Month: March 2020

How will we know the pandemic is scientifically ‘over’? What if authoritarian governments extend it? Hari Kumar 29 March, 2020. Introduction: No doubt all progressives and leftists agree that the current time is a very swift changing one, and one that is fraught with confusions. On the 17 March, 2020 we put some views on the medical and immediate economic crisis of the COVID 19 pandemic.  Since then, a lot more left articles have been published. These collectively give us a good picture of the crisis from the left viewpoint. Taken together they make some common points. These collectively emphasise:…

Dr. John Puntis, Co-Chair “Keep Our NHS Public” (KONP) It’s clear that an urgent intervention is needed on the government’s Coronavirus response. Despite the massive threat posed by the pandemic, Boris Johnson isn’t doing what’s needed to support our health workers as they confront this crisis. This is doubly alarming given that our NHS is going into action following a decade of under-funding, under-staffing, and undermining from Conservative-led governments. That’s why a new petition putting six key demands to the government has just been launched. The demands are: Covid-19 testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) must be available for all NHS and…

Some important political problems, that are very relevant to Marxists, are being revealed by the evolving health crisis known as COVID 19. We try to discuss some of these issues. The labeling of this epidemic as a “hoax” by President Donald Trump is naturally, completely unwarranted. Unfortunately in a fit of over-zealous skepticism, some Marxists have also minimized the epidemic. In order to place this discussion in context, we must start from some medical and environmental facts, only then moving to the political ramifications. Throughout this, Marxists may recall how Friedrich Engels wrote about infectious diseases: “Capitalist rule cannot allow…