After thirty (30) days of social distancing policies, people are beginning to demonstrate their unwillingness to continue this way of life any longer. Mass street protests have occurred in Paris, France. Just this week in the U.S. alone, mass protests from right wing elements have protested at state houses in Ohio, Michigan, and South Carolina. Youth all over the world from Europe to the streets of East Oakland, U.S., have started defying “stay at home” orders by having street races and events where hundreds and thousands gather. Churches are exposing thousands to covid 19 by having open church while declaring that “God falls to no virus!”
The analysis presented on all of this by capitalist media outlets like NBC, CNN, FOX, BBC, MSNBC, etc., has focused on the recklessness and “ill-responsibility” of those participating in these activities, but a deeper analysis is needed. In the U.S., for example, the top leadership of the country – led of course by the current empire president – has been preaching a need to “open things back up” for weeks now. Their actual motivation for wanting this is to protect the capital accumulating interests of multi-national corporations which rely on worker production to produce that capital. Many of the spokespersons for this bourgeoisie thinking are even coming out in public and expressing that the masses of working people need to be prepared to die in the interest of protecting capital accumulation. And, since the masses of working people in industrialized capitalist countries have been programmed to believe that corporations are more important than they are, there are plenty of working people who will take up this torch of exposing themselves and others to infection because the billionaires and bourgeoisie spokespersons they believe in are telling them this is the best way.
It should be quite clear to anyone reading this blog by now, and if it isn’t, we will make it clear again, that we are 100% opposed to capital accumulation. We oppose it because its based and maintained on the continued exploitation of Africa and the rest of the colonized world, along with the masses of workers in industrialized countries. What’s extremely dangerous here is the behaviors of everyday people in displaying restlessness and anxiety about social distancing is fueled completely by their distrust (either consciously or unconsciously) of bourgeoisie leadership. In other words, although most people probably haven’t taken the time to sit down and work all of this out in an intellectual manner, what we are really seeing as a common thread underneath these mass protests, social gatherings, church services, etc., is people’s uncertainty for the future and their desire to try to the best of their abilities, whichever why they express it, to have some agency in that future. And, why wouldn’t they feel this way? These governments have completely lied to them about everything for their entire lives. Take the U.S. response to covid 19 for example. The U.S. government is telling people that the only solution to beating this virus is our physical separation from each other. They are repeatedly and consistently saying this every chance that they get. Most people are not without intellect, even if they don’t display it readily. People have to know that the formula of social distancing without the ability to test the masses of people and without a comprehensive anti-viral vaccine available for treatment, is a formula for disaster. Although people may not understand it completely, more and more people are becoming aware that anti-viral drugs do exist – socialist Cuba’s Interferon Alfa 2B is performing wonderfully on covid 19 patients – despite efforts by U.S. bourgeoisie leaders to keep telling people the only available drugs are ones that even U.S. scientists are warning could be dangerous. We don’t even know for sure if people who were previously infected can heal and then be re-infected. Therefore, its suicide (for us) for these bourgeoisie leaders to suggest in any form that we should be talking about “opening up” when less than 1% of the people in the U.S. have been tested for covid 19. In some type of garbled up formula, I have to believe that everyone, from the church preachers in the Southern U.S., to the rightwing gun masturbators, to the youth at the beaches, etc., has been influenced, at least in part, by this contradictory messaging. And, that this unfortunate phenomenon has created a reality where these profit over people values could create an even greater social calamity then we are currently witnessing.
As these bourgeoisie capitalists “open up” we are probably going to see increased infections which equals more death and panic. When and if all of this happens, this is where fascist policies will play their prominent role. Since the capitalist state has no means, capabilities, or intentions and desires to keep any of us safe (remember, they are only concerned about capital accumulation, despite what they tell you), their only course of action when anything gets out of control is to release terrorist police and military apparatuses on people as a means of controlling our movements. Kwame Nkrumah told us that the class struggle to overthrow capitalism and replace it through socialist revolution reflects a “plenum of forces in tension.” This means many things that should not exist together will exist together and will generate conflict as a result of this phenomenon. Bourgeoisie politicians disagreeing i.e. some wanting to open up while others impose tighter restrictions is an example of this. People defying social distancing while science indicates the need for distancing is another example. Bourgeoisie leaders having “open up plans” with no plans for comprehensive testing and treatment is another glaring contradiction. The fact bourgeoisie leaders from capitalist countries like France are advocating testing unvetted vaccines in Africa despite the fact all of Africa currently has only about 2000 covid 19 cases (about 70% of those are in Azania or South Africa, and reflect Europeans who had travel experience in the U.S., Europe, or China) while the core of these infections are without question based in capitalist industrialized countries is another example that rankles us concerned about Africa. And, since capitalism has absolutely no intention of rectifying any of these and other contradictions, only ensuring capital accumulation takes place unabated, eventually, people are going to react. And, right now, those reactions take on forms that don’t make sense to a lot of people, but before long, those manifestations will grow. More and more people will participate in them, as well as other manifestations of resistance. When this phenomenon reaches a specific critical mass, the state will respond with force because that is the only methodology the state is organized to respond with.
We don’t have much time, but we can still certainly utilize the mechanisms that, for the present time, are still available to us. Those concerned about justice and a way out of this situation cannot just resign themselves to it, panic, give up, and complain about how stupid people are. Instead, we need front line soldiers right now, more than ever. We need people who are willing to use whatever method you can generate to engage in propaganda. For me, I do that from my residence several times a week, especially at 4pm on Sundays (information is available on the current events tab of this site). I’m disseminating propaganda designed to communicate certain pro-people messages. Messages like social distancing is good and necessary, but it cannot solve this problem alone. We need mass testing available from sources we trust. We need trusted anti-viral drugs which means the absurd U.S. economic blockade against Cuba must be ended immediately so that we can get some of that effective Interferon Alfa 2B here in the U.S. as countries like China have done with great success. Messages like African, other colonized people, and working class whites who are willing to listen, must resist this attempt to use white supremacy against Asian people for this go around (the topic of this Sunday’s seminar). And, finally, that these difficulties result from the fact we live in a capitalist dominated world that cares only about what? – capital accumulation, and not the welfare of the masses of people.
You may not have a channel like me or others to disseminate your ideas, but you can pick up a phone or write a letter to your family members and friends extolling the pro-people ideas I’m articulating here. There are many people calling for a national strike on May 1. At least, we can start talking about this concept to people to get them thinking about it.
This is not the time for people to feel down and defeated. If you suffer from some form of mental illness, this doesn’t mean you, but everyone else who claims to have an analysis on these things and claims to want to fight back, now is the time for you to show your stuff in whatever type of organized fashion you can think of. And, the beauty of it is you can do it without leaving your house (if you have one). It should be painfully obvious by now that our lives are literally at stake if we don’t act.