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CP of Greece, The end of myths and illusions. To face the present and prepare tomorrow


3/31/20 4:24 PM


Greece, Communist Party of Greece COVID-19 Ar En Europe Communist and workers' parties


Article by Dimitris Koutsoumbas,

GS of the CC of the KKE



We are in the midst of the pandemic of the novel coronavirus threatening our people and the peoples of the entire world. Our Party faces this unprecedented adventure for the people with a high sense of responsibility. From the very first moment, we postponed all the events, adapted the operation and action of the Party Organizations in the framework of the measures to prevent and protect public health. At the same time, we demanded that all necessary measures be immediately taken to protect the health of the people and the rights of the workers.

The content of our Party's intervention in these difficult conditions is aptly illustrated by the slogan: "We stay strong, we do not stay silent."

WE STAY STRONG, protecting ourselves, our family, our friends and comrades, our colleagues. We do not stay silent about shortcomings in the public health system. We highlight and demand all that should have already been done to address the pandemic.

We particularly highlight the need to recruit thousands of healthcare professionals, the immediate requisition of the private health sector, to protect our fellow humans who are suffering in the workplaces producing the necessary means for the survival of the people, as well as the protection of our fellow humans who are fighting a self-sacrificing titanic battle in hospitals and all healthcare units, to protect our health and lives.

We stay strong, we do not lower resistance, demand, and solidarity in the workplace and neighborhoods, certainly taking into account the protection measures and the special conditions.

We do not stay silent in the face of employer arbitrariness and government policy, which once again seek to place the burden of this crisis on the workers.

WE BREAK THE SILENCE that the government and the big employers want to impose in the name of the slogan "let's overcome this crisis together", which is a reflection of hypocritical bourgeois ethics. Quite simply, because we cannot "all together" recruit healthcare professionals, requisite the private sector, take preventive and protective measures providing all the necessary tools and means to protect workers. In the framework of this system, all the above must be done by the state and the government that leads it, along with the class that has the real power and ownership. Of course until the working class and the popular strata, "all together" and united sideline them permanently and irrevocably and construct a society where social goods will be given priority, as opposed to the capitalist profit that leads to the death of our fellow humans.

WE DEMAND MEASURES to support the workers and the self-employed who have been hit by the restrictive measures.

We demand the cancellation of about 40,000 redundancies and much more damaging changes that preceded. We will not legitimize measures taken in the pretext of the epidemic, with a view to become permanent, such as those concerning further "flexibility" of work.



* * *



WE DO NOT DENY INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. But individual responsibility is established when a state assumes its own primary responsibility.

The New Democracy government communication strategy of turning everything into "individual responsibility" is devious, precisely because it hides the truth from the people.

It aims to conceal the enormous shortcomings in the public health system due to the EU's overall policy, which has been accepted and endorsed by all Greek governments, as well as the to date policy of degradation, commercialization, and cuts that all governments, firstly of ND – PASOK and then SYRIZA, have followed over time.

Didn't the SYRIZA government follow the same communication strategy of "individual responsibility" when it attributed the tragedy in Mandra and Mati to individual responsibility?

The hypocrisy of the current government is also proved by the necessary restrictive measures. Because these measures stop outside the "gates" of workplaces, hospitals, supermarkets and other workplaces, where workers are crowded without the necessary precautionary measures.

And all this, while there is the example of neighboring Italy, where, as it is alleged, the spread of the virus is largely due to the fact that, under the responsibility of industrialists and the government, the large industrial zone of the North has not ceased to operate, acting as the main outbreak centre.

For all of the above, we must now deal with both the ND government as well as the unaccountable big employers. We must not postpone it, in the name of the special conditions that today imply the silence of a falsified "unity", as SYRIZA and the other bourgeois parties promote, essentially calling the people to disarmament and submission. And this also concerns thinking, consciousness, pure class-oriented minds, and in practice, the militant attitude of life, so that no one feels alone in these difficult conditions.

Our own unity, the unity of the working class and the suffering people, is the one that is built daily, with patience and perseverance, steadily, against the policies of the EU, the big capital and their governments that put the people's and its children's life at risk.

Especially the opposition of parties, such as SYRIZA, will remain in history as the opposition of "complicity" in every dangerous step that ultimately affects the interests of the Greek people.

From the dangerous relations with the US and NATO, the Greek-Turkish relations and facing imperialist aggression evolving together and alongside Turkish aggression and provocation, the management of refugees'-immigrants' drama, up to the management of the pandemic itself, SYRIZA, because of its strategy of alignment and agreement, complicits in the ND government on all these issues critical to the lives of the people.

After all, the dissolution of the public health system, from the obsolete or non-existent Primary Health Care up to major hospitals that had already reached their limits independently from the pandemic, now has its own seal:


The previous ND government closed hospitals and SYRIZA let them remain closed.
ND reduced health funds and SYRIZA reduced them even more.
None of them hired the necessary medical and healthcare staff.
Together, they have been telling the people that the private business sector can help to "upgrade" the public health sector.



* * *



THE MYTH WHICH IS UTTERLY REFUTED during the coronavirus pandemic is the one saying that the public and the private sector can coexist harmoniously and thus contribute to address this situation. This myth is refuted by the profiteering of private health centers conducting the coronavirus testing, which is only accessible to those who can afford it, depriving state planning of valuable resources and at the same time increasing the risk of spreading the virus.

This myth is also refuted by the fact that the state depends on the world market "war" conducted by the big companies, which found the opportunity to run a very lucrative business, for the supply of basic material and drugs.

The necessity for an exclusively public and free Health system with the abolition of any business activity has been dramatically demonstrated.

Even now that all eyes are on the public health system, the recruitment of healthcare personnel announced by the government is not enough to meet even basic needs under normal conditions, let alone under pandemic conditions.



The current conditions require:
Immediate requisition of private health units and their integration into central state planning.
Immediate supply of hospitals with all the necessary means that the healthcare professionals require, as they know better than anyone what is needed.
The opening of all ICUs.
The recruitment of all necessary healthcare personnel.



What the opposition leader stated about the "requisition" of private hospitals, in fact concerns the extension of the EOPYY (National Organization for Healthcare Services Provision) contract. Obviously, SYRIZA does not even dare to propose the real and immediate requisition of the private health sector.



* * *



THE SECOND MYTH WHICH IS REFUTED is the one about "returning to normality" and high growth rates. All of this now give their place to the acceptance that the Greek economy as well is in deep recession.

The slowdown of the economy in the EU and other major capitalist economies has, of course, preceded, increasing the risk of a new capitalist crisis.

Of course, the current pandemic is not its main cause but only serves as a catalyst. It is certain that the Greek economy will also be affected by the "monoculture" of tourism, exposing all those who fully endorsed the extroversion of the Greek economy.

The measures taken by the EU and the governments of its member states, proceeding to protectionist measures, closing borders, and financing their own monopoly groups with funding packages, will not stop this course.

We must know that this Keynesian-type state intervention, as well as the promoted fiscal relaxation, to support the capitalist economy, will be paid once again by the workers who will be called to fill the new fiscal gaps and the new lending.

As for the famous "European solidarity", it sounds like a joke, even among the bourgeois circles of the country. Especially when, in the European Union of "freedom of movement of goods", Germany and France even banned the export of the necessary sanitary material to other countries!

It is therefore proved also in this way, and even in tragic times for the peoples of Europe, that the EU is not a union of peoples, but a "predatory alliance" and a "lion's den", an imperialist union of states, demonstrating the necessity of not just a more tough stance against it, as various bourgeois parties promote when they are in opposition, but of a political and strategic choice that will lead to disentanglement from it, with the working class and the people of each country having power and ownership.



* * *



Above all, however, the pandemic highlights, more so with every day that passes, the limits of the capitalist system.

It turns out that contemporary needs and social goods, such as health, cannot be left to the mercy of markets and profit.

This decay cannot be concealed by the adjectives that some people use to describe capitalism, such as "neoliberal capitalism", "extreme capitalism" and so on, ultimately only to conceal that they fully support the capitalist system itself.

Because, now it can no longer be said that "it may be a wrong approach", a "simple political strategy mistake" that may perhaps be "corrected by individual improvements" or by "changing some managers of the bourgeois power by alternating from liberals to social democrats" and vice versa ...



It is the same old story ...

But the people in this case are permanently intubated, trapped in conditions of a coronavirus pandemic which may not be that difficult, but in any case under capitalist conditions.

These outrageous situations, with doctors being forced to choose who will live and who will die, exist both in countries with "neoliberal" governments, such as Italy, but also in countries where fake "progressive alliances" govern, such as Spain.

Today capitalism itself is bankrupt, the market economy itself in all its versions is bankrupt, which nullifies every opportunity for the working class and the people to enjoy high-quality health services in line with the evolution of science and technology, precisely because its main criterion is capitalist profit.

Even in pandemic conditions, everything is subject to the profitability of the capital. This is why workers in the industries of Northern Italy have been working despite the prohibitions, without protective measures, with the known tragic results.

This is why the competition between transnational monopolies over who will patent the new vaccine is sharpening, at a time when there should be cooperation and joint efforts by the world's best scientists and research centers.

This is why even now the big employers trample over any remaining labor rights, try new forms of exploitation, such as teleworking, and proceed to mass layoffs.

Against the decay of bankrupt capitalism, we can clearly see the superiority of socialism that ensured health and healthcare for all, let alone in the previous century and in countries that began its construction under conditions of great delay at all levels.

The figures in Soviet Russia 30 years ago, which cannot even be compared to the situation prevailing in our country and EU countries, are relentless: over 1.1 million doctors, exclusively free healthcare for the entire population, 1,387 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants.

Even today, the mission of the Cuban doctors to Italy, the Health infrastructure in countries such as Germany, existing thanks to the socialist system of half of Germany back then, the German Democratic Republic, and even the management of the pandemic in capitalist China, which reveals its socialist residues, show that socialism has left its powerful social imprint even three decades after its overthrow.



* * *



So in these unprecedented conditions, we stay strong, we struggle for protection measures of workers' lives and rights, we put forward the only perspective for the working class, the majority of our people, which is the new society, i.e. socialism.

The tangible superiority of socialism, social ownership, and central scientific planning is the great legacy for the next day.

Let this prevail in our thoughts and political action during these days of "quarantine". We deny any political "quarantine", we oppose the "quarantine" in thought. We think, study and act, facing today, adapting our action, but also looking to the future, preparing tomorrow.



نهاية الخرافات والأوهام

من أجل مواجهة الحاضر و إعداد الغد



مقال بقلم ذيميتريس كوتسوباس

الأمين العام للجنة المركزية للحزب الشيوعي اليوناني



إننا متواجدون في خضم وباء الفيروس التاجي المستجد الذي يهدد شعبنا و شعوب العالم كله. يواجه حزبنا بحسٍ عال من المسؤولية مغامرة شعبنا هذه غير المسبوقة. حيث قمنا و منذ اللحظة الأولى، بتأجيل جميع الفعاليات، و بتكييف وظائف و نشاط المنظمات الحزبية في إطار تدابير وقاية و حماية الصحة العامة. و طالبنا في ذات الوقت باتخاذ كافة الإجراءات اللازمة لحماية صحة الشعب و حقوق العمال.

و ينطبع مضمون مداخلة حزبنا في هذه الظروف الصعبة بصواب في الشعار القائل: "نبقى أقوياء، ولا نبقى صامتين".

إننا نبقى أقوياء، لنحمي أنفسنا وعائلتنا وأصدقائنا ورفاقنا وزملائنا. و لا نبقى صامتين حيال نواقص نظام الصحة العامة. مبرزين كل ما كان ينبغي القيام به سلفاً، من أجل مواجهة الوباء ونطالب بتنفيذ لمجابهته.

و نُبرز بنحو خاص حاجة توظيف الآلاف من العاملين في مجال الرعاية الصحية، والتعبئة الفورية للقطاع الصحي الخاص، من اجل حماية إخواننا البشر، الذين يعانون في مواقع العمل من أجل إنتاج ما هو لازم لبقاء الشعب، وكذلك لحماية أخوتنا البشر الذين يخوضون معركة عملاقة مع التضحية بأنفسهم في المستشفيات، و في جميع مجالات الصحة، من أجل حماية صحتنا وحياتنا.

نبقى أقوياء، ولا ننكِّس راية المقاومة والمطالبة والتضامن في مواقع العمل والأحياء السكنية، و ذلك و بالطبع مع مراعاة تدابير الحماية والظروف الخاصة.

و نكسر الصمت في وجه تعسف أرباب العمل وسياسة الحكومة، التي تسعى أيضاً إلى تحميل أعباء هذه الأزمة على كاهل العمال.

نكسر ذاك الصمت الذي تريد الحكومة و كبار أرباب العمل فرضه باسم "فلنتغلب على هذه الأزمة جميعاً معاً" الذي هو بلورة للأخلاقيات البرجوازية المنافقة. و ذلك بكل بساطة، لأننا لا نستطيع "معاً جميعاً" أن نقوم بتعيين كوادر الرعاية الصحية، و أن نعبئ القطاع الخاص و نتخذ تدابير وقاية و حماية مع توفير جميع الوسائط و الأدوات اللازمة لحماية العمال. و هو ما تدين بالقيام به في ظل هذا النظام الحكومة ودولتها و الطبقة الممتلكة للسلطة و الملكية الفعليتين. و ذلك حتىحين قيام الطبقة العاملة و الشرائح الشعبية "بنحو موحد" بإزاحة هؤلاء بنحو دائم وبلا رجعة، وبناء مجتمع ستعطى الأولوية فيه للخيرات الاجتماعية على النقيض من الربح الرأسمالي الذي يقود إلى موت إخواننا البشر.


إننا نطالب بتدابير لتعزيز العمال، و العاملين لحسابهم الخاص، الذين تضرروا من التدابير التقييدية المفروضة.



و نطالب بإلغاء ما يقرب من 40 ألف من عمليات التسريح من الوظائف، و غيرها اﻷكثر بكثير من التحولات المضرة التي سبقتها. و لا نُشرعِنُ التدابير المتخذة بذريعة الوباء بهدف تأبيدها، كتلك المتعلقة بمزيد من إضفاء "المرونة" على العمل.



إننا لا ننكر المسؤولية الشخصية. و مع ذلك، فإن هذه اﻷخيرة تترسخ عند تحمِّل الدولة مسؤوليتها الأساسية.

إن استراتيجية التواصل التي تنتهجها حكومة حزب الجمهورية الجديدة لتحويل كل شيء إلى "مسؤولية فردية" هي مخادعة و خبيثة، و ذلك بالضبط لكونها تخفي الحقيقة الكبيرة عن الشعب.



فهي تهدف إلى إخفاء أوجه القصور الهائلة المتواجدة في نظام الصحة العامة، و هي التي وجدت بمسؤولية سياسة الاتحاد الأوروبي اﻹجمالية، و هي السياسة التي ارتضتها وأيدتها جميع الحكومات اليونانية، كسياسة تخفيض مستوى الصحة و تسليعها و اقتطاع إنفاقاتها، التي اتبعتها منذ زمن و إلى اليوم جميع حكومات حزب الجمهورية الجديدة و الباسوك، أولاً و من ثم حكومة حزب سيريزا.

ألم تفعل حكومة سيريزا ذات الشيء مع استراتيجية التواصل حول "المسؤولية الفردية" عندما عَزَت مآسي فيضان ماندرا و حرائق ماتي إلى المسؤولية الفردية؟



هذا و يثبت نفاق الحكومة الحالية أيضاً في جزء الإجراءات التقييدية الإجبارية. لأن هذه الإجراءات تتوقف خارج "بوابات" مواقع العمل والمستشفيات ومحلات السوبر ماركت و غيرها من مواقع العمل، حيث يزدحم العمال دون اتخاذ أدنى التدابير الاحترازية اللازمة.

وكل هذا، في حين حاضرٌ هو مثال إيطاليا المجاورة، حيث، كما يُشكى، فإن انتشار الفيروس يعود إلى حد كبير إلى واقعة عدم إيقاف عمل المنطقة الصناعية الكبيرة في الشمال بمسؤولية الصناعيين والحكومة، مما جعلها بؤرة التفشي الرئيسية.



و نظراً لكل ما سبق، فإننا "نتحاسب" الآن مع كل من حكومة حزب الجمهورية الجديدة و كبار أرباب العمل المتعسفين. و لا نترك ذلك لوقت لاحق، باسم الظروف الخاصة التي يُزعم اليوم فرضها لصمت مُعبِّر عن "وحدة روح" واهية، كتلك التي يبرزها حزب سيريزا والأحزاب البرجوازية الأخرى، داعين بشكل أساسي إلى نزع السلاح والخضوع. حيث يتعلق هذا أيضاً بنزع سلاح التفكير، والوعي، و بالعقل الصرف المتوجه طبقياً، يتعلق بالممارسة و بالموقف الكفاحي في الحياة، لكيلا يشعر أيٌ كان أنه بمفرده\ها، في هذه الظروف الصعبة.



إن وحدة روحنا، نحن الطبقة العاملة، و الشعب المجرب من عدة نواحٍ، هي تلك التي يجري بناؤها يومياً، بصبر ومثابرة و ثبات في مواجهة و ضد سياسات الاتحاد الأوروبي، ورأس المال الكبير وحكوماتهم التي تعرض للخطر حياة الشعب و أولاده.



و على وجه الخصوص، ستبقى معارضة أحزاب، مثل سيريزا، في التاريخ كمعارضة "تدعم" كل خطوة خطيرة تضر في نهاية المطاف بمصالح الشعب اليوناني.



و ذلك اعتباراً مما يتعلقب العلاقات الخطيرة مع الولايات المتحدة وحلف شمال الأطلسي، والعلاقات اليونانية التركية، ومواجهة العدوان الإمبريالي الذي يتطور معاً و جنباً إلى جنب مع العدوانية والاستفزاز التركيين، وإدارة مأساة للاجئين والمهاجرين، وإدارة الوباء نفسه، حيث يقوم سيريزا بتقديم الدعم لحكومة حزب الجمهورية الجديدة نظراً لتماشي استراتيجيته معها في كل هذه المسائل المصيرية لحياة الشعب.



و في كل اﻷحوال، فإن تفكيك نظام الصحة العامة، اعتباراً من الرعاية الصحية الأولية المخفضة المستوى حتى المعدومة، إلى المستشفيات الكبيرة التي لم تنتظر وصول الوباء لتصل إلى حدود تحملها، يحمل الآن ختم كل من:
حكومة حزب الجمهورية الجديدة السابقة التي أغلقت مستشفيات، قامت حكومة سيريزا بتركمغلقة.
حكومة حزب الجمهورية الجديدة التي خفَّضت اﻹنفاق المخصص للصحة و قام سيريزا بتخفيضه أكثر من ذلك.
عدم توظيف أي من حكومتي الحزبين لكل ما هو لازم من الطواقم الطبية و طواقم الرعاية الصحية.
قيام كِلا الحزبين المذكورين بإخبار الشعب بخرافات قائلة أن قطاع الأعمال الخاص قادر على اﻹسهام في "ترقية" قطاع الصحة العامة.



و إذا ما كان هناك من خرافة تنهار في هذه الأيام، أيام وباء الفيروس التاجي، فهي تلك القائلة بإمكانية التعايش المتناغم للقطاعين العام و الخاص، ليكونا وبالتالي قادرين على اﻹسهام فعلياً في معالجة الوضع، حيث تنطق بهذه الخرافة ربحية المراكز الخاصة من فحوصات الفيروس، التي لا يُحصر الوصول إليها فحسب على القادرين على دفع ثمنها، و بل و هي الربحية التي تحرم تخطيط الدولة من موارد ثمينة، بينما تزيد أيضاً من خطر اﻹنتشار.

كما و تتعرى هذه الخرافة من واقعة تبعية الدولة في تزودها بالمواد والأدوية الأساسية تجاه "الحرب" الجارية في السوق العالمية، و تجاه الشركات الكبرى التي وجدت الفرصة لإنجاز صفقات ذهبية.

هذا و تثبت و بنحو مأساوي الحاجة لنظام صحي عام ومجاني حصري، مع إلغاء النشاط اﻹقتصادي الخاص ضمنه.

و حتى الآن و بعد توجه كل الأنظار إلى نظام الصحة العامة، فإن تعيينات مستخدمي الرعاية الصحية التي أعلنتها الحكومة ليست كافية حتى لتلبية الحاجات الأساسية في ظروف أخرى عادية، ناهيك عن حاجات ظروف الوباء الحالي.



إن الظروف تتطلب:


الشروع على الفور في تعبئة الوحدات الخاصة ودمجها في تخطيط الدولة المركزي.
تزويد المستشفيات، هنا و الآن بجميع الوسائط اللازمة التي يطلبها العاملون في الرعاية الصحية أنفسهم و التي يعرفونها أفضل من الجميع.
افتتاح جميع وحدات العناية المركزة.
توظيف كافة طواقم مجال الرعاية الصحية اللازمة.



إن ما تعلثم به زعيم المعارضة عن "تعبئة" المستشفيات الخاصة، متعلق و ببساطة بتمديد تعاقد المنظومة الوطنية لخدمات الصحة معها. حيث من الواضح أن سيريزا لا يجرؤ حتى على اقتراح التعبئة الفورية الفعلية للقطاع الخاص الصحي.


إن الخرافة الثانية التي تنهار هي تلك المتعلقة ب "العودة إلى الحياة الطبيعية" ومعدلات النمو المرتفعة. حيث تترك كل هذه المزاعم مكانها لتسليم يقول بأن الاقتصاد اليوناني أيضاً يدخل في ركود عميق.



و بالطبع فقد

كان سبقه تباطؤ الاقتصاد في الاتحاد الأوروبي والاقتصادات الرأسمالية الرئيسية الأخرى، مما زاد من خطر حدوث أزمة رأسمالية جديدة.

و بطبيعة الحال، فإن الوباء الحالي ليس السبب الرئيسي لها بل هو عامل مسرِّع فقط. حيث من المعطى هو تأثر الاقتصاد اليوناني أيضاً نظراً "للتركيز الأحادي" على السياحة، مما يُعرِّي كل أولئك الذين جعلوا من انفتاح الاقتصاد اليوناني راية لهم.



إن الإجراءات التي يتخذها الاتحاد الأوروبي وحكومات دوله الأعضاء، التي تباشر إجراءات حمائية، وتغلق الحدود، وتمول مجموعاتها الاحتكارية بحزم تمويلية، لن تكبح هذا المسار..



و ينبغي أن نعلم إن العمال سيدعون عن جديد لدفع ثمن تدخل الدولة هذا من الطراز الكينزي، بالإضافة إلى التيسير المالي المُروَّج له من أجل دعم الاقتصاد الرأسمالي، من أجل سد الثغرات المالية الجديدة و عمليات الإقراض الجديدة.



أما فيما يخص "التضامن الأوروبي" الشهير، فلا يُسمع عنه إلا كنكتة، حتى بين الدوائر البرجوازية في البلاد. خصوصاً، عندما حظرت ألمانيا وفرنسا في الاتحاد الأوروبي ذي "حرية حركة البضائع" تصدير مواد الرعاية الصحية اللازمة إلى بلدان أخرى!



حيث ثبت بهذا الاسلوب أيضاً، وحتى ضمن أوقات مأساوية لشعوب أوروبا، أن الاتحاد الأوروبي ليس اتحاداً للشعوب، بل "حلف للذئاب" و "جب للأسود" هو اتحاد إمبريالي لدول، و هوما لا يُبرز الحاجة فقط لموقف أكثر صرامة تجاهه، كما تفعل مختلف الأحزاب البرجوازية عند كونها في المعارضة، بل إلى خيار سياسي واستراتيجي سيؤدي إلى فك الإرتباط عنه مع استحواذ الطبقة العاملة و شعب كل بلد على السلطة والملكية.



و فوق كل شيء، فإن الوباء يُبرز يومياً و باضطراد حدود النظام الرأسمالي.

حيث تثبت استحالة ترك لحاجات المعاصرة و الخيرات الاجتماعية كالصحة، تحت رحمة الأسواق والربح.



و من غير الممكن إخفاء هذا العفن من خلال التعريفات العدوانية التي يضعها البعض للرأسمالية، مثل "الرأسمالية النيوليبرالية" و "الرأسمالية المتطرفة" وما إلى ذلك، لإخفاء واقعة دعمهم بأيديهم وأرجلهم للنظام الرأسمالي بعينه.



لأن لم يعد من الممكن الآن القول أن"قد تكون المقاربة خاطئة"، أو "خطأ بسيط في استراتيجية السياسة" قد "يتم تصحيحه من خلال حركات تحسين" أو عبر "تغيير بعض مديري السلطة البرجوازية من خلال الانتقال تباعا من الليبراليين إلى الاشتراكيين الديمقراطيين " و بالعكس...



كما لو أننا بصدد ذات الحكاية القديمة...



حيث لا تتواجد جملة الحكاية فحسب بشكل ما أو بغيره في العناية المشددة في ظروف الوباء الفيروس التاجي وفي ظروف ليست غريبة وصعبة للغاية، بل في ظروف رأسمالية بالتأكيد.



هذا و تحضر الأوضاع المعيبة حيث يُجبر الأطباء على اختيار من سيعيش ومن سيموت، في بلدان ذات حكومات "نيوليبرالية" مثل إيطاليا، ولكن أيضاً حيث حيث تحكم "تحالفات تقدمية" وهمية كما في إسبانيا.



إن الرأسمالية بذاتها تفلس اليوم، اقتصاد السوق عينه و بجميع إصداراته، و هي التي تُبطل كل امكانية لتمتع الطبقة العاملة و الشعب بفوائد صحية عالية الجودة في توافق مع تطور العلم والتكنولوجيا، و ذلك و بالضبط نظراً لامتلاكها الربح الرأسمالي معياراً أساسياً لها.

فحتى في ظروف الوباء، فإن كل شيء يخضع لربحية رأس المال. و لهذا السبب كان عمال الصناعات في شمال إيطاليا يعملون على الرغم من المحظورات، دون اتخاذ تدابير وقائية، مع النتائج المأساوية المعروفة.



و لهذا السبب تتعاظم المزاحمة بين الاحتكارات الدولية حول من سيحصل على براءة اختراع اللقاح الجديد، في الوقت الذي يجب أن يكون هناك تعاون وجهود مشتركة بين أفضل العلماء ومراكز البحث في العالم بأسره.



و لهذا يُفكك كبار أرباب العمل أي حقوق عمل متبقية، و يختبرون أشكالًا جديدة من الاستغلال، كالعمل عن بعد، و يباشرون بعمليات تسريح جماعي للعمال.



و على نقيض عفن الرأسمالية المفلسة يبرز تفوق الاشتراكية الذي كفل الصحة والرعاية للجميع، حتى و في القرن الماضي، و في البلدان التي باشرت بناء الاشتراكية في ظروف تخلف كبير في جميع المستويات.



إن معطيات روسيا السوفيتية قبل 30 عاماً لا هوادة فيها: حيث تواجد أكثر من 1.1 مليون طبيب، مع رعاية صحية مجانية حصرياً لجميع السكان، 1387 سرير مستشفى لكل 10000 نسمة، وهي معطيات لا يمكن مقارنتها بالوضع السائد في بلادنا، و في بلدان الاتحاد الأوروبي.



و حتى اليوم، تُظهر بِعثة الأطباء الكوبيين إلى إيطاليا، و وجود البنى التحتية الصحية في بلدان مثل ألمانيا التي أجبرت على حيازتها بسبب النظام الاشتراكي القائم في نصف ألمانيا حينها، أي في جمهورية ألمانيا الديمقراطية الشعبية، وحتى إدارة الوباء في الصين الرأسمالية الذي يُظهر بقاياها الاشتراكية، أن الاشتراكية ما زالت تترك بصمتها الاجتماعية القوية بعد ثلاثة عقود على إسقاطها.

و في الحاصل إذا في ظل هذه الظروف غير المسبوقة، فإننا نبقى أقوياء، ونكافح من أجل تدابير حماية حياة و حقوق العمال ، و نُبرز المنظور الوحيد للطبقة العاملة وأغلبية شعبنا، منظور المجتمع الجديد، أي الاشتراكية.



إن التفوق الملموس للاشتراكية والملكية الاجتماعية والتخطيط العلمي المركزي هو إرث كبير لليوم التالي.



فليسد هذا في أفكارنا جميعاً و في نشاطنا السياسي، ضمن أيام "الحجر الصحي" هذه. إننا نرفض سياسة "الحجر الصحي" ونعارض فرض "الحجر الصحي" على الفِكر. نحن نفكِّر، و ندرس ونعمل، نواجه الحاضر، و نكيّف نشاطنا، و مع ذلك فإننا نتطلع نحو الغد و نعدُّه.


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samedi 28 mars 2020

Translation of selective papers from the french daily newspaper l'Humanité
decorHome > Politics > FRÉDÉRIC BOCCARA, ECONOMIST: THESE ARE THE REAL MEASURES THAT NEED TO BE (...)
 

FRÉDÉRIC BOCCARA, ECONOMIST: THESE ARE THE REAL MEASURES THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN URGENTLY

Translated Friday 27 March 2020, by Stephen Chalk
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L’Humanité, Friday 27th March 2020
FRÉDÉRIC BOCCARA, ECONOMIST: THESE ARE THE REAL MEASURES THAT NEED TO BE TAKEN URGENTLY
Bruno Odent
The economist and member of the executive of the PCF shows how the health crisis linked to the coronavirus epidemic has accelerated the onset of a crash, a product of the financialization of recent years. This brings out the urgency of a change of approach that is as revolutionary as it is beneficial. To overcome the pandemic and break free from the domination of the financial markets. Frédéric Boccara sets out some possible ways of initiating this policy of rupture.
What is the nature of the current crisis?
Frédéric Boccara.

There are two crises, a health crisis and an economic crisis, inseparably bound together. And a crisis of civilisation.
The virus is a catalyst for an economic crisis that had begun before the outbreak of the epidemic. A slowdown had already been underway since the beginning of 2019. On 7th February, my report to the International Meetings for Another Globalisation [organised by the PCF] publicly sounded the alert about this crisis. Financial over-accumulation is breaking out. The dual crisis expresses the domination of capital, with its logic, its powers and its cost. The reason why the pandemic is having such an impact on the economy is that, compared to the value of the wealth created, the mass of accumulated financial capital is enormous (see graph) and a collapse was imminent.
GRAPH: WORLD DEVELOPMENT OF GDP AND CAPITALISATION
Base 100 in 1980

Market capitalization --------- GDP (constant dollars)
SOURCE : WORLD BANK
The domination of capital largely explains the delay in adopting adequate public health measures, or even their irresponsible inadequacy. The experience of China, which seems to have been able to choose to stop a large proportion of its production without worrying about profits, should have enlightened us. But our rulers were obsessed with not giving any cause for worry... to the financial markets! And they remain focused on the idea of making people work, because you have to produce profit! At any price.
For years, this obsession of finance capital with its rate of return and profit has been at odds with social expenditure and the development of public services. This has totally undermined our healthcare system, the deterioration and failures of which are so obvious.
Is the French emergency plan up to scratch?
Frederic Boccara
No, the budget “extension”, unfortunately voted unanimously a week ago by French MPs at first reading, is essentially aimed at supporting capital and profits. There is almost nothing for hospitals: 2 billion euros, whereas it would probably need 10, and health workers engaged in industrial action were already demanding 4 before the coronavirus crisis; nothing for the healthcare industrial sector (respirators, masks, medicines, reagents for tests, etc.). It contains a few concessions to the need to make incomes secure and preserve work collectives, with partial unemployment measures, but in a far too limited manner (85% of the wage) and, above all, on a temporary basis. It is not therefore an emergency health budget plan.
Austerity continues to kill. And social inequalities are wreaking havoc. In the evening at 8 p.m., at the same time as French people are applauding the health workers, shouldn’t we be shouting “Money for hospitals, not for capital”? [In recent weeks French people have applauded, from their windows and balconies, the workers who continue to provide essential services despite the lockdown.]
We must reject any “sacred union” and not separate these economic issues from the question of democracy and freedoms, with the state of emergency. [In reference to the “union sacrée” political truce in France, which brought much of the labour movement into an alliance with the government in support of the First World War.] These are two sides of the same coin.
At the European level, however, we are witnessing a massive injection of liquidities by the ECB?
Frédéric Boccara Yes, but without any change in the criteria for the purchase of securities and the granting of loans. The basic rules of financial capitalism are maintained. Events are being left to take their course. This money should immediately go to hospitals, medical research, public services (with an emergency fund) and the healthcare industrial sector.
However, these liquidities will mainly be absorbed by operations designed to re-inflate the value of stock market securities.
Recovery plans on a scale never before seen are, however, also underway in America and Germany?
Frédéric Boccara . The scale of these plans shows the violence of the coming crisis. This may support demand a little. But investing more to do the same thing is no solution. There is a question of content: capital or public services? The value of stock market securities or employment, wages, production, research and investment?
In France, the Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, says “no selectivity” for subsidies. What ethical madness! The use of the money must be subject to conditions, there must be a follow-up. The crisis imposes a new democracy.
Bruno Le Maire has announced tenfold austerity tomorrow to repay the debt, and that the State should waive corporate tax revenues. An open bar for capital? There must be debt conversions, non-payment of dividends, very negative rates, with other obligations. In short, lowering the cost of capital in proportion to (large) firms’ contribution to public services, employment and useful, effective investment.
What could be the consequences of the stock market crash?
Frédéric Boccara. The increase in financial capital is even greater than in 2007. Stock market crashes have a terrible real effect. The bosses are going to lay people off to preserve their profits. It is very violent.
The measures, as in the previous crash, are above all aimed at reflating capital. Observing this headlong rush, Paul Boccara had anticipated that there would probably be a new crash about ten years later. It has now happened. It will be much more serious, he said...
Are nationalisations being considered in France, Germany or even the United States? Is this the beginning of a retreat from liberal dogma?
Frédéric Boccara. It is a real necessity. But we are being cheated with temporary nationalisations once again, without changing the logic of these companies. Temporary nationalisations and obedience to the dictatorship of profit in order to privatise tomorrow and allow the market free rein resolves absolutely nothing!
Then what is to be done?
Frédéric Boccara. On the nationalizations front, management criteria other than financial profitability must be imposed on the rescued firms. We also need public institutions for strategic planning, with quantified commitments, instead of demagogic phrases about sovereignty.
Similarly, another kind of selectivity for the granting of credit and democracy are decisive. A European emergency fund for the health sector and public services, financed by the ECB, could be set up quickly. Its mission: to provide resources for the different health systems in solidarity with each State. The fund would be managed democratically. France can create one without delay, supported by the Caisse des Dépôts [French public sector financial institution, a long-term investment fund serving the public interest] refinanced by the ECB.
As far as banking is concerned, rates are certainly low, but remain high for the cash flow of SMEs/VSEs, and many projects are not supported. We need selectively subsidized low rates for investments that create jobs and real wealth. And, conversely, we need to apply very high rates for predatory corporate behaviour, speculative investments and those that relocate industry to cheaper labour markets or cut jobs. Economic reality would then be oriented differently, with the support of new democratic institutions controlling the use of these credits.
Finally, for a common humanity, global public and common goods (health, climate, energy, etc.) and employment must be financed. And in order to do so, we must free ourselves from the domination of the dollar. The urgency of a common global currency, on the basis of the IMF’s special drawing rights (i.e. a basket of currencies from a whole series of countries) needs to be put on the table.
Should we proclaim that the time has come for de-globalization?
Frédéric Boccara. Macron talks about a “rupture”, which could mean anything to anybody. It is a smokescreen, in preparation for the worst in the service of big capital.
We need a different kind of globalization, of sharing and cooperation. De-globalization would be madness, at a time when there is visibly an absolute need for international cooperation, and military tensions are looming everywhere. The issue, as always, is content, control.
Take the multinational pharmaceutical companies: workers there co-invent and co-produce medicines between several countries. In this sense, they fulfil a necessary function: the sharing of financial and informational resources for the purpose of co-production. But they do so in a perverse manner: in the service of capital, which dominates them, aiming above all at profit, by monopolizing wealth and knowledge and the use thereof, instead of sharing them. This function must not be destroyed, but its content must be radically changed. This can be done by developing non-capitalistic co-production and research networks, or international co-nationalisations. We need entirely different international investment and trade treaties, and new international public institutions.
What could real emergency measures look like in France?
Frédéric Boccara. An emergency plan must immediately begin to break with the domination of capital. There is no question of waiting for the “day after” for a change of logic. This is both revolutionary and realistic.
It would be elaborated and put forward in the face of the measures imposed by Macron-Philippe. It could include the following elements, with coherence between objectives, resources and powers.
Objectives for screening, supporting hospitals (recruitment, emergency construction, training, etc.), supporting research (vaccines and treatments), mobilizing production (respirators, reagents for tests, medical clothing, gloves, masks, medicines, etc.).
Resources for stopping non-essential production and work and maintaining democratic rights and institutions protecting workers, withdrawing regressive amendments to the Labour Code, supporting purchasing power (100% for short-time working, suspension of pre-committed expenditure for households and SMEs/VSEs: rents, loan repayments, etc.); moving towards a general system for making employment, training and income secure; creating a fund allocated 50 billion euros (initially) in order to finance these actions with a monetary contribution (ECB and Caisse des Dépôts) and solidarity taxes on big capital; and the ending of the restrictions on municipal expenditure.
Finally, powers to set up regional democratic bodies to monitor and control the implementation of the plan and the use of this money, with the elected representatives of employees and citizens.
Does this mean causing the emergence of another model of society in order to get out of the crisis?
Frédéric Boccara. Our societies are undermined by the capitalist economy and an anthroponomy of liberalism, imposed on the planet by Western Europe and the United States. Our world is dying from the split between money and the target of its use. The latter is subordinated to the search for maximum financial profitability. That is what capital is: everything is reduced to a mass of value seeking to increase its value, “money for money”.
Our civilization is threatened in its very foundations by the intensification of this split between money and public services, money and production, money and democracy, money and human and ecological needs. Money should be seen as a political lever. We need to begin changing the whole system of powers and values.
Interview by Bruno Odent

vendredi 27 mars 2020






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Party of Labour of Austria, Disease and capitalist class society


3/27/20 3:09 PM


Austria, Party of Labour of Austria COVID-19 De En Europe Communist and workers' parties


Disease and capitalist class society



Speech by Tibor Zenker, chairman of the Party of Labour of Austria (Partei der Arbeit Österreichs, PdA), at the meeting of the Central Committee, Vienna, 15 March 2020



The Coronavirus epidemic or pandemic has far-reaching consequences for all of us. It will also be relevant to today'smeetingof the Central Committee -respectively it obviously already is. It seems probable that we will need to revise some of our further plans for the first half of 2020 and, more generally, to change some of the ways in which we work and some of our priorities, with serious consequences for some of the practical work and for our party and international relations.



I have taken the liberty of using the current events, measures and their consequences as an opportunity to dedicate today's substantive introduction to the CC meeting to the subject of disease and capitalist class society, in general and finally, of course, in concrete terms.



It is certainly not necessary to go back over current developments, courses, reactions and forecasts, which are known anyway. Also, I am admittedly not a medical doctor and not a clairvoyant, which limits my remarks a little. We therefore want to start in a fundamental way.



Capitalist accumulation, as is well known, is based on the realisation of profit, by virtue of the private ownership of the means of production. To this end, the workers must create surplus value, based on unpaid labour, which is inherent in the production process and the product itself. Only human labour creates this surplus value. This is the core of how capitalism works: it needs human labour, exploited through wage labour. Capitalism needs people, capital needs human labour.



In this respect, capitalism initially has no real interest in sick people, and certainly not in epidemics. The working class must be able to work and remain able to work; it should work as intensively as possible, for as long as possible. Of course, this can only be done with a necessary minimum of health, both physical and mental. Exhaustedlabour force is less productive, sick people may not be productive at all.



Furthermore, capitalism needs the working class as a mass of consumers. The appropriated product needs to be sold in order to realize profit. Any lasting disruption of this circulation means a capitalist crisis, an economic crisis, which occurs regularly and lawfully anyway, because workers are paid the lowest possible wages that are below the value of the products. However, exceptional disturbances, such as an epidemic of disease, aggravate the crisis of the capitalist circulation.



Both facts are correlated with another fact, that human labour force must always be restored, it needs to be reproduced. This implies first of all, quite simply, rest breaks, sleep and nutrition, but also, in a broader sense, shelter, household, bringing up children, education, leisure activities and health care. Large parts of this reproduction cause costs. It is in the interest of the capital not to have to bear these costs: Wages should not exceed a minimum necessary for direct reproduction, state benefits and facilities should not get out of hand - and a decisive part of the reproductive work should be unpaid work by the families of workers, not least women.



With these three points it is already clear that the system is going round in circles, that there are obviously unsolvable contradictions: This system cannot work. This is a simple economic-social fact, which can be guessed with basic mathematical knowledge, even without having studied Karl Marx's "Das Kapital" thoroughly. And that is why capital, its political parties and associations, its governments, its "educational institutions" and media spend so much time and energy to conceal and deny this fact. Capital cannot control the laws of its own "free market economy".



Therefore, capital will always accept to a certain extent that people will get sick, which in its view means nothing other than that labour force will become devalued and unproductive, and consumers will drop out. With various measures - in the following without claiming to be exhaustive - attemptsare made to at least counteract the negative consequences, but also to use them for one's own purposes.



First, capital maintains a reserve army of labour, a basic stock of unemployed workers. This serves not only to depress wages and social benefits, but also to compensate, if necessary, for the loss of manpower. If a worker drops out, there is always a replacement available - and usually even at better conditions for the entrepreneur.



In addition, illness has been discovered as a profit opportunity. This applies in particular to the production of medicines, medical drugs and medical equipment and to allegedly cost-intensive special treatments. In addition to the IT, automotive, oil/gas and banking sectors, pharmaceutical companies are among the largest companies in the world. They do everything in their power to monopolise their patents, to prevent less expensive drugs (for example in the form of generics) from being available - not least in the less developed countries -, in order to achieve maximum profits even from the treatment of patients, without regard for the needs of the people and the fate of entire countries.



Linked to this is the desire to thin out or completely ruin existing state health systems or even prevent them from being created in the first place. Public health care services are to be reduced and at the same time made more expensive for the people, through deductibles, cancellation of coverage and permits, necessary supplementary insurance, thinning out of infrastructure, site closures, savings in materials, deliberate staff shortages, subsidies for private institutions. This means a redistribution via the state budget as well as new profit opportunities, at the expense of the mass of patients from the working class. It is a subjection of the public health system to the rules of capitalist profiteering, mediated through arbitrary deficit or stability targets. Admittedly, in many countries of the world, a large number of people have no health insurance at all in the European sense - and also in Austria, by the way, there are more of them than one would generally assume.



More private, less state - that is, of course, to a certain extent a general motto of capital wherever costs are incurred that are not a necessary precondition for further, new profits. And thisaffects the care, nursing and treatment of the chronically and long-term sick, of people with disabilities, of mental illnesses, of people who are unable to work and invalids and, not least, of the elderly. The idea is to shift as much as possible into the private, unpaid sphere of relatives and families. There are ridiculous allowances and grants, which are at best charity. People have to pay for private care with their own money, from low wages, pensions or reserves. Inevitably, this often involves hiring lower-paid, precariously or even moonlighting foreign workers - these workers are then lacking in their home countries, but the enforced approach also undermines the education and provision of sufficient local staff and the creation of regular jobs.



It is easy to see how fragile this entire system is, even though the situation in Austria is still better than, for example, in Italy, Greece, Eastern Europe, the USA or certainly in the less and least developed countries - and it is no coincidence that Cuba is a counter-example. It is a fact that the Austrian health care system is structurally not prepared to an epidemic like the current one. The capacities are not sufficient. It has become apparent that there are not enough hospital beds, not enough medical staff, not enough materials and equipment, not enough financial resources - as it is generally, but now even more so. The existing staff is overburdened, foreign personnel can no longer enter. These problems are systematic ones, they were consciously accepted in the past and therefore cannot be solved in the short term.



The current measures taken by the Austrian government with regard to the Corona epidemic are an expression of this fact. Fully aware that the hospitals and not least the intensive care units will be overstretched and overburdened, sick people - almost 90% - will be accommodated at home.Only in the case of a severe course of the disease - this usually affects so-called "risk groups" - hospital beds will be available. People will be left alone, and their fellow residents who have been quarantined as a precautionary measure will even be exposed to infection. This means that acute care (which is actually based on self-healing) is once again "privatised", transferred to the patient's own four walls at the expense of reproductive work ofrelatives (and possibly friends) and selective support provided by NGOs. Of course, this is also passed off as a containment measure, but in reality,serious containment has long since failed: in fact, all that is being attempted is to slow down the increase in the number of ill people relatively and to postpone the peak that lies ahead.



The presented rules of conduct, appeals, commandments and prohibitions, are mainly directed at the personal sphere of the people - they may change their social behaviour, in direct interpersonal, family and social interaction. The helplessness of the government is expressed in all clarity: it intervenes in people's leisure time, in the reproductive phases of the labour force, first on a small scale, then also in the area of education and training. This initially affects small self-employed people and single-person enterprises, bogus self-employed people, freelancers: they lose their revenues, as cultural workers, as sports coaches, as course instructors, as ticket rippers, as cloakroom attendants, as small innkeepers. They are followed by teachers and child caregivers, but indirectly also by all working parents. Home-office-work is only possiblefor a few. Capitalism can cope with all this for some time, but the breakthrough of the crisis is only postponed.



Our economy is based on social production, to a high degree. This area is only tentatively targeted by government measures, because the production of surplus value and the corporate profits should not be put at risk, as far as possible. However, it is a fact that large groups of people come together to work together - and in the conurbations they also travel to and from work together by public transport. Thus, restrictions on reproduction and services, the closure of theatres, cinemas, restaurants and bars, ski resorts and schools may be one thing - as well as tourism, which is particularly important in Austria -, but ultimately it will be about something else: about the factories (in the broadest sense), which despite all deindustrialisation form the backbone of the capitalist economy, about large-scale industry and trade (e.g. supermarket chains) as well as about mass transport, where many people work and many interact. The government should be well aware of this, as several billion Euro are being prepared and provided in compensation for companies and more are being demanded. The workers, on the other hand, should and must get by with less. But even this and the effects of the cuts in reproduction will sooner or later reach the capitalist circulation anyway: Every worker is also a consumer. It is not easy to say how to deal with this, but one thing is evident: no matter how weestimate so-called "socialism with Chinese characteristics" in concrete terms, it is obvious that in the PRCsuccessful ways have been found to deal with the crisis to some extent. The "Western" governments and mediaregard this fact only with moralistic arrogance, defamation and imperialist racism. In any case, our short-time working models will not be sufficient - that is for sure.



However, we do not want to be - neither now - a doctor at the sick bedside of capitalism.



Capital wants to save its profits without regard to the losses of the working class. The bourgeoisie can also deal more easily with the Corona crisis in the personal sphere: The workers should continue to work at assembly lines, production chains and cash desks, the rich seclude themselves into their isolated living quarters, their urban villas, country houses and penthouses. The working class is exposed to the ruined health system, the rich afford private doctors and facilities, expensive medicines, equipment and special treatment. It is not a sudden "two-tier medicine", which the reformist parties sometimes regretfully thematise and which they intend to prevent with this or that parliamentary decision, but it is, after all, an entire class society in which we are supposed to live - and possibly to die. Illness is always a class issue under capitalism. It must therefore also be considered from the class point of view.



The Austrian Party of Labour has already outlined in its recent statement of the Central Committee measures in favour of working people, which would be urgent and necessary in view of the Corona epidemic - I do not need to repeat them among the participants of this meeting. The Austrian government and the EU will not implement these measures because, despite all the hypocritical assertions, they are not working for the people, but for capital. Priority is always given to the accumulation of capital, under all conditions, not to the life of the working class. Capitalism will not create a health system that meets the needs of the people, because it cannot and does not want to.



The current crisis will have to be overcome under the present conditions - this will require sacrifice and suffering. As far as possible, we, the Party of Labour, and our members want to help to ensure that both are kept to a minimum: With prudence, calm, attention, solidarity, support and assistance, while respecting appropriate behaviour and action. We will have to adapt our internal, public and international activities; we will have to rethink our event activities and our public appearances, to say the least; we will have to shift some of our priorities. I also assume that for the time being there will be no more Central Committee meetings in the conventional form.We are already using in parts electronic video and audio linkages during today's meeting, and the next Central Committee meeting will probably be entirely video-conferenced. All this is part of our responsibility towards our fellow human beings, which we have to take seriously. There can be no doubt about that.



But one thing is also clear: We will not under any circumstances be forced to make any kind of “Burgfrieden”, of political truce with the government and capital, because they are essentially responsible for the extent of the situation. No one can expect us to suspend class struggle, because the ruling class continues it unwaveringly, even in situations of crisis, towards the working class and even towards the sick. We will continue to raise this issue. Our task, after all, is to fight for a world in which the needs of the people are met, not those of capital; in which, accordingly, the human being is at the centre, not profiteering; in which the health of all people and the best possible treatment of the sick is indeed the highest priority; in which life and death are no longer class issues. This world will be socialism.





Krankheit und kapitalistische Klassengesellschaft



Referat von Tibor Zenker, Vorsitzender der Partei der Arbeit Österreichs (PdA), auf der Sitzung des Parteivorstandes, Wien, 15. März 2020



Die Coronavirus-Epidemie oder -Pandemie hat bereits weitreichende Folgen für uns alle. Sie wird auch für unsere heutige Sitzung relevant sein bzw. ist sie es offenkundig schon. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass wir einiges an unseren bisherigen Plänen für das erste Halbjahr 2020 revidieren sowie generell manche Arbeitsweisen und Schwerpunkte verändern werden müssen, mit wiederum gravierenden Folgen für Teile der praktischen Arbeit sowie für parteiinterne und internationale Beziehungen.



Ich habe mir erlaubt, die gegenwärtigen Ereignisse, Maßnahmen und deren Konsequenzen zum Anlass zu nehmen, die heutige inhaltliche Einleitung der Parteivorstandssitzung dem Thema Krankheit und kapitalistische Klassengesellschaft zu widmen, im Allgemeinen und schließlich natürlich auch konkret.



Es ist gewiss nicht notwendig, nochmals auf aktuelle Entwicklungen, Verläufe, Reaktionen und Prognosen einzugehen, die ohnedies bekannt sind. Auch bin ich zugegebenermaßen kein Mediziner und kein Hellseher, was meine Ausführungen ein wenig einschränkt. Wir wollen daher grundlegend beginnen.



Die kapitalistische Akkumulation beruht bekanntermaßen auf der Realisierung des Profits, kraft des Privateigentums an den Produktionsmitteln. Hierfür muss seitens der Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter Mehrwert geschaffen werden, basierend auf unbezahlter Arbeit, die im Produktionsprozess und im Produkt steckt. Diesen Mehrwert schafft nur die menschliche Arbeitskraft. Das ist der Kern der Funktionsweise des Kapitalismus: Es braucht die mittels Lohnarbeit ausgebeutete Arbeitskraft des Menschen. Der Kapitalismus braucht Menschen, das Kapital braucht menschliche Arbeit.



Insofern hat der Kapitalismus zunächst kein eigentliches Interesse an kranken Menschen, schon gar nicht an Krankheitsepidemien. Die Arbeiterklasse muss arbeitsfähig sein und bleiben, sie soll ja möglichst intensiv, möglichst lange arbeiten. Das geht natürlich nur mit einem Mindestmaß an Gesundheit, körperlich wie geistig. Ausgelaugte Arbeitskraft ist weniger produktiv, Kranke sind es eventuell gar nicht.



Außerdem benötigt der Kapitalismus die Arbeiterklasse als Masse der Konsumenten. Das angeeignete Produkt will verkauft sein, um Profit zu verwirklichen. Jede nachhaltige Störung dieser Zirkulation bedeutet eine kapitalistische Krise, eine Wirtschaftskrise, die aber ohnedies gesetzmäßig und regelmäßig auftritt, denn man zahlt den Arbeitern ja möglichst geringe Löhne, die unter dem Wert der Produkte liegen. Außergewöhnliche Störungen, wie eine Krankheitsepidemie, verschärften allerdings die Krisenhaftigkeit des kapitalistischen Kreislaufes.



Beides hat damit zu tun, dass die menschliche Arbeitskraft immer wiederhergestellt werden muss, sie bedarf der Reproduktion. Dies impliziert zunächst, ganz simpel, Ruhepausen, Schlaf und Ernährung, weitergedacht aber auch z.B. Wohnen, Haushalt, Kindererziehung, Ausbildung, Freizeitorganisation sowie Krankenbetreuung. Große Teile dieser Reproduktion verursachen Kosten. Es liegt im Interesse des Kapitals, diese nicht übernehmen zu müssen: Der Lohn soll ein für die unmittelbare Reproduktion notwendiges Minimum nicht überschreiten, staatliche Zuwendungen und Einrichtungen sollen nicht ausufern – und ein Gutteil der Reproduktionsarbeit soll unbezahlte Arbeit sein der Angehörigen der Arbeiterinnen und Arbeiter, nicht zuletzt von Frauen.



Mit diesen drei Punkten wird schon klar ersichtlich, dass sich die Katze in den Schwanz beißt, dass offenkundig unlösbare Widersprüche vorliegen: Dieses System kann nicht funktionieren. Dies ist eine einfache ökonomisch-soziale Tatsache, die schon mit grundlegenden Mathematikkenntnissen zu erahnen ist, auch ohne „Das Kapital“ von Karl Marx gründlich studiert zu haben. Und das ist der Grund, warum das Kapital, seine politischen Parteien und Verbände, seine Regierungen, seine „Bildungseinrichtungen“ und Medien so viel Zeit und Energie aufwenden, um diese Tatsache zu verschleiern und zu leugnen. Das Kapital kann die Gesetze seiner eigenen „freien Marktwirtschaft“ nicht beherrschen.



Daher wird das Kapital immer bis zu einem gewissen Grad in Kauf nehmen, dass Menschen krank werden, was aus seiner Sicht nicht anderes bedeutet, als dass Arbeitskräfte entwertet und unproduktiv werden sowie dass Konsumenten ausfallen. Mit verschiedenen Maßnahmen – im Folgenden ohne Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit – wird versucht, den negativen Folgen zumindest entgegenzuwirken, aber auch, sie für eigene Zwecke zu nützen.



Zunächst hält sich das Kapital eine industrielle Reservearmee, einen Grundstock an beschäftigungslosen Arbeitern. Dies dient nicht nur dazu, Löhne und Sozialleistungen zu drücken, sondern auch, um gegebenenfalls Arbeitskraftausfälle personell zu kompensieren. Fällt ein Arbeiter aus, so gibt es jederzeit Ersatz – und dies zumeist sogar zu besseren Konditionen für den Unternehmer.



Zudem hat man die Krankheit als Profitmöglichkeit entdeckt. Dies gilt insbesondere für die Produktion von Medikamenten und medizinischen Geräten sowie für angeblich kostenintensive Sonderbehandlungen. Neben den Branchen IT, Kfz, Erdöl sowie Banken gehören gerade Pharmakonzerne zu den größten Unternehmen der Welt. Sie unternehmen alles, um ihre Patente zu monopolisieren, um zu verhindern, dass weniger teure Medikamente (etwa in Form von Generika) zur Verfügung stehen – nicht zuletzt in den weniger entwickelten Ländern –, um eben selbst aus der Krankenbehandlung maximale Gewinne zu erzielen, ohne Rücksicht auf die Bedürfnisse der Menschen und das Schicksal ganzer Länder.



Damit verbunden ist das Ansinnen, bestehende staatliche Gesundheitssystem auszudünnen oder gänzlich zu ruinieren bzw. gar nicht erst entstehen zu lassen. Die Leistungen der öffentlichen Gesundheitsversorgung sollen reduziert und gleichzeitig für die Menschen verteuert werden, durch Selbstbehalte, Streichung von Abdeckungen und Bewilligungen, nötige Zusatzversicherungen, Ausdünnung der Infrastruktur, Standortschließungen, Einsparungen bei Materialien, bewusste Personalknappheit, Förderungen von privaten Einrichtungen. Dies bedeutet eine Umverteilung über das Staatsbudget sowie neue Profitmöglichkeiten, zulasten der Masse der Patienten, die aus der Arbeiterklasse stammen. Es handelt sich um eine Unterwerfung des öffentlichen Gesundheitssystems unter die Regeln der kapitalistischen Profitmacherei, vermittelt über willkürliche Defizit- oder Stabilitätsziele und dergleichen. In vielen Ländern der Erde ist freilich eine große Anzahl an Menschen überhaupt nicht krankenversichert im europäischen Sinn – und auch in Österreich sind es übrigens mehr, als man gemeinhin annehmen möchte.



Mehr privat, weniger Staat – das ist gewissermaßen natürlich generell ein Motto des Kapitals auch überall dort, wo Kosten entstehen, die keine zwingende Voraussetzung für weiteren, neuen Profit sind. Und damit sind wir bei der Betreuung, Pflege und Behandlung von chronisch und Langzeit-Kranken, von Menschen mit Behinderung, von seelischen Erkrankungen, von Arbeitsunfähigen und Invaliden sowie nicht zuletzt von alten Menschen. Es ist das Ansinnen, hier möglichst viel in den privaten, unbezahlten Bereich der Angehörigen und der Familien zu verlagern. Es gibt lächerliche Zulagen und Zuschüsse, die bestenfalls Almosen sind. Man muss mit eigenem Geld, aus geringen Löhnen, Pensionen oder Rücklagen, für private Pflege aufkommen. Zwangsläufig werden hierbei oft schlechter bezahlte, prekär oder sogar schwarz beschäftigte ausländische Arbeitskräfte engagiert – dieses Personal fehlt sodann in ihren Heimatländern, die erzwungene Vorgehensweise unterläuft aber auch die Ausbildung und Bereitstellung ausreichend einheimischer Kräfte und die Schaffung von regulären Arbeitsplätzen.



Es ist leicht zu erkennen, wie fragil dieses gesamte System ist, wenngleich die Situation in Österreich immer noch besser ist als z.B. in Italien, Griechenland, Osteuropa, den USA oder gar in den Ländern der so genannten „Dritten Welt“ – und es ist kein Zufall, dass Kuba ein Gegenbeispiel ist. Faktum ist: Einer Epidemie wie der gegenwärtigen ist das österreichische Gesundheitswesen strukturell nicht gewachsen. Die Kapazitäten reichen nicht aus. Es zeigt sich, dass es hierfür – wie generell, aber nun eben erstrecht – zu wenige Spitalsbetten gibt, zu wenig medizinisches Personal, zu wenig Materialien und Geräte, zu wenig finanzielle Mittel. Das vorhandene Personal ist überlastet, ausländisches Personal kann nicht mehr einreisen. Diese Probleme sind systematischer Natur, sie wurden in der Vergangenheit bewusst in Kauf genommen und können daher nun auch nicht kurzfristig gelöst werden.



Die bisherigen Maßnahmen der österreichischen Regierung in Bezug auf die Corona-Epidemie sind Ausdruck dessen. Im vollen Bewusstsein, dass die Krankenhäuser und nicht zuletzt die Intensivstationen überfordert und überlastet sein werden, werden Erkrankte – zu fast 90% – zu Hause einquartiert, lediglich bei schwerem Verlauf – dies betrifft in aller Regel so genannten „Risikogruppen“ – stehen Spitalsbetten bereit. Die Menschen werden alleine gelassen, die vorsorglich unter Quarantäne gesetzten Mitbewohner sogar der Ansteckung ausgesetzt. Damit wird die akute Pflege (eigentlich setzt man auf Selbstheilung) abermals „privatisiert“, in die eigenen vier Wände verlegt, zulasten familiärer (und eventuell freundschaftlicher) Reproduktionsarbeit und punktueller Unterstützung, die von NGOs geleistet wird. Freilich, dies wird auch als Maßnahme zur Eindämmung verkauft, doch diese ist in Wirklichkeit längst gescheitert: Tatsächlich wird nur noch versucht, den zahlenmäßigen Anstieg der Erkrankungen relativ zu verlangsamen und den Höhepunkt, der uns bevorsteht, zeitlich nach hinten zu verschieben.



Auch die präsentierten Verhaltensregeln, Apelle, Gebote und Verbote, richten sich vorerst an den persönlichen Bereich der Menschen – sie mögen ihr Sozialverhalten ändern, im direkten zwischenmenschlichen, im familiären und im gesellschaftlichen Umgang. In aller Deutlichkeit kommt die Hilflosigkeit der Regierung zum Ausdruck: Sie greift in die Freizeit der Menschen, in die Reproduktionsphasen der Arbeitskraft ein, zunächst im Kleinen, dann auch im Bereich der Bildung und Ausbildung. Dadurch sind als erstes kleine Selbständige und EPUs, Scheinselbständige, freie Dienstnehmer betroffen: Sie fallen um ihre Existenzgrundlage um, als Kulturschaffende, als Sporttrainer, als Kursleiter, als Kartenabreißer, als Garderobiers, als Gastwirte. Es folgen Lehrer und Kinderbetreuer, damit aber indirekt auch berufstätige Eltern. Die Beschwörung der Heimarbeit nützt nur wenigen. Das alles kann der Kapitalismus für einige Zeit verkraften, doch ist der Durchbruch der Krise nur verschoben.



Denn unsere Wirtschaft beruht auf gesellschaftlicher Produktion, in hohem Grad. Diese wird von den Regierungen nur zaghaft angegriffen, denn die Mehrwertproduktion und die Profite der Unternehmen sollen möglichst nicht gefährdet werden. Allerdings ist es eine Tatsache, dass hier große Menschengruppen zusammenkommen, um gemeinsam zu arbeiten – und in den Ballungszentren auch noch mit öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln gemeinsam an- und abreisen. So mögen Einschränkungen bei Reproduktion und Dienstleistungen, die Schließung von Theatern, Kinos, Kaffeehäusern, Skigebieten und Schulen eines sein – auch der in Österreich besonders wichtige Tourismus –, aber schlussendlich wird es um anderes gehen: um die „Fabriken“ (im weitesten Sinn), die trotz aller Deindustrialisierung das Rückgrat der kapitalistischen Wirtschaft bilden, um das Großgewerbe (z.B. Supermarktketten) sowie um Massentransportmittel, wo viele Menschen arbeiten und viele interagieren. Durchaus dürfte das der Regierung bewusst sein, denn es werden Milliardenkompensationen für Unternehmen vorbereitet und weitere eingefordert. Die Arbeitnehmer hingegen sollen und müssen mit weniger auskommen. Doch auch dies sowie die Auswirkungen der Reproduktionseinschnitte werden ohnedies früher oder später in der kapitalistischen Zirkulation ankommen: Jeder Arbeitnehmer ist schließlich auch Konsument. Es ist nicht leicht zu sagen, wie damit umzugehen wäre, doch eines ist evident: Egal, wie man den so genannten „Sozialismus mit chinesischen Merkmalen“ konkret einschätzt, so dürfte es doch feststehen, dass in der VR China Möglichkeiten gefunden wurden, um der Krise einigermaßen Herr zu werden. Im „Westen“ hat man dafür freilich nur moralistische Überheblichkeit, Diffamierung und imperialistischen Rassismus übrig. Unsere Kurzarbeitsmodelle werden jedenfalls nicht ausreichen – so viel steht ebenso fest.



Doch wir wollen ja nicht – auch jetzt nicht – Arzt am Krankenbett des Kapitalismus sein.



Das Kapital will seine Profite retten, ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste der Arbeiterklasse. Die Bourgeoisie kann auch im persönlichen Bereich leichter mit der Corona-Krise umgehen: Die Arbeiter und Arbeiterinnen sollen weiter an Fließbändern, Produktionsketten und Supermarktkassen werken, die Reichen ziehen sich zurück in ihre abgeschotteten Wohn- und Lebensbereiche, in ihre Villen, Landsitze und Penthäuser. Die Arbeiterklasse wird dem kaputtgesparten Gesundheitssystem ausgesetzt, die Reichen leisten sich private Ärzte und Einrichtungen, teure Medikamente, Geräte und Sonderbehandlungen. Es ist keine plötzliche „Zwei-Klassen-Medizin“, vor der die reformistischen Parteien gerne warnen und die sie mit diesem oder jenem Parlamentsbeschluss zu verhindern gedenken, sondern es ist nun mal eine gesamte Klassengesellschaft, in der wir leben – und gegebenenfalls sterben sollen. Kranksein ist im Kapitalismus immer eine Klassenfrage. Sie muss daher auch vom Klassenstandpunkt aus betrachtet werden.



Die Partei der Arbeit hat in der Stellungnahme des Parteivorstandes vom vergangenen Freitag bereits umrissen, welche Maßnahmen zugunsten der arbeitenden Menschen angesichts der Corona-Epidemie dringend und nötig wären – ich brauche sie hier nicht im Einzelnen zu wiederholen. Die österreichische Regierung und die EU werden diese Maßnahmen so nicht umsetzen, denn sie sind trotz aller heuchlerischen Beteuerungen nicht für die Menschen tätig, sondern für das Kapital. Vorrang hat immer die Kapitalakkumulation, unter allen Bedingungen, nicht das Leben der Arbeiterklasse. Ein Gesundheitssystem, das den Bedürfnissen der Menschen entspricht, wird der Kapitalismus nicht schaffen, denn er kann und will es nicht.



Die gegenwärtige Krise wird unter den gegenwärtigen Bedingungen überstanden werden müssen – dies wird Opfer und Leid erfordern. Im Rahmen des Möglichen wollen wir als PdA und unsere Mitglieder dazu beitragen, dass beides möglichst geringgehalten wird: Mit Vernunft, Ruhe, Aufmerksamkeit, Solidarität, Unterstützung und Hilfestellungen, unter Einhaltung zweckmäßigen Verhaltens und Agierens. Wir werden unsere parteiinterne, öffentliche und internationale Aktivität anpassen müssen; wir werden unsere Veranstaltungstätigkeit und unser öffentliches Auftreten, gelinde gesagt, überdenken müssen; wir werden manche Schwerpunkte unserer Arbeit verlagern müssen. Ich gehe auch davon aus, dass es vorerst keine weiteren Parteivorstandssitzungen in herkömmlicher Form geben wird – wir konferieren bei der heutigen Sitzung bereits zum Teil mittels elektronischer Bild- und Tonverbindungen, die nächste PV-Sitzung wird wohl zur Gänze eine Videokonferenz sein. Das alles gehört zu unserer Verantwortung gegenüber unseren Mitmenschen, die wir ernst zu nehmen haben. Daran kann es keinen Zweifel geben.



Eines ist aber auch klar: Wir werden uns keinesfalls zu irgendeiner Art von „Burgfrieden“ mit der Regierung und dem Kapital zwingen lassen, denn diese sind wesentlich verantwortlich für die Tragweite der Situation. Niemand kann erwarten, dass unsererseits der Klassenkampf ausgesetzt wird, denn die Herrschenden führen ihn auch in Krisensituationen gegenüber der Arbeiterklasse und sogar gegenüber Kranken unbeirrt fort. Das werden wir weiterhin thematisieren. Unsere Aufgabe besteht schließlich darin, für eine Welt zu kämpfen, in der den Bedürfnissen der Menschen entsprochen wird, nicht jenen des Kapitals; in der dementsprechend der Mensch im Mittelpunkt steht, nicht die Profitmacherei; in der die Gesundheit aller Menschen und die bestmögliche Krankenbehandlung tatsächlich höchste Priorität haben; in der Leben und Tod keine Klassenfragen mehr sind. Diese Welt wird der Sozialismus sein.


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