Following over a month with large parts of the United States shutdown, the coronavirus hospitalization rate peaked last week, and the principal debate now is over when and how to restart the economy.
Author: Dan La Botz
In the Tempest of Coronavirus: Racism and Class Struggle
This article was written for L’Anticapitaliste, the weekly newspaper of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) of France.
COVID-19 is now in all U.S. states with 530,026 cases and 20,614 deaths (as of April 12). Statistics suggest that the virus has peaked for . . .
Class and Race Inequality, Health, and COVID-19
The demographic data collected and reported in the media for sickness and mortality rates due to COVID-19 has focused on age and to a certain extent gender. While mass hardship from unemployment has been widely reported, we have heard little . . .
Saint Paul Teachers’ Strike on the Eve of COVID-19
After over nine months of negotiations, on March 10, 2020 members of Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) took to the streets to fight for the schools our students deserve. Then, just one week later, we were back in our . . .
Lashed by the Storm
This article was written for L’Anticapitaliste, the biweekly newspaper of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) of France.
Trump Threatens Venezuela under Cover of Coronavirus
Although Venezuela is only reporting 153 coronavirus infections and seven Covid-19 deaths as of April 4, that is likely a radical underestimation of the contagion’s spread. Venezuela’s healthcare system has been pushed to the breaking point by years of U.S. . . .
Essential Workers: Class Struggle in the Time of Coronavirus
A newscast on SUR Peru Sunday showed residents of Lima at their windows clapping and thanking the masked sanitation workers loading bags of trash into a garbage truck. The screen read, “Coronavirus: Cleaning in Lima, Anonymous Heroes.” Residents knew whose . . .
Bailouts are class warfare
The global capitalist economy has quickly stumbled into recession, a process already unfolding before the COVID-19 pandemic came into full view. The effects of the spreading virus have led to rolling closures and shutdowns to large swathes of different international . . .
The Coronavirus Strikes and their Significance, So Far
Across the United States we are seeing workers walk off the job in wildcat strikes in response to the employers’ failure either to shut down the workplace or to make it safe. The strikes are too few to call them . . .
The Storm Is Now Upon Us
This article was written for L’Anticapitaliste, the weekly newspaper of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) of France.
Like the front edge of a furious storm, the coronavirus pandemic has reached and begun to ravage the United States, which now has the . . .
Puerto Rican Educators: Fighting for Health and Safety in the Face of Covid-19
Barricades block the entrance to the Governor’s mansion known as La Fortaleza in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 18, 2020. – On Sunday March 15, Puerto Rico’s Governor Wanda Vazquez imposed a curfew and ordered the shutdown of most . . .
America Faces the Deluge
This article was written for L’Anticapitaliste, the weekly newspaper of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA) of France.
The United States stands before the deluge. Coronavirus is spreading, the economy is collapsing, anxiety is everywhere. Federal and state government responses were slow . . .
A Medical, Economic and Social Crisis
The global coronavirus outbreak is not (fortunately) the end of civilization, nor is it (unfortunately) the end of capitalism. It is, however, a very deep systemic crisis with interlocking public health, environmental and economic dimensions — and reveals the need . . .
The American Working Class, Coronavirus, and the Recession
This article was originally written for Viento Sur, a political magazine published in the Spanish state.
France: Covid-19: A Very Political Virus
I’ll begin by telling you a story. In August 1940, when the Luftwaffe was crushing London with its bombs, British bourgeois politicians were very reluctant to open the subway system so that people could take refuge there. It took the . . .
Coronavirus Pandemic Exposes Inhumanity of Capitalism. What Can Socialists Do?
We need to change the dominant discourse from one focused on fear of “the other” to one that challenges the capitalist system’s failure to put humanity and nature at the center of our concerns. There are structural reasons that prevent capitalism from prioritizing public health.
Why is Biden Winning?
Joe Biden turned out to be the big winner on Super Tuesday. While not all of the votes have been counted, Biden seems likely to end up with a majority. He is now positioned to do well in the rest . . .
Meanwhile, what do we do about Bernie?
While I found the article critiquing the electoral road to socialism by Kit Wainer and Mel Bienenfeld found in the in the current issue of New Politics quite interesting and informative, I also found it problematic. This is mostly because . . .
Institutional Obstacles Can be Overcome
This essay is a reply to “Problems with an Electoral Road to Socialism in the United States,” published in the Winter 2020 issue of New Politics. – Editors
How Mayor Lumumba was Bought: The Closed Bloomberg Meeting in Jackson, Mississippi
The saying that politics makes for strange bedfellows is a statement that speaks to the many allegiances, alliances and compromises that one must make when engaging in electoral politics. One might think that there could be no more stranger bedfellows . . .
Doug Henwood Has It Wrong This Time
Doug Henwood, who often has so many intelligent and useful things to say about economics and politics, has it wrong this time. A few days ago on his Facebook page he commented on an article that I had written about . . .
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