Gurav urged the members of her Self Help Group to step in. She said: “Wasn’t mutual aid the reason why we formed this group?” She motivated her group to dig into their precious savings in order to support 20 widows. In the presence of their Panchayat, the SHG procured and distributed 50 grocery kits, enough to feed over 200 people.

Unstoppable, these female leaders went on to help the Panchayat to look after migrants who have traveled back home empty-handed. “They are not outsiders, they are, after all, our people,” says Usha about villagers who have returned from various cities during the lockdown. Needless to say, these rural women have shown what it means to stay strong and kind in a global crisis.

Renewed Ebola outbreak threatens the Congo as COVID-19 spreads

Anthony Torres

Already afflicted by a growing COVID-19 pandemic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has seen three new Ebola cases including two deaths in recent weeks, marking a resurgence of the Ebola epidemic. A catastrophe threatens millions not only in the DRC but across central Africa.

In the city of Béni in eastern DRC, one of the epicenters of the Ebola epidemic that broke out on August 1, 2018 and that has claimed 2,276 victims, a child died of hemorrhagic fever on April 10. Two days later, a 26-year-old man died of the same causes. According to a communiqué on the Multi-region Committee on Fighting the Ebola Virus, “it was a co-patient of the case confirmed on April 10.”

The number of people sickened with Ebola could rise rapidly and threaten to relaunch the epidemic, as health authorities have already identified 28 contacts of the new Ebola patient, “including 26 co-patients and two health service providers, one of whom is vaccinated.” Health authorities also reported the World Health Organization (WHO) was preparing Monday to officially announce the end of this 10th Ebola epidemic in the DRC. There had been no new cases of Ebola in the last 52 days.

(Image Credit: World Health Organization/S. Hawkey)

Along with the renewed threat from Ebola, Africa is being overtaken by the COVID-19 pandemic. The DRC now has 359 cases and 25 deaths, primarily in the capital, Kinshasa. Inside the ruling elite, associates of President Félix Tshisekedi have tested positive and others have died, including one task officer of the presidency, Jacques Ilunga. On April 15, Bishop Gérard Mulumba, the paternal uncle of Tshisekedi and head of his civilian cabinet, also died of COVID-19.

According to the state committee on fighting COVID-19, “the COVID-19 pandemic is entering into an exponential growth phase in the city-region of Kinshasa. … The high point of this growth will be reached between the first and second weeks of the month of May. In this period, we must expect rapid arrivals of patients in health authorities that will likely be overrun. If the current preparation efforts are not finalized in time, we must expect the worst.”

In the capital, a city of 12 million inhabitants, the La Gombe neighborhood—the epicenter of the pandemic within the DRC—has been on lockdown since April 6. However, in neighboring districts like Lingwala, Bandalungwa, Kintambo and Ngaliema, no measures have been taken.

The committee fighting COVID-19 reported that it “noted that social distancing measures are totally disrespected and fears that there will be intense human-to-human transmission of the virus in the critical period that is opening in the coming weeks.” It recommended “obligatory wearing of masks by everyone in all public spaces, and especially in mass transit and marketplaces,” as well as “extending confinement measures to districts located next to La Gombe.”

However, masks remain difficult to obtain in DRC, as in neighboring countries. In Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, wearing masks is mandatory; however, aware that Gabonese citizens cannot obtain medical masks, the government has recommended that they instead wear “alternative masks.” Many tailor shops in Gabon and elsewhere have begun making cloth masks, which are less effective but which nonetheless slow the spread of the coronavirus.

On Monday, the government of Chad had also decreed the mandatory wearing of masks on its territory, before rescinding its order the next day since masks are not available in Chad. Cameroon, one of the worst-hit African countries, with 1,163 cases and 43 deaths, had already adopted this measure last Thursday.

The explosion of COVID-19 cases and the recurring danger of Ebola, a highly contagious and lethal virus, underscore the enormous health dangers facing this region and the necessity of international coordination to ensure that necessary resources and treatments are available. This intervention will require the political mobilization of the working class in struggle, including to oppose renewed armed conflict and the maneuvers of the imperialist powers.

For a quarter century, the DRC has been torn apart by wars in which some 200 armed groups are fighting each other. It is currently the country that has seen the bloodiest war since World War II, with over 5 million dead. The DRC was the center of a regional war that lasted from 1996-1997 and again from 1998 to 2003, when various local and ethnic conflicts were poisoned by interimperialist rivalry between Washington and Paris—conflicts whose consequences still last today.

In 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a primarily Tutsi force linked to US interests, invaded Rwanda, which was then dominated by a genocidal, ethnic-Hutu regime backed by Paris. The French armed forces carried out Operation Turquoise, which protected the flight of Hutu units west into the DRC, including Interahamwe militias responsible for mass ethnic killings of Tutsis. These ethnic conflicts of the Rwandan war, bound up with US-French rivalries amid the collapse of the Mobutu dictatorship in the DRC, ultimately provoked all-out war across the Congo and the region.

Various regional powers—including Rwanda, Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe—intervened into the conflict, which had moved from Rwanda to the DRC, creating their own militias. This prolonged the conflict and allowed multinational corporations to pillage Congo’s mineral riches by developing links with the various local militias. This conflict led to a stalemate, in which militias and armies financed themselves by plundering local resources and terrorizing local populations.

Now, rivalries between Washington, the European imperialist powers, and China—a major economic power targeted by the imperialist powers with propaganda and military threats—again pose a grave danger in Africa.

Beyond armed conflict, the DRC has undergone intense social and political tensions in recent years, starting with the two-year delay of presidential elections by President Joseph Kabila, who had begun moving closer to China. The elections were ultimately held in December 2018. Last year, amid growing rivalries with Beijing, Washington ordered some of its troops to deploy to Gabon, using the DRC situation to justify the deployment.

Félix Tshisekedi, who won the presidential election, was denounced by his opponents and by France, who petitioned to the UN Security Council. Protests broke out, and four people were killed.

Against epidemics, the population of DRC and neighboring regions cannot simply rely on existing health infrastructure, which is insufficient or even nonexistent. Workers and the oppressed rural masses are again facing the bankruptcy of capitalism in Africa. Whereas countries there, and above all the DRC, have vast national wealth, the ruling elites act—in the final analysis—in close collaboration with the imperialist powers, who use armed militias to pillage Congo’s natural wealth and make enormous profits.

Without international coordination to fight COVID-19 and Ebola based on a scientific appraisal of Africa’s health needs, a major health catastrophe is looming. The decisive question is the international political mobilization of the working class. As anger is mounting in the imperialist countries against governments that impose back-to-work orders with contempt for human life, it is essential to mobilize hundreds of billions of euros in health and industrial resources for Africa and to prevent a relapse into a generalized internal war as in the past in the Congo.