[Peace] Fwd: Statement by the Party for Socialism and Liberation on the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis

[Karen]

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> Statement by the Party for Socialism and Liberation on the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis
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> With the rapidly deepening global spread of COVID-19, the World Health Organization of the UN declared a pandemic March 11.
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> China’s massive coordinated tackling of the virus has brought the disease under control there. In all of China, only 15 new cases of infected individuals were reported on March 11, eight from Hubei province where the disease first began. It is an amazing feat made possible only by a centralized and determined government policy.
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> Contrary to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s outright lie that China had hidden information on the virus, China made available to the world the virus’s genome on Jan. 10 so researchers could work to develop a vaccine. This was three days after the virus was identified.
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> But in the United States, the opposite is taking place. With non-existent national health care, cuts in social services, workers with no guaranteed paid sick or vacation pay, and the severe shortage of testing kits to quickly identify and isolate people who test positive, a potential catastrophe is looming.
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> There is absolutely no national plan of any kind.
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> On March 11, Trump appeared on national TV to speak of emergency measures. Up to now, he had downplayed the seriousness of the virus, claiming it to be similar to the flu. The flu mortality average is 0.1 percent, while the COVID-19 mortality rate is as high as 3 percent in many places.
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> Relief lines for capitalists only
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> Trump said he would ask Congress to aid workers who are quarantined, without providing specifics. He called for the Small Business Administration to provide capital and liquidity for those “in affected states,” and called on Congress to provide payroll tax relief for corporations.
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> On March 10, after meeting with the executives of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup at the White House, the administration floated the idea of $700 billion in payroll tax cuts. This new tax break would be on top of the trillion-dollar cut signed by Trump into law in 2017. That law dropped the previous top tax for the highest-profiting U.S. corporations from 35 percent in 2016 to an abysmal 11 percent paid last year by corporate giants.
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> On March 12, the Federal Reserve announced an unprecedented $1.5 trillion to bail out Wall Street. This is an amount equal to the outstanding student debt which we are told can never be forgiven.
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> Handouts to Wall Street, slashing conglomerates’ taxes mean major cuts in social services and a greater tax burden on the working class and poor.
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> COVID-19 and the latest stock market crash reveals the capitalist system in its most brutal form. The capitalists cause the financial crisis with their banking and stock market speculation, but when they fail and get “rescued,” the people pay in foreclosures, evictions, layoffs and greater poverty.
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> Although the Democratic Party leadership is countering Trump’s proposal by calling for $40 billion in emergency relief, much more is needed financially and with state-of-emergency declarations. Otherwise, if homeless people are exposed without care, seniors isolated while staff is reduced, tenants evicted, and homeowners foreclosed only to face a permanent state of destitution, huge numbers of people could die without proper care.
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> Real, effective, compassionate action needed now! Fight the virus, not people!
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> The emergency decrees and executive orders of federal, state and local governments are not addressing the real needs to combat the disease and help the people. Tens of millions are already one paycheck away from destitution and homelessness.
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> Without sweeping economic measures, a catastrophe of monumental proportions stands to affect tens of millions of people.
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> As it stands, people across the United States are left to fend for themselves. Universities are closing down and evicting students from their dorms. Mass layoffs are already happening, in addition to workplaces being transferred to home work. Many workers are sent home with no pay, schools are closed, and parents scramble for childcare.
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> The United States has enormous productive capacity to resolve every human being’s needs in the country, employment, housing, health care, education, childcare, secure retirement, a complete overhaul of infrastructure, culture and overall well being. Literally every person could enjoy a full life.
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> What stands in the way is the system of private ownership. Under capitalism, every essential need for life is in the hands of the capitalists, who only produce if they can make a profit. And yet it is the working class that produces all the wealth. With socialism, instead of profits as the motive force of society, the common ownership and distribution of wealth allows the working class to run society for the good of all.
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> Today, the virus crisis requires emergency measures of national proportions. How will it all be paid for? Rescind the trillion-dollar tax giveaway to the rich! Use that wealth, shut down the Pentagon budget and use the massive wealth to fight the virus and protect the people, both at home and abroad.
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> The Party for Socialism and Liberation and La Riva/Peltier presidential campaign calls for an immediate emergency program to combat the virus:
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> Full sick pay and 100% unemployment insurance for every worker, no evictions or foreclosures
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> Bail out the people, not the banks! Implement an immediate moratorium on layoffs. Expand unemployment insurance to cover 100 percent of wages lost due to closings or layoffs, illness or if a worker is caring for a sick person. There should be an immediate moratorium on utility shutoffs, evictions and foreclosures, with no debt accumulation. All these measures should apply to undocumented workers and independent contractors as well. Assistance to small businesses to compensate for their losses. 
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> War Time Emergency Production Measures
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> Organize the compulsory mass production of critical goods: COVID-19 test kits, ventilators, protective equipment and medical equipment at cost to meet the urgent need. No profiteering in this crisis! The government has the power to compel companies to produce critical goods, requisition certain types of property and expand production, impose price controls, and allocate raw materials for the “national defense.” The government must use these powers now and end shortages of all critical goods needed to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, including to protect frontline medical and social services personnel. 
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> Free Healthcare
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> Free testing only works with free treatment. Healthcare must be provided for free for all. If you couldn’t afford a test, how can you afford treatment? The government can set up, through existing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services infrastructure to cover all costs for the uninsured and underinsured. 
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> Secure Housing and Food For All
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> Empty dwellings should be immediately requisitioned to provide shelter for all people without housing. There are roughly 16 million vacant dwellings in the United States. As many housing units as needed should be provided for victims of domestic violence. How can you quarantine if you don’t have a home? Immediate emergency shelter and financial support should be provided to all people in need of shelter for any reason.
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> Everyone must have easy access to high-quality, nutritious food. Everyone quarantined must be provided for. Building on existing programs like meals-on-wheels and emerging grassroots community networks, a system must be established to provide everyone medically quarantined and especially at risk with the food and medicines they need. Make SNAP food stamps available to all who need, double the monthly amount granted and double income level for eligibility. 
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> Strengthen The Public Health System 
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> Requisition vacant commercial property for medical use. Re-open closed clinics and hospitals, and build new medical facilities. Mobilize the medical community. Expand sanitation efforts. Any and all vacant commercial, industrial and residential space should be utilized to meet these needs. Retired medical professionals, medical residents and medical students should be mobilized and organized to help strengthen our healthcare infrastructure. 
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> Strengthen and expand large-scale sanitation in mass transit and public places. Provide better protective gear for workers and an expanded dedicated workforce.
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> Relief not repression
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> No one should have to deal with the pandemic while fearing the repressive actions of the police, prisons, ICE or U.S. military. Sanitary conditions should be guaranteed in all prisons and jails. Elderly prisoners and others at heightened risk should be granted compassionate release. Assure that people historically neglected by the government such as Native nations, African American and other oppressed communities have their needs addressed. Stop all ICE deportations, shut down the detention centers. End the devastating economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. government on countries around the world such as Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea that is blocking the governments’ ability to acquire the supplies needed to combat the pandemic.
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