Thursday, August 6, 2020
The Science Is Clear: Our 'Masks for All' Plan Will Save Lives
The coronavirus pandemic is raging out of control under Trump's leadership, but there are common sense solutions we must urgently implement.
by
Bernie Sanders
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/04/science-clear-our-masks-all-plan-will-save-lives
It is an absolute tragedy, and embarrassing, that the United States is practically the only major country where the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening by the day. Coronavirus has killed 150,000 Americans. States like California, Texas and Florida are registering their highest daily death tolls ever. The economic horrors of this pandemic are also escalating, as our gross domestic product plunges by an annual rate of nearly 33% and $600 weekly unemployment benefits expired for 30 million workers.
If we are to have any hope of turning this economy around, opening schools safely, and preventing countless more deaths, we must first get this virus under control. That is why, in late July, with 14 other senators and dozens of United States representatives, I introduced common-sense, practical and inexpensive legislation to protect Americans during the coronavirus pandemic: Masks for All.
The science is clear: Wearing a mask not only saves lives, but the widespread use of masks will get Americans back to work sooner and reunite families who have stayed apart.This legislation will substantially increase the production of high-quality masks in this country and distribute three reusable masks to every single person at no cost—including the many who have never owned a mask. It will also end our dependency on China and other countries for this life-saving product now and in the future.
The experts agree
This is not a political or a partisan issue. In fact, in a recent Senate health committee hearing, I asked Trump administration experts whether they agreed with my Masks for All proposal. Dr. Anthony Fauci replied, “There’s no doubt that wearing masks protects you and gets you to be protected. So it’s people protecting each other,” he said. “Anything that furthers the use of masks, whether it is giving out free masks or any other mechanism, I am thoroughly in favor of."
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has agreed. “If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four, six to eight weeks we could bring this epidemic under control," he said in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association.
It's time we finally listen to our public health experts. Doctors Fauci and Redfield understand that evidence is mounting from around the world that wearing masks curbs the spread of COVID-19 and saves lives. South Korea, one of the more successful countries to date, began procuring masks as early as February and provided them affordably to its people. Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Germany, Vietnam and dozens of other countries have shown us that COVID-19 spread can be contained with widespread mask wearing.
Only when the virus is contained can the economy be revived. One estimate suggested that widespread use of masks could be worth up to $1 trillion to our economy by preventing shutdowns and getting people back to work earlier. And in terms of public health, the act of mask wearing, as simple as it is, is a matter of life and death. One projection predicts that universal use of masks could save more than 30,000 American lives by Nov. 1, as compared to our current trajectory.
Distributing masks nationwide
Unfortunately, with the Trump administration incapable of acting in a competent and scientific manner, Congress—in a bipartisan way—must take the lead. Our Masks for All legislation will instruct the Trump administration to utilize the Defense Production Act to produce and deliver three high-quality, reusable masks to every person in the country via the U.S. postal system. The masks would also be made available free at testing sites, post offices and pharmacies, as well as homeless shelters, jails, detention centers and other congregate-care settings.
The first priority would, of course, be front-line health care workers. It is beyond comprehension that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, doctors and nurses continue to lack enough high quality personal protective equipment they need to protect their lives and their patients. This legislation directs the government to produce and provide the needed surgical masks and N-95 respirators to all health workers in the country. It will also prioritize the needs of other essential workers.
This legislation will not only increase the availability of masks, but also the quality. With large-scale production and strong research and development, within months, we will be able to produce and distribute masks that are high quality, comfortable, easy to fit, and washable for continued use. These high-quality masks will protect both the wearer as well as the people they come into contact with.
The American people are with us. One recent poll found that 3 in 4 Americans—including 58% of Republicans—support requiring mask wearing outside the home. The majority of U.S. states, D.C., and Puerto Rico have passed mask mandates. It is only fair that the federal government now steps in to make these requirements as easy, effective and costless as possible for the American people.
Given the urgency of the moment this bill should be passed as quickly as possible by being incorporated into major coronavirus legislation currently being negotiated. Providing high quality masks for all is an effective disease prevention tool that must be immediately implemented. Every day we delay, lives are needlessly lost.
In this unprecedented moment in American history we need to come together—government and private sector, manufacturers and workers, scientists and ordinary citizens—to combat this horrific pandemic. Making sure that every American has a high-quality mask, and wears it, is an important step forward in achieving that goal.
Why Bitcoin is the not socialists’ ally – Yanis Varoufakis
Reply to Ben Arc
by Yanis Varoufakis
On 15th July, Ben Arc published in Bitcoin Magazine an open letter addressed to me in a bid to convince me that I should re-assess my rejection of Bitcoin as a force for good; as a bulwark for democratising capitalism and paving the ground for socialism. Here is my reply:
Dear Ben Arc,
by Yanis Varoufakis
On 15th July, Ben Arc published in Bitcoin Magazine an open letter addressed to me in a bid to convince me that I should re-assess my rejection of Bitcoin as a force for good; as a bulwark for democratising capitalism and paving the ground for socialism. Here is my reply:
Dear Ben Arc,
Thank you for your open letter and your efforts to bring a socialist perspective to bear upon my assessment of Bitcoin.
In my reply below, I shall address you as a fellow socialist, rather than put together a reply meant to address all sorts of different perspectives (e.g. Keynesian, Hayekian, neoclassical)
In my reply below, I shall address you as a fellow socialist, rather than put together a reply meant to address all sorts of different perspectives (e.g. Keynesian, Hayekian, neoclassical)
As you know, I am one of those who, back in 2011, were genuinely intrigued, fascinated even, by the remarkable blockchain algorithm. The prospect of a decentralised ledger controlled by its community of users was mesmerising.
As you also know, I was unimpressed by Bitcoin as an alternative to fiat money that is either likely, or indeed desirable, under our current capitalist predicament.
As you also know, I was unimpressed by Bitcoin as an alternative to fiat money that is either likely, or indeed desirable, under our current capitalist predicament.
Having read your open letter, I remain as enthusiastic on blockchain’s capacities and as unimpressed by Bitcoin’s ability to help us either civilise or (as any socialist dreams of) transcend capitalism.
Two propositions support this view. In the hypothetical case where Bitcoin were, under presently-existing capitalism, to replace fiat money: (1) It would lack the mechanism necessary to stop capitalist crises from yielding depressions that benefit only the ultra-right; and, (2) Its community-based, democratic protocols would do little to democratise economic life.
I shall explain my two propositions briefly below. But, before you despair (at my continued negative take on Bitcoin), let me foreshadow the concluding sentence in the Epilogue below: Once (and, of course, if) socialism dawns, money will have to be founded on a distributed-ledger, monetary commons enabling tehnology.
In other words, I shall argue that Bitcoin is not fit for purpose under capitalism, or as a vehicle toward transcending capitalism, but something like Bitcoin will characterise monetary systems in a future world free of private banks and share markets.
OK, let me now support my two propositions:
Proposition 1: Bitcoin lacks the shock absorbers necessary to prevent capitalist crises from doing untold damage to the working class
Consider the Crash of 2008 or the more recent 2020 Covid-19-induced crisis. Suppose that Central Banks did not have the capacity instantly to create trillions of dollars, euros, pounds and yen – and instead had to rely on a spontaneous majority of Bitcoin’s users to agree to a massive increase in the supply of money. The result would be a 1929-like collapse of banks and corporations.
While socialists would shed no tears for the tragedy of the oligarchy, socialists should beware that a 1929-like systemic collapse is bound to strengthen the forces of the ultra-right – not of the socialist left (that has been, since at least 1991, languishing in the doldrums of political paralysis).
Technically, there is of course nothing that would prevent the Bitcoin community from agreeing instantly to even a doubling of the money base. However, the Tragedy of the Commons guarantees that Bitcoin owners will be subject to the usual prisoner’s dilemma dynamic that prevents the boost in the money supply necessary to avert the liquidation of potentially viable businesses and jobs. Moreover, this free-rider problem is made far, far worse by the fact that Bitcoin ownership is very unequally distributed, thus giving the Bitcoin-rich powerful incentives to restrain the growth of the money supply (since such restrictions would boost their private rents at the expense of the public interest).
In short, the free-rider problem that guarantees the maximal reinforcement of any capitalist crisis (in any economy relying on Bitcoin as its main currency) will be turbocharged by the unequal ownership of Bitcoin – which is unavoidable in any monetary system overlaid upon contemporary capitalism.
Proposition 2: Under capitalism, Bitcoin’s dominance will not democratise economic life – or give socialism a chance
Suppose, again, that some magic wand is waved and Bitcoin replaces fiat money under contemporary capitalist conditions. In other words, as Bitcoin replaced dollars, pounds, euros and yen, property rights over land, resources and machines remain as they are while private equity firms and pension funds continue to own the bulk of shares trading in Wall Street, the City etc. All that will have changed is that Central Banks will vanish and the community of Bitcoin users will determine the global money supply (subject to the free-rider problems mentioned above).
Suppose, again, that some magic wand is waved and Bitcoin replaces fiat money under contemporary capitalist conditions. In other words, as Bitcoin replaced dollars, pounds, euros and yen, property rights over land, resources and machines remain as they are while private equity firms and pension funds continue to own the bulk of shares trading in Wall Street, the City etc. All that will have changed is that Central Banks will vanish and the community of Bitcoin users will determine the global money supply (subject to the free-rider problems mentioned above).
At the firm level, nothing will have changed. Jeff Bezos will still control a massive monopsony-cum-monopoly, Facebook will still own the whole marketplace within its platform, Exxon-Mobil will continue to lean on weaker developing country governments to drill for oil and gas that should be left in the Earth’s guts etc.
And what of private banks? They would, make no mistake here, find ways of creating complex derivatives based on Bitcoin – derivatives that will soon (just like Lehman Brothers’ CDOs prior to 2008) function as stores of value and means of exchange; i.e. as private money. Massive bubbles denominated in Bitcoin will build up and they will burst just as they did in the 19th century under the Gold Standard. And then?
In the absence of Central Banks and with the Bitcoin community in the clasps of the aforementioned free-rider problem, depression will follow – as it did before the Fed was instituted in the US. Thus, the tragedy mentioned in Proposition 1 above kicks in.
In short, not only will the democratisation of money via Bitcoin fail to democratise capitalism but it will also give an almighty boost to the forces of regression.
Epilogue
Bitcoin’s great appeal is that it breaks the cronyist chain linking central banks and private bankers. However, it does not undermine the cronyism of the network of bosses, politicians and private bankers.
Lest we forget, 19th Century bimetallic America also lacked a central bank. Under the gold and silver standards, the public money supply was fixed – and could not be easily manipulated by the state (either the government or the, then non-existent, Fed). But that did not stop private bankers from leveraging public money out of thin air to create huge quantities of private money with which to fund the Robber Barons, i.e. the Jeff Bezoses, of the era.
In this sense, replacing fiat money with Bitcoin would take us back to a postmodern version of 19th Century America - not exactly a prospect socialists should go to the barricades for.
In summary, the monetary system is like the dog’s tail. It cannot wag the capitalist dog, in the sense that democratising money by means of a monetary commons will not democratise economic life but, rather, make capitalism uglier, nastier and more dangerous for humanity.
In summary, the monetary system is like the dog’s tail. It cannot wag the capitalist dog, in the sense that democratising money by means of a monetary commons will not democratise economic life but, rather, make capitalism uglier, nastier and more dangerous for humanity.
Having said all this, a monetary commons (that may very well rely on something like the blockchain underpinning Bitcoin) will, I have no doubt, be an essential aspect of a democratised economy; of socialism.
For a nationwide general strike to halt the drive to reopen schools!
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/05/pers-a05.html
5 August 2020
A growing movement is now under way of teachers, students and parents against the effort to reopen schools amidst the expanding coronavirus pandemic.
Over the past month, more than 300,000 educators and parents have joined Facebook groups opposed to the back-to-school campaign. There have been protests and demonstrations in Mississippi, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Alabama and many other states. On Monday, protests were held in dozens of cities throughout the country.
For this movement to succeed, it must be developed into a nationwide struggle, uniting educators with all sections of the working class in a general strike movement against the homicidal policy of the ruling elites.
The drive to reopen schools, supported by both the Republicans and Democrats, is a linchpin in the broader back-to-work campaign. The demand that workers return to work, put into effect in May, is already responsible for 50,000 deaths in June and July. But the ruling class cannot get workers back to work if their children are not in school.
This is the same logic that is driving the effort to curtail or eliminate federal unemployment benefits, forcing workers to return to work or face impoverishment, homelessness and destitution.
The science is clear: Children are equally susceptible to catching COVID-19, have viral loads equal to or greater than adults, are more likely to be asymptomatic carriers, and transmit the virus at the highest rates of any age group. At least four schools that reopened last week have already had students test positive for COVID-19. Any school that reopens will quickly become a major vector for the spread of the virus throughout that community.
The effort to reopen schools, in other words, means that students will get sick and die, teachers will get sick and die, and parents will get sick and die.
In raising the call for a nationwide general strike, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) urges educators and all workers to raise and discuss the following demands in their schools, workplaces and neighborhoods:
* Keep all schools closed until the virus is eradicated! With the virus spiraling out of control across the US, in-person instruction cannot be done safely.
* Full funding for public education and online instruction! High speed Internet access, food distribution, mental health care, special education supports, and all other resources needed to provide the best quality remote learning must be guaranteed to every student and educator.
* Halt all nonessential production! Until the pandemic is contained, only key industries such as food production, medical care and logistics should remain open. Workers in those industries must be provided with the most advanced safety measures to prevent infection. All nonessential workers and laid off workers must be provided with full unemployment benefits and access to free health care.
* For a massive expansion of testing and contact tracing! In order to contain the virus, universal testing must be provided for all, and hundreds of thousands of contact tracers hired to track any cases that emerge, and test and isolate those potentially infected.
The past seven months have demonstrated that the fight against the pandemic depends upon the independent intervention of the working class. The death toll keeps rising and the pandemic is spiraling out of control because the ruling class will not tolerate any measures that cut across its interests.
If that means that the pandemic must rage on, so be it. The indifference of the ruling class to this massive loss of life was expressed most nakedly by Trump in an interview with Axios over the weekend. Asked to respond to the fact that 1,000 people are dying every day, Trump replied, “They are dying, that's true. And it is what it is.”
One could not have a clearer statement of class policy. On Monday evening, Trump declared his determination to press forward with his campaign to prematurely reopen schools, demanding on Twitter, “OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!”
Trump does not just speak for himself. In an editorial Monday, “School-Opening Extortion,” the Wall Street Journal, gives vent to the social interests driving this policy.
The Journal denounces protesting teachers for exercising “political extortion” by resisting the effort to reopen schools. “Children, who would have to endure more lost instruction, are their hostages.” Teachers, the Journal states, are attempting “to coerce parents and taxpayers to dance to their agenda if they want their children to learn.”
What contemptible hypocrisy! The ruling class, for whom the Journal speaks, has systematically degraded public education for decades through the gutting of state funding and the promotion of charter schools, standardized testing and “school choice” schemes to divert funding to private and parochial schools.
The Journal has the gall to accuse teachers of using the pandemic to extract concessions. In reality, it is the financial oligarchy that used the pandemic to demand trillions of dollars in bailout money, sanctioned by the CARES Act passed in late March, with near unanimous bipartisan support. Having looted the state treasury, the ruling class now demands that workers get back to the job of producing profits to pay for it.
The editorial concludes by stating, “No political force should have veto power over the education of America’s children.” In class terms, the Journal is demanding that educators, parents, students and the working class should have no say in whether schools reopen or remain closed.
While the Trump administration is spearheading the campaign to reopen schools, it has bipartisan support. In New York City yesterday, teachers, parents and students staged a protest against plans by Democratic Party Mayor Bill de Blasio to reopen schools in the city.
Both Republican and Democratic governors, moreover, have removed restrictions on nonessential production as the pandemic spread, sending workers back on the job to risk their health and lives to produce profits for the corporations.
Teachers are not fighting alone. There is growing anger and opposition in the entire working class. Their allies are students and parents in K-12 schools, as well as students in colleges and universities that are also moving to reopen.
Meatpackers, health care workers, farm laborers, logistics workers at Amazon, UPS, and USPS, transit workers, service workers and the entire working class confront the same enemy. Autoworkers in Michigan and Ohio have already begun forming independent rank-and-file safety committees to organize opposition.
The end of federal unemployment benefits this week threatens millions of jobless with poverty and eviction. Behind closed doors, the Democrats and Republicans are negotiating over how much these benefits will be cut and how quickly, in order to create the best conditions to blackmail workers to get them back to work.
The opposition of teachers in the United States, moreover, is part of an international movement. Facebook groups opposed to reopening schools have formed in the UK, South Africa, and other countries where the ruling class is enforcing the same policy.
To fight back, teachers must form independent rank-and-file organizations. The protests organized by the teachers unions are entirely inadequate. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA), subservient to the Democrats and the ruling class, are highly conscious of the radicalization taking place among educators and seek to preempt and control this movement. In 2018 and 2019, the unions orchestrated the shutdown and betrayal of a series of teachers’ strikes, beginning in West Virginia.
The Socialist Equality Party urges workers in every industry and sector to develop an interconnected network of rank-and-file committees to prepare for a general strike against the opening of schools and the entire policy of the ruling class.
The measures demanded by teachers correspond with what scientists and epidemiologists insist is necessary to stop the spread of the pandemic. Two absolutely opposed social interests are involved. Teachers are fighting for life. The ruling class is fighting for profits and death.
The trillions that have been handed over to Wall Street and the financial oligarchy must be redirected to provide full unemployment benefits to all workers, and universal access to health care and public education.
The development of a nationwide general strike would create a powerful impulse and would galvanize support internationally among workers who face the same life-and-death decisions. The logic of such a struggle would place the American working class in a direct confrontation with the Trump administration, which seeks to maintain its rule through increasingly authoritarian measures, and the entire ruling class.
All the rights of the working class, even the right to life, depend upon the expropriation of the ruling class and the reorganization of economic life on the basis of social need, not private profit.
The only way to halt the reopening of schools, stop the spread of the pandemic, and prevent millions more infections and deaths is through the mass mobilization of the working class in a revolutionary struggle against the source of all suffering wrought by the pandemic, the capitalist system.
The Socialist Equality Party and its youth movement, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, are spearheading this fight. We urge teachers to contact us for assistance in organizing your struggle. We call on students and youth to support this struggle and join the IYSSE. Sign up for the World Socialist Web Site Educators Newsletter for updates on this fight.
Statement of the Socialist Equality Party
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