Covid-19, capitalism & need for socialist alternative

Statements from the International Secretariat

Report and Analysis from the countries

Chile

• Chile: Piñera’s government unleashes brutal repression against May Day gathering
  May 5, 2020
  Celso Calfullan Socialism Revolucionario (CWI in Chile)
• Chilean government’s handling of covid-19 crisis is a social, political mine-field
  April 27, 2020
  Socialismo Revolucionario (Revolutionary Socialism - Chilean section of the CWI) Reporters
• Chile: Trade unionists, left organisations call for workers’ congress to tackle covid-19 crisis
  April 16, 2020
  Joint declaration by Chilean trade unionists and left organisations
• Chile: Union bureaucracy attempt to expel a workers’ leader defending shop workers exposed to covid-19
  April 7, 2020
  Statement by Vilma Alvarez, a union leader at Jumbo company

China

• China and the fall-out from Covid-19
  June 6, 2020
  Clare Doyle, CWI
• China: Trump’s insults fuel rivalry
  May 8, 2020
  Clare Doyle, CWI
• China: Coronavirus crisis shakes regime
  February 19, 2020
  Clare Doyle, CWI

England & Wales

• Covid crisis one year on
  March 12, 2021
  Jon Dale, first published in Socialism Today, monthly magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)
• Black and Asian covid-19 deaths: An indictment of capitalist inequality
  May 28, 2020
  Jim Hensman Socialist Party (CWI E&W) BAME group
• Pandemic shortages caused by capitalist market – socialist planning is the alternative
  May 14, 2020
  Iain Dalton Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) national committee
• Britain: Tories put profit before lives
  May 13, 2020
  Editorial from The Socialist, weekly paper of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)
• 75th anniversary of ‘VE Day’: No return to the 1930s
  May 8, 2020
  Tom Baldwin, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)
• Britain: In drive for profits, bosses push to end lockdown
  May 7, 2020
  Editorial from The Socialist, weekly paper of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)
• Britain: Only a national plan and workers’ control can guarantee a safe exit from lockdown
  May 6, 2020
  Martin Powell-Davies, from The Socialist (weekly paper of the Socialist Party - CWI England & Wales)
• Britain: Workers’ safety before bosses’ profits
  April 30, 2020
  Rob Williams, Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) industrial organiser
• London bus drivers’ action over covid-19 safety stops front door boarding
  April 23, 2020
  Interview with a London bus driver
• Covid-19: Bosses put lives at risk with push for ‘exit strategy’
  April 15, 2020
  Editorial from The Socialist, weekly newspaper of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales)

Germany

• Germany: Corona is the virus – capitalism is the pandemic!
  Socialist Organisation Solidarity (CWI Germany) ‘wall newspaper’ text
• Covid 19: The biggest crisis in German post-war history
  April 14, 2020
  Wolfram Klein, Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (CWI Germany)
• Coronavirus crisis…strikes and workers’ protests
  March 30, 2020
  Jens Jaschik, Sozialistische Organisation Solidaritaet (CWI), Dortmund

India

• India: Fighting the curse of capitalism and coronavirus
  April 24, 2020
  Jagadish G Chandra, New Socialist Alternative (CWI in India)
• Covid-19: Joint statement by Indian unions and New Socialist Alternative (CWI) demands nationalisation of health sector
  April 17, 2020
  Joint statement by trade unions, union activists and New Socialist Alternative (CWI in India)
• India: Migrant workers face police attacks in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
  April 6, 2020
  Naveen Angamuttu New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India)

Malaysia

• Malaysia: Covid-19 takes toll on economy and government
  June 1, 2020
  Ravi, Sosialis Alternatif (CWI Malaysia)

Nigeria

• Nigeria: Government locks down without adequate resources for the masses
  April 29, 2020
  Peluola Adewale, Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI Nigeria)
• Coronavirus: Capitalism fails to defend the health of millions of Nigerians
  March 27, 2020
  H.T Soweto, Lagos

Scotland

• Scotland and coronavirus – A catalogue of government failure
  June 19, 2020
  Philip Stott, Socialist Party Scotland (CWI)
• Scotland: Lockdown exit exposing Tory and Scottish National Party failures
  May 11, 2020
  Socialist Party Scotland executive committee
• Scottish government failing over covid-19
  April 1, 2020
  Matt Dobson, Socialist Party Scotland (CWI)

Sri Lanka

• Sri Lankan government uses covid 19 state of emergency to bolster its political power
  April 4, 2020
  Siritunga Jayasuriya, United Socialist Party (CWI Sri Lanka)
• Sri Lanka: When socialist pioneers fought malaria and colonialism 
  March 29, 2020
  Srinath Pereira, United Socialist Party (CWI in Sri Lanka)

South Africa

• South Africa: Fight retrenchments, outsourcing and pay cuts in the aviation industry
  May 7, 2020
  Marxist Workers Party (CWI South Africa) Reporters
• South Africa: Organising working class communities under pandemic lockdown
  May 6, 2020
  Marxist Workers Party (CWI South Africa) statement
• South Africa: Militarised lockdown against the working class and poor
  April 8, 2020
  Shaun Arendse and Weizmann Hamilton, Marxist Workers Party (CWI SA)
• South Africa: Covid-19 exposes bankruptcy of ANC’s capitalist policies
  March 28, 2020
  Weizmann Hamilton, Marxist Workers' Party (CWI South Africa)

Ireland Republic

• Irish police use covid-19 emergency powers to disperse Dublin shop workers’ protest
  April 22, 2020
  Ciarán McKenna, CWI Ireland
• Coronavirus hits Ireland following transformed post-election landscape
  March 25, 2020
  CWI Ireland reporters

Ireland North

• Stormont Assembly ministers fail care home workers and residents exposed to covid-19
  May 21, 2020
  Councillor Donal O’Cofaigh, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, and CWI supporter
• Workers mobilise over covid-19 threat, as Northern Ireland Executive divides
  April 1, 2020
  CWI Reporter, Belfast
• Coronavirus: Belfast City council workers put at risk
  March 21, 2020
  Unite the trade union shop steward, Belfast City council

Italy

• ‘Health not profit’ strike wave sweeps Italy
  March 15, 2020
  Chris Thomas, CWI
• Italy on lockdown: lack of resources and democracy causes panic
  March 14, 2020
  Interview with a teacher in Bologna

Russia

• “For the world, the blow will be very difficult and very serious,” – Russian oligarch warns about economic consequences of pandemic
  June 11, 2020
  Dmitriev Alexandr, CWI Russia
• Putin’s early ending of lockdown cannot disguise depth of covid-19 crisis
  June 2, 2020
  Alexander Dmitriev, CWI Russia
• Popular anger grows in Russia over Putin’s handling of covid-19 crisis 
  April 20, 2020
  Ilya Usnitsky, CWI Reporter, Russia 

Sweden

• Coronavirus: Is Sweden turning vulnerable patients away to die?
  April 28, 2020
  Edmund Schluessel, Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto (CWI in Finland)
• Sweden’s coronavirus catastrophe: a failure of neo-liberalism, accountability and capitalism
  April 8, 2020
  Edmund Schluessel, Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto (CWI in Finland)
• Finland, Sweden, Denmark…Covid 19 and governments’ responses
  April 3, 2020
  Edmund Schluessel, Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto (CWI in Finland), and Daniel Dyhrberg, Copenhagen

Ecuador

• Ecuador: Death in paradise – how coronavirus devasted Guayaquil
  April 7, 2020
  Andrea Ruiz-Prato

Algeria

• Algeria: Government demands Algerians pay to fight covid-19 
  April 4, 2020
  Mina Boukhaoua, Gauche Revolutionnaire (CWI in France)

Japan

• Coronavirus exposes weaknesses of Japanese capitalism and government
  March 21, 2020
  Carl Simmons, (Kokusai Rentai - CWI Japan)

South Korea

• South Korea shows capitalism has money to respond to coronavirus
  March 14, 2020
  Interview with an English teacher in Ulsan, South Korea