CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC – 6.

Posted on March 29, 2020 by stutteringsteps

A world upside down.

The primary target for all the financial measures taken by pandemic-struck governments has been to provide aid to industry, commerce and banking. Such ‘largesse’ is not actually to save the ‘people’ but the existing economic ‘system’. Even money given directly to working people, will go to landlords, electricity, water, gas and mortgage companies, and supermarkets etc. Some will keep them fed, watered and housed, but it will also find its way back to the economic elite.

In this way, the pandemic has starkly revealed that, for the pro – capitalist elites, the connection between people and economic activity is viewed upside down. They think ordinary people exist to serve the economy and not the other way around. For them economic activity definitely does not exist to serve the people. In fact capitalists view the entire world as existing to supply the needs of their economic system. Indeed, they and their major shareholders act as if the world is there to service them.

From the bourgeois perspective the ‘health of the economy’ has always been of more importance than the ‘health of the people’.

Only immediately after the Second World War, was that viewpoint muted in some countries. Welfare reforms, with health services, pensions, education, sickness benefits etc., were evidence of this. But even then the fundamental view – of all political shades of opinion – was that a healthy economy needed a healthy workforce. Even post 1945, the world was still viewed upside down. The reluctance to initiate an early quarantine lock-down and the bailout package in March 2020, indicated that protect the economy first was still the priority.

But that is nothing new. Among the pro-capitalist elites, left, right and centre, it has never crossed elite minds that economic activity should primarily serve the needs of the majority of people. That would require a genuine humanist perspective, which could not arise among an elite who need the heavy taxation of working people to support their well-heeled life – styles. Yet this upside-down elite view directly clashes with the perspective which arises among working people and from the natural world.

The hopes and dreams of many, if not most, working people is not to stop work and do nothing. Rather it is to earn enough (or win enough) to stop working in relentless mass – producing industries and to do so early enough to enjoy a fuller range of activities and experiences. Interestingly, that viewpoint is essentially a perspective also rooted in nature. For no other animal species labours all its active life so that it can support a relative small number of its species in extravagant luxury, while the rest struggle to survive.

Natural life, other than human, is based only upon securing a desirable level of basic needs, such as food, water, shelter and procreation. No other animal amasses non-essential products. Moreover, no other species engages in a mode of production which in pursuit of economic and social inequality, consciously degrades and destroys the ecological basis for its own survival. Capitalism is thus a totally unnatural mode of production.

Even more contradictions.

Previous zoonotic viral epidemics (eg EBOLA, AIDS, SERS, MERS etc.) have brought to the fore a further development of capitalism’s fundamental contradictions. By leaving no part of the world un-plundered and un-connected, its extractive activities incubate and then enable new strains of virus – that would have otherwise remained in their places of origin – to infect whole countries and regions. In addition the Covid-19 pandemic illustrates that these infections can now spread to the whole planet and restricts capitalism’s own economic activity to the supply of limited amounts of food, water and shelter.

The general response to this pandemic also reveals that capitalism has to be rescued from its eco-cidal, economic and financial follies, not by better capitalisms, (there are none) but, – as in 2008 – by non-profit based public service organisations. Without public services and governmental organisations stepping in, capitalists concerns would have collapsed progressively or continued production until everything collapsed. The socialised bailout and quarantine measures, needed to keep societies alive and ticking over due to this Covid-19 pandemic, show that competition and private capital could not have saved the world’s population from the worst. It took non-profit institutions – albeit some very badly managed ones –  to belatedly act to save the social system and many lives.

This pandemic also demonstrates that when crises of such magnitude occur, societies need the cooperation of all citizens to survive and function properly. It has also indicated something else. Social structures with pro-capitalists at the top wielding power, not only create the conditions for such epidemics to flourish and spread, but reveal that it is the bottom layers of society, the workers, (the least paid) who are the most important to societal maintenance and survival. It is they – as they do in normal times – who are keeping the health system, food distribution, water, electricity, sewage, rubbish removal and other essential services going.

The elite hide themselves away enjoying their perks and privileges, while the working class staff the front ranks again and give their energies and lives, to keep this new viral enemy at bay. True some elites meet in committee and push paper about, but it is not those who keep us directly supplied with essentials. Under capitalism it is clear, social importance and rewards are upside down, for even the rich need food, water, electricity, sewage processing etc., before they ‘need‘ anything else.

In normal periods as well as in crisis, the rich need working people more fundamentally than they need their own elite neighbours. We all depend not only the above named categories but teachers, engineers, technicians, plumbers, builders, transport workers etc. Crises sharply demonstrate we need working people, far more than the barely competent elites in Parliaments and governmental agencies. Yet the wage and salary levels do not reflect this. The world in 2020 and beyond, badly needs turning the right way up.

Roy Ratcliffe (April 2020)

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CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC – 5

Posted on March 26, 2020 by stutteringsteps

After initially downplaying the combined contagion capability of Covid-19 and its conduit along the global supply chain, many governments, have started to rehearse a self-serving narrative. It is a narrative which will dominate contemporary and future discussions and evaluations of political performance in a post-pandemic return to normality (!). Already excuses are being made, particularly in the advanced countries of Europe and the West, as politicians and senior government advisers seek to justify their considerable salaries, expenses and pensions. Early ones are as follows.

A. This is a new virus, so we are still learning. There is a tiny gram of accuracy in this official line of ‘spin’, but it hides a pound of deceit. Covid-19 is a new zoonotic (from animals) corona virus and specialists in this field have experience of all kinds of viruses, their origins, methods of transmission, contagion caypabilities and how to contain them.

If we discount the lessons learned prior to 2000 (eg. HIV; H5N2), then there have been six: SARS; HPN1 (avian); H1N1 (swine); MERS; H7N9 (avian); EBOLA; and ZIKA. Covid-19 is part of a family of viruses that can produce mild to serious respiratory problems. But more to the point the lessons of how they spread and how dangerous they can be was readily known at the highest levels of government and World Health Organisation. There is even a journal, ‘Emerging Infectious Diseases’. And as one author on the a future pandemic perceptively wrote;

“Will the Next Big One come out of the rainforest or a market in southern China?” (‘Spillover’ David Quammen.)

Indeed, the problem of virus pandemics, including corona ones, is so well known and anticipated that a series of preparatory stages had been proposed to governments by those most up to date in this area. In non-medical language these amount to the following.

1. Expect new zoonotic viruses and be alert. 2. Put health concerns before economic ones. 3. Have, well-funded and prepared health services already in place. 4. Respond rapidly once infection is detected. 5. Provide honest, clear and consistent communication. 6. Begin diagnosis, quarantining and treatment early. 7. Invest sufficiently in scientific research and prevention strategies. 8. Mobilise the public in active preventions.

1 Most western and European governments and their specialists seem not to have been on the alert. 2 Indeed, even after news came out from the source in China, economic concerns were the primary ones. 3 The health services in most neo-liberalised countries, we’re underfunded and under-prepared. 4 Response was far from rapid once the problem became obvious. 5 Information was far from, honest, clear or consistent from most capitalist governments. 6 Diagnosis and treatment is still not fully operational three months after the first alert. 7 In some countries scientific research and prevention strategies were either static or in some cases (USA) had been reduced. 8 In some countries the public were not mobilised but at first largely ignored, then asked to isolate themselves.

However, in the UK faced with having effectively defaulted on stages 1 to 7 the well-heeled government politicians and officials here have finally decided to mobilise ordinary citizens and as key workers become sick, will need to mobilise more. Already in some countries care homes are woefully understaffed. How are the old on medication to get their tablets if they cannot leave home without risking contagion? Furthermore, as transport workers and supermarket operatives become sick drivers and shelf-stackers will be needed. As in the case of Brexit, the UK elite demonstrate that nothing seems to have been thought through quickly or effectively.

B. The Government is taking the right measures at the right time. That political rationalisation is devoid of any connection with reality as the above section makes clear.

C. ‘We are all in this together.’ I have dealt with that nonsensical  political sound bite in  Corona Virus Pandemic – 3. However, it is worth adding that if you are self-isolating in a palace or mansion, with your own private grounds, with your own gym, swimming pool, games room, wine cellar and all the other luxury that goes with our unequal class system, is different. That is obviously a vastly different ‘all in it together’ experience than a poor pensioner in a terraced cottage or a single mum in a high – rise or low rise apartment with a young child.

We are going to have much more of this self-serving denial of reality pouring out of the mouths of the elite and refined and amplified by the sycophantic middle – class in the media outlets. They are simply trying to buff-up the rusting hulk of capitalist social structures. Middle-class professionals like the ‘idea’ of there being communal equality, but shrink at trying to achieve it in ‘reality’. Our only hope lies in the stoicism and humanism of ordinary working people, who will keep basic services running and also step up and help each other in the community. Each community, as soon as possible, should create neighbourhood Covid-19 defence committees, who will monitor the the situation, keep an eye on the most vulnerable and ensure any government initiatives get to those in need and not siphoned off for private gain.

Roy Ratcliffe (March 2020)

[For lessons learned from Epidemics and Pandemics, see for example; ‘The end of Epidemics’ by Dr. Jonathan D Quick.]

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CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC – 4.

Posted on March 25, 2020 by stutteringsteps

The battle against the Covid-19 virus now has all the characteristics of  a World War. As yet this new ‘World War ‘, is not against the citizens of another nation, as were the last two. Nevertheless, practically every nation has introduced variations of Martial Law to defeat this microscopic ‘enemy of the people’. Talk of an ‘army’ of volunteers has also been heard. Even the most pro-capitalist elites in UK and Europe have come close to ‘nationalising’ everything, as they did in the Second World War. This is being done in order to weather the crisis and ensure an eventual return to capitalist forms of production. As in previous wars, everybody must do as they are told and make sacrifices (some on this front line by dying) to save the system, with it’s divisions between rich and poor, and elite form of governance.

As in previous wars, the elite invite us to look away from the events leading up to the outbreak and focus on immediate problems. This allows them to shift responsibility away from the system, it’s governing elites and blame the victims of the virus when things go wrong. If the virus spreads uncontrollably, it will not be the fault of neo – liberal policies of the past decades, of elite under-funding of public services, low pay and homelessness, nor of exporting production to sources of cheap labour abroad. Instead, the finger will be pointed at the systems victims – we should have stayed indoors!

The fact that people do not trust the motives of politicians and governing elites because of years of broken promises and factual manipulations, will also be ignored. Those, who in the current dire circumstances, have sensibly conformed to the draconian measures will be encouraged to direct their anger at those who stockpile essential products, or decide not to self-isolate. Citizens may even be asked to report each other for transgressions to ‘public order’ provisions, just as they were in previous wars. We only need the national coordination of essential foods and clothing (ie ‘rationing’) and the similarities to other world wars will be obvious.

The experience of extensive national control during the Second World War, led people to mistake nationalisation for socialism. This led working people to support successive post-war governments to fully nationalise and modernise businesses – at public cost – after that war. This policy invited de-nationalisation (privatisation) when circumstances were favourable to the elite. Whether the capitalist and pro-capitalist elites can get away with the same trick after this Covid-19 war remains to be seen.

The fact that capitalist-minded governments have decided to help out ordinary people via massive cash donations to businesses and by extending illness and out of work benefits, may appear as a sincere concern for working class majorities in various countries. However, that concern is transparently thin. It has not been extended to front-line medical workers and other key workers. They still lack sufficient protection against infection or testing systems to determine who has the virus and who hasn’t. Yet some of these current anti-viral ‘remedies’ may be extended after the Covid-19 War is over.

The concept of a universal basic wage – paid to everyone, has already been suggested which will allow the unemployed and low-paid citizens to continue purchasing commodities which will make recovery for capitalist concerns possible. However, a post-war steep economic downturn and probable collapse is more likely because, like any other chain, economic and financial chains are only as strong as their weakest links. The current weak links are many – as a month of virus pandemic has already demonstrated.

Most of the current neo-liberal economic links are built on a combination of low-waged overproduction supported by leveraged debt and low-interest speculation. Keeping all the nearly-dead businesses, alive may be beyond the ability of even a new Marshall Plan. In 2019, the system was ready to collapse – given any source capable of sufficiently breaking the chain – as in 2008! Importantly, this virus-triggered world economic and financial crisis, occurs when the economic system has been routinely over producing for decades whilst polluting and destroying nature faster than can be remedied. Capitalism is Gaia’s cancer.

And the recent crash in financial markets does not fully indicate the depth or severity of the underlying crisis, for much of that ‘wealth’ is fictional capital. Its just paper promises leveraged and counted more than once, before being shredded. Its nothing new;

“With the development of interest – bearing capital and the credit system, all capital seems to double itself, and sometimes treble itself, by the various modes in which the same capital, or perhaps the same claim on a debt, appears in different forms and in different hands. The greater portion of this ‘money-capital’ is purely fictitious.” (Marx. Capital volume 3 page 460.)

Because profit is the motive to capitalist production there is constant rift between the limits to consumption, based as it is on the ability of enough people to buy everything for sale, and the amount which can be mass-produced in the hope of obtaining profits. This gap between production and consumption regularly leads to product dumping, destruction, bankrupt firms and recessions. The capitalist economic sequence has long been; full production – over-production – crisis – recession/stagnation – recovery – full production – over-production – crisis….repeated.

The depth and duration of recession after crisis has tended to be in proportion to extent and duration of the over-production. This current one will be a BIG one. Until production and employment is disconnected from profit and sustainably connected to egalitarian human needs, then crises will continue in a destructive downward spiral until societies can no longer recover on a capitalist basis. It would clearly be better to stop the decline before it reaches that point. Hopefully the current virus-triggered global crisis could be the catalyst for further disconnecting production from profit and making all production, people-led, need-based, egalitarian and ecologically sustainable – but not without a struggle.

Roy Ratcliffe (April 2020)

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CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC – 3

Posted on March 21, 2020 by stutteringsteps

Covid 19 and Capitalism.

Viruses are an ancient life-form and they pre-date the capitalist mode of production by millions, if not billions of years. Yet viruses and capitalism do have something in common. A virus is a member of the planets microscopic bio-mass, yet it is a predatory/parasitic member. It continues to live by exploiting the energy and material of other life-forms to promote it’s own welfare. It enters our internal system by inserting itself into weak points of our skin. It then moves into the circulatory part of our internal eco-system. Once there it attaches itself to healthy cells, pierces their protective layer and uses what is inside to reproduce itself. If not prevented, by a strong internal resistance, it moves on leaving behind it death and destruction.

On a larger scale capitalists are also predatory members of the planetary biomass. However, they only began to seriously enter the human socio-economic circulation systems a few hundred years ago. They too entered the weak spots in human environments and attached themselves to nearby economic activity. They then progressively penetrated and destroyed the healthy hunter-gatherer, pastoralist and agricultural economic cells of activity they encountered. This parasitic invasion was done, first at local and national geographic levels, then via colonialism and imperialism, to international ones as well. Countless millions of human beings and their sustainable life-styles were destroyed during the process of capitalism’s parasitic invasion of Gaia’s healthy body.

Anyone not totally blinded by ignorance or self-interest cannot fail to acknowledge that the capitalist mode of production, through its frenetic profit-motivated activity, has destroyed much of human, animal and plant life. It has also polluted so much of the land, seas, air and ground water, that many more forms of extinction are now inevitable. Capitalism’s pandemic invasion of the planet, in many ways mirrors the action of corona viruses on the human body. Of course, the analogy cannot be applied too far, because the virus does not know it is being parasitic and creating death and destruction in its wake.

For example, this virus cannot tell our healthy cells that ‘we are all in this together’ or ‘what we are doing is only natural’ or ‘the benefits of our activity will eventually trickle down’ or ‘isn’t this the best of all possible worlds…’. Nor can a virus so completely befuddle our immune micro-biotic agents with such propaganda that they ignore the destruction around them. But a parasitic elite class can. The human internal immune system if not compromised or sidelined, will automatically fight back. However, our external citizen antibodies have only intermittently rejected capitalism and not always effectively.

Returning to the contemporary Covid19 virus situation it is worth examining the recent statements made by the political representatives of capital as referenced in italics above.

1. ‘we are all in this together’. Perhaps in a biological sense, but we are not equally financially or economically protected. The billions set aside for business support will not really come to us all. Struggling, poorly paid working class people are likely to get a very small fraction of the bailout to capitalists. [and even 80% of low pay is still a huge 20% reduction.] Nor will they get interest free loans or council tax reductions. Those required to use pre-payment meters for electricity and gas, are not at all in the same boat as the well-heeled. Nor does everyone have access to private health care. We are not all in this pandemic together.

2. ‘what we are doing is only natural’. Capitalism is not a natural form of production. It is entirely social and on a historical scale – fairly recent! Nature does not produce billionaires on the one-hand and poverty-stricken hard working people on the other. These are social results imposed by human laws and elite enforcement agents. Indeed, capitalism is so unnatural that capitalists and pro-capitalists in crisis want bailouts – not from nature – but from social funds. Those dishing out social bailouts, such as politicians, government officials and advisors are themselves not directly employed by private capital, but by non – profit based forms of social organisation!

3. ‘the benefits…trickle down‘. The decades since Reagan, Thatcher and their enablers, instituted neo – liberal economic and financial policies, are informative in checking out what benefits have trickled down. Certainly not ‘benefits’ themselves. Moreover, reductions in public services since then are at the root of many current problems we face from Covid 19. Underfunded health services in practically all capitalist countries have insufficient intensive care beds, staff, testing kits, ventilators to cope. Even cheap face masks are not sufficiently available for front line staff. Millions of low – paid, zero – hours workers and part – time workers have for decades been unable to save anything for a rainy day or a quarantined month. Yet the 1% and the 10% have far more than they need tucked away.

4. ‘isn’t this the best of all possible worlds?‘ Not for those mentioned above, or the elderly ill, parked in hospital corridors, or those in many profit-based, ill-staffed care homes. That is before we draw attention to the rest of the world, where proxy wars have been fueled by the capitalist greed for oil, copper, zinc, aluminium and many other raw materials. For economic refugees and political seekers of asylum this is far from the best of all possible worlds. Only an elite are likely to really think that it is.

Whilst a virus is an unconscious parasite, capitalism’s parasitism is far from unconscious. A great deal of thought and planning go into how capitalists can best exploit global human and natural resources. Sadly, as greed motivated transmission ‘vectors’ most capitalists will continue their path of global invasion and destruction until enough larger life-forms recognise this death-dealing intrusion and resist. The global equivalent of the bodies immune micro-organisms rejecting Covid 19 are ordinary people who when this is over, need to begin a fight back and seek an end to capitalism’s virus – like pandemic of global destruction.

Roy Ratcliffe (March 2020)

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BEGINNERS GUIDE 18.

Posted on March 16, 2020 by stutteringsteps

On Revolution.

The decline and fall of empires.

Historical evidence indicates that elites governing previous historical empires have never voluntarily ended the socio-economic system over which they ruled. Indeed, the evidence indicates they fought ideologically and practically to continue their preferred socio-economic of exploitation despite clear signs that it had become moribund and unsustainable. Yet those immense historical empires, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Greece and Rome nevertheless did collapse and came to an inglorious end. The elites dominating the current immense empire of global capitalism – are no different in this regard.

It cannot have escaped the readers attention, how in other countries – as well as our own – that legitimate citizen protests are met with the calculated force of the states armed police forces in order to dissuade protesters from continuing their campaigns for better pay, working conditions or environmental improvements. So the fact that it has been known for decades, that capitalistic mass production and consumption has been undermining the natural foundation of food production, (soil, climate, fresh water, plant pollination) threatening major coastal cities from rising seas and depleting and damaging the oceans sea-food resources, does not mean elites will end this practice.

Their general reactionary position with regard to the extinction probabilities now highlighted by ‘extinction-rebellions’ and many concerned scientists is that; a) populations should leave existing elites in charge; b) allow capital to carry on producing and consuming in similar destructive ways, and that; c) citizens should simply adjust to new realities of increased fires, floods, epidemics and pollution. We should – just get used to it!

However, when ruling elites will not allow changes to a mode of production which has clearly not provided what it’s citizens require for a very long time, then a revolutionary transformation of that mode becomes necessary – if existential disasters are to be avoided. The good news is that we are already part way there. As noted in previous ‘guides’, elites in control of the capitalist mode of production have already introduced non-profit forms of organisation where capitalist enterprise has proved unsuitable. The bad news is that these same elites stand in the way of completing the logic of this economic transition. Neo-liberalism deliberately interrupted the move from private enterprise organisations to public service institutions and cooperative production. What is now required to complete and consolidate this economic transition is a two-fold revolution – political and economic.

Revolutionary transformations.

Sooner or later, the present political system will have to be ended at local and national levels, for it is designed from top to bottom to eliminate direct decision making from the majority and place it in the hands of a hierarchical elite. This system of political control will have to be abolished and a new non – hierarchical decision making process created. Clearing away the current disfunctional social infrastructure would facilitate a rapid completion of the transition to non-profit making, co-operative forms of organisation. The ethos of which would be for sustainable production and eco-friendly distribution, consumption and waste disposal – for all! Concurrently, the hierarchical internal structure of social organisations and productive bodies will also need to be replaced with genuine staff democracy.

Of course revolutions against entrenched and privileged elites do not just happen by recognising their necessity. Historical evidence demonstrates that certain developments are needed before revolutionary transformations occur. However, these developments are mostly outside of the control of individuals and even campaigning groups. Research on revolutionary processes elicits the following general – often overlapping – stages.

1. Widespread dissatisfaction and questioning the legitimacy of the system among populations.

2. Local collective activities and grassroots organisations broadcast the dissatisfaction and begin active opposition.

3. Regional/national organisations of dissatisfaction and coordinated action are created.

4. Dissatisfaction appears within the ruling and governing elite and these make links with regional and local developments.

The above four stages create the basis for popular uprisings. However, the success of such uprisings also depend upon the following three developments.

5. Irreparable splits appear within the ruling elites on popularised solutions to the problems.

6. Non-hierarchical civil-society organisations prepare themselves to resist being forced to back down and actively press their demands.

7. These civil – society movements organise alternative forms of national community structures in opposition to existing state organisation.

If the above stages become established, then the uprisings demands tend to be transformed into self-activity measures. In this way the general uprising ‘against‘ conditions can become transformed into revolutionary action ‘for‘ solutions. Then:

8. Existing socio-economic production systems are taken over by the protest movement and new ones created. Interrupted supplies of basic necessities are restarted and developed.

9. Decisions on production and distribution stay with the community organisations and their liason links with other community organisations are extended.

10. Future planning and coordination of production and exchange remains based upon negotiated community across models. Individual administrative or facilitator posts (deemed necessary) are by election on the basis of ability and are revocable.

In previous guides it was noted that in advanced capitalist countries, the bulk of the social organisations have already been instituted on a non-profit public service ‘needs’ basis. These need to be democratised and pay and conditions equalised to eliminate elite sabotage, misdirection and disruptive production. Even those remaining organisations based on private profit have long been reliant upon huge social support before, during the increasingly frequent economic and financial crises. They are but one step away from being fully transferred to the public sector and similarly democratised and equalised.

The era of globalised capitalism has reached the point where, within a generation, a rapid decline or sudden collapse, now seems inevitable. Already aggressive resource extraction has drastically de-stabilised the ecological and climate balance of the planet. The only remaining question is the speed in which this will happen. If humanity does not wake up and replace production for profit with production for sustainable need, then accelerated decline or sudden collapse is the likely outcome.

Roy Ratcliffe (March 2020)

[For why capitalism might suddenly collapse not gradually decline: See http://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/13/four-reasons-civilisation-wont-decline-it-will-collapse ]

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THE CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC – 2

Posted on March 14, 2020 by stutteringsteps

Capitalism and health-care.

In Corona Virus Pandemic – 1, it was briefly pointed out how global supply chains on the ‘just in time’ basis both extended the range of potential epidemics and accelerated the speed of their spread across the globe. One countries epidemic more frequently and more quickly becomes a Pandemic. However, the neo-liberal phase of the capitalist mode of production has also undermined the ability of communities to isolate an epidemic, to contain it’s spread and to slow it’s increase down.

The emphasis on profitable returns on capital and capitalist forms of efficiency has led to decades of low wages, precarious employment and cut – backs in public services. Thus measures suggested to contain or slow down the spread, cannot be fulfilled by sufficient numbers to make it effective. Self – isolation at an early stage – in order not to become infected and not to infect others – is only possible for those with sufficient income for them to stay home. Large numbers of low-paid workers, without sick pay entitlement and self-employed will not be able (or willing) to deprive themselves or their families of the income they need.

Workers over many decades have gone into work suffering from a wide range of injuries and illnesses, to keep food in their mouths and roofs over their heads. The mixed response to this new outbreak of contagion will be no different. Bear in mind the health service, which will be charged with caring for those most effected, also has large numbers of vacancies, shortages of beds along with a low-paid, over stretched workforce – all of whom – will face the same dilemma. If the pandemic does go on the most extreme rampage, the increasing numbers of infected people, shortages of doctors, staff and beds in hospitals and care homes, will be a neo-liberal created problem of huge proportions.

Although the old, the young and the sick may be the ones most vulnerable to death from a virus which overwhelms an already compromised immune system and those most vulnerable to it, that will not be the end of the serious global problems, triggered by Covid19. For there are those countries around the world which have little or no health services or sewage and clean water, yet still supply more advanced countries with raw materials or goods in numerous exchanges. The poor and low-paid in these countries will probably suffer more problems than more developed regions and the contagion will last much longer there before possibly finding it’s way back – just in time – for xmas.

So the neo-liberal phase of capitalism’s self-harming existential spasms will continue in one form or another. At the economic level, any serious pandemic of global proportions will of course trigger a cascade of economic collapses as supply chains become restricted or curtailed. That in turn will trigger shortages and financial collapses as loan payments funded by sales become defaulted and debts cannot be rolled over as credit dries up. Furthermore, the already crisis levels of national debts will increase as government tax receipts and income streams fall. Those effects in turn will create more unemployment, more poverty, more homelessness and another downward spiral of deprivation, dislocation and social protest.

In Europe and the UK the Covid-19 epidemic has also already revealed the chasm between private profit-based motivations and public service provisions. In this crisis, as in the 2008 finance crisis, no one turns to the private sector for general guidance on how to respond to a medical, economic, financial and social crisis. Everyone understands that governments and non-profit public services – as bad as some now are – are the only framework for national and international strategies to manage and combat epidemics.

For example, non-profit public organisations would never think of taking advantage of the present crisis by hiking up the prices of essential goods and medical supplies. However, the private sector has already done this with face masks, hand washing gels and many other things. When essential food supplies start to dry up, other sections of the private sector will undoubtedly view this current epidemic as an opportunity to manage their own type of profit-based killing.

But that’s not all. Government agents and health officials will also be calculating how best to manage the stages of infection, the progress of immunity and the number of deaths resulting from it. The calculation will be based around the need to ensure that national immunity gained (through survival) will leave intact the largest possible number of productive, tax – paying adults and children – the future tax-paying generation.

Thus from the neo-liberal capitalist perspective, the epidemic/pandemic must be allowed to spread but not at too great a pace to disrupt the economy and not in too great numbers to overwhelm the poorly funded, under – resourced health services. Hence, a policy of self-isolation for the majority and the under-resourced health services, as far as possible, being reserved for the old, the sick and the vulnerable. If, or rather sadly, when these latter categories become too great for the health service in countries with large ageing populations, the strategy of triage will be adopted. The badly infected will be formally or informally separated into the following categories:

Patients who are likely to survive, no matter what level of care they get;
Patients who with immediate care will probably survive.
Patients who are judged unlikely to survive no matter how much care they get.

When health resources are insufficient for expensive intensive care for all, as they invariably are in neo-liberal capitalist economies, then the judgement will be made to utilise them on the first two categories and not ‘waste‘ (sic) them on the third. Many ‘loved ones‘ will be ‘lost before their time’ as UK’s Boris Johnson intoned. That is the inherent logic of any socio-economic system not based on the humanist rights of all. Capitalism creates rich and poor and resources for the poor are always in short supply. Yet again many will die before they should.

Roy Ratcliffe (March 2020)

[For more details See http://links.or.au/coronavirus-agribusiness-risks-millions-deaths%5D

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BEGINNERS GUIDE 17.

Posted on March 9, 2020 by stutteringsteps

On Co-operation.

In guide 15, it was pointed out that in the 19th and 20th centuries, even the pro-capitalist elites were compelled to create numerous non-profit institutions and organisations. This was because private enterprises were not adequate vehicles for maintaining long-term high standards in; schools; armed forces; national and local government departments or Parliaments; law courts; hospitals and universities etc. Such radical developments of socio-economic forms represented the future non-profit mode of production emerging from within the existing capitalist mode. However, these particular state-initiated ‘public services’ were not the only non-profit forms of organisation which emerged during that period.

Early in the development of capitalism and in reaction to poor quality service and often adulterated goods, working people created Co-operative societies. In Britain, co-operative shops, businesses, delivery systems and eventually, farms, banks, building societies, funeral services along with education/training centre’s were established. A few humanistic minded members of the bourgeois class, such as Robert Owen even opened up co-operative factories. Despite some initial setbacks, all these alternatives were fundamentally successful. However, located as they were within a capitalist economic system even their success became something of a double – edged sword.

The working conditions and pay for ‘cooperative’ staff was generally better, than those in the private sector, which meant that the prices for their goods and services were generally higher. This situation was only sustainable as long as people could afford to pay the extra cost for the extra quality. However, the existence of large numbers of poorly paid workers in private capitalist concerns, exerted two negative forces upon co-operative methods of production. First of all low paid workers could not always afford the extra costs of cooperatively produced goods and services. Secondly, the low pay, long hours and poor conditions in the private sector translated into lower prices for these capitalist produced goods and services. This enabled them to undercut the prices of cooperative businesses.

In addition to being able to sell products cheaper, because of greater exploitation of working people, there was another way that capitalists could undermine the cooperative mode of production. An outstanding example of this method is provided by the way a group of capitalists in the cotton trade dealt with the previously mentioned Robert Owen and his thriving, cooperatively run cotton mill in New Lanark. They organised a boycott of raw cotton from suppliers who sold to Owen. Faced with this threat, raw cotton supplies to Owen’s mills were curtailed and the mills and model villages around them ground to a halt. Eventually, he had to close them. The example of successful alternative modes of production for the working class majority had been eliminated in order to maintain the source of profits of the capitalist few.

However, the apparent ‘failure’ of cooperation was not a failure from a working class perspective. If the private sectors hours of work, pay and conditions had been essentially the same as in the cooperative movement, instead of much lower, then there could have been a different outcome of struggle between these alternative modes of production. Moreover, the removal of the private profit – motive under cooperative modes and public service models meant that the short – cuts in production methods of the capitalist sector were deemed unnecessary. Therefore attention could be addressed – as many were – to external consequences such as obtaining sustainable raw materials, eliminating pollution, avoiding toxic ingredients, consequential ecological damage, improving health, safety and education issues for workers and communities.

Indeed, all or at least most of the issues now threatening the extinction of species and the degradation of planetary environments, climate patterns and weather conditions, could have been avoided decades ago by a completed transition to a mode of production fully committed to public need rather than private greed. In contrast to capitalist perspectives, success or failure in terms of economic and social production needs to be measured by its positive or negative effects upon the well-being of the planet and all its inhabitants. Yet the pro-capitalist elite measure economic success in terms of how much can be produced at the least cost, whilst making a relative few citizens obscenely rich. So, the fact that there are perfectly sound examples of alternative forms of sustainable non-profit production, distribution and organisation, (cooperatives and public services) has been seen as something to undermine or to privatise by the neo – liberal economic, financial and political elites.

The fact that capitalist societies are structured hierarchically with wealth and power concentrated at the top (and reinforced by the coercive power of the state) means that only changes which benefit the elite will be made. But the double standard involved among the elite in this regard is transparently evident by those who happen to occupy senior positions in non-profit government organisations, such as government departments, Parliaments, Universities etc. Whilst championing the benefits of private enterprise and precarious competitive employment for low – paid workers, these elites jealously protect their own high – paid, permanent employment, perks and pensions granted by the non-profit forms of organisation in modern states.

A similar double-standard operates elsewhere in periods of acute economic or financial crisis. When these occur the heads of large and small private enterprises are among the first to call for substantial public funds to be donated to them to tide them over the crisis until profits can be made once again. It happened prior and during the 2008 banking crisis and will happen again after the COVID – 19 viruus causes dislocations in the economic circuit of capital. Stripped of its rhetoric this frequent pattern amounts to the best of both worlds for capitalists and the worst of both for working people. Social tax-payer support when capitalist profits cannot be made, privately pocketed profits when they can.

That this is considered acceptable when there are viable alternatives demonstrates the power of pro-capitalist ideology on populations in general. It is something the new generations of working people need to increasingly challenge and change.

Roy Ratcliffe (March 2020)

Posted in Anti-Capitalism, co-operation, Critique, Ecological damage., Economics, neo-liberalism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

THE CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC – 1.

Posted on February 29, 2020 by stutteringsteps

There has been a lot of confusion concerning the latest corona virus to spread globally among the human population. Misinformation concerning (COVID -19) has been spread (like a virus itself) by ‘vectors’. The main vectors for the current epidemic of mixed messages have been the media and some of their chosen ‘experts’ informing us about the coming contagion. The most obvious confusion is revealed by the in-your-face daily presentation of the allegedly anti-virus (!) face mask!

How viruses live.

There is disagreement among some scientists whether a virus is a life – form or not. I personally think it is. For we know, that although, unlike bacteria, it cannot replicate itself by its own means, it can do so by infiltrating cells in animals, plants and humans utilising their hosts reproductive biology. We also know that viruses can evolve. The vast majority of the thousands of viruses so far accurately identified, are so tiny they cannot be seen by the most powerful optical microscopes. It requires an electron scanning microscope to even note their general shape.

This means that the mesh of all but a few of the thousands of face masks you see on the news channels are incapable of filtering out a virus. Only specialist face masks will do that. It follows that the cheap masks on show are mostly useless to stop infected people from spreading many vector-born viruses, but also mostly useless to prevent non – infected people from ingesting them. Those masks may soak up some, but will not prevent all the viruses expelled by sneezes and coughs from dispersing onto wearers hands and into the air around them.

That is not the only problem with wearing face masks. Irritation of the facial skin, due to long-term use of face masks, can cause skin problems leading to face and neck infections.

A virus needs to be carried to a host by a vector (air-born, food-born or liquid-born particle or by blood). Between leaving one person and infecting another, the virus is protected by a sheath or coating (a capsid or lipid envelope) which allows it to survive. In that interim condition it is known as a viron. Hence keeping hands and fingers properly and frequently clean is important to clear away the vectors and their virons and prevent their direct contact with our noses, mouths and eyes.

Where people are in close proximity (trains, planes, ships, supermarkets etc.), and share commonly used buttons (eg. on Cash machines), door handles, (supermarket baskets) banisters (on stairs and escalators), water taps (in public toilets), etc., then without frequent hand washing, community contagion of a virus is highly probable.

On gaining entry to a new host via nose, mouth, eyes, wound (or another orifice) the virus attaches itself to a cell wall and gains entry into it (by uncoating and penetration). It then uses the host cells biology to, reproduce itself. Replicated viruses then exit the damaged cell (lysis) and migrate to penetrate another cell and so on. This continues until the immune system fully kicks in and seriously deals with the invaders.

In the very early stages, the body may not manifest any obvious symptoms, but when the viral expansion reaches a certain point, the body may start to ‘feel ill’. Where the immune system is up to the task and the body is rested and nursed, then, recovery will follow and the virus will be either eliminated or become dormant. However, the elderly, the young, or adults with impaired or deficient immune systems are more vulnerable. Yet it is worth remembering that humanity has been shrugging off viruses for millions of years. So no need to go into panic mode.

How viruses go global.

A pandemic is the term used to describe a contagious infection which has started to go global. Since the development of international trade, the chances of a local source of transmittable infection spreading beyond its place of origin has increased considerably. The 20th and 21st century phases of neo-liberal economics and financialisation has seen this trading network expand to include the whole world. By structuring the global economic system to cater for the needs of profit-seeking, it has not only increased the likelihood of infectious contagion, but also the speed in which these can spread. This tendency increased when 20th century neo – liberal production methods introduced ‘just in time‘ supply chains.

The expense of stockpiling raw materials and parts in vast warehouses was abandoned by many producers of goods and replaced by continuous stock flows. This system created greater profits but the suppliers have to ensure that the day to day supplies arrive just in time for any repeating cycle of production. The frequency and global reach of this frenetic economic activity, by means of shipping, aircraft and road haulage deliveries, has obvious contagion consequences. It means that in the weeks prior to obvious ‘flu-like’ symptoms breaking out, vector and virus dispersion from an original source can have repeatedly reached even the farthest trade or holiday destinations.

These constant supply chains also mean that pandemics which interrupt these daily or weekly supplies through sickness, quarantines and cancellations, also reduces economic demand, depresses sales, lowers production volumes and creates general shortages. This in turn effects the financial stability of many firms because sales generate the income to pay wages, debts, interest and loans. So, any widespread biological contagion can now quickly lead to economic and financial contagions in which global economic and financial activity is severely fractured. And the survival of the weakest of these capitalist enterprises may be seriously threatened by this economic or financial contagion just as the currently weakest people are by biological contagion.

Capitalism has undoubtedly enabled epidemics to spread wider and faster. It has also multiplied the polluted and adulterated conditions which may increase the likelihood of extremely dangerous pathogens developing. However, the micro – biological entities which inhabit our internal and external bodies and immune systems (our good bugs) have also evolved and are capable of evolving further to deal with attacks. So consistent hygiene and self – isolation if ill, will be more effective in reducing the spread than more confusion and panic.

Roy Ratcliffe (February 2020)

Posted in capitalism, Critique, neo-liberalism | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

BEGINNERS GUIDE 16.

Posted on February 20, 2020 by stutteringsteps

On Extinction by extraction.

When the period known as the Industrial Revolution, commenced in England during the 18th century, extraction, production and consumption of raw material and goods accelerated rapidly. Huge factories powered by steam (later by electricity) soon became the template for all countries to adopt and adapt. Mass production techniques became the foundations upon which modern societies, with their huge industrial workforces and mass consumption habits were erected. Yet those early dark satanic mills of Britain polluting and disfiguring the rural landscapes of Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands, gave only a hint of what was to come.

For a brief period, the diseased rivers and scarred countrysides of rapidly industrialising England were isolated cases in a world still only slightly different than it had been for millennia. Elsewhere on the planet, air, seas, rivers and land remained as they had for many centuries. Pre-industrial, hand tools, wind, water and animal power sources, did limited damage to air, sea and land. They left little non-biodegradable residue in their wake. Yet within the space two generations industrial mass-production was replicated on many continents along with smoke, pollutants and rubbish dumps.

Even during my grandparents time, (the first generation of industrial mill-workers) great swathes of the planet still remained unpolluted, undeveloped and largely unaffected by industry and commerce. My parents (the second generation of industrial workers) directly experienced mass unemployment, poverty and between 1939 and 1945, an industrialised and mechanised war. Those two previous generations of ours also witnessed the origin and development of many marvels of modern technology.

Perhaps the most exhilarating and the most polluting developments were in the mass production of air, sea and land transportation. It was the post-Second-World-War generation (my generation) which enthusiastically seized the benefits of private motor vehicles, recreational ocean liners and inter-continental aircraft, with scant regard for the actual and potential harm associated with them.

For every so-called improvement to life on the planet was gained by the application of fossil fuels to capitalist industrialized production. Although touted as ‘progress’ by those who stood to make profits and accumulate wealth, the last 60 years of progress have actually seriously undermined the very foundations of all life on earth. In only three generations, capitalism has super-enriched an elite minority, yet dispossessed ancient peoples, impoverished millions, disfigured the global environment and tragically eliminated species essential to our air quality and food chain.

My own generations elites, basing themselves on the war-promoted technological foundation of the previous generation, has done more damage to planetary balance and humanities future than all the previous generations before it. Motor-vehicles, fridges, tv’s, washing machines (by the multi-millions) aircraft, factory fishing, ocean liners, (by the many thousands) and more, all whirling around continuously spewing out contaminants 24-7, adding more to the already massive volumes of chemicals and pollutants created during the manufacture of these ‘goods’.

If we make an analogy between the game of Jenga and what is happening to the global eco-system this may help understand the problem and expose the difficulties of a solution. [Jenga is square tower built of many closely fitting wooden blocks] Once the Jenga tower has been built of these blocks it is quite stable. The game commences when the first piece is pushed and pulled out and placed on top of the tower. Nothing happens.

Even when the second, third, fourth and fifth pieces are removed and placed at the top, the tower remains stable. This removal and repositioning parts of the basic whole does not yet add up to a serious problem. However, at some advanced stage of the game a piece will be removed that will trigger the accumulated instability from earlier extractions – and the whole block will collapse.

If we consider the planet as representing a huge block of interconnected (and evolved) pieces from which humanity extracts what it needs, the analogy roughly holds. However, no one has continually destroyed a planets eco-system before so there is no previous example of life on a planet actually collapsing. Also, the planet is such a gigantic edifice that taking bits away and altering them can go on for a very long time. Yet, as we are witnessing from animal extinctions and climate change, continual extractions that exceed the natural cycle of reproduction and replacement, create serious climate and ecological instability.

The most enthusiastic players of this planetary game of continuous extraction are the capitalist and pro-capitalist elites. The profit motive harnessed to technology has led to the accelerated removal of vast swathes of the planets resources. Not just the odd field, woodland or part of a forest, as the medieval generations managed to destroy, but by using mechanised and motorised tools of extraction entire forest and ocean regions are being daily stripped out. And it is here we need to make use of the Jenga analogy as it applies to the real world.

For, there are three classes of people who are currently actively committed to extracting/destroying the essential elements which are leading toward detrimental climate change and ecological collapse. First, those whose capital is invested in extracting raw materials, along with those whose capital is used to have those materials made into commodities and sold (the capitalist classes). These two groups have no desire to stop the very process which creates their wealth.

Second, those who organise commerce, transport and governance and live off a part of the proceeds of production for profit (the upper and middle-classes). They too have no incentive to stop the process of extraction, production and consumption for the payments and percentages which currently circulate their way via taxes, profits and ‘interest’ would then cease.

Third, the vast majority, who are trained and vicariously employed by the two elite classes to do the actual extraction and commodification of planetary material (the working classes). This group cannot cease to destroy the elements of planetary stability and diversity at the moment, because without being paid a wage or salary by the elites to do these elite-determined tasks, they would starve and lose their homes. In one way or another, (preference or existential survival) almost everybody is locked into the current economic system which is doing primarily what it has been designed to do – return a profit to the owners of capital.

So when most people suggest doing something about preventing the eventual collapse of our planetary eco-sustenance, all they can realistically consider is making tiny (inconsequential) adjustments. To go back to the Jenga analogy. It would seem that large sections of the planetary block we inherited (the earths socio-eco-system) will have to catastrophically collapse before enough people conclude that a different ‘game‘ (a new form of social production and consumption) is absolutely necessary.

Since the existing extensive, floods, wild-fires, droughts, hurricanes, heat waves etc., increasing every year, are not yet enough, it seems some much larger collapse will be necessary to shake people out of their current commitment to over-production and over-consumption and a critical-mass of them start to radically question the existing capitalist mode of production.

Meanwhile, those who are currently concerned should at the very least accept that we are all part of the problem – albeit disproportionately – and recognise that the solution is not just recycling our own rubbish, or reducing our own plastic use but a radical and revolutionary transformation of the motive for (and control of) production and consumption. Also that a future of sustainable production – for communally decided need – not privately decided greed – needs to be envisioned and championed in advance of any far-reaching catastrophe – and if not too late – implemented.

R. Ratcliffe (February 2020)

[For those not familiar with the Jenga game, examples can be found on the Internet. Eg: m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg_KYuE99E ]
[For a detailed consideration of the many consequences of climate change and ecological damage see; ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’ by David, Wallace-Wells. Pub Penguin]

Posted in Anti-Capitalism, Critique, dispossession, Ecological damage. | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

BEGINNERS GUIDE 15.

Posted on February 12, 2020 by stutteringsteps

On Public versus Private Enterprise.

Since the 2008 financial crash, there has been a marathon public bailout of private financial institutions and industrial enterprises. Bankruptcies of profit-charging institutions classed as ‘too big to fail’ at the time were avoided in two ways. First, they were granted huge loan guarantees and injections of public cash. Second, many were taken over by the state, their solvency guaranteed by the resources of a whole country. Then central banks in Europe and America created continuous ‘quantitative easing’.

Large quantities of cash and credit were supplied to banks from government sources. It was (and is) available at low interest rates to businesses deemed important enough to be ‘eased’ through the decade long crisis. Other, businesses, we’re allowed to fail. The organisations kept alive by regular injections of public money are often classified as zombie institutions or businesses.

That is to say such capitalist companies resemble the fictional human beings of horror films and novels who, technically dead are kept functioning by regular acquisitions of blood or flesh from healthy human beings. The stupidity of keeping technically failed banks and other businesses operating by this ‘intravenous’ monetary strategy has been debated, in economic and financial circles, but these discussions have typically failed to analyse the symptom beyond its surface phenomena.

Capitalism continues to fail – everywhere!

When a capitalist enterprise no longer takes in enough money to cover it’s costs and pay loans, interest and profits it’s life has ended as a capitalist endeavour. If it is kept afloat by public money because it’s operations are judged to be socially necessary or desirable, then it is in fact – not a capitalist zombie – but a social (or public) institution. From then on it rests on a different socio-economic basis. In fact in the 20th century, it became so obvious that capitalist forms of economic organisation could not answer most social needs that non-profit public services were expanded in the following areas; government, policing, defence, education and communications.

Moreover, after the Second World War (1939-45), in the UK for example, more non-profit forms of productive services were created, such as doctors/surgeries/hospitals, further education, transport, gas, electricity, water, telephones and national insurance schemes. In the UK, (and other countries) these important elements of modern 20th century life were deliberately formed on this alternative economic basis! Why? Because it was overwhelmingly recognised that capitalist economic models could not provide the stability, reliability and universality required for future societies. Non-profit, public services were the inauguration of more advanced forms of productive activity.

Furthermore, in the 21st century, humanity was reminded that the remaining greed-funded private sector had also become cancerous. Even the the richest and most monopoly-advantaged capitalist institutions, such as former Merchant banks plus huge, money-bloated insurance and mortgage companies were so internally diseased they collapsed. If we add to all the public services, all the publicly supported businesses in the aftermath of the 2008 crash, it would undoubtedly reveal that, in the UK and Europe – most of us were already living in a predominantly post-capitalist mode of economic activity.

If we factor in all the other negative outcomes of the remaining capitalist forms of enterprise such as ecological destruction, air, water, soil and sea pollution, vital species extinction, climate change, war and poverty, then the conclusion should be obvious. Replacing Dickensian private profit-making models with modern public service sustainable, eco-friendly provision, needs to go further. Some countries have already achieved more than a two thirds transition from capitalist forms to post-capitalist forms. The 20th century journey of humanity ‘beyond capital’ simply needs to be continued. In view of profit-driven extinction probabilities that transition needs to be completed.

To go beyond.

The ideology spun around the capitalist mode of production has perpetuated a myth of private-enterprise superiority despite the reality of successful public institutions and the continuing cascade of failed and failing private enterprises. The mismatch between the ideology of capitalism and the stark reality of its incurable self-harming and ecologically destructive habits is perpetuated by a class of people who benefit from keeping bits of it artificially alive. Education, media, government, law and science are staffed by publicly trained people who dominate intellectual discourse and are not accustomed to being critical or self-critical. Long-term future effects, or how the capitalist economy works – as a whole – is not their concern – just their investments on the side.

Apart from a few, that class live in an entitlement-now mode of existence. In the long run they know they are dead so they know they won’t have to face what lies ahead. Denial, pretence, hope and enhanced enjoyment currently offer a more rewarding life-style than accepting that the system they have long upheld is undermining the basic prerequisites for most forms of planetary life. It apparently matters not that sustainable, non-profit, non-polluting production for need under community-wide control is the only model which can enable humanity to have a balanced existence in the future.

Pro-capitalist bias will point to examples of countries where authoritarian politicians have also controlled more than 2/3 of economic activity and corruption, nepotism and oppression have been rife. However, those were not (and are not) post-capitalist forms. They are analogous to the Greek and Roman periods of political rule by dictators and oligarchs but now armed with modern weapons. State controlled capital relations, merely replaced privately controlled ones. They are also Zombie-type elites for they would not exist if the advanced countries did not continually supply them with the means to suppress their citizens (soldiers and weapons) in exchange for oil and other crucial mineral supplies.

A species which organised teams that devised the means to land on the moon, whilst being applauded globally by an audience who knew what, how and why this was happening, can certainly do other complicated things – when they wish to. I suggest creating ways to produce sustainably and with genuine community control is no more difficult for humanity than building space stations and calculating complex parabolic paths to distant planets.

Roy Ratcliffe (February 2020)

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