Humanity’s way forward

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew….It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.” - Arundhati Roy

With the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, human society faces a moment of reckoning. No country has been spared and all have suffered in some shape or form. The lockdowns have deprived millions of daily wage earners pushing many families into hunger. Many small farmers continue to work their fields or rear their livestock but their local markets have shut down making it difficult for them to sell their produce and harvests have been left rotting in the fields. Fishing communities have also suffered unable to transport their catch to towns and cities. The global corporate Big Ag food industry which relies on international supply chains to function has been hit even harder because of travel bans affecting labour supply and international distribution and their normal reserves in storage are running out. Singapore, for example, imports some 90 percent of its food; Iraq, which used to be the breadbasket of the Middle East, also gets more than 80 percent of its food from abroad. For global food security, the pandemic bodes ill. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are warning of the risk of worldwide "food shortages".

For socialists, the food supply, a necessity for all, should rely on cooperation and not competition. Principles of solidarity should determine its production and distribution. Socialism which promotes life over profits must become the foundation of human civilisation. We are not living in such a world now, but we surely can. It is now the time to start building an equitable and just society. Wealth is in the hands of a few while the majority struggle simply to get by. People across the world are turning to their governments for desperately needed health services and financial support. The pandemic is thus strengthening state power and nationalism in many countries.

But now the inequalities and injustices are no longer invisible. Some are beginning to ask why are some rich and others poor (nations and people),  why are some privileged and most not. Some now see that our system is designed to perpetuate rather than eradicate social divisions, and that must be changed.

The pandemic is merely bringing to the fore the threat food production faces from the climate crisis where much of the world will face disruptions of supplies of food and water. We need desperately to create a fairer society. We all deserve a better world where our well-being comes before profits. We can make it happen but we have no time to waste. We have a much work to do even as we are at present largely confined to our homes. Our problems are solvable. It’s so simple. All that is required is a shift in attitude, a switch in thinking and the start to take action. COVID-19 may be the trigger for the change in the way we want to live our lives.