Call for a GENERAL STRIKE — Our Deamnds: Universal Healthcare, Protection from COVID19, Living Wages. #GeneralStrike2020

NOTE: to make it VERY CLEAR, we are NOT advocating for on-the-street activity during the COVID-19 crisis. We are calling on workers to STAY HOME and DENY OUR LABOR from now until our demands are met.

Wealthy elites are willing to expose workers to a deadly virus for profit yet deny us the human right of universal healthcare. The government is failing to work towards aggressive containment of the pandemic. These elites don’t value our lives but they value our labor.

IT IS TIME FOR A GENERAL STRIKE.

WHY: Wealthy capitalists around the world are failing to protect workers from #COVID19. In the USA, too little is being done too late to protect us from the disease. Countless working poor people are having to go to work with symptoms because we can’t afford to take time off.

Test kits seem to be universally available for professional athletes and celebrities but working people across the country are being denied proper testing and healthcare. The USA is the wealthiest nation in the world, but that wealth is trapped and horded by the capitalist class.

Vietnam is a poor developing country. The Vietnam government was prepared for pandemic and provides free testing, healthcare, housing, and food (mandatory quarantine) to anyone who may have been exposed until fully recovered. The state also pays quarantined workers a stipend.

Vietnam, a developing country. Total COVID19 cases to-date: 57 / Deaths: 0 — USA, the richest country in the world. Total COVID19 cases to date: 3,487 / Deaths: 68

COMPARISON BETWEEN VIETNAM AND USA INFECTION RATES:

Vietnam infection rate: 1 out of every 1.68 million

Vietnam deaths: 0

USA infection rate: 1 out of every 93,834

USA deaths: 68

Vietnam’s slogan during this crisis is “no person left behind,” and the generous containment and support package is WORKING. The USA could definitely afford to provide this kind of care and emergency relief. The wealthy elites simply DO NOT VALUE OUR LIVES.

Vietnam GDP per capita: $2,343.12 USD

USA GDP Per Capita: $59,531.66 USD

Many wealthy elites are flying off to bunkers and enjoying luxury personal doctors during this crisis. They are leaving us to die in private jets to hide in bunkers while we CONTINUE TO WORK FOR THEIR PROFITS.

When the stock market began to drop, the USA Fed was able to IMMEDIATELY generate 1.5 trillion dollars to protect the interests of capital. The USA has an incredible capacity to help workers— they simply choose not to. Because they simply do not care about our lives.

This disease is much more likely to kill the elderly, the poor/uninsured, the immunocrompromised. Systemic neglect has always constituted GENOCIDE. In the context of a pandemic, the cruelty of denying the human right of healthcare is even more apparent.

Decades of capitalist and racist propaganda about the “superiority” of the USA and Europe are crumbling before our eyes. It’s time to build a society that cares about every human being, not just wealthy elites!

Even the young and healthy who recover from Coronavirus are likely to be left with PERMANENT reduction to lung capacity. Neglect is dangerous for EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US.

It is time to DEMAND the government and wealthy elites to pay attention and provide the healthcare, containment, and wages which they withhold from us! They are wealthy because of our labor! It’s time for a General Strike!

And WHO should join the strike?

Every workplace should be organized and should join if possible, but perhaps we can start by supporting and encouraging workers at THESE COMPANIES:

Wealthy corporations put their employees on the front lines, exposing them to risk of infection in fast food, retail, and service jobs. Yet they do NOT PROVIDE PAID SICK LEAVE! This is the savage cruelty of capitalism!

“We will profit from your labor, but we won’t protect you.”

HOW do we organize a general strike? THROUGH ORGANIZATION! If you are not already a member, consider joining:

The @iww - Industrial Workers of the World, the “one big union” which anyone can join.

The @DemSocialists - a socialist political party with chapters across the USA.

Are you a @BernieSanders campaign member or volunteer? Then you are already plugged into a massive nation-wide organization. Member of a trade union? The time is now to get active! We have structures. We have communication networks. We only need to put them to use.

Learn from organizations that already exist, if they’re in your area. Organizations like:

Food Not Bombs — which provides free food to the homeless and poor — can help us learn how to feed striking workers.

International Antifascist Defense Fund — has a well established and efficient system for raising and distributing relief funds. We can use their model to create striking-worker relief funds all over the country.

A variety of STRATEGIES are at our fingertips. Every worker should read this free ebook on organizing the workplace:

DOWNLOAD PDF OF “ORGANIZE”

Mutual Aid Networks need to be established quickly! We need to have answers to every question and solutions to every problem! How will striking workers eat? How will we avoid being evicted? How will we communicate if we have internet outages? PLAN AND ORGANIZE!

WHEN will the general strike begin? I can’t tell you that. We have to decide together. But we should try to do it as QUICKLY and EFFICIENTLY as possible. Capital is vulnerable right now. A relatively smaller number of striking workers would have much deeper impact AT THIS MOMENT:

Markets Tumble Into Bear Market in Record Time

Many of us remember the financial crisis of 2008. During those times, we were isolated. We did not pull together. We politely struggled through the mess which wealthy elites had made for us as INDIVIDUALS.

DO NOT BE POLITE THIS TIME.

PULL TOGETHER and DEMAND RELIEF!

Organize! Communicate! Reach out to each other! If you see problems, look for SOLUTIONS! Do not demoralize your fellow workers, support each other through this trying time! We have never had a better chance to stop capitalism!

Sick in! Stay home!

Solidarity!

READY TO GET TO WORK?

Check out Part 2 of this Article Series:

General Strike 2020: the Plan

#GeneralStrike2020