Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) issue, numerous Communist and Workers' Parties across the world have issued statements regarding the epidemic, urging governments to take the needed measures in order to protect public health and to ensure the health and rights of the working people.









COMMUNIST PARTY OF AUSTRALIA





Covid-19 is spreading throughout much of the world, largely as a consequence of the failure of capitalism to solve any crisis. The Communist Party of Australia recognises the significant contribution made by health workers at the frontline of this developing pandemic and stands in solidarity with them, along with working class victims, denied their basic human rights, and all people fighting for universal access to life’s needs.





Whilst the structural contradictions of capitalism require revolutionary transformation of society into one of ensuring the health and safety of the global population, it is necessary to combat this current crisis in ways immediately available to us. Governments across Australia have been too slow to act, relying on market forces, including manipulating the stock market to stop the haemorrhaging of the economy, instead of investing to stop the health impacts of the latest pandemic.





Reforming those aspects of the health care sector driven by the profit motive. Immediate steps can be made to eliminate the waste, speculation and commodification of private health care through the nationalisation of the entire sector. Health care is a right and the Communist Party calls upon parliament to legislate universal access to all our medical requirements.





Meanwhile, the economic impact of the virus is already hitting Australian workers and communities. We can benefit from the experience of China in dealing with the Coronavirus involving drastic social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus. This has shown to be an effective approach with the number of new cases reducing daily. It would be wise to look to their model and consult them for advice. The duty of the government in this scenario is three-fold: protection of the people from the COVID-19 virus, responsibility for providing the necessary treatment for those who are hit by the virus and protection of the people from the economic impact of the virus.





We strongly believe that a 2-week shut down must be implemented now alongside the following:





1. Governments, State and Federal must implement a sound containment policy. The health and safety of the people must be the top priority in implementing such a policy, especially those most vulnerable. Ensuring hoarding of essential items, price gouging and other deliberate profiteering must be minimised to the extent possible through legislative change. Continuously rewarding greed must be abolished now.





2. The government must ensure a public educational outreach about the disease using electronic and print media to subdue the current confusion that has come with the panic and media overload.





3. Unions must be at the forefront of working-class responses to this latest failure and crisis. It is essential that workers at the frontline such as health care workers be involved in the decision-making processes through their unions. Legislating for workers ability to strike against unfair employer practices during this period is essential to minimising abuses, exploitation and further employment insecurity and attacks on wages and conditions. Workers must not pay for capitalisms crises.





4. Many people are already feeling the brunt of the pandemic losing jobs or having their hours reduced resulting in lost income. We demand the government abolish waiting periods for unemployment benefits. We support the demand for an increase of $95 to Newstart as an immediate measure to reduce the pain experienced by working class people. We demand that no worker is disadvantaged as a consequence of this crisis made worse by government inaction.





5. The CPA endorses the ACTU demand for special paid leave for all workers in case of quarantine or lock down, including casual and labour hire workers. The government’s stimulus package with a one-off payment to welfare recipients falls short of the assistance required, and does nothing but provide a band-aid instead of meaningful distribution of wealth protecting the vulnerable and minimising community





6. Governments must also ensure people are not forced into homelessness through an inability to pay mortgages or rent. Banks must be forced to suspend mortgage/rent payments. Emergency housing must become a top government priority, programs such as these will not only ensure a persons’ right to housing, but also significantly increase employment and affordable housing.





7. Testing and treatment of the virus must be universally accessible and free. Governments need to redirect funds towards health care centres and hospitals as a top priority. Bulk-billing by doctors and pathologists should be compulsory and the government must temporarily convert private hospitals for public use as long as the crisis lasts.





8. Employers and in this instance the government are required to provide a heathy and safe workplace. Workers and workplace health and safety is a crucial issue that workers need to be consulted about and new protections put in place to protect workers and the public. This is a key industrial issue across all industries. This requires the immediate developed new safety practices, supply of resources and workers compensation recognition.





9. The Australian government also has a global role. Currently there are countries under sanctions limiting access to medical supplies, including Cuba, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). In light of the global pandemic Australia must play its role to end these criminal blockades and allow these countries to import the much-needed supplies.





10. We salute the efforts and solidarity of Cuban, Chinese and Venezuelan doctors and other health professionals who despite the US economic sanctions are working in Italy helping the people with care and medicines such as Cuba’s Interferon 2b to overcome the current pandemic.





The government appears to have no logistical planning in place to develop the capacity required to deal with the crisis confronting the health system in Australia. Without the critical planning for emergency beds, staffing, face masks and respirators in place to treat the potentially thousands of critically ill patients’ we risk having to make choices like in Italy as to who will live or die. Who will confront the panic and guarantee supplies and support to people in the community stranded and isolated when sent home without an income?





The Communist Party of Australia will work with all organisations seeking to ensure that the working class does not pay for the crises being inflicted upon us all as a result of capitalist exploitation of the people and nature to secure riches for the ruling class. We will work with all organisations nationally and internationally who will defend universal access to life’s needs including best available health care to protect us against these escalating global crises.





WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!





Communist Party of Australia, CPA

Central Committee

16th March 2020



solidnet.org/.galleries/documents/CPA-Statement-on-COVID19-16th-March-2020.pdf





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PARTY OF LABOUR, AUSTRIA (PdA)





Stellungnahme des Parteivorstandes der Partei der Arbeit Österreichs (PdA), Wien, 13. März 2020





Die Verbreitung des Coronavirus in Österreich verursacht verständlicherweise Besorgnis unter den ArbeiterInnen, Angestellten, kleinen Selbstständigen und ihren Familien. Die Partei der Arbeit Österreichs verfolgt die Entwicklungen sowie die Regierungsmaßnahmen aufmerksam und positioniert sich mit Verantwortung jenseits von Panikmache und falscher Zuversicht.





Sofern Richtlinien und Maßnahmen wissenschaftlich begründet und fundiert sind, ist es aus Sicht der öffentlichen Gesundheit selbstverständlich wichtig, diese umzusetzen. Es ist aber zugleich festzuhalten, dass sich die Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung der Verbreitung des Coronavirus auf keinen Fall weiterhin zu Lasten der Arbeiterklasse auswirken dürfen. Im Gegenteil ist es erforderlich Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, die sowohl die Gesundheit als auch die Rechte der Werktätigen schützen.





Es ist von absoluter Priorität, dass die Arbeiterklasse nicht die Kosten der Maßnahmen tragen muss. Alle ArbeiterInnen und Angestellte (sowie freie DienstnehmerInnen, freischaffende Künstler und Scheinselbstständige) im privaten und öffentlichen Bereich, die:





selbst erkranken,

auf Grund von Risikofaktoren besonders gefährdet sind,

sich um erkrankte minderjährige oder ältere Mitglieder ihrer Familien sorgen müssen,

ihre Kinder auf Grund von Schulschließungen betreuen müssen, oder

auf Grund von Maßnahmen und Regelungen zu arbeiten verhindert sind,

sollen unverzüglich eine Freistellung bei voller Lohnfortzahlung bzw. Ersatz des Verdienstausfalls bekommen.





Es muss außerdem verhindert werden, dass die Situation von den Unternehmen ausgenutzt wird, um die Rechte der Arbeitnehmer zu untergraben und die Arbeitsverhältnisse weiter zu flexibilisieren. Gerade jetzt kommt es darauf an, unsere Rechte zu verteidigen und zur Geltung zu bringen.





Die Auswirkungen dieser Epidemie auf unsere Leben sind nicht einem blinden Schicksal geschuldet, sondern hängen von den ökonomischen und politischen Verhältnissen ab. Die höchst problematische heutige Situation ist ein Resultat der Politik aller bürgerlichen Regierungen sowie der EU, die die Gesundheit dem Profit der Monopole in Pharmaindustrie und Versicherungswesen unterwerfen. Sogar in diesem Moment wird angekündigt, dass EU und Regierung Milliarden für die Unterstützung von Großunternehmen, Banken und Hoteliers zur Verfügung stellen werden, statt die notwendigen Maßnahmen zu ergreifen.





In den meisten Bereichen der Wirtschaft wird der Betrieb aufrechterhalten, Einschränkungen gelten vor allem für die Freizeit. Es wird an die Selbstverantwortung appelliert und empfohlen, soziale Kontakte einzuschränken, gleichzeitig aber den „regulären Betrieb aufrechtzuerhalten“ und hierfür die zur Verfügung stehenden technischen Mittel zu nutzen, um persönlichen Kontakt auf das Notwenigste zu beschränken. Homeoffice und Telearbeit sind im Bereich der Kopfarbeit hierbei eine Variante, aber auch die andauernde physische Anwesenheit wird zugunsten des Profits der potentiellen Gesundheitsgefährdung untergeordnet.





Die Regierung versucht also, die „persönliche Verantwortung“ und das „soziale Verhalten“ eines jeden im Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit zu lenken. Damit wollen sie verschleiern, dass das Gesundheitssystem in Österreich in Wirklichkeit große Mängel aufweist und nicht ausreichend auf eine Verschlimmerung der Lage oder ähnliche Situationen in der Zukunft vorbereitet ist. Dieselben reaktionären Kräfte aus ÖVP und Unternehmerverbänden, die mit der Zusammenlegung der Krankenkassen ein Millardendesaster angerichtet und die Beiträge der Werktätigen damit vernichtet haben, tun jetzt so, als wäre kein Geld für den Ausbau des Gesundheitswesens vorhanden.





Es sind dringende Maßnahmen erforderlich, wie die Einstellung des benötigten medizinischen und Pflegepersonals, Erweiterung der Intensivstationen, Versorgung der Spitäler mit den notwendigen medizinischen Mitteln. Statt an die „persönliche Verantwortung“ zu appellieren, soll die Regierung dafür sorgen, dass der Bevölkerung alle notwendigen Hygieneartikel kostenlos und flächendeckend zur Verfügung gestellt werden.





Die Kosten aller notwendigen Maßnahmen sollen in ihrer Gänze vom Staat und dem Großkapital übernommen und drohende Defizite der Krankenkassen ausgeglichen werden. Dazu gehört als Sofortmaßnahme die rigorose Eintreibung der Sozialversicherungs- und Steuerschulden der Unternehmer und eine ordentliche Besteuerung von Gewinnen und Vermögen. Die ArbeiterInnen, Angestellten und kleinen Selbstständige haben genug für die Profite des Monopolkapitals geblutet.



parteiderarbeit.at/?p=5882





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POLE OF COMMUNIST REVIVAL, FRANCE (PRCF)

Par Georges Gastaud, secrétaire national, Fadi Kassem, secrétaire national adjoint, Gabriel Casadesus et Jean-Claude Houseaux, responsables de la commission Santé du Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France.

Les mesures annoncées ce 12 mars par Emmanuel Macron pour freiner le coronavirus sont, pour certaines, nécessaires (« mesures-barrières » individuelles et collectives), même si elles interviennent trop tardivement et davantage dans la réaction que dans la planification (par ex. l’indispensable fermeture des établissements scolaires).





Par ailleurs, à supposer qu’il faille absolument maintenir le calendrier des municipales, quelles mesures contraignantes seront-elles prises par les autorités nationales et locales, dans les bureaux de vote, pour protéger les électeurs et ne pas surexposer à la contagion les présidents de bureau et autres assesseurs, tous partis confondus ?





À plusieurs reprises, Macron a souligné qu’il fallait privilégier la santé publique et n’avoir cure des coûts immédiats pour terrasser l’épidémie. Nous l’avons toujours dit, mais cette exigence humaniste est en contradiction avec ce que Macron a fait, plus encore que ses prédécesseurs maastrichtiens, les Raffarin, Sarkozy, Hollande, pour stranguler les services publics, notamment l’hôpital, et pour réduire les acquis sociaux dans notre pays (retraites, remboursements maladie, indemnités chômage, niveau des salaires, investissement sur l’école, la recherche et l’université, etc.) au nom des INDÉFENDABLES « critères de Maastricht » associés à la monnaie unique européenne.





Par ailleurs, les propos de Macron condamnant implicitement la mondialisation néolibérale et réclamant plus de « souveraineté » (« française et européenne », alors que la seconde phagocyte notoirement la première !) ne sont pas loin de rappeler le discours mensonger de Sarkozy en 2008 : ce destructeur des acquis syndicaux français osait alors se présenter en héraut de la résistance antilibérale dans le monde ! Quant au « nouveau Monde » cher à Macron, il n’est rien d’autre qu’une dérégulation sauvage détruisant l’indépendance de la France et les conquêtes du CNR sur l’autel de la « l’économie de marché ouverte sur le monde où la concurrence est libre et non faussée ».





Quel aveu néanmoins, s’agissant d’un chantre du néolibéralisme tel que lui, que de voir Macron renier – dans les mots ! – la mondialisation capitaliste et faire l’éloge de la « solidarité », du « faire nation », voire de la Sécu à la française créée par Ambroise Croizat ! Ces déclarations sont liées au fait que des millions de Français comprennent mieux désormais, à la lumière de la pandémie, que la mondialisation néolibérale, et son antenne européenne qu’est l’UE, ne « protègent » pas les peuples : au contraire, elles les livrent aux pandémies à répétition, à la surchauffe climatique, à la guerre économique permanente et à la spéculation la plus éhontée ! Car au moment où le président des hyper-riches en appelle à l’union sacrée des Français de base contre le virus, ses bons amis actionnaires – et tout particulièrement ceux de la place financière « française » – jouent contre l’économie réelle et contre ce qui reste du produire en France en organisant une spéculation baissière sans précédent, même en 2008 ! Dans ces conditions, le PRCF





appelle les citoyens





1.à respecter avec la plus grande discipline les mesures-barrières et à LES FAIRE RESPECTER AUSSI PAR LE PATRONAT et par l’ÉTAT y compris par la suspension des activités de travail partout où elles sont dangereuses pour les travailleurs et les usagers : ce n’est pas au contribuable de payer les indemnités pour chômage partiel des grandes entreprises du CAC 40, les patrons des firmes monopolistes qui ont reçu des milliards de l’État doivent assumer leurs responsabilités et non ruiner un peu plus les finances publiques. Solidarité de classe sur chaque lieu de travail, il y va de la vie humaine qui doit passer avant n’importe quelle considération de profitabilité !





2. à exiger de l’État des milliards pour l’hôpital public et ses personnels : AU DIABLE LES CRITÈRES DE MAASTRICHT !





3. à sortir “de la loi du marché” et “quel qu’en soit le coût” – on cite le discours d’hier soir de Macron – l’alimentation, les médicaments, etc.





4.à exiger la réquisition des moyens industriels nécessaires pour produire en urgence les ressources médicales indispensables (masques, etc.)





5. à exiger une vraie coopération internationale d’État à État (européens et non européens qui est le contraire de l’anarchie de la production que signifie le capitalisme, ce système proprement exterministe qu’aggravent encore l’UE, l’OMC, le FMI et toutes les autres institutions mortifères du grand capital.





6.Solidarité « en bas » (travailleurs, voisins, etc.) pour s’entraider sans considération d’argent ! solidarité entre les peuples ! Réapprenons à « faire nation » en bas, non pas AVEC MM. les capitalistes et leurs commis politiques, mais avec tous ceux qui préfèrent l’intérêt général à leur avantage privé !





7.Nationalisation des labos pharmaceutiques sans indemnités pour les actionnaires incapables d’approvisionner correctement le pays en médicaments





8.Suspension sine die de toutes les contre-réformes tournées contre ceux que Macron appelle « les plus fragiles » : retraites, indemnités chômage, services publics, etc.





Faisons face au coude-à-coude à l’horreur du coronavirus. Mais n’oublions pas qu’il ne pourrait pas frapper ainsi toute l’humanité s’il n’avait pour vecteur planétaire un système capitaliste de plus en plus débridé qui fait passer le profit avant la vie. Plus que jamais, comme disait Fidel Castro, la question posée est : « le socialisme ou la mort !» ; car soit l’humanité se débarrassera à temps du capitalisme, soit le capitalisme finira par détruire l’humanité, et il ne s’agit pas d’échéances à très long terme !





Le PRCF termine en remerciant tous les travailleurs qui continuent à faire tourner le pays, et spécialement à soigner les gens quitte à se mettre eux-mêmes en danger ; alors que, honteusement, les capitalistes s’efforcent de maximiser leurs gains en appelant l’État à la rescousse et en spéculant sans vergogne contre l’économie réelle.



www.initiative-communiste.fr/articles/prcf/coronavirus-les-communistes-a-lavant-garde-pour-lapplication-des-mesures-barrieres-individuelles-et-collectives-indispensables-a-la-sante-publique-mais-en-meme-temps/





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COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE (KKE)



In these difficult times, the KKE is positioned with a sense of responsibility towards the people, stressing that all necessary measures must be immediately taken to protect health and safeguard workers' rights. The KKE has already announced the postponement of all its events until Easter, as part of the public health prevention and protection measures.



Recent government announcements on addressing the novel coronavirus epidemic seek to create the impression that the government is doing everything in its power to face an objective danger that has visible implications for the nation's health and the economy of the country.



The truth is that the real danger stems from the tragic shortcomings of the health system that were known before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. These shortcomings did not occur accidentally, they are not objective. They are the result of the anti-people's policy pursued by all governments, based on the EU directions for the commercialization and privatization of Health, to support the profitability of business groups and safeguard the surpluses. This policy cancels out, in practice, the great scientific and technological possibilities that exist today to meet all the needs of prevention and healthcare of the people. So, for example, today there are only 550 beds in the Intensive Care Units, while 3,500 were needed before the coronavirus outbreak.



The pre-existing slowdown of the economy in the Eurozone and internationally is now furtherly reinforced by the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreaks and increases the risk of a new crisis in the coming period, especially in the Eurozone.



The propaganda government campaign, which focuses almost exclusively on the individual responsibility of each citizen and calls for national unity to support government policy, obscures the real problem. Taking the necessary measures calls for opposition to the EU's commitments and policies to support the competitiveness of monopoly groups, which sacrifice the satisfaction of the people's needs at the altar of capitalist profitability. The people cannot and must not pay again!



The recommendations of the National Public Health Agency impose the need for the government to immediately take all necessary measures to effectively address this pandemic and at the same time face all the permanent healthcare needs which are non-relevant to it.



1. We demand here and now emergency measures to protect the health of our people, such as:



- Recruitment of permanent medical and nursing staff to open all closed beds of the Intensive Care Units, but also to enable 24-hour operation of all Primary Health Care Units in order to relieve the congestion in hospitals.



- Full equipment of all public services with the necessary disinfection and precaution supplies provided to the public by the state free of charge in order to stop any unacceptable profiteering.



- Immediate re-opening of the hospitals closed by the ND - PASOK governments in 2013 (the Patissia Polyclinic, the General Hospital of West Attica, the Bombola ward, etc.). They must be immediately staffed, with permanent personel and not with staff transfers from other hospitals.



- Any additional needs of hospitalization and medical practice to be also met by the requisition of Health infrastructure in the private sector.



2. The compulsory implementation of the necessary restrictive and preventive measures for the population prerequires corresponding measures to protect the income and rights of the workers themselves. The measures announced so far only support big capitalist enterprises while reserving a "quarantine" regime for workers' rights. At the same time, no essential family income protection measures for workers, freelancers and farmers are guaranteed in case they get sick or stop their work due to family obligations.



3. The government's single "horizontal" approach on the arrangements regarding the taxation and insurance obligations of the business groups, the big capital, the self-employed and the employees will eventually be interpreted as new burdens on the people's shoulders.



The workers, through their contributions to Social Security Organizations, have paid a lot in order to be able to have basic insurance and benefits in the event of such emergencies. They have paid and continue to pay through EOPYY (National Organization for the Provision of Healthcare Services) for their health, through OAED (Organization of Workforce Employment) and other contributions to EFKA (Single Organization for Social Insurance) to cover their income in cases of unemployment and temporary disability for work (illness, accident).



To provide additional leave from work with full remuneration and Insurance: (a) To all workers who get sick in order to recover but also to prevent the spread of the disease (b) To a family member with a sick child or having no other option than taking care of a minor child himself/herself, or taking care of an elderly family member.



Furthemore, the government is accountable not only for not announcing penalties and fines for employers who violate labor relations and working times but also for suspending the required controls: We demand here and now to tighten the controls by the Labor Inspectorate in sectors and workplaces, which must not become prisons in the midst of an epidemic.



4. In all cases, all necessary emergency financial support measures for workers and the popular strata must be taken in order to address the additional problems arising:



- First of all, all auctions and forfeitures, all electricity and water cuts, any kind of compulsory enforcement measures to the State, banks and Public Companies and Organizations should be suspended, for as long as it takes, for all workers, pensioners and self-employed, with priority for those with an annual income of less than 12,000 euros.



- Redundancies must be stopped. Unemployment benefits at 80% of the basic salary must be given here and now for seasonal workers who are not re-employed, such as in the sectors of tourism, transport, etc. A similar benefit should be given to freelancers, with annual incomes of up to € 12,000, who will be forced to close down their business. Moreover, workers of businesses suspending their operations should also receive an emergency allowance of € 715.68 for the next 45 days.



- All pensioners should be given an immediate 13th pension as emergency support.



- Specifically, for self-employed with annual income up to EUR 12,000: a) To be exempt from paying contributions for their insurance for the next 4 months without loss of their pension rights, b) To set a tax-free threshold of EUR 12,000 and non-payment of business tax to enable them to cope with the already increasing financial consequences.



5. Additional measures need to be taken in the field of Education to face with a state responsibility several problems arising from the necessary decision to close all educational structures. It is important to protect the children of the popular family from the consequences of the commercialization of education, which creates unequal conditions of access, which may be sharpened under these conditions. We therefore demand:



- To take measures to ensure that pupils in the last grade of high school are equally prepared as expeditiously as possible for the national exams, even with a reduction in the school subjects' material.



- To solve all the problems related to student care, to continue students' boarding by avoiding crowding (packaged food).



- To solve the problem of refunds for canceled school trips, both domestic and abroad, concerning thousands of families.



We call on workers to take their destiny into their own hands and decisively demand from the government to immediately take all necessary measures to safeguard the health and the rights of the people.



The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the KKE



March 13, 2020.



inter.kke.gr/en/articles/Effective-measures-to-protect-the-health-of-the-people-and-to-support-the-workers-must-be-taken-now/

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COMMUNIST PARTY OF IRELAND





The CPI expresses its solidarity with all those affected, and who will be affected, by this growing health crisis, and to the health staff and emergency services in the front line.





The health services throughout the country, from Belfast to Cork, are wholly inadequate, having experienced more than a decade of harsh cuts, bed closures, lack of investment, staff shortages, and the priority of private corporate medicine over a decent, well-funded public health service.





The Covid-19 health crisis exposes once again the immediate need for one all-Ireland public health service. The virus is not subject to partition and knows no borders. In times like these the need to act on an all-Ireland basis is clearly revealed.





It also exposes the conflicting interests of policy-makers in London and the policy-takers in Belfast, who have little or no say in how they should react to the pandemic, to ensure the health and safety of all citizens living in the North and the close ties with those living in the South.





We call on the Northern Assembly to disregard the British government’s strategy of “herd immunity,” as the extent of re-infection in Japan shows it to be incorrect, and to co-ordinate their efforts on an all-Ireland basis.





The Tory government will make use of this crisis as an opportunity to rid themselves of what they regard as costly, unproductive citizens, namely the old and vulnerable. The health and safety of the Irish people, north or south, cannot be left to this barbaric logic, and we as a people need to act in solidarity and kindness to those most at risk.





We, as a nation, have difficult choices to make over the coming weeks. We either step up our efforts and implement aggressive social distancing and tracking to try to slow the rate of infections and therefore the death rate, though at significant economic cost, or we follow the British lead and accept attrition of the old and the vulnerable but stabilise the economy more quickly.





The question becomes one of people or profit. We cannot allow the interests of those who profit dictate our fate.

The CPI urges all its members, supporters, followers and readers to demand that each one of us implement aggressive social distancing.

We must protect those are most vulnerable. medically and economically, and demand that the Government implement a nationwide mortgage and rent holiday; that it direct funds through social welfare to those affected by loss of jobs or loss of earnings; that it guarantee essential free food supplies to those most in need.

This is the only effective way that citizens will be able to materially withstand the huge strains on their household and livelihood in the coming months.

Many needless deaths will occur without drastic public health action and immediate intervention, which is why we must step up our collective effort to implement aggressive social distancing. The World Health Organisation estimates that 15 per cent of cases will result in “severe infection, requiring oxygen,” while 5 per cent are “critical infections.” Given the most recent projections—conservative when we consider the comparable projection in Britain of an infection rate of 80 per cent, compared with the HSE’s prediction of 40 per cent—we are left with a stark figure of 335,600 people in Ireland as a whole possibly needing critical care. The health services in each part of our partitioned country are incapable of meeting the present demand, much less an increase this severe.

A worrying trend that we are witnessing is the increase in the death rate where the virus has not been contained, because of ineffective action and a shortage of intensive-care beds, which further affects patients, unrelated to the virus. Even if cases were, optimistically, evenly spread out over a period of eighteen 18 months we would still require the capacity to treat more than 18,000 critical-care cases a month—far beyond our existing capacity.

The reality, however, is that those who will be infected will be clustered within the next two to three months, in effect leaving the health service unable to deal with the numbers that need intensive care. We could see as many as 40,000 deaths over the next five months, according to some of the modelling that has been done. This may that mean those in the front line will have to make the individual decision on who should or should not be saved; and the “austerity” budgets over the past ten years have forced their hand to make more of those decisions than necessary.

We urge all progressive people and organisations to demand the immediate nationalisation of all private hospitals in order to increase our intensive-care capacity, which will be needed to care for the victims of Covid-19. A failure to do so will result in needless deaths that, under a two-tier, private and public health system, will inevitably happen. The health and safety of the Irish people cannot be left to the logic of the market.

The pandemic sweeping the nation has led to developments in the talks taking place on the formation of a new Government, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael now looking like being the two major components of it. What this past election lays bare is the absolute inability of elections and electoralism, on their own, to bring about a real, meaningful and lasting transformation of our country.

There is a growing class-consciousness among a significant section of workers and young people, as reflected in the recent election results. This was shown in a welcome growth in the first-preference vote going to the left, and also the transfers between left parties and individuals—a reflection of this deepening awareness of the need for real change.

What cannot be hidden in this optimism, however, is the fact that the parties now represented in Dáil Éireann, including Sinn Féin and the other parties that regard themselves as left-wing, all have economic and social policies that comply with the economic straitjacket of the EU’s fiscal rules, ensuring that there can be little or no change of direction.

This will be further consolidated when the EU budget proposals for 2021–27 are adopted, a budget strategy determined by the interests of the dominant core states and their ruling class. These budget proposals are detrimental to the needs and interests of the working class in Ireland and expose the shallowness of social democracy and of the EU’s “cohesion and solidarity” mantra, which has also been adopted by right-wing elements.

The forces that benefited from this electoral surge did not create these developments but rather were the beneficiaries of them. The changes are the result of a decade-long resistance within a range of social and economic battles. This increased awareness has grown out of people’s own resistance, political struggles and informed education on these issues.

Nevertheless the election results can provide an important platform on which to build renewed resistance and struggles, to further build our people’s understanding of the class nature of the capitalist system and their understanding of whose interests past, present and future government policies serve.

Only a mass, conscious mobilisation of working people can bring about real and meaningful change to their lives. The advances that working people have achieved throughout the existence of the Irish state show this. Workers should be sceptical about what changes can be brought about within the existing institutional frameworks, north and south.

The CPI affirms that working people need to push forward and not allow the political forces ranged against them to consolidate and regroup. While we recognise that the political parties of the ruling class remain a strong bloc within the Dáil, they are nevertheless declining in influence, as their strategy of making the people pay is leading to further resistance and rejection.

The recent TASC report exposed the scale of these sustained attacks on workers, with the growth in low pay throughout the 26-County economy. One in every four workers is struggling to live on low wages. The Irish state has the third-highest level of low pay in the EU, at 23 per cent. At least 23 per cent of all employees in the wholesale and retail industries and nearly 40 per cent of all employees in the tourism and catering sectors are low-paid workers, with a persistently high number of unemployed households. An increasing number of workers are employed in precarious jobs, with no security of employment, not even so much as a week’s work.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is in near-bankruptcy. 92 per cent of NIHE tenants are on universal credits and are in rent arrears. The impact of the benefit cap, for example, in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area will result in 1,500 families with children suffering cuts in income of up to £47 per week. This will be replicated throughout the six northern counties, which will result in ever-growing poverty and inequality, making it even more a dependency of British imperialism.

What is becoming ever clearer is that the institutions established by the partitioning of our country are among the main obstacles blocking the potential for radical, people-centred change, so desperately required throughout our country. The six-county political entity is simply not viable, economically or politically. The only lasting solution to both this domination and dependence is a national democratic solution, that of national reunification.

The growing inequality throughout Ireland will be further exacerbated, with clear signs of a new and deeper phase in the structural crisis of the capitalist system that is now developing within the global economy. This is not something that comes as a sudden shock: signs of a significant global recession have been in the air for at least a year. Forecasts for growth in the global system of imperialist monopoly capitalism have been revised downwards to less than 2.9 per cent, the lowest since 2009.

There are growing signs of recession in the core capitalist economies, including Germany and the United States. We are witnessing a continued decrease in global trade and manufacturing conditions. Capital’s confidence within the core has been on a downward trend for the past year, while working people are experiencing a growth in extreme social inequality, growing levels of indebtedness (higher than pre-2008 crisis levels), and an increasing tendency towards working poverty and precarious employment—to the extent that some 44 per cent of employees in Ireland are now in this category.

The current pandemic will present an opportunity by the ruling ideological forces to present the deepening economic crisis as a consequence only of the spread of Covid-19. They will use it to confuse and hoodwink workers about the real nature of this growing economic crisis, which has its roots in the very logic of the capitalist mode of production. Signs of economic malaise long preceded the most recent collapse in global stock markets.

Low and even negative government bond yields, anaemic growth, warning signs about unsustainable corporate debt and stalled growth in capital investment have all been signs pointing towards a coming recession over the past year. Like all past crises, the ruling forces will attempt to use this crisis to engage in new attacks on workers, globally and here at home.

Workers need to be alert to the fact, and learn from past lived experience, that crisis presents an opportunity by the ruling class to attack workers and advance the interests of capital. The CPI restates that there is no new phase of capitalism (neo-liberalism): rather what has been and is taking place is a deepening of the structural crisis of the system itself. The solutions that the ruling class impose in the vain hope of overcoming its inherent structural contradictions simply lay the foundations for the next crisis, propelling the system forward to ever more destructive forms.

The ruling class are driven to intensify the exploitation of both labour (workers) and the natural world, to intensify violence, wars, oppression, and environmental destruction. They desire to ruin the earth and to break the growing resistance of workers around the world; yet we see, from Chile to France and India, that there is a growing awakening among workers to the nature of their oppression and the real nature and role of austerity policies.

The goal of austerity was and is to enrich those whose income is largely dependent on the ownership of private property, such as CEOs and the owners of corporations, at the expense and exploitation of the majority, who do the actual work or are forced or struggle to seek work.

The evolving economic crisis can only further exacerbate the deep inequalities experienced by the working class and reinforce the dependence and domination by imperialism.

If we are to end this dependence, inequality, homelessness, poverty, precarious employment, precarious shelter and inadequate health services we must seek a radical departure from this exploitative and oppressive system.

Progressive forces and movements must unite to form a broad, class-conscious, anti-imperialist movement if there is any hope of bringing about this change. Political parties on their own won’t do it. Trade unions on their own can’t do it. Social and cultural movements on their own can’t sustain it. Only by united action will we have any hope of changing the material conditions of our people.

Fundamentally, what is needed is a democratic all-Ireland economic strategy for the people.

• An all-Ireland economic strategy in which investment is democratically accountable to and prioritised by the people.

• An all-Ireland state investment bank to control and target capital investment in environmentally sustainable job creation, with universal public housing, health services, and infrastructure.

• A Bill of Rights for Workers and the repeal of all anti-worker laws, north and south.

• An economic and social strategy for challenging and breaking the malaise and the stifling grip of the euro and the EU.

What the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly shown is that under a socialist system crisis can be contained, controlled and avoided when the people of a country have the ability to employ all the resources available to them, for the benefit of all the people. It has also shown how barbaric a system can be that is based on private ownership and the necessity to seek profits.





15 March 2020.









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THE WORKERS' PARTY, IRELAND





The Workers’ Party has called for the state to begin immediate manufacturing of essential medical supplies, to secure supply lines for the months to come.

Workers’ Party representative Éilis Ryan said:

“It is clear from the Italian experience that one of the major obstacles to efficient response to the Coronavirus crisis was insufficient supplies of medical necessities – protective equipment, ventilators, test kits.

“Ireland has a workforce which is highly-skilled in the manufacture of medical equipment. Medical devices make up 10% of all of our exports. However, the majority of this activity is owned by private companies, and oriented for export. As a result, it is not clear whether Ireland has a secure supply of necessary equipment.

Ryan called for the government to follow Germany’s lead in limiting medical exports:

“Germany – the only country to produce more medical equipment than Ireland – has now banned the export of all medical protection gear. As a smaller country, Ireland may not require a complete export ban, but state compulsory purchase of the necessary quantities of all equipment being currently produced is essential.

“The government should then set up a specialist logistics team, with immediate effect, tasked with ramping up production of any medical equipment not being produced in large enough quantities domestically.”

Ryan concluded:

“State-led expansion of the medical devices sector is essential to Ireland’s ability – as a small, island nation – to tackle this pandemic. Beyond this, it is also a prudent and effective way to secure one part of the economy, including through the creation of new jobs, as we face into global economic turmoil.

“The private sector has failed utterly to tackle Ireland’s crisis. We must not make the mistake of relying on them to tackle this health emergency.”



workersparty.ie/workers-party-calls-for-state-to-begin-direct-manufacture-of-essential-medical-equipment-to-secure-supply-lines/

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COMMUNIST PARTY OF SWEDEN (SKP)

I spåren av coronaviruset förbereds och genomförs en rad arbetar- och folkfientliga åtgärder som dels lägger bördan för coronaviruset på de arbetande människorna, samtidigt som kapitalet ser sin chans att genomföra åtgärder som lyfter över all osäkerhet som genereras av det kapitalistiska systemet på de arbetandes axlar. Virusets omfattning blottar dessutom bristerna i sjukvården som är resultatet av åratal av nedskärningspolitik.

Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti kämpar för och kräver att bördorna för coronaviruset inte läggs på de arbetande människorna till förmån för kapitalet. Kommunisterna kämpar för

att sjukvården rustas upp och står redo att inte bara möta epidemier utan också för att klara den moderna människans behov

att alla flaskhalsar och utstuderat osäkra anställningar inom vården och andra branscher slopas och massanställningar genomförs för att på så sätt garantera en god kvalitet på det arbete som utförs och för att garantera arbetarna och patienter trygghet

att alla gåvor till kapitalet, såsom slopad arbetsgivaravgift och skattebefrielse stoppas direkt och istället riktas om till folkets behov

att det tillfälligt avskaffade karensavdraget görs permanent

att alla föräldrar erbjuds både medel och möjlighet att ta hand om sina barn om skolor och förskolor stängs

att alla studenter får ersättning under den tid universiteten stängs och att studietiden förlängs

att korttidsarbetet i sin helhet slopas

att alla som inte kan arbeta på grund av coronaviruset får full lön

att ingen arbetare varslas för att rädda ägarnas vinster och att de varsel som lagts dras tillbaka

Sveriges Kommunistiska Parti kämpar för att de krisåtgärder som kapitalet planerat genomföra inför nästa kris inte genomförs med coronaviruset som svepskäl och bekämpar dem så gott vi kan. Många av de åtgärder som nu genomförs och som planeras hade kapitalet behövt tvinga igenom även utan coronaviruset, för att på så sätt kunna garantera sin konkurrenskraft och möta nästa kapitalistiska kris, som var i annalkande även innan coronaviruset spreds. Mot alla dessa åtgärder manar vi till motstånd på arbetsplatser, skolor, universitet och i bostadsområdena.

Därför ser vi också med oro på de begränsningar som genomförs vad gäller begränsningarna av mötesfriheten. Med respekt för behovet att begränsa smittspridningen är vi samtidigt medvetna om att många av åtgärderna för att stävja corona och lotsa företagen genom en kommande nedgångsperiod riktar udden mot arbetarklassen och kommer innebära kraftiga försämringar och större osäkerhet för det arbetande folket. Därför ser vi som legitima alla protester mot de åtgärder som riktas mot försämringarna för arbetarklassen.

Det är i slutändan en omöjlighet ur både epidemiologisk och allmän synpunkt att garantera det arbetande folket liv, hälsa och välmående i ett samhälle där de konstant utsätts för angrepp och där deras livsvillkor hela tiden försämras för att garantera monopolens profit och deras konkurrensmässighet i förhållande till monopolen i andra länder. Den centrala planering som krävs för detta är omöjlig att genomföra under kapitalismen och kräver istället ett socialistiskt produktionssätt.



skp.se/2020/03/13/lagg-bordan-for-corona-pa-kapitalismen/

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COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE WORKERS OF SPAIN (PCTE)

En situaciones de crisis la lucha de clases no se detiene, más al contrario, se agudiza. La crisis de salud pública asociada a la pandemia del coronavirus Covid-19 está poniendo de manifiesto, de manera muy cruda, el grave peligro de sostener un sistema socioeconómico como el actual, en el que el bienestar de la población va siempre después que los beneficios empresariales.

En menos de diez días, desde el fallecimiento del primer enfermo de coronavirus en España, el 3 de marzo, son ya más de 3000 los contagiados y de 85 las personas muertas. Si los datos sanitarios son graves y enormemente preocupantes, las consecuencias sociales de la crisis son ya terribles y ahora mismo incalculables para la mayoría trabajadora del país, que está siendo una vez más la gran sacrificada en pos de las cuentas de resultados de las grandes empresas.

En esta situación, hay que situar con la máxima importancia el papel de los trabajadores de la Sanidad Pública, expuestos en primera línea frente a la enfermedad, carentes de los equipos y medidas de protección individual necesarias para ejercer su trabajo sin riesgo para su propia salud. Están demostrando, una vez más, que solo el pueblo salva al pueblo.

Si bien nadie está a salvo del contagio, la expansión del coronavirus tiene un impacto muy diferente en las distintas clases sociales. De nuevo, es la mayoría trabajadora la que más dramáticamente se ve golpeada por la crisis: expuesta de mayor manera a la propia enfermedad —como los citados profesionales sanitarios—, afectada por los perjuicios salariales de sus bajas y, en el peor de los casos, por una salvaje destrucción de empleo a base de suspensión de contratos y de ERTEs —Expedientes de Regulación Temporal de Empleo—, que manda al paro a miles de familias.

Desde hace meses, multitud de indicadores anuncian una nueva e inminente crisis en la base económica del sistema. La situación desatada por la pandemia de Covid-19 está actuando como catalizador de esta grave crisis de sobreproducción y sobreacumulación capitalista. Al mismo tiempo, sirve como pretexto a la clase dominante para tratar de exonerar al sistema, invirtiendo la lógica socioeconómica y presentando a la pandemia como causante de la crisis económica.

Sin embargo, toda la propaganda del sistema no es capaz de ocultar unos hechos que se muestran evidentes a ojos de toda la población. Se ponen trágicamente de manifiesto los límites del capitalismo.

Todas las medidas que se están adoptando por parte del Gobierno tienen un marcado carácter de clase. Si el Partido Popular propuso un decálogo de medidas de choque contra el Covid-19 íntegramente dirigido al apoyo y rescate de las empresas, el Gobierno de PSOE-UP no se ha apartado en nada de esa dirección en las medidas anunciadas durante los últimos días para hacer frente a la crisis.

Hasta la fecha, todas las medidas económicas y laborales aprobadas por el Gobierno tienen como base las reformas laborales de 2010 y 2012, cuyo objetivo es garantizar los intereses de la patronal. Es por esto especialmente grave el acuerdo presentado por CCOO y UGT, firmado conjuntamente con CEPYME y CEOE, en el que se sitúa en el mismo plano de afectación por la crisis de salud pública a trabajadores y empresas. En dicho acuerdo se propone al Gobierno la aprobación de un Decreto-Ley que facilite y agilice la regulación de los ERTEs por efecto del coronavirus. Es gravísimo que las organizaciones sindicales traten de anular toda lucha clasista en pos de una falsa comunión general de intereses entre trabajadores y capitalistas. La lucha de clases no se detiene y, en momentos de crisis, las organizaciones obreras y populares han de estar más alerta que nunca para defender los derechos de la clase obrera y del pueblo en su conjunto.

Entre las medidas urgentes que ya debería haber adoptado el Gobierno para frenar efectivamente la crisis está la inmediata toma de control de los hospitales privados, que suponen el 60% de todos los hospitales del país. Un gobierno que antepusiera el bienestar y la salud de la población a los intereses capitalistas ya lo habría hecho.

Tras años de desmantelamiento del servicio público de salud, mediante recortes, conciertos y privatizaciones, de precarización de las condiciones laborales del personal sanitario y no sanitario, todo con el fin de devaluar la sanidad pública en favor de las clínicas privadas, y con la actual crisis, se muestra claramente que el único horizonte de seguridad para la salud pública está en la generación de un único sistema de salud público al servicio del pueblo.

Asimismo, en estos momentos se debe poner especial énfasis en la defensa de los derechos de conciliación de los trabajadores, de forma que las familias obreras puedan mantener su desempeño laboral, de acuerdo a las directrices de seguridad sanitaria, junto con la atención a los niños y jóvenes afectados por el cierre de colegios, centros de estudio y otras dependencias.

La actual crisis del coronavirus ha puesto de relieve las múltiples limitaciones y contradicciones de gestión del capitalismo. Las medidas gubernamentales se están dirigiendo a socializar las pérdidas que genera el sistema, después de años de asegurar la privatización de sus ganancias.

Por otra parte, la situación de alarma social que se ha generado es completamente comprensible, deviene de la contemplación de una realidad que el libre mercado y sus gobiernos son incapaces de controlar. Resulta especialmente significativo ver cómo ante los primeros comportamientos de consumo que dejan estampas de desabastecimiento temporal de productos de primera necesidad, las declaraciones públicas de mayor importancia a este tenor las haga el principal dueño de supermercados en España y no el Ministro de Consumo.

Hay que adoptar medidas inmediatas que aseguren el abastecimiento de productos de primera necesidad, interviniendo los stocks de las principales empresas de distribución minorista del país. Asimismo, deben quedar bajo control y custodia pública todos aquellos materiales sanitarios esenciales para la atención médica.

Es preciso, también, intervenir en la gestión mediática de la crisis, impidiendo la propagación de bulos, medidas estériles y/o contraproducentes, alarmismo y pánico. Los grandes medios de comunicación están teniendo un papel fundamental en la generación de un estado de agitación social que genera el caldo de cultivo propicio para que florezcan comportamientos xenófobos y racistas, así como para hacer responsables del agravamiento de la crisis a los trabajadores por sus conductas individuales, en lugar de al sistema y sus gestores.

Otra de las cosas que están quedando meridianamente claras es la ventaja de contar con un sistema de planificación centralizada. Es imprescindible dar a conocer que el único fármaco que está empezando a demostrarse eficaz contra el Covid-19 es el antiviral cubano Interferón Alfa 2b, que se ha demostrado efectivo en China en más de 1500 pacientes contagiados y que está siendo clave para que, junto con la gestión que la potencia asiática está llevando a cabo, el país con el mayor número de víctimas y contagios esté ya comenzando a vencer al Covid-19.

Desde el PCTE insistimos en la especial responsabilidad que las organizaciones de clase han de jugar en este momento. El sistema está tratando de utilizar una crisis de salud pública en su beneficio económico. Cualquier gobierno que gestione la crisis tratando de cargar sobre la espalda de los trabajadores el coste de la pandemia, cualquier gobierno que anteponga los beneficios económicos de las grandes empresas a la salud y la vida del pueblo, no es ya sólo un gobierno traidor, sino un gobierno criminal.

Hacemos un llamamiento a la clase obrera y al pueblo a ser solidarios con los trabajadores de la Sanidad Pública, a organizarse en sus centros de trabajo ante cualquier medida que suponga un perjuicio en sus condiciones laborales.

Que no nos engañen, el virus no entiende de clases, pero el gobierno sí. Hay que dejar claro que no vamos a pagar la crisis ni con nuestra salud, ni con nuestros derechos.

Todos los recursos sanitarios bajo control público.

Nacionalización inmediata de todos los productos de primera necesidad.

Cobertura salarial del 100% para todos los trabajadores de baja por contagio o por confinamiento.

Prohibición de toda suspensión de contratos y aplicación de Expedientes de Regulación Temporal de Empleo bajo el pretexto del coronavirus.

Es hora de ponerle fin al capitalismo. Nuestras vidas están en juego.

Buró Político del PCTE

13 de marzo, 2020.



partido-comunista.es/comunicados-centrales/no-pagaremos-esta-crisis-nuestra-salud-derechos/

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COMMUNIST PARTY OF TURKEY (TKP)



Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced late Monday that the number of the confirmed coronavirus cases in Turkey rose to 47 in six days following the first confirmed case.

Pointing at the capitalist world’s inability of creating solutions to the pandemic, the Communist Party of Turkey released a 12-point declaration regarding the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, showing how socialism would provide pro-people practices. The declaration intends to compare how socialism would react to such a pandemic with the incompetent situation of the states today.

The full statement is as follows:

The capitalist world and Turkey are sliding into a desperate chaos against the novel coronavirus outbreak. We are not doomed to this situation. In socialist Turkey, the outbreak would be brought under control easily and prevented from turning into a social disaster for the workers.

But how? In this way;

1. All the private hospitals and institutions would be nationalized.

Today, the state is functioning with half-power because most of the medical institutions are private. Even the state hospitals have been restructured for market-oriented profits. The first task would be to nationalize and reorganize all of them on the basis of pro-people principles to serve for the struggle against the outbreak.

2. The banks, the industrial plants and the service sector would also be nationalized.

These nationalization practices would largely enhance the state power in the struggle against the outbreak. Today, the capital-oriented government is busy with cutting off the public expenditures to transfer the resources to the crisis of the bosses. Under current circumstances, however, all the resources should have been used for developing and protecting the public health.

3. The nationalization practices would enable central planning.

Central planning means the political will of the working people. This is the only way to cope with a social problem in a rational way by use of every means available. In addition to the production, the cities, the public spaces and the transportation would be on the agenda of the planning.

4. Institutes would be established immediately for vaccination, treatment and the criteria of diagnosis against the coronavirus.

Turkey can neither produce vaccination nor medicines for treatment. To what extent the criteria of diagnosis is functioning properly is doubtful, and it has been impossible to receive reliable information in this respect so far. One of the initial affairs of the socialist Turkey would be to gather the scientists to focus on this task in institutes where rapid developments would be provided.

5. Health services would be completely free of charge.

All the people would have free health services. Everyone would unconditionally be under social security. Masks and disinfectants against the outbreak would be provided free of charge. Access to health services would be provided not only in medical institutions but also in neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.

6. Religion and state affairs would be separated.

In socialist Turkey, the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) would not have an effect on decision-making processes. The people returning from the Umrah pilgrimage would be put in quarantine healthily, the students would not be evacuated from their dormitories at midnight.

7. The implementation of quarantine would not be arbitrary but a compulsory social task.

The implementation of quarantine, the most efficient method against the outbreak, would not be arbitrary for the people, it would be a compulsory and accurate practice as a social task.

8. The media would be reorganized in a way to broadcast the truths to the public.

The media would not be a trumpet of the ruling power, it would be reorganized for enabling the people to reach true information. Therefore, the people could reach reliable information with regards to the prevalence of the outbreak.

9. The plundering of the markets and stockpiling would not be allowed.

The people have emptied the shelves to stock food and health materials since they do not trust in the state against the outbreak. In socialist Turkey, however, the shares of everyone would be guaranteed and delivered even under severe conditions. Stockpiling would not be allowed.

10. Economic crises would not emerge.

There would be no bankruptcies since the nationalized enterprises would not seek profit. There would be no dismissals because of bankruptcies and the bosses’ greed for profit.

11. Selfishness would be condemned, the spirit of sharing and solidarity would prevail.

The conscious people of the socialist society would initially care about the individuals in need of protection, and mobilize altogether to meet their needs in such states of emergency. The measures would rapidly prevail over the conscious society, and the current eclipse of reason would not be experienced.

12. A socialist society would be hopeful.

It would be possible to talk about a confident and cold-minded society that trusts in science and the future against such challenges instead of a mental state of panic, helplessness and hopelessness led by the coronavirus.

Once again, we can see the importance of all these facts in these current days of outbreak. We believe that humanity will overcome these days. Humanity will stand out with and only with these values.

The Communist Party of Turkey calls for such a social order.

Communist Party of Turkey, Central Committee, 17.03.2020.

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COMMUNIST PARTY OF GERMANY (DKP)

Angesichts der Corona-Pandemie erklärt Patrik Köbele, Vorsitzender der Deutschen Kommunistischen Partei (DKP):

Die Zunahme von Erkrankungen aufgrund des Coronavirus COVID-19 weltweit und auch in der BRD ist besorgniserregend. Die herrschende Klasse sorgt sich nicht um die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung, sondern nutzt die Situation einmal mehr für Ihre Interessen:

Plötzlich ist Geld ohne Ende da. Mit Kurzarbeit übernehmen die öffentlichen Kassen die Gehaltszahlungen von Unternehmen, private Banken dürfen ohne Ende an Krediten verdienen, die Risiken tragen nicht sie, sondern der Steuerzahler.

Der Einsatz der Bundeswehr im Innern ist nur ein kleiner Teil des Notstands, der sich im Schatten von Corona gut üben lässt. Kriegsministerin Kramp-Karrenbauer verkündete in der Welt am Sonntag, dass die Reservisten mobilisiert seien, um Hilfe zu leisten. Was immer jetzt gebraucht werde, die Truppe helfe: „Auf die Bundeswehr können die Menschen sich verlassen“, so Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Merkel, Spahn und Co. machen sich angeblich Sorgen um die Kapazitäten des Gesundheitssystems. Aber sie waren es, die im Auftrag des Monopolkapitals das Gesundheitssystem in ein Mittel der Profitmaximierung verwandelt haben. Unsere Solidarität gilt den Beschäftigten im Gesundheitswesen, die die Misere nun ausbaden und Höchstleistungen erbringen müssen, um den Menschen zu helfen.

Während Eltern mit Kindern angesichts der sicher sinnvollen Schließungen von Kindergärten und Schulen ohne Lohnfortzahlung dastehen und gezwungen sind Urlaub oder unbezahlten Urlaub zu nehmen, während prekär Beschäftigte ihre Arbeitsplätze verlieren und ihre Mieten nicht mehr zahlen können und kleine Selbständige vor der Pleite stehen, werden 500 Milliarden für die Sicherung deutscher Konzerne zur Verfügung gestellt.

Während die kulturelle und politische Betätigung eingeschränkt wird, um die Ausbreitung des Virus zu verlangsamen, wird die Anwesenheit am Arbeitsplatz erwartet und zwar nicht da, wo es im gesellschaftlichen Interesse notwendig ist, sondern dort, wo es die Profite sichert.

Die Maßnahmen, die von Bundes- und Landesregierung ergriffen werden, sind keineswegs angemessen, sondern erfolgen zugunsten des Monopolkapitals zu Lasten der lohnabhängig

Beschäftigten und der Werktätigen insgesamt.

Wir fordern aktuell:

Volle Lohnfortzahlung oder Ersatz des Verdienstausfalls für alle abhängig Beschäftigten und sonstigen Werktätigen, die aufgrund des Coronavirus ihre Einnahmen verlieren, sei es aufgrund von Betreuung von Kindern oder anderen Angehörigen, Erkrankung, Quarantäne, chronischen Erkrankungen oder Betriebsschließungen.

Sinnvolle Maßnahmen wie die Ausweitung der Telearbeit dürfen nicht zum Abbau von Schutzregelungen und entgrenzter Arbeitszeit führen.

Sofortiger Ausbau des Gesundheitswesens, Personalaufstockung und Kontrolle der Pharmaindustrie.

Die Kosten für die Bekämpfung der Pandemie sind durch die Konzerne zu tragen sowie durch eine massive Kürzung der Rüstungsausgaben.

Sofortige Beendigung und nicht nur ein „Einfrieren“ des US-Kriegsmanövers „Defender 2020“. Neben der Kriegsgefahr und den Kosten, führt auch dieses zur einer weiteren unkontrollierten Verbreitung des Virus.

Lassen wir uns nicht einlullen vom Gerede der Herrschenden und Regierenden, dass „wir zusammenstehen müssen“.

Nach wie vor gilt: Es gibt kein „Wir“ in der Klassengesellschaft.

Die Pandemie zeigt, dass der Kapitalismus nicht in der Lage ist, die grundlegenden Probleme der Menschen zu lösen.

Wie es anders geht zeigen derzeit China und Kuba.

In beiden Ländern wurden erhebliche Mittel in das Gesundheitssystem investiert. China und Kuba helfen unter anderem in Italien und

Venezuela mit medizinischen Geräten und Spezialisten – das ist konkrete Solidarität.

Wir brauchen die Solidarität der Werktätigen auf allen Ebenen, von der internationalen Solidarität bis hin zur Solidarität und gegenseitigen Unterstützung im Stadtteil. Lassen wir uns nicht gegeneinander ausspielen, kämpfen wir gemeinsam für unsere Rechte!



unsere-zeit.de/dkp-zur-corona-pandemie-126442/

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COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHILE (PCdeChile)

Ante la alerta mundial por la propagación del coronavirus y siendo una realidad el potencial riesgo que enfrentamos como país, el Partido Comunista declara que es el Estado de Chile el responsable de establecer sin dilación las medidas sanitarias, financieras y administrativas que el actual escenario demanda. Se trata de un riesgo real, que con las medidas sanitarias y una política pública de salud robusta podría resolverse con el menor costo para la población.

Nos encontramos ante un gobierno y autoridades de salud nacionales que no cuentan con la confianza ciudadana, cuyas medidas son insuficientes en respuesta al alto riesgo que nuestra población enfrenta. Han debido tomar la iniciativa las municipalidades, las universidades y muchos hopitales y servicios ante la falta de una política sanitaria nacional y coherente. Estas son manifestaciones de la carencia de un liderato claro y confiable y denota falta de conducción en el Ministerio de Salud, que afecta a todo el sistema de salud pública cuyos profesionales y trabajadores son los que con esfuerzo enfrentan minuto a minuto las situaciones que se van produciendo y con un alto riesgo. El Ministro de salud no se ha demostrado con la capacidad y la credibilidad como para liderar una campaña de esta naturaleza.

Hoy es de absoluta prioridad y urgencia establecer medidas contundentes y concretas con el objetivo de evitar los contagios del COVID-19 en nuestro país, por esto planteamos medidas drásticas, tales como el cierre de fronteras del país a la llegada de viajeros desde países de alto riesgo y un control muy estricto en la fronteras de países vecinos en colaboración con ellos, evitando la posibilidad de entrada del virus y un óptimo control del mismo dentro del territorio.

Por ello es de la máxima urgencia que la autoridad sanitaria establezca protocolos estrictos y estandarizados, los que a la fecha han sido poco claros e insuficientes.

Es de necesidad desplegar urgentemente una campaña de educación sanitaria que entregue elementos claros y no contradictorios a la población, de como actuar en cada circunstancia, a quien acudir, como asumir los controles y las cuarentenas, junto a ello establecer más medidas preventivas de ayuda controlando la especulación y los altos precios en cuestiones tan básicas como el alcohol gel o mascarillas sobre cuyo uso tampoco hay protocolos únicos.

Además de las incompetencias de gestión, el Ministerio de Salud carece de unidad estructural, como consecuencia del desmontaje del Servicio Nacional de Salud por la Dictadura y la dispersión de sus atribuciones en múltiples servicios regionales. En este escenario, hoy es de vital importancia la conformación de un Equipo Multidisciplinario que aborde de manera seria y eficiente el control de la transmisión de esta enfermedad y los riesgos que esta conlleva.

Desde el punto de vista de la prevención debe establecerse una especial vigilancia a los grupos de mayor riesgo de contagio y complicación de la enfermedad, definiendo para ello los recursos y esfuerzos necesarios para lograr este objetivo, no bastan los anuncios generales.

El Estado debe destinar todos los recursos económicos, físicos, humanos y de equipamiento necesarios para enfrentar la situación actual, tanto para la prevención como para la educación sanitaria. El financiamiento señalado, así como las camas de urgencia disponibles aparecen como insuficientes, más aun ante el déficit estructural que arrastra la salud pública. Exigimos que todas las medidas que deban tomarse estén lejos de todo posible mercantilismo y no sea una oportunidad de subsidiar a la medicina privada al focalizarse la acción sólo en la curación de las posibles complicaciones, como se ha establecido por parte del gobierno al día de hoy. En Francia y en España los gobiernos han puesto a todos los servicios de salud privada a disposición del Estado ante la contingencia, lo que en Chile sería una medida muy razonable.

Es una gran responsabilidad del Estado garantizar que todos los establecimientos de salud puedan contar con una óptima capacidad de respuesta ante las situaciones epidemiológicas que pudieran presentarse, garantizando además la protección de los trabajadores de salud, que son hoy los más expuestos en el enfrentamiento del COVID – 19, por lo que exigimos que se les garanticen las mejores condiciones tanto laborales como sanitarias.

Nos enfrentamos a una situación compleja, por tanto exigimos respuestas adecuadas a esta crisis, por esto demandamos la total gratuidad en la cobertura del examen diagnóstico del COVID-19 para el conjunto de la población de nuestro país. No es aceptable que ante la actual emergencia sanitaria el gobierno establezca diferencias de pago entre pacientes ISAPRE y FONASA. La población chilena es una sola y todos tienen Derecho a la Salud, como lo exige la multitudinaria movilización social.

No está claro si el gobierno ha solicitado ya asesoría o colaboración para contar con las formulas más eficaces ya probadas en otros países en el tratamineto del COVID19 como lo hacen otros países.

Se necesita más transparencia respecto a todas las medidas que se tomarán. De nuevo el Presidente ha anunciado la posibilidad de decretar el Estado de Emergencia, la pregunta es ¿cual es su finalidad exacta? La ciudadanía no aceptará que se trate de tomar ventajas políticas o sortear sin solución la crisis social, política y económica que vive el país o se pretenda posponer indefinidamente el proceso constituyente. El coronavirus es una amenaza real, pero no puede transformarse en una válvula de escape para el gobierno, ni para el sistema injusto que el pueblo exige cambiar.

La aparición de esta pandemia debe servir para tomar conciencia de la importancia de contar con un Sistema de Salud Estatal fuerte en los aspectos de infraestructura, recursos humanos y financiamiento. Nuestra red pública ha sido sistemáticamente debilitada en los últimos 45 años y eso puede afectar nuestra capacidad de respuesta ante una crisis como esta. En el mismo sentido, se hace imperativo el fortalecimiento de la Atención Primaria de Salud, la prevención y la vigilancia epidemiológica, todas actividades que no son valoradas en la economía de mercado.

Exhortamos al gobierno a tomar medidas reales y enérgicas que permitan prevenir el contagio del COVID-19 en nuestro país, desarrollando un fuerte trabajo preventivo y una preparación adecuada que nos permita enfrentar los posibles contagiados por medio del fortalecimiento de la red de salud con una alta resolutividad, solo así podremos desafiar con éxito el riesgo sanitario al que nos vemos enfrentados.

Llamamos a la población a enfrentar la situación con serenidad, evitando el pánico e implementando las medidas adecuadas de prevención del contagio, como lo ha hecho el sistema público en conjunto con la comunidad en el pasado, para enfrentar con éxito situaciones como la actual.