Andy Moxley is a member of International Socialist Alternative.
Workers’ Power on Display Thursday
The Covid-19 virus has shown just how deeply flawed and anarchic the capitalist system is. Not only has there been an inability for the capitalist class worldwide to mount a coordinated humanitarian effort in response, but responses on a national level have been extremely haphazard and uneven.
Lockdowns and restrictions on the democratic right of assembly and movement have been launched at the same time as the capitalists struggle to keep their profits afloat amidst the impending economic downturn by keeping many major workplaces open, almost guaranteeing the further spread of the pandemic in the process.
Battle Against the Virus is a Class Battle
The battle against Covid-19 has become a class battle. This is seen explicitly in cases like Quebec, where education workers recently received notices from the government saying that their collective agreements are now null and void in order to respond to the Coronavirus crisis.
Despite the blame game of the capitalist establishment trying to pin the fault for the Covid-19 crisis on the backs of the working class, it is workers across the world who have been on the frontline of keeping essential services running during the pandemic. Not only that, but it has also been the power of the organised working class which has, through strike and workplace action, forced the capitalists to shut down many workplaces that are potential hubs for the further spread of the virus, misery and death.
Workers’ Action Sweeps Italy
Italy is now ground zero in terms of the brutal effects of the pandemic. Despite a lockdown, deaths have climbed to make the country first on the list of fatalities, with brutal scenes like the Italian army carrying coffins out of Bergamo hitting the media worldwide. Just like in China, the Italian ruling class bungled its first response to the virus crisis, then swung over to a full lockdown with the state able to issue fines and criminal charges for leaving the home.
Despite this, major workplaces with thousands of workers — factories, warehouses, public transit hubs — were held open, usually without any adequate sanitary protection such as sanitizer, masks and so on. In response, workers across Italy have embarked on the road of strike action calling for workplaces to shut and proper sanitation and benefits to be provided. Autoworkers, Amazon workers, shipyard workers, metalworkers and more have all moved into action to protest at the government and capitalist bosses’
In the virus epicenter of Lombardy, after a wave of spontaneous strikes across the country, the three main unions representing chemical workers, FILCTEM, FEMCA and UILTEC, have planned for a day of national strike action on 25 March. This was in response to pressure from below after the government struck a deal in consultation with the bosses’ organization, Confindustria, and a treacherous alliance with the leaders of the three main Italian union federations — CGIL, CISL, and UIL. This deal is full of loopholes, including leaving the final decisions to the employer about whether or not to shut down production!
Despite the severity of the situation in Italy, the need for workers to take action to force an adequate response to the pandemic has been a global phenomenon. And it’s not just been to protect the workers themselves.
New York teachers force schools action
In New York City, which now has a third of all cases in the US and 5% of cases worldwide, the threat of a mass teachers’ ‘sickout’ forced Democratic Mayor, Bill DeBlasio, to close the schools for at least 4 weeks. Showing the shift in mood around the current crisis, one New York teacher wrote in a New York Times editorial before the decision was made saying:
“Many of us worked through 11 Sept., 2001, as the World Trade Center was toppled across the street, walked to school during the transit strike, and did not miss a day during Hurricane Sandy. This is different, because by coming to work we are being asked to put our health and our students’ health and the health of all of our families at unnecessary risk.”
They also linked their call to the necessity of strengthening public services, as many students rely on school programs like meals and after-school supervision to get by. Teachers have also been on the front line in the fight back in several other places like Queensland, Australia where they are currently threatening to strike unless schools are closed by the end of the week.
In Britain, despite projections that it is just 2–3 weeks behind Italy, Boris Johnson’s government has wavered in response to the crisis. This has further exacerbated the fear and anger in British society. In London in particular, there have been a series of strikes around different issues of health and safety in response to Covid-19. Bexley (Greater London) refuse workers undertook a successful strike, winning sick pay from day one for any worker affected by the virus.
The National Education Union mounted a successful campaign of pressure on the Tory government calling for school closures, which began on Friday, 20 March. There are also developments in the direction of UK Amazon warehouse workers taking action in response to longer hours, as has happened recently in the US, France and Italy.
Workers’ Power on Display
These are just a few examples. Globally both organized and unorganized workers across several industries have either moved towards strike action explicitly or have been key in forcing corporations and governments to respond to the crisis. At the same time, it is workers in key sectors that are managing to keep society running.
The Covid-19 crisis shows very directly who holds the real power in society — the working class. Workers can shut down society by withdrawing their labor but they also are the ones at the point of production and delivery of services — from food to healthcare — who best know how things should be rightly organized in order to function even in the midst of one of the greatest health and social crises in modern history.
Yet society under capitalism is organized in such a way as to benefit a tiny elite at the expense of the overwhelming mass. Just like during a war, the current pandemic shows the deadly consequences of a system that puts profits over the health and well-being of working people. The working class is beginning to demonstrate in action on a minor scale the superiority of a society democratically organized and run by the working class — a slight glimmer of what would be possible in a socialist society.
