Humanity in Peril

We must be more condemnatory about how much capitalism has failed us in our preparation for the pandemic. We need to do a better job at acknowledging class interest in various public health policies. The major media outlets are trying to construct the various post-coronavirus possibilities. Some say COVID-19 will create a world that is less open, less prosperous, and less free. Others argue that it is unlikely that the world will return to the idea of mutually beneficial globalization. While a few suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic will not fundamentally alter global economic directions but will only accelerate a change that had already begun: a move away from US-centric globalization to a more China-centric globalisation. Environmentalists emphasise the fact that the lockdowns and the reductions in industry and transport, has raised hopes that it might not be too late for Planet Earth after all and feature photos of clear blue skies over Delhi and the clean clear canals of Venice.

For socialists the pandemic anticipate that it has got working people thinking about an alternate form of society, beyond the nation-state, a society of global solidarity and cooperation based on the democratic will of the people. The future will bring about change. It ought to. It must. Because the status quo is simply unsustainable. The dehumanisation of humanity must not be allowed to become an everyday occurrence. For that better, more equitable future to arrive, our understanding of it must place the Marxist class struggle within broader and more global terms. It would be simplistic to believe the pandemic alone can produce change but there is no denying that the current crisis has got us all thinking differently about the world we live in. There is no longer an accepted consensus. Without working people propelling social change, the status quo will constantly reinvent itself, retaining its dominance, hegemony and power. It is us, the people, must rise up to redefine the way we wish to live on our planet.

We are living in a “new normal”. COVID-19 may help spark action to build a new fair sustainable world for all of us. The Socialist Co-operative Commonwealth will save the planet and its peoples.

 To give up hope now is to perish.