This Crisis Will Change the World – for Better, or Worse
The coronavirus pandemic poses enormous economic challenges – now is the time to meet them with policies that promote equality at home and internationalism across the globe.
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Ko Leik Pya works as a teacher and writer in the UK and Myanmar. He writes here under a pseudonym.
The coronavirus pandemic poses enormous economic challenges – now is the time to meet them with policies that promote equality at home and internationalism across the globe.
Forty years of neoliberalism has left our societies exposed and ill prepared to face a public health crisis on the scale of coronavirus, argues David Harvey.
As coronavirus leads to lockdowns across the world, capitalism will be forced to face its Achilles heel: the vast mountain of global debt.
Capital has already exploited the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse for layoffs and wage cuts. If workers are to survive, they’ll need to be organised – and ready to brush off criticism to take strike action.
Coronavirus will slow the engine of capitalist globalisation as nation states seek self-sufficiency. It’s a time to rethink our world economic model – and ask whether a more progressive alternative is possible.
UK household debt hit an all-time high before the coronavirus. Now it’s the next crisis the government has to tackle – and only a suspension of repayments will do.
Socialist councillors in Salford are enabling large-scale community support to make sure that there’s somebody looking after everyone who needs it during the coronavirus crisis.
By delaying a proper economic response to the coronavirus crisis, the government has cost jobs and undermined public health. Today it must act urgently and at scale, argues John McDonnell.
NHS staff facing coronavirus have made three clear demands of the government – testing, protective equipment and ventilators. As the outbreak grows, there are no signs that any of these will be met.
The government has confirmed that it will finally produce a support package for workers tomorrow. Labour has set out its demands: prevent layoffs, support wages, increase sick pay and boost unemployment supports.
In the coronavirus crisis, maintaining supply of essential goods will be a key priority. Postal workers enjoy the trust of communities to do this – that’s why their fight to protect the service is so important.
A war effort requires the total mobilisation of an economy. What we’re facing with coronavirus is different – the need to demobilise the economy for as long as public health demands.
Right now, millions of workers across Britain are losing hours and jobs they need to survive. They are being abandoned by the government – and the costs for society will be disastrous.
The Tory government’s response to coronavirus has been characterised by a determination to protect big business interests and the system that serves them ahead of working people, argues Ian Lavery.
Britain’s postal workers have offered to become an additional emergency service during the crisis: delivering food and medicine, and checking on the vulnerable. It’s time Royal Mail got behind them.
A decade of cutbacks, privatisation and underfunding have seriously damaged the NHS, just as it is about to face its greatest-ever crisis. It needs massive government investment – immediately.
The airline industry will not survive the coronavirus, with grounded flights bankrupting most companies by the summer. Now is the time to nationalise – and use this moment to chart a course to a low-carbon future.
In 2008, they told us not to ‘politicise’ the crash. We ended up with a decade of austerity. The coronavirus crisis will reshape the economy in profound ways – now is the time to make socialist arguments about how to respond, argues Grace Blakeley.
The government’s response to coronavirus has been nowhere near enough – it’s time for emergency measures from requisitioning private hospitals to suspending mortgage, rent and household bills, argues Rebecca Long-Bailey.
While the UK dithers and delays, Denmark has moved swiftly to help workers impacted by the economic fallout from coronavirus – securing a deal between unions and employers to protect wages and prevent layoffs.