People Aren’t Disposable

These are scary times. The COVID-19 is revealing the true nature of our society. Politicians are weighing up how many lives a point on the stock exchange is worth. We’re seeing how governments will only suspend profit-making activities when they have the proverbial gun at their heads. We’re seeing the well-being of Big Business placed above that of ordinary people. Nothing that threatens their profits will get done if there is any way to avoid it. Don’t be fooled by the ruling class’s concern for ordinary people who will die because of COVID-19 and the expected recession. For the capitalist, workers are expendable people. Workers are to be made into sacrificial lambs on the altar of the blessed marketplace. This is the savage class rule of capitalism.

COVID-19 is exposing the capitalist system for what it is - the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on humankind. This economic system cannot suspend its activities for even a few weeks without going into visible signs of collapse exposes it for what it is. It is showing us how we need to live if we are to have any hope of progressing as a civilisation. Now is the time for socialists to present the ideal of a society ordered to human well-being to our family, friends fellow-workers and neighbours. 

What we must do is insist that production be devoted to the people. Are we capable of imagining such a thing? Can we envision building a totally new world? It could be ours, if only we insist on it. Can we imagine a world of automation that serves people rather than displaces them? Can we picture our roads free of traffic around the clock. Imagine air cleansed of the CO2 and pollution of those factories producing unnecessary products that only end up in land-fill. Now is our chance to change things and demand better. We deserve much better. We are worth much more.