Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Capitalist economics and the politics of death
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/11/pers-m11.html
11 May 2020
In defiance of overwhelming popular opposition, the Trump administration, a majority of state governments, multi-billion-dollar corporations and Wall Street financial interests are driving ahead with plans for a rapid reopening of the US economy.
The auto industry is leading the charge for a premature and deadly return to work. Succumbing to massive political and economic pressure, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has sanctioned today’s resumption of production by auto parts suppliers and tool and die shops. Major auto companies intend to resume production in the state next week.
Honda is resuming production today throughout the United States and Canada. This includes plants in Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia and Alabama.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has permitted manufacturers, along with warehouse and logistics facilities, to reopen as of last Friday.
In Florida, Texas and numerous other states, consumer and retail services, including salons and barbershops, have been—or will be in a few days—reopened. Missouri is sanctioning the opening of all businesses and will permit public concerts to take place.
In effect, efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic within the United States have all but collapsed. The Trump administration is implementing a de facto policy of “herd immunity” that will result in the coming months in tens of thousands—and, potentially, hundreds of thousands—of deaths that could be avoided if appropriate measures were taken to contain the spread of the pandemic.
But the Trump administration, having already withdrawn all US support for the operations of the World Health Organization, is actively sabotaging the efforts of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to even moderately restrain corporations demanding an immediate return to work.
The reopening of factories and other work locations is taking place as the pandemic continues to spiral out of control. Over the weekend, the total number of COVID-19 deaths passed 80,000 in the United States. During the first 10 days of May, the death toll increased by more than 15,000. Moreover, as the virus spreads throughout the population, the disease is manifesting new symptoms and expanding the scope of its victims.
Doctors, who struggled throughout March and April to counteract COVID-19’s attack on the human respiratory system, have discovered in recent weeks that the virus is also attacking kidneys, the brain, circulatory system and muscles.
The most frightening development has been the emergence of a deadly illness among young children, whose symptoms resemble that of Kawasaki Disease, that has been definitely linked to the COVID-19 virus. Epidemiologists report that the incubation period among children appears to be between two and four weeks. This means that children who were infected in April will become seriously ill in the weeks ahead.
Parents, who had been assured that young children were not threatened by the pandemic, will be deeply troubled by this new danger. Workers being forced to return to their jobs now must confront the very real possibility that they, if infected while at work, may transmit the disease on to their children, with horrifying consequences.
The degree of the Trump administration’s recklessness and criminal indifference to the fate of the population is underscored by the fact that the virus is rampaging through the West Wing of the White House.
A personal valet of Trump tested positive. Katie Miller—the press secretary of Vice President Mike Pence and the wife of one of Trump’s principal advisers, the fascist Stephen Miller—also tested positive. Three top officials of the White House’s coronavirus task force—Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Robert R. Redfield and Dr. Stephen Hahn—are now in self-quarantine as a result of having been exposed to infected individuals.
It has been reported that Trump threw a tantrum when he learned that he may have been exposed to the virus. According to the Washington Post, Trump “was annoyed to learn that Ms. Miller had tested positive and has been growing irritated with people who get too close to him…”
The Post further reports, “The discovery of the two infected employees has prompted the White House to ramp up the procedures to combat the virus, asking more staff members to work from home, increased usage of masks and more rigorously screening of people who enter the complex.”
The situation at the White House exposes the deceit and hypocrisy, rooted in class interests and privilege, that characterize all aspects of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. While it has been unable to prevent the spread of the virus in the White House—the most heavily guarded building in the world—the government demands that ordinary working Americans return to jobs where there are little or no effective procedures in place to prevent the transmission of infections. Those who work in the proximity of the president are told to work from home, which is a privilege not available to tens of millions of workers.
Trump’s statements and actions are those of a sociopathic personality. But his policies are driven by the interests of the corporate-financial elite. The demand for the “reopening of the economy”—the phrase that is used to legitimize a criminal policy—means nothing else but resuming the unrestrained exploitation of the working class, whatever the cost in human life.
The Washington Post, owned by Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, bluntly acknowledges that the Trump administration is “asking Americans to accept a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is a grim cost of reopening the nation.”
In fact, Americans are being told, not asked, to return to work under conditions that will result in a massive loss of life. In the latest Pew Poll, released at the end of the past week, two-thirds of those questioned declared their opposition to a premature reopening of the economy.
In a typically cynical editorial statement, titled, “The Economic Lockdown Catastrophe,” the Wall Street Journal asked: “Well, after Friday’s horrific jobs report, how do you like the shutdown now?” The premise that underlies this loaded question is that tens of millions of Americans will be impoverished and go hungry unless they return to work. There is no other choice.
In response to the Wall Street Journal, the Socialist Equality Party poses another question: In the light of the catastrophic loss of life and social devastation affecting millions of lives, how do you like the bailout of Wall Street now?
From the earliest stages of the pandemic, the response of the Trump administration has been determined by the interests of the corporate-financial oligarchy. The priority of the government has been saving Wall Street investments and capitalist wealth, not human lives. In fact, the two objectives—protecting Wall Street rentiers and speculators or fighting the pandemic and protecting working people—are totally incompatible.
This fundamental socio-economic contradiction—i.e., the irreconcilable conflict between the capitalist class and the working class—finds its most obscene expression in the correlation between the number of dead, unemployed and impoverished, and, on the other side of the ledger, the explosive rise of share values on Wall Street.
Since the passage of the multi-trillion-dollar bailout in late March, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen approximately 35 percent. The Nasdaq index is at its 2020 high. During the first 10 days of May, while the number of dead rose by approximately 15,000, the Dow gained more than 600 points.
The more terrible the reports of death and human suffering, the more ecstatic the response of the capitalist markets. The contrast between “Wall Street” and “Main Street” is so extreme that it is now being commented on widely in the financial press.
The reason for the explosive rise in share values is well understood. The Trump administration, with the unanimous support of Republican and Democratic legislators—including, among the latter, Senator Bernie Sanders—committed trillions of dollars to save Wall Street.
Explaining the euphoria on Wall Street, the authoritative Economist writes in its most recent issue:
Much of the improved mood is because of the Fed, which has acted more dramatically than other central banks, buying up assets on an unimagined scale. It is committed to purchasing even more corporate debt, including high-yield “junk” bonds. The market for new issues of corporate bonds, which froze in February, has reopened in spectacular style. Companies have issued $560bn of bonds in the past six weeks, double the normal level. Even beached cruise-line firms have been able to raise cash, albeit at a high price. A cascade of bankruptcies at big firms has been forestalled. The central bank has, in effect, backstopped the cashflow of America Inc. The stockmarket has taken the hint and climbed.
Having spent, and continuing to spend, unlimited sums of money to save the ruling elite—and thus massively increasing the national debt—the Trump administration, the political establishment and the capitalist media demand that the masses of working people get back on the job. There is no money to fight the pandemic and to provide support for the unemployed. The Wall Street Journal quotes with approval the words of New York’s Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo: “Government has done everything it could.”
In fact, it has done nothing. The Trump administration’s demand for a return to work has made clear that the fight against the pandemic cannot simply be waged on the medical front. The working class is confronted, above all, with a political and social struggle against the capitalist system.
Fighting the pandemic requires advancing a socialist program, irreconcilably opposed to economic interests of the capitalist class and the capitalist system as a whole.
In the face of an unprecedented national and global crisis, with countless millions of lives at stake, the interests of the working class—the overwhelming majority of the population—can only be taken forward by ending the corporate-financial dictatorship over social policy and redeploying economic resources on the basis of the socialist reorganization of economic life.
In this critical situation, the Socialist Equality Party advances the following demands:
• The rejection of all demands for a return to work until the spread of the pandemic is stopped and safe and healthy conditions can be established in all workplaces.
• The provision of a monthly income to all families, in an amount sufficient to guarantee a decent standard of living until a return to work is possible. This income should be supplemented with a suspension of mortgages, rents, interest payments, and utility bills, along with the cancellation of student debt.
• The provision of relief to small businesses, at an amount sufficient to maintain the economic viability of the enterprise and the wages and salaries of its employees until its operations can be resumed.
• The immediate repudiation of the CARES Act and the return of all funds disbursed to privately-owned financial and corporate institutions.
• The expropriation of all large financial and corporate institutions and their conversion into democratically-controlled public utilities.
• A massive increase of the tax rate to at least 90 percent on salaries and all unearned income derived from speculative investments that place individuals within the top five percent bracket.
• The dismantling of the socially destructive military-corporate complex, and the redirection of its massive budget to socially-progressive purposes.
This program cannot be realized through the existing political parties and institutional structures of the capitalist class. It must be fought for through the independent political mobilization of the working class. The purpose of this program is not the reform of the capitalist system, but its replacement with a socialist economic system, based on democratic forms of rule created by the working class in the course of struggle.
Above all, in fighting for this program, the American working class must actively appeal for the support of workers throughout the world, who are its natural allies in the fight against global capitalism. The pandemic, which affects workers in all countries, demonstrates the necessity for the unification of the international working class in the global struggle for socialism.
The Socialist Equality Party is contesting the 2020 national election. Its presidential and vice-presidential candidates—Joseph Kishore and Norissa Santa Cruz—will utilize the opportunity provided by this campaign to fight for this revolutionary socialist program.
We appeal to workers and youth, readers of the World Socialist Web Site and to supporters of the Socialist Equality Party to become actively involved in this critical struggle, upon which the future of humanity depends.
David North
Britain: lifting the lockdown – Boris gives a green light to the bosses
Ben Curry
11 May 2020
http://www.marxist.com/britain-lifting-the-lockdown-boris-gives-a-green-light-to-the-bosses.htm
Last night’s speech by the Prime Minister has left everyone confused. But the main message was loud and clear: workers are expected to put themselves on the line for the bosses’ profits. The unions must fight for workers’ control.
The government’s much awaited ‘easing’ of the lockdown has ended up in a welter of confusion. In a pre-recorded speech last night, Boris Johnson left the entire country none the wiser about what comes next.
When Boris’ bluster and spin is cast aside, what is left? A green light for big business to call their workers back to work so that their profits can begin flowing again. Workers are being cast into the meat grinder in the interests of the bosses’ profits.
Construction and manufacturing are to start up as soon as possible. The message to these workers was: work from home “if you can”. No doubt managers everywhere breathed a sigh of relief. Builders, labourers and factory operatives await recall back to work.
Meanwhile, workers were told to use their car, cycle or walk, and to avoid public transport “where possible”. Where that is not possible, again for the poorest workers, they will just have to take their lives into their own hands on their daily commute.
Already the death rate among unskilled workers is three-to-four times what it is among managers and professionals. That gap will now widen as the Tory government courts a catastrophic second wave of the virus that will cost the lives of thousands of working-class people.
Stay alert
The headline-grabbing take home message from Boris’ speech is that the self-explanatory slogan, ‘Stay Home, Save Lives’ has been dropped. In its place is the new slogan of ‘Stay Alert’ - as if COVID-19 is something that might creep up on us.
The eagle-eyed have noticed that whereas the ‘Stay Home’ image included a red and yellow border, a universal symbol for ‘hazard’, the new ‘Stay Alert’ image includes a ‘safer’ yellow and green border.
Millions have been left asking, “What are you trying to say, Boris?” Does this mean we can go out or not? Or is this just a ‘green light’ to business that they have your backing in getting workers back in work?
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Whatever he was trying to say, Boris solemnly assures us his message was backed by ‘science’. Presumably this is the same school of science that qualifies Dominic Cummings to sit on the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
To help the country get back to work safely, Boris’ boffins have produced for us a helpful COVID Alert System.
To prove this alert level is backed by ‘science’, a formula was flashed on screen: “COVID Alert Level = R (rate of infection) + Number of infections”.
As we have had 219,183 infections to date, and Boris estimates R is between 0.5 and 0.9, this puts the COVID Alert Level around 219,183.5 and 219,183.9, right? Wrong. It’s actually 4. And Boris believes, with your help, we can get the alert level down from a meaningless 4, to a no less meaningless 3. And to do this we must all ‘Stay Alert’.
All clear? If not, don’t think too hard about it. It’s all there simply to reassure you that the government isn’t just throwing workers in front of a moving truck because the bosses asked them to.
Why such confusion?
As government ministers tried to shed light on what was meant by Sunday night’s address, it turned out the general public weren’t the only ones confused. Dominic Raab in particular didn’t seem to know what the advice on meeting family members was. We were also informed that Boris said workplaces would open Wednesday; he meant Monday.
The confusion is hardly surprising when we consider that Boris actually presented the change of course as a fait accompli to his Cabinet on Sunday, in order to avoid a factious debate on the issue. The national address had actually been recorded on Saturday, a day before the Cabinet met to agree a way forward.
The divisions in the government are what have led to this farcical response. One part of the Tory Cabinet and backbenches - the part most closely aligned with big business - is desperate to end the lockdown. The billionaires are losing money hand-over-fist as long as the lockdown continues. Furthermore, the Treasury are worried about the accumulating cost of the furlough scheme.
Another section of the Tory Party wants to keep the lockdown in place, fearing a devastating second wave if it is eased (which SAGE predicts could kill in excess of 100,000 people). Above all, they are worried about the political consequences the government will face on account of their responsibility for it.
The product of this split is what we saw last night. On Sunday, as the Cabinet met, Boris began with an apology to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, for an attack on him in the Sunday press. It is hard to sympathise with a Tory minister, but clearly Hancock is being prepared to take the fall for Boris and the catastrophic response of his government.
In the snake’s pit, briefings and counter-briefings are the norm. As such Boris failed to give his ministers any preparatory documents for this all-important meeting, however. Why? Because they might run to the press with them!
His ministers, for their part, complained bitterly that the first they had heard of the notorious ‘Stay Alert’ slogan was from the daily papers.
Last week there were around 5,000 new cases of coronavirus diagnosed each day in the UK; and around 500-600 continued to die daily. The government could hardly issue the message that it is safe to go back to work.
The Tories want to urge people back to work and get profits flowing again. Yet they flinch at the thought of taking responsibility for such a policy. Hence the meaningless ‘Stay Alert’ slogan. The government is trying to make it look like it is doing something, while subtly shifting responsibility for containing the virus onto the shoulders of individual workers.
The dash to exit lockdown
Part of the reason for the haste of this government in easing the lockdown is the disquiet of its big business backers. British bosses fear losing out on international markets if the UK fails to emerge quickly enough.
The lockdown in Wuhan - far more comprehensive and effective than the ‘lockdown’ in Britain - was only finally eased last month after three months in operation. But China was unable to reap any great economic benefit by being the first one out of lockdown. The Chinese economy depends on foreign exports, and most of its markets are now closed because of the lockdown.
Under this mad economic system, however, there most definitely is a disadvantage in being the last one out of lockdown. As demand partially resumes and your competitors make a dash to grab your markets, as soon as one or two countries come out of lockdown, the pressure is on for others to follow suit.
As such, despite the fact that the outbreak is far from being under control in Europe or the USA, and despite these countries entering lockdown at very different times, they are all beginning to leave lockdown in quick succession.
Austria began easing the lockdown on 1 May. While schools are to remain closed in Italy until September, factories, building sites and offices opened on 4 May. Belgium, France and Britain will begin reopening businesses from today. On 18 May, the government in Ireland intends to begin lifting restrictions in stages. Each is relaxing the lockdown out of fear of competition from the others.
The result will be a devastating second wave caused by the insatiable appetite of the bosses for profits, and their division into nationally competing gangs.
Germany may in fact already be at the start of a second wave of the virus. Only days after the lockdown there was eased, scientists have tentatively put the reproduction rate of the virus at 1.1. Anything over 1 indicates that the spread of the virus is accelerating.
Fight back
The official leader of the Labour Party, ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer, has responded to the Tories’ plans with mealy-mouthed appeals for greater “clarity” and “national consensus”. The disconnect between the urgency of the situation and the (lack of) opposition being presented by Starmer is staggering.
The Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs have rightly called Boris’ plan “a thinly veiled declaration of class war”. This is absolutely correct.
In the absence of any real leadership from the official Labour leader, the trade unions, who have a controlling influence on the NEC, must link up with socialist Labour MPs to put pressure on Starmer and the Shadow Cabinet to break with this nonsense about “national consensus”. There can be no such thing. Either the bosses will get workers back to work or the workers will stop them.
Reflecting the pressure from below, even the right-wing unions have been forced to oppose the government’s plan.
In a letter to the Observer, the general secretaries of the TUC, Unite, Unison, the GMB and Usdaw all came out against the government’s plan for returning to work. The content of that letter, however, indicates that the unions have not drawn all the necessary conclusions from the “class war” methods of the government.
The letter calls for an overhaul of workplace health and safety. In particular, it demands that the government force employers to carry out public risk assessments; that sanctions are issued against employers breaking safety guidelines; and that more HSE inspections are carried out.
But we cannot leave it to employers to carry out risk assessments. Workers on the shopfloor know best about what adjustments can and should be made, and what the greatest source of risk is for workers.
Furthermore, the bosses cannot be trusted not to cut corners to save a few pennies at the cost of our lives. The trade unions must raise the question of workers’ control as the only way to make workplaces safe.
We can’t trust the government to police the bosses, that much is clear. The bosses aren’t going to fear the sanctions of the government - because it is their government!
There has been too much reliance in recent decades on the ‘independence’ of the state and the law courts. The only ‘sanctions’ that will stick will be the ones that workers issue themselves - via strike action!
The trade unions must be prepared to carry out coordinated action to shutdown production and save lives.
A number of unions have already pointed out that there is a legal basis for calling walkouts without jumping through the usual legal hoops that the government has laid out to stop strike action. Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act (1996), for example, allows workers to be called off site if there is an imminent risk to their lives.
At any rate, if the unions call coordinated, joint action, the bosses, the government, and the courts will be impotent. There is no force on earth that can stop the working class when it is united and organised.
'Conflicts of Interest Abound': Progressives Sound Alarm as BlackRock Prepares to Lead the Fed's Covid-19 Corporate Bailout Program
"We cannot afford to allow the interests of private corporations to supersede the needs of the American people and the long-term stability of our economy."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/11/conflicts-interest-abound-progressives-sound-alarm-blackrock-prepares-lead-feds
BlackRock, the largest asset management firm on the planet, has for years faced criticism and protests from progressives over its massive investments in fossil fuels, private prisons, and the arms industry—and now the financial behemoth is set to take on a leading role in the Federal Reserve's sprawling coronavirus bailout program.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that BlackRock—which manages over $7 trillion in assets—will in the coming days help the central bank funnel "money into both new and already-issued corporate bonds, assisting the Fed in its recently adopted role as lender of last resort for businesses."
"BlackRock will steer as much as $750 billion into the corporate debt market for the Fed," according to the Journal. "[The firm] will be central to what is expected to be a multi-trillion-dollar overall program of central-bank support to the economy and markets, a program that will help decide which businesses survive the pandemic."
BlackRock partnered with the Fed during the 2008 financial meltdown, helping the central bank oversee Bear Stearns and American International Group (AIG) assets. But the firm's role in the current crisis will be "far bigger," the Journal reported.
Progressives expressed alarm over BlackRock's outsize power over such a massive pot of public money.
The Fed's March 24 announcement that it hired BlackRock to play a central part in its corporate bond-buying program sparked immediate backlash from progressive advocate groups and policy analysts who warned that the firm could steer funds to fossil fuel companies and into its own pockets.
In a March 27 letter (pdf) to Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, a coalition of 30 progressive advocacy groups noted that BlackRock is "the largest owner of many of the firms over which it will make decisions" under the Fed's corporate bond-buying program.
"Conflicts of interest abound," the groups wrote. "By giving BlackRock full control of this debt buyout program, the Fed is further entwining the roles of government and private actors. In doing so, it makes BlackRock even more systemically important to the financial system. Yet BlackRock is not subject to the regulatory scrutiny of even smaller systemically important financial institutions."
"We cannot afford to allow the interests of private corporations to supersede the needs of the American people and the long-term stability of our economy," the groups said.
In a column on Sunday, The Week's Ryan Cooper wrote that while the central bank is "not wrong to want to keep the financial markets from seizing up or big businesses from collapsing," there's "no reason why the Fed should not be demanding egalitarian reforms to the institutions it is supporting, or why it shouldn't include the rest of the American people in its luxurious grasp."
While Congress has approved the program to unleash trillions in Federal Reserve funding for corporations, Cooper argued that everyone in the U.S. deserves a bailout from the central bank to stave off the economic pain of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"While it is entirely proper to head off chaotic collapses in finance or business, that power should not be deployed to protect Wall Street's grotesque share of national income, or bloated CEO pay packages," Cooper wrote. "If big corporations can get the benefits that ultimately flow from the power of the printing press, the rest of the American people should get a piece of the action."
The Trump Administration's "Monstrous Idea": Direct Payments in Exchange for Cuts to Social Security Benefits
"Donald Trump and his administration will stop at nothing to cut Social Security."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/11/trump-administrations-monstrous-idea-direct-payments-exchange-cuts-social-security
Suddenly concerned about the growing national debt now that corporations have secured access to trillions of dollars in Covid-19 bailout funds with little oversight, Trump administration officials are reportedly considering several proposals purportedly aimed at reducing government spending—including a pair of plans that would provide Americans with cash payments in exchange for delays or cuts to their Social Security benefits.
Senior administration officials have also "discussed the 'Eagle Plan,' a 29-page memo that called for an overhaul of federal retirement programs in exchange for upfront payments to some workers," according to the Post. "The proposal calls for giving Americans $10,000 upfront in exchange for curbing their federal retirement benefits, such as Social Security."In addition to weighing a push for automatic federal spending cuts that would take effect once the economy rebounds from the coronavirus crisis, Washington Post reported Sunday that top White House economic officials are "exploring a proposal floated by two conservative scholars that would allow Americans to choose to receive checks of up to $5,000 in exchange for a delay of their Social Security benefits."
The "Eagle Plan" was crafted by a State Department official close to President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who forwarded the proposal to the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Art Laffer, a conservative economist and Trump adviser, told the Post that he supports the proposal.
Alex Lawson, executive director of advocacy group Social Security Works, said in a statement Monday that the plan would "force people to choose: Go hungry today or work until you die."
"The Trump administration is obsessed with using the coronavirus crisis to undermine our Social Security system," said Lawson. "Social Security is an earned insurance benefit. It is not a piggy bank. This plan, and any plan that raids Social Security, is a moral abomination. Instead of trying to steal the earned benefits of desperate people, the government should be sending $2,000 a month to everyone in America, as Democrats in Congress have proposed."
Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, indicated that Trump is opposed to the ideas laid out in the "Eagle Plan"—which he described as "ludicrous on its face"—but the Post reported that the president has not reviewed the proposal.
After vowing during his 2016 presidential run to shield Social Security and Medicare from cuts, Trump has proposed slashing both programs in his annual budget blueprints. Trump also said during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that he would consider cuts to Social Security and Medicare if reelected in November.
Amid a global pandemic that has left more than 30 million people in the U.S. jobless, Trump's top economic stimulus idea has been cutting the payroll tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare. The president said during a Fox News town hall last week that he would not sign any future Covid-19 stimulus package that does not include a payroll tax cut.
"Donald Trump and his administration will stop at nothing to cut Social Security," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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