“The activity of the Communist and Workers’ Parties under the conditions of the pandemic and the capitalist crisis, for safeguarding the health and the rights of the popular strata, in the struggle to change society, for socialism. ”
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Communist Party of Belgium Belgium : strengthen class consciousness, organise precariousworkers and build an anti-capitalist, antifascist, anti-imperialist front for socialism and peace
What is the current situation in Belgium? Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 10,000 people have died in Belgium. Our country thus has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in relation to the number of people infected (120,000) and the population of the country. These figures reveal the criminal management of the health crisis by the Belgian government, which throughout the last few months has shown its class interests and has not defended the population. Since the federal elections of May 2019 until 30 September 2020, Belgium no longer had a fullfledged government. It was an illegitimate minority government in current affairs that ruled the country while parties ranging from social democrats to Flemish nationalists, conservatives, greens and liberals negotiated a coalition government agreement in what is a recomposition of the bourgeoisie.It is clear that whatever the exact composition of the government, the parties in power will be unable to respond to the health, social and economic crisis, or to meet the needs of the working class. They will even continue the anti-popular and anti-worker policies of previous governments, trying to make us pay for the crisis. The crisis is presented as a consequence of the pandemic. However, the pandemic has in fact initially masked and above all accelerated and amplified the effects of the crisis of inherent and recurrent overproduction within the capitalist system. In March, the current affairs government of Sophie Wilmès (MR) was given special powers by parliament to manage the health crisis. Yet it was the same Sophie Wilmès who in 2017, as budget minister, cut public hospital services in the name of (EU) austerity policies in the wake of decades of attacks on social security and public services, including privatisations (GATS, WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services) and chronic underfunding. Public services provide access to basic needs for a large part of the population. Their undermining has resulted in people no longer being able to access health care. Some workers have also been forced to make difficult and inhumane choices (care, rent, food...) because of restricted livelihood opportunities.It is the very right to health that is under attack, while public services and public hospitals have proven their necessity and effectiveness during the crisis, thanks to frontline workers. That is why they must never enter into concepts of profitability. The scandals linked to the management of the health crisis are not limited to attacks on the public hospital. They also revealed the anarchic nature IB Special Edition
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