Socialist Alternative Issue 66 - September 2020

SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ISSUE #66 l SEPTEMBER 2020

UNEMPLOYMENT, EVICTIONS, PANDEMIC

CRISIS DEEPENS

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THE RACE FOR A VACCINE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION TAX AMAZON

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WHAT WE STAND FOR: SEPTEMBER 2020 Get COVID-19 Under Control Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that efforts to prevent further spread will need to continue for many more months.

While some states have flattened the curve, many are seeing deadly surges in cases, particularly harming Black, immigrant, and rural communities. Women workers have also lost out disproportionately in the economic crisis.

We call for: J Put human life and health first. Return to Phase 1 of lockdown in areas with a current surge in cases.

J State health departments should work in coordination with federal agencies to ensure free, accessible COVID-19 testing as well as contact tracing in every community. Testing needs to be improved, rapid results must be made available for all. All of this will require the government taking over production of testing material and expanding the capacity of labs that process COVID-19 tests by hiring more trained lab technicians. The government should use the Defense Production Act and direct the manufacturing industry to mass produce testing equipment and, when the time comes, vaccine equipment.

J End profiteering on vaccine research!

More than $10 billion - of our taxes have been funneled to big pharmaceutical companies in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. When available, the vaccine should be made available to everyone for free, with no profit-motive attached.

J Centralize efforts of the medical and pharmaceutical industries in vaccine development. All vaccine research should be open source and collaboratively developed.

J We need a rapid transition to a Medicare-for-All system to ensure high-quality, affordable, public health care to all!

J Tax big businesses and the super rich at the federal, state, and local levels to fund the emergency response needed to address this crisis.

Aid to Workers, Not Wall Street Billionaires have seen their wealth grow by $637 billion since March while working people have struggled with layoffs, lost hours, and lost wages. Any emergency response to the crisis needs to prioritize the health and safety of working Americans, not big business and billionaires.

J Renew elapsed unemployment benefits including the $600-a-week top up.

J Extend federal, state, and city eviction moratoriums and cancel rent for the duration of the pandemic.

J Universal rent control and a tax on the wealthiest corporations like Amazon to

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build high-quality, publicly-owned social housing.

J All workers on the front lines of this pandemic should receive hazard pay. Corporations that have terminated hazard-pay programs should be forced to immediately bring them back. Hazard pay needs to be given to tens of thousands of federal workers not currently receiving it.

J Adequate PPE needs to be guaranteed in every workplace and any worker choosing to self quarantine or refusing to work in an unsafe workplace should not be retaliated against.

J With states and cities facing huge deficits, they are already beginning to cut spending on public education and health care. The federal government should use a tax on big business to provide disaster relief to states.

Safe Reopening of Schools J School reopening plans should be made by democratically elected safety committees, of teachers, families, students, and health professionals. These committees should determine when it’s safe to reopen schools based on scientific data.

J Class sizes should not exceed 10 students. We need to hire hundreds of thousands to work in schools, not lay off hundreds of thousands.

J Temporary, outdoor structures should be built while outdated ventilation systems in schools are replaced.

ASafe and Just Society: End Racist Policing J Cities should slash police budgets by at least 50%, and reinvest those funds in needed public services.

J Immediately fire and prosecute all cops who have committed violent or racist attacks.

J End the militarization of police. Ban police use of “crowd control” weapons.

Disarm cops on patrol.

J Put policing under the control of democratically elected civilian boards with power over hiring and firing policies, reviewing budget priorities, and the power to subpoena. All of this should be done openly and publicly.

Labor Movement Needs to Step Up J Trade unions are the only organizations workers have to directly defend their rights. However, the leaderships of most major unions have not stepped up to defend their members or organize the unorganized during this pandemic.

J We need to build radical fighting unions that help organize social struggles against eviction, poverty, racism, a massive jobs

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WHY I JOINED SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE For as long as I can remember I have been told to be patient when it comes to making change. Adults insisted that when I turned 18, I would finally have the opportunity to influence the government and should be grateful for it. I believed that I could make a difference by growing up to be an enthusiastic Democrat and an environmental engineer. The failure of the Obama administration to deliver on his promises of a new era of progressive politics, particularly in regards to the lack of environmental policies and tackling abuses of corporate power, made me doubt that being a Democrat was enough.

When the 2016 election rolled around, the Bernie Sanders campaign opened my eyes to the need for a political revolution and massive changes to U.S. health care, Social Security, and education. He revealed the importance of the youth in solving the systemic problems facing the country. Motivated by Bernie’s grassroots organizing and the BLM movement, I began to consider how change could be achieved without voting blue. The first rallies and protests I participated in gave me an appreciation for the power of mass action. It was great to meet and fight with people who were similarly frustrated with legislators that cared more about their corporate backers than their constituents.

At one climate strike, I heard a speaker from Socialist Alternative talk about climate change as a symptom of the greater forces of capitalism. I realized the only way to stop climate change is to stop our economic system, whose purpose is to generate profits for the 1%.

What we need is a system that focuses on human needs and environmental sustainability: a socialist system. My dream program, and for full employment on living wages.

J For a reduced workweek to share out the work with no reduction in pay. For a living wage for all those laid off or unemployed.

J For a Green New Deal jobs program to tackle climate change and provide jobs for tens of millions of workers. To be successful, this needs to be tied to public ownership of the massive energy companies and banks.

For a New Political Party for Working People J Democrats and Republicans alike are passing austerity budgets across the country that are full of layoffs and cuts to social services. Despite their differences, the establishments of both parties have demonstrated their undying loyalty to the billionaire class and an indifference about the lives of working people.

J We need a new multiracial workers’ party

Graciela Leon High School Student Pittsburgh, PA of helping save the planet by becoming an environmental engineer can never be a reality as long as the profit motive of capitalism still exists. SA’s message resonated with me and I began to recognize capitalism as the root cause of injustices I had thought were unconnected.

Since joining Socialist Alternative, I have learned how it is possible to create a new society that is democratically run and ends predatory capitalism, which is incapable of meeting the most basic needs of working people and will never stop destroying the earth. The most effective way to fight injustice is an international movement. SA has taught me that even as a young person I have the power to make a difference, I don’t have to wait until I am 18. I believe in getting organized to take on capitalism and build a better future for myself and others. J that organizes and fights for workers’ interests and is committed to socialist policies to point a way out of the horrors of capitalism.

The Whole System is Guilty J Capitalism produces pandemics, poverty, inequality, environmental destruction, and war. We need an international struggle against this failed system.

J We need a democratic socialist plan for the economy based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people and the planet. Bring the top 500 companies and banks into democratic public ownership.

J Malcolm X said, “You can’t have capitalism without racism.” To win lasting change, the fight against police racism and the corporate political establishment must be expanded into a fight against the capitalist system itself and for a socialist alternative. J

SOCI ALI STALTERNATI VE. ORG

C O R O N AV IR U S

COVID-19 Chaos: The War for the Vaccine Heats Up To m C r e a n The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population but 22% of the deaths from COVID-19. Considering the vast resources of this country, this is a staggering fact.

Of course, from the beginning, the coronavirus pandemic has represented a massive failure of global capitalism. The Chinese government covered up the initial outbreak in Wuhan and silenced healthcare workers who tried to warn the world. In Italy, the outbreak was made far worse by the devastating cuts to the healthcare system under the neoliberal policies of recent decades which sought to reduce the role of the public sector.

In the broadest sense we have seen the limitations of a system driven by competing national interests to deal with crises which require global cooperation. And yet the outcomes have not been the same from country to country and the U.S. is literally the worst among developed nations. Germany has had one fifth the rate of coronavirus cases while Australia’s death rate is only 2% that of the U.S. Many other examples could be given.

Why Is the U.S. the Worst?

There are two key reasons for the scale of the disaster in the U.S. The first is clearly the grotesque incompetence of the Trump regime, aided and abetted by idiot Republican governors with a few exceptions. Among major world countries, only Bolsonaro’s government in Brazil rivals the Trump regime in how brazenly and consistently it has ignored the advice of scientific experts. For many weeks Trump simply denied there was a problem and since then at every opportunity he has minimized the danger of the virus and said it would go away soon. This is not to mention advocating unproven cures like hydroxychloroquine and his refusal, until very recently, to be seen wearing a mask.

Testing at the start in the U.S., due to the refusal to use available international tests, was a complete farce, making it impossible to trace the course of the virus at the point where it could really have been contained.

The sourcing and distribution of PPE, ventilators, and other necessary equipment by the government was a complete failure.

If the federal government and the states had taken decisive lockdown measures in a timely manner, 90% or more of the deaths could have been avoided, not to mention the hundreds of thousands who didn’t die but will have long-lasting health consequences from the virus.

The other cause of the severity of this crisis is the vicious, diseased nature of American capitalism itself. Trump is a natural SEPTEMBER 2020

COVID-19 cases surge across the country. by-product of this system but he did not create the country’s savage class and racial inequalities. While the remnants of the European “welfare state” made a difference in protecting its citizens, we live in the only advanced capitalist country without some form of universal healthcare.

To top everything off, we have had the “re-opening” fiasco. Trump, answering to the most rapacious sections of corporate America, relentlessly pushed states to reopen regardless of whether the virus was under control. Most Republican governors did his bidding although we should not forget that the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, also capitulated to business interests, leading to a chaotic reopening and a massive spike in cases. The contrast between the Northeast – which initially had the worst outbreak but where the curve was actually flattened – and states like Florida, Texas and Arizona, simply comes down to not reopening as rapidly, diligently tracing cases, and waiting until certain criteria had been met.

All of this was done in the name of “bringing the economy back,” which is code for profits. But this has been a complete failure on its own terms. The economy can’t be fully reopened until the virus is contained.

The Race to Get a Vaccine What is needed now is to combine the scientific expertise of labs around the world to develop the best possible vaccine and then to manufacture the billions of doses necessary as rapidly as possible. The most vulnerable populations should be prioritized to receive the vaccine first and everyone should get it for free.

This is what should happen. But there is no indication that this is what will happen.

Internationally, it is reported that nearly 200 companies and other institutions are working to develop a coronavirus vaccine. At least two dozen have reached the clinical trial stage.

But this is in no sense a coordinated effort with the interests of the working people, poor, and frontline workers as the priority.

Trump himself has made it clear that he sees the race for the vaccine as an extension of his “America First” protectionist agenda. He is also hoping to be able to make a dramatic announcement about a vaccine in October to boost his flailing re-election effort.

Congress has allocated over $10 billion to be given to pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna with no strings attached.

As a recent piece in MarketWatch pointed out, there is “not even a guarantee that any vaccines and treatments will be affordable to the people who need them.” This is despite the history of price-gouging by BigPharma in the U.S. Drug costs are the biggest contributor to the growth of healthcare costs. As the same piece points outs: “This is a case study on who really benefits when the U.S. government hands over exclusive licensing deals with no stipulations for pricing. The industry gets richer while Americans are forced to tighten their budgets, ration medicine, or go without drugs they depend on. That’s been the reality of giving corporations control over prices.”

And to be clear: the establishment of both the Democrats and Republicans are beholden to Big Pharma. They have donated heavily to Biden’s campaign and one of his senior advisers, Steve Ricchetti, is a longtime healthcare lobbyist, who has personally represented

many of the drugmakers on pricing issues.

Big Pharma successfully defeated an attempt by some Democrats to include language in the CARES Act that would regulate the cost of a COVID-19 vaccine. The Democrats have not since launched a concerted campaign to reintroduce this question nor have they advocated strongly that Trump use existing executive powers to keep costs low. Biden has even come out against the use of these powers.

Where Do We Go From Here?

There are many questions regarding a possible vaccine including how effective it will be. There are concerns among some scientists about how long immunity from a future vaccine could last. This means that multiple doses of the vaccine might need to be given over time, possibly multiple times a year. But if a sufficient part of the population nationally and globally were rapidly vaccinated, this could be enough to contain the virus if not eliminate it.

It is possible some vaccines will be ready for mass production as early as October or November. But what we have right now is a rushed process dominated by the private sector pushing ahead with virtually no controls and literally no plan for how to prioritize those who should get it first and to ensure it’s free for all.

Tragically, if the political establishment has its own way, this next chapter of the pandemic is likely to be similar to the previous chapters: a disaster for working people. This shows why working people need their own political party to fight on the streets and in the halls of power for the most basic things we need to survive. J

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E L E C T IO N S

2020 Presidential Elections

Trump in Trouble and Biden in Hiding E rin B rig ht w e ll 2020 is not the election year that anyone expected. Presidential election politics are now utterly intertwined with the global pandemic that has killed nearly 160,000 people in the U.S. as of this writing and has completely altered life for most of the population.

From the very beginning, Trump has not just failed to meet the challenges of leading the country through a pandemic, but has actively made things worse.

We needed a coordinated wartime response based on the best available science. Instead, we got dire shortages of supplies and equipment, hardly any coordination of state and federal resources, massive profiteering, and a campaign of misinformation coming from the White House itself. There is no doubt that Trump’s administration bears the primary responsibility for the catastrophic mishandling of COVID-19. However, the deplorably underfunded state of the public health system and the consolidation of the hospital industry that has left more and more rural and poor urban communities of color without adequate services is a bi-partisan project going back decades. With Trump’s reelection prospects looking very shaky, his authoritarian instincts are emerging even more with his attacks on mail-in ballots, talk of postponing the election, and threats to challenge the election results.

Joe Biden, architect of mass incarceration, consummate corporate-backed politician, and serial sexual harasser (at best) is sitting on a commanding lead in the national polls and in most of the swing states. This would have seemed unlikely back in February when Bernie Sanders led Biden by as much as 12% in national polling averages.

However, Sanders effectively abandoned his program and his base in the wake of the liberal establishment’s ferocious maneuvering to convince especially older voters that only Biden could beat Trump. This was in spite of the fact that primary voters agreed far more with Sanders on the issues like Medicare for All. Despite all of his tremendous political and personal weaknesses, Biden is looking like an increasingly good bet to be the next White House occupant. Yet Trump should not be counted out – Democratic strategists are, for example, very nervous about having Biden, with his clearly declining mental faculties, face Trump on a debate stage.

If Biden does manage to win in November, this would not spell the end of Trumpism or right populism in the U.S. If a Biden administration refuses to take bold enough action to reverse the immiseration of large sections of the population, and no left political alternative is built, a space would be open for the growth of the far right on a far greater scale than anything seen in the U.S in a very long time.

This speaks to the urgency with which a

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political alternative needs to be built. One that can challenge the ascendency of a far right force more effectively than the lackadaisical, pro-corporate Democratic Party ever could.

Democratic Establishment: No Friend of Working People While it would be unwise to count Trump out of the race – the state of American politics will likely contain many more twists and turns over the coming months – socialists and progressives should consider what a Biden presidency would look like. The country is in complete crisis, with no real path to getting the coronavirus under control. Tens of millions are facing unemployment, eviction, and food insecurity. The working class has undergone a wave of radicalization as a result of the biggest wave of protests in U.S. history – the George Floyd uprising – and is, as a whole, more consciously anti-racist than at any other time in the history of the country.

Important victories have been won by democratic socialists who’ve been elected to city councils and state legislatures. There is real star power in left congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar. There will be more important gains for the progressive wing of the Democrats this November, particularly in New York and in St. Louis with BLM activist Cori Bush recently winning her primary.

Despite these victories, the socialist left remains a marginal force in the halls of power, not due to a lack of potential support for its ideas, but because of a lack of coordination, a clear program, and a focus on building movements. While playing an important role in raising the socialist consciousness of broader society, the presence of these socialist electeds – with some exceptions – hasn’t translated into major, concrete policy victories. The biggest hamstring to the socialist left in office is their imprisonment within the Democratic Party, a party that is thoroughly undemocratic and wedded to the needs of big business.

In contrast to this stands Kshama Sawant, Seattle City Councilmember and member of Socialist Alternative. She was elected and reelected twice as an independent socialist and on the heels of titanic victories she helped lead. These include Seattle becoming the first major city to pass a $15 an hour minimum wage and – most recently – a $240 million per year tax on Amazon and big corporations to fund permanently affordable housing.

Joe Biden has been obedient to the capitalist class for the entirety of his long career, and is poised to solve exactly none of the fundamental problems facing working class people. Alongside the vast majority of establishment Democrats in D.C., he continues to oppose essential measures to fight the pandemic like Medicare for All.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden will face off in the 2020 presidential elections.

Eighty-seven percent of Democratic voters support Medicare for All. Despite this, Joe Biden has remained steadfastly opposed to it. That in these circumstances Biden and the Democratic establishment can’t even pretend to support progressive measures shows the total futility of trying to “transform” the Democratic Party into a vehicle for working people and the oppressed.

Biden and the Democratic establishment can’t possibly satisfy both their corporate masters and the aspirations of tens of millions of working class people for free and universal healthcare, safe and properly resourced education, economic stability and racial justice.

If it is to win a profound transformation in policing, the movement against racist police violence will need to build mass organizations of struggle. The experience of the last few months shows that winning even small concessions from Democratic politicians requires a mass movement. Winning lasting reforms will take a sustained struggle centered on the social power of the multiracial working class.

The Democratic Party in power has proven to protestors through innumerable tear gas canisters and city council votes against police defunding that it does not support the aims of the movement. The latest example is in Seattle where Kshama Sawant’s proposal to defund the police by 50% was defeated by the Democrats on the City Council in a 7 to 1 vote.

Moreover, there is a long history of the Democratic Party co-opting social movements – promoting a few individuals to positions of power and promising incremental change while overseeing the demobilization of the movement. In order to avoid this, we will need a new party of and for working people and youth. Unlike the Democrats, this

would be a party democratically controlled from the ground up, and whose candidates would be bound to the party’s program.

Need for an Alternative It is completely understandable that millions of working class people will cast a vote for Biden as the lesser evil this November, but this does not point to a solution to the deeper problems we face. In office, the Democrats will continue to attack our interests and solve none of the underlying problems created by capitalism. Working people and youth will move into struggle again and again against the political establishments of both corporate parties in the coming period. Socialists and working class activists should help prepare the ground for a new party by registering our opposition to the rotten Democratic establishment now by arguing for a protest vote for the strongest of the independent left candidates, the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins.

The Green Party has not based itself on movements or class struggle, including even the recent youth climate strikes, and does not point towards the mass party that working people need. However, in the absence of any larger force running a presidential campaign, socialists should support Howie Hawkins’ bid for president. Hawkins, a long time UPS worker, has a rounded-out proworker platform including Medicare For All, an “Eco-socialist Green New Deal,” and a robust emergency program for the pandemic.

The Dead End of Lesser Evilism Support for Biden points toward the left

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E D U C AT IO N

Educators and Families Unite for Safe Schools Ma r g a r e t Wh i t t i e r a n d Ma d d i e R o v e r Educators and families fundamentally want the same thing out of our public education system: students to be safe and to succeed in school. Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos cry crocodile tears for children missing in-person school while clearly not caring one bit about the safety of educators, students or their families. Their priority is to get schools back running so they and their billionaire buddies can get back to business as usual making money.

The school year is now in full swing.

Each state — and in some cases each city within that state — are executing vastly different models of education. Some are 100% remote, others are 100% in-person, and still others are doing a “hybrid” model with a rotation of students to reduce the number in a school building at any one time. Due to a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in states across the country in July and August, 13 out of the 15 biggest school districts in the country have opted to start the year entirely online.

As the school year drew nearer and nearer, many educators rallied behind the slogan #RefuseToReturn. Educators were right to be wary of the rushed and unsafe push to reopen schools. At the same time, many families, seeing the impact remote learning has had on their children, were desperately hoping for an in-person option in the fall. As the school year unfolds, educators and families must unite around their shared interest in a public school system that would truly work for students, educators, and families, while also keeping us safe.

Pre-Existing Crisis in Schools Public schools were struck with the coronavirus crisis when they were already in desperate need of funding. Most schools have inadequate ventilation systems and many have windows that won’t open. The last time asbestos risk was assessed, the federal government determined that 15 million students and 1.4 million teachers were potentially exposed to the deadly material. Educators have been saying for decades that class sizes are too large, with many educators seeing hundreds of students each day.

Because school funding is heavily based on local property taxes, poorer districts — particularly those with predominantly Black and Latino students — have always had less funding per student. During the Great Recession, more than 350,000 education jobs were lost. The challenge of schools reopening cannot be separated from the unforgivable way public schools have been denied critical resources for decades.

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No Option Is Zero Risk There is no option for schools this fall that is without risk to the health and safety of students and school staff. With entirely remote learning, students will struggle academically, socially, and developmentally. There are millions of students who rely on schools for counseling, crisis support, meals, and daytime shelter and will miss out on these services if schools are closed. Many caregivers who cannot work from home will have to choose between leaving their child to navigate remote learning alone or losing their income.

However, despite the limitations of remote learning, in places where the virus is raging and case numbers are increasing, physical schools are simply not safe. Unfortunately, we have already seen this on display in Cherokee County, Georgia where schools reopened for in-person learning with no mask mandate and virtually no social distancing and had to quarantine 800 people after an outbreak. As we go to print, 38 students and 12 staff have tested positive for the virus in this district.

In any school district that has opened unsafely and is seeing an uptick in COVID19 cases, school communities should fight for immediate closure of the schools while spread of the virus is brought under control.

This should include teachers walking out or striking if necessary. The American Federation of Teachers has importantly taken up this call and stated they will support locals that choose to go on strike rather than work in unsafe schools. While buildings are closed, districts should be fully investing in the safety measures that will make schools safe.

In areas that began the school year remotely and have seen community spread of the virus contained, safety committees of educators, families, and health experts should look into what it would take to safely reopen schools to in-person learning. This could include the use of temporary outdoor structures to ensure proper ventilation while school buildings are overhauled and new ventilation systems are installed. It would also need to include the hiring of new educators to accommodate smaller class sizes. Funding any of this would require a massive tax on big business and billionaires.

Role of The Labor Movement and Unions Toward the end of the summer, a number of teachers unions put forward demands for schools to remain remote in the fall. In Chicago, where a strike threat forced the school district to back down on in-person reopening plans, teachers were demanding: smaller class sizes, a nurse and counsellor in each

Educators in Pinella County, Florida protest for a safe reopening. school every day, remote learning options for vulnerable students and staff, computers and internet for every student, and a new, safe student transportation plan.

The “Demand Safer Schools Coalition” was launched and includes the Boston Teachers Union, the Chicago Teachers Union, United Teachers of Los Angeles, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, Democratic Socialists of America, among others.

This coalition could be used as a gathering point for educators, families, and students to discuss the way forward for schools in the fall. Sections of the political establishment will continue to try to cynically pit parents and educators against one another in order to distract from what is in the best interests of both groups: a massive investment in public schools paid for by taxing the rich.

Educators and families will need to fight together for a complete overhaul of our public education infrastructure, to not reopen schools until the scientific data supports it, for police free schools, for a moratorium on charter schools, and for a tax on billionaires and Wall Street. We also need to fight against rotten attempts by corporate “education reform” privatizers to take advantage of the crisis facing public schools.

Educator unions should organize school and district-based community meetings to unite families and educators. They should also form building-based health and safety committees, including parents and health experts, to determine what should be done next in the reopening process, depending on the scientific data in the community. These will need to be connected to local and statewide coordinating bodies.

We need to build fighting unions that can win schools that are not only safe in the fall, but are fully funded going forward. Unions

should be actively taking up demands to defund the police to fund education, but this won’t be enough. We need to tax the rich to fully fund education.

The Problem is Capitalism The reality is that the very system of capitalism is detrimental to children’s development. Capitalism keeps millions of people in low-paying, exploitative jobs, and makes us pay excessive amounts for healthcare and housing. Studies show that childhood trauma resulting from poverty directly inhibits children’s working memory, which is critical for learning, and is linked to the longstanding opportunity gap. This points to the fact that educators and parents have a stake in fighting for a system that works for our young people.

The current system of capitalism necessitates making decisions based on profit, leaving huge swaths of the world in poverty. This profit-motive is precisely why the so-called education reform movement backed by corporate interests has championed privatization of our public schools for so long. They would rather turn a profit than do what is best for our children, educators, and communities.

Educators and families are up against not just cuts and privatization, but the broader system of capitalism, making it that much more important that we are organized behind broad-based demands. Education workers and parents have a lot to win for our schools and our students. The only way forward is for the broader working class to take up the fight for fully funded, safe public schools our students and educators deserve. J

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2020: AHistoric Indic Grace Fors Everyone who lived through the year 2020 will remember it as a year of unprecedented collapse, when every fault in the system was blown open and the lives of ordinary people were forever changed. The twin crises of COVID-19 and a global economic depression, exacerbated by the third and biggest crisis of global climate destruction, have illustrated capitalism’s doomed future more acutely than ever before.

COVID-19 and the Capitalist Death Trap The range and depth of the devastation beThe range and depth of the devastation being wrought is no natural disaster, but a culmination of political choices made in the interest of profit. The capitalist ruling class worldwide is to blame in laying the groundwork for this crisis. Scientists have been warning about the likelihood of a pandemic for years. Each and every deadly feature of the current crisis was foreseeable and entirely avoidable. From the outset, the virus was on a collision course with a powder keg of vulnerabilities stored up in the system.

The climate catastrophe is bearing down full force: COVID-19 is not the first deadly pandemic caused by capitalism’s destruction of the environment, nor will it be the last. The obliteration of ecosystems by agribusiness has quadrupled the spread of animal-borne diseases into the human population over the last 50 years. The majority of new disease outbreaks of the last two decades has emerged and spread through for-profit practices including deforestation, intensive farming, and intrusion of agriculture into wildlife habitats. On top of this, fossil fuel emissions polluting the air we

breathe have made human immune systems even more vulnerable to a virus, especially a respiratory one.

Thirty years of the neoliberal offensive have gutted social services, under-staffed and strained hospital budgets, and introduced greater levels of precarity by slashing safety nets. These cuts were widespread following the financial crisis of 2008 in the name of “cost saving,” but in reality represented a massive transfer of wealth to the super rich. Now, large sections of the working class are increasingly stuck in low wage jobs without paid sick leave, lack access to healthcare, and live in overcrowded housing.

In Italy, billions of euros in healthcare cuts, thousands of removed beds, and hundreds of closed hospitals paved the way for the outbreak to have the impact it did.

In the United States, rural hospital closures have deprived many of access to needed healthcare, particularly in the South. Since 2010, 120 hospitals have closed, with 2019 seeing the most rural hospital closures in a single year. The U.S., the only industrialized nation without some form of universal healthcare, has done the worst job by far of containing the virus. Nearly every day, states across the country set new records for deaths and new infections.

The System is Killing Us Eighty percent of workers worldwide have been affected by COVID-19 lockdowns. Nearly half of workers globally employed in the informal economy are seeing their livelihoods destroyed, and a deterioration in working hours equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs is leading to a crippling loss of income for the entire global working class.

Seventy-one million people globally will be

Protest at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse where workers had been fired for speaking out against unsafe conidtions.

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thrust into extreme poverty and forced to live on less than $1.90 a day. Renters will be hard hit as the global housing market contracts. In the U.S. alone, 40% of renters will experience shortfalls putting them at risk of eviction if Congress continues to withhold real relief.

Worldwide, school closures have deprived 90% of schoolchildren of education, and over 370 million have lost access to school meals they depend on. Deaths from COVID-19-linked hunger will soon exceed deaths from the virus itself; world hunger is on course to claim 12,000 lives per day by the end of 2020.

This summer will likely be the hottest on record. As scientists predicted, extreme heat is rapidly increasing COVID-19 transmission.

In Israel, school reopening was followed by a massive heat wave. Administrators decided to close the windows instead of sending children home as they should have, which triggered a disastrous outbreak as classrooms became “a petri dish for COVID-19.” Hurricane season is here. Floods, fires, and natural disasters will displace millions, introducing the virus into new areas and clustering vulnerable survivors together.

Enduring Oppression Still, in 2020, despite massive struggles and countless sacrifices in the fight for liberation, the social poison of racial, ethnic, gender based as well as class oppression is as evident as ever. The deadly reality of social inequality has been not only exposed by this crisis, but also greatly exacerbated.

Longstanding structural disparities in health and living standards have resulted in massive gaps in COVID-19 cases and deaths along racial lines. Black people, as well as Latinos, in the U.S. face the paradoxical injustice of being overrepresented in frontline work which risks exposure to the virus, while also experiencing more pandemic-related job losses. It is impossible to make sense of these circumstances without understanding that capitalism is a fundamentally racist system which has relied on the subjugation of the Black population and on the super-exploitation of immigrants throughout its existence.

We also can’t forget the 2.3 million incarcerated in the U.S., majority Black and Latino, burning alive in prisons with poor ventilation, cramped spaces, and without adequate healthcare. Prison populations are experiencing triple the rate of COVID-19 deaths relative to the general population. Similar conditions persist for the 21,800 detained immigrants packed in ICE detention centers. ICE has continued to arrest, detain, and deport despite the pandemic, and has become a global superspreader. Undocumented immigrants, ineligible for unemployment insurance and especially vulnerable to informal eviction, are navigating this unprecedented crisis with few supports. Of the 43 million American renters at risk of being evicted from their homes, a disproportionate number will be people of color.

The current crisis is also having a disproportionate effect on women, causing some

mainstream media outlets to declare a “shecession.” Women, and particularly women of color, are heavily represented in industries hardest hit by closures and layoffs--including service, hospitality, and leisure. They are also over-represented in essential industries like healthcare. Meanwhile, working mothers at home find themselves enormously burdened as the demands of housework and childcare have intensified. Many are performing this household labor round-the-clock while simultaneously working jobs from home. Quarantine has caused an uptick in domestic violence at a time when stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions make it harder for survivors to escape abusive households.

ADisgraced Ruling Class Right-wing governments worldwide have been impressive in their ability to do the exact opposite of what is needed in addressing the pandemic. While some capitalist governments were more effective in their policies, the failures of right wing regimes like those of Trump, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Modi in India and Boris Johnson in Britain didn’t come from stupidity or ruthlessness alone. The rise of these regimes in itself reflects the impasse of neoliberal capitalism. But globally, the inability to prevent this catastrophe shows the limits of the nation state and a steadily decaying social system.

Rapid mass testing, contact tracing, universal provision of PPE, and accelerated production of necessary equipment are not impossible tasks. They are the bare minimum reasonable measures to respond to the virus, but accomplishing them has been an uphill battle.

Lockdown measures which should have been immediate were delayed in the U.S. because the fear of losing out on profits far outweighed concern for public welfare. The ruling class has exploited every opportunity to maintain business as usual despite the objective circumstances, as capitalism proves constitutionally incapable of orienting itself to human need.

A global health and economic crisis warrants a global response. A society organized around need rather than greed would mean the global working class joining forces around shared goals of rapidly producing and distributing supplies, expediting research, and sharing information toward reaching the fastest and most widespread possible containment of the virus. This is not possible when cutthroat competition is a rule of the system.

Instead, de-globalization and economic nationalism have escalated. Front and center on the international stage is Trump and Xi Jinping, who are busy ramping up tensions, trade wars, military exercises, and publicly blaming the other’s regime for the virus.

The playing out of inter-imperialist rivalry demonstrates that all capitalism has to offer in this period is fear and misery. It is not one or the other individual leader to blame, but the ruling class globally, while the working class pays the price.

SOCI ALI STALTERNATI VE. ORG

ctment of Capitalism Toward Working-Class Leadership The 2008-09 recession led to years of austerity and soaring inequality as the capitalists sought to make working people pay for the crisis and the gains of the “recovery” were funneled right back to the 1%.

Since then, millions more have seen and felt the strength of collective action. In 2019, mass uprisings in Haiti, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, Sudan, Algeria, Ecuador, Chile, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and France shook the world.

This year the #JusticeforGeorgeFloyd rebellion broke through the barrier of isolation, fear, and anxiety and replaced it with a spirit of defiance: people of all backgrounds flooded the streets in international solidarity with the fight against systemic racism and police repression.

The working class, equipped with these experiences, can be confident in our potential to spearhead change.

For workers, capitalism has always boiled down to: “work or die.” Now, with botched reopening and the lapse of desperately needed benefits when cases are spiking, we are being told to work and die. This ruthless indifference toward the suffering of working people has unmasked the backwards priorities of this system and the naked profit-worship at its core.

Wall Street investment banker Kim Fennebresque summed up the callous attitude of the billionaire class to Vanity Fair in March: “People will die. People do die. It happens, right? People have to take responsibility for their own lives.”

This deranged logic would be unthinkable in a socialist society that actually put human lives before profit. Under a democratically planned economy, key decisions on how society should be run would not be dictated by bosses and

“Apple Fire” in California, August 2020 CEOs willing to sacrifice their workers. Reopening the economy would not involve brushing aside hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths to send people back to work.

Anyone who doubts that workers themselves are best equipped to make these decisions should recall those GE workers at the start of the pandemic, who staged protests to demand the right to build ventilators. The narrow drive for profit warps the judgment of the bosses, while working people are capable of providing creative and inspiring ways to direct production toward serving human needs.

Under a workers’ government, elected councils of workers would plan production and distribution at every level of industry, nationally

The Crisis Generation R e b e c c a R ov ins From the 2008 and 2020 recessions, to the rise of far-right leaders like Bolsonaro in Brazil and Trump in the U.S., the existential threat of climate change, and the coronavirus pandemic, capitalism offers no future to a generation who has only ever known crises.

The stranglehold of youth unemployment, astronomical student debt, and gutting of public education and social services will only intensify as capitalism continues its spiral into crisis. The Class of 2020 is entering the worst job market since the Great Depression, while many young people who do have jobs are underpaid workers on the front lines in essential industries during this pandemic.

It is no wonder that we are seeing a rise in mental health issues and suicide among young people, who are not only facing unemployment, insecure and unrewarding jobs, and high rent and tuition, but also racism, sexism, queerphobia, and transphobia. With the immense weight of oppression SEPTEMBER 2020

and inequality pushing down on working class youth, the failures of capitalism have driven many to look for radical solutions to society’s problems.

Nearly a third of Hong Kong protesters arrested in last year’s protests were under 18, and the violence and repression against mainly youth protesters fighting the extradition law inspired the teachers unions to join their students in the streets.

In the U.S., young people have played leading roles in the Black Lives Matter movement, March for our Lives, and Bernie Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. They have also watched their teachers go on strike through the Red for Ed strike wave and in many cases, students even joined their teachers on the picket lines!

The capitalist system is bankrupt – young people instinctively understand this, are increasingly embracing socialist ideas, and fighting back. Their energy and militancy can inspire older generations of working people to join their fight for a better world. J

and internationally. These councils would have the power to prepare for and rapidly respond to crises. War and nationalism, useful only to the bosses, would disappear as workers worldwide reap the benefits of global coordination and solidarity. In this way we could effectively contain this pandemic and all future diseases while ensuring healthcare, housing, and education to all. We would finally be free to start the work of rapidly implementing the transition to renewable energy and green infrastructure while creating millions of jobs in the process.

As we plunge deeper into crisis with no resolution within the capitalist framework, broader masses of people will reach the conclusion that our only path forward is fighting for

an alternative to this rotting system. Without addressing the underlying sickness of capitalism, we will see more and worse crises in the coming years.

Public health, economic security, a livable planet, freedom from oppression and authoritarian violence - these are shared goals of the great majority of people worldwide. Only a socialist system is capable of achieving real justice for this majority. We are at a crossroads between mass death and mass struggle. It is more important than ever that we begin the work now of building this system, and mark 2020 as not just a year of crisis but as a historic call to action. J

For-Profit Health Care In the context of a public health emergency poised to claim the lives of several hundred thousand in the U.S. alone, an estimated 27 million Americans have lost their health coverage since March. If any one of these 27 million Americans fall sick with COVID-19 and need to see a doctor, they will almost certainly leave the hospital with insurmountable debt. The U.S.’ for-profit health care system is being exposed as prohibitively expensive and wildly inefficient.

The Affordable Care Act, which should in theory protect the uninsured during a crisis like this, is proving wholly inadequate.

Close to three million Americans are ineligible for assistance in the 14 states that chose not to expand Medicaid. Many of those that do qualify for government subsidized private care cannot afford the high deductibles and copays attached to these plans.

The gaps and inequities in American health care have left Black and rural communities in particular chronically unable to access consistent, high quality care.

This has left them vulnerable to some of

the underlying conditions that are linked to high COVID-19 mortality like diabetes and hypertension.

At the beginning of the pandemic, images went viral of nurses at public hospitals in New York City wearing garbage bags as a replacement for proper PPE. Nurses, doctors, and other health care workers across the board are risking their lives every time they go to work. Meanwhile, government agencies from the EPA to The National Archives have found hundreds of thousands of pieces of PPE and unused medical equipment. Equipment that is not finding its way into the hands of health care workers due to a criminal lack of coordination at the government level.

Our highly mismanaged, for-profit health care system is a deadly consequence of a society built entirely around maintaining the wealth and stability of billionaires at the expense of human life. We need an immediate transition to Medicare for All with the ultimate goal of an entirely socialized health care system that is democratically organized by health care workers themselves. J

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S O C IA L IS T A LT E R N AT IV E IN A C T IO N

Lessons of the Tax Amazon Victory in Seattle

Amazon Taxed!

Logan Swan The Tax Amazon movement and Seattle’s working class won a historic victory on Monday, July 6. Following a three year struggle against the richest man in the world - Jeff Bezos - and the local political establishment beholden to him, we’ve won a tax on big business in the Seattle City Council that will raise an estimated $210-240 million a year, creating tens of thousands of green union jobs by building permanently affordable social housing.

This victory was entirely due to the power of our movement and our threat to take the Amazon Tax to the ballot if the City Council failed to act. This offensive win is a historic example of the power of class struggle, and it could not come at a better time. Cities and states across the country are pushing extreme austerity budgets in response to the pandemic-triggered budget shortfalls as we enter into another deep crisis of capitalism.

We’ve seen the ruling class attempting to again offload the costs of their recession onto working people as they did during the Great Recession of 2008-09, where big business got bailed out and workers got sold out. It doesn’t have to be like this, and our victory in Seattle illuminates that.

Instead of playing defense against austerity, we went on the offense to force big business to pay for a major expansion of affordable housing and public services. Now, we need to spread the momentum from our victory across the country. Our rallying cry everywhere must be: say NO to underfunded housing, education, social services, and austerity! Tax big business and the rich, not working people!

How Did We Get Here?

Round One: In 2018, we launched the Tax Amazon movement, demanding that the big businesses which have long used Seattle as a corporate tax haven instead pay to fund affordable housing. Seattle has some of the nation’s fastest rising rents. It has been the site of shockingly rapid gentrification that has emptied out entire districts of working class people, particularly in the Central District and Capitol Hill areas, neighborhoods that were historically the home of Black and LGBTQ communities.

Socialist Alternative and our City Council Office of Kshama Sawant built a coalition of community groups and labor organizations to take up the campaign and build pressure on the City Council to pass a progressive tax on the largest companies in the city.

Our movement was able to pressure the City Council into unanimously passing a $47 million tax. This immediately came under heavy attack from big business, which

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launched and bankrolled a repeal campaign, while Amazon threatened behind closed doors and demanded the tax be rescinded.

With this counter pressure of business, armed with the support of conservative union leaders, the majority of the Democrats on the City Council shamefully voted to repeal the tax just a month later.

This shows once again why the working class needs its own political representation – an independent mass party with real democratic structures and a consistently pro-worker program that its elected representatives are required to actively support. At the end of the day, the Democratic Party represents the political interests ofthe capitalist class though less overtly than the Republicans.

Round Two: This betrayal of working people emboldened Amazon and the Chamber of Commerce, which saw an opening to remake the City Council in the 2019 election and prevent a similar tax from ever seeing the light of day. They flooded the city’s elections with a record breaking tidal wave of corporate cash. With seven out of nine seats up for grabs, they wanted to buy more reliable representatives of their interests. As the Kshama Sawant campaign correctly framed the election, what was at stake was: “Who runs Seattle, Amazon and big business or working people?”

Big business’ primary objective was to unseat Sawant, who had served for six years as an unapologetic representative of working people. Our framing of the election and warnings about corporate cash prepared people to see clearly what was being attempted when Amazon dropped a $1 million money bomb the week that ballots were sent out. This was a blatant power grab by the bosses - big business spent over $4 million on the Seattle local election, smashing records.

Round Three: Following an explosive rally of over 500 people to celebrate the start of Sawant’s third term and launch the Tax Amazon movement, Socialist Alternative and Councilmember Sawant’s office organized and built for the first of several mass democratic “Action Conferences” in coordination with progressive unions and community organizations, as well as the Democratic Socialists of America and environmental, tenant, and homeless advocacy groups. These large public assemblies discussed, debated and voted on the direction and activity of the movement, creating a grassroots democratic process for workers to engage in and have real ownership over.

The first Action Conference decided to fight for the City Council to pass a tax on big business while bringing pressure with a ballot initiative from our movement. We needed to make clear that while it would be far more expedient to pass this tax through the City

Tax Amazon march, March 3, 2020.

Council, if they were not prepared to take that step we would go directly to voters on the November ballot.

When we went out on the streets to collect signatures, thousands of workers and youth were ready to sign immediately upon hearing the words “Tax Amazon,” sometimes even lining up to do so! Our second Action Conference democratically decided on the key features of our ballot initiative, putting forward a progressive tax with 75% of the funds going towards new, affordable social housing, and 25% going toward green jobs programs.

We had just finalized the ballot language of the Amazon Tax, Initiative 131, when the pandemic hit.

Building the Movement During a Pandemic Washington State’s Stay-At-Home orders were put in place which immediately became a tremendous hurdle to getting the signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot. We rapidly developed a labor intensive phone banking

operation for digital signatures, coordinated with an expensive mass mailing operation for paper petitions. Scandalously, the state refused to allow electronic signatures despite other states like Ohio, Massachusetts, and New Jersey moving to accept them, given the limitations of collecting signatures under social distancing.

Eventually, as COVID-19 cases declined, and restrictions began to lift, we started a socially-distanced and COVID-19-conscious door knocking and tabling effort, to begin ramping up our face-to-face signature gathering effort.

None of the Democrats on the council backed our initiative, and only Councilmember Morales joined Councilmember Sawant to support the Tax Amazon legislation put forward in solidarity with our movement. Mayor Jenny Durkan, who was installed to her position with $350,000 Amazon dollars, had promised to veto our Amazon tax in 2018, and remarked on the new Amazon Tax: “This

continued on p. 9 SOCI ALI STALTERNATI VE. ORG

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Amazon Taxed! continued from p. 8

never will happen.”

Upon launching our campaign, the corporate media busied itself publishing a series of hit pieces smearing our campaign. This isn’t anything new — the last seven years have been chock full of op-eds and articles attacking our 15 NOW campaign, our socialist council office, our election campaigns, and movements of working people. Business’ top mouthpieces even jumped in, with the Wall Street Journal editorial board dedicating two articles to raising the alarm that socialists, workers, and youth were fighting for a tax on big business.

Our demands to make the bosses pay for the failure of their private market to meet our needs were vindicated as COVID-19 spread rapidly and underscored the complete failure of capitalism, despite huge advances in technology and productivity, to provide for the health and basic needs of the workers who produce all of the wealth. This contradiction of capitalism’s fundamental need for profit at any cost to humanity when faced with a global public health emergency threw the system and the institutions that support it into deep crisis. Basic safety measures and quarantine were delayed because of the impact on productivity and profits. Taxpayer dollars flooded into the billionaires’ deep pockets on Wall Street..

This accumulated tinder of growing unrest and radicalization was provided a spark — the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis. In cities across the country, millions poured into the streets in the largest protest movement in U.S. history, demanding justice and an end to police brutality, only to be met with shocking escalations of police violence. The struggle was focused on racism and the role of the police, but it is well understood by many that systemic racism isn’t limited to police brutality. Many see that racism’s expression also denies affordable housing, jobs, decent wages, and basic dignity.

The wider expression of working class and youth anger was extremely receptive to the

demand of making Amazon and big business pay for a major expansion of affordable housing. In just 20 days, volunteers with Tax Amazon, and particularly Socialist Alternative, collected 20,000 signatures from the angry and hopeful thousands in the streets!

Smashing the inequality and poverty of racism means taking from those who have benefited from this oppression - the capitalist class - to pay for affordable housing to reverse racist gentrification. This renewed momentum set us on the path to reach 30,000 signatures by early July, enough to qualify for the ballot, and the threat of our Tax Amazon ballot initiative quickly became a credible one again to the wealthy and their political establishment.

Democrats’ Hand Forced This major shift of the class forces in motion forced the Democratic establishment to the bargaining table, finally putting forward an offer for a $173 million Amazon Tax with a ten year expiration, or “sunset clause.” We understood clearly that other councilmembers less concerned with salvaging progressive credibility would introduce amendments to further water this down, and that when the bosses come back to force concessions that you need to keep up the pressure. We doubled down on our signature gathering and mobilized people to the Council budget committee meeting where the tax would first be voted on.

That the power of our movement had created a situation where what was being conceded was not a discussion on whether or not to tax big business, but rather how much and for how long, is an indication of the effectiveness of Socialist Alternative’s leadership and how many workers and youth we have been able to organize into the struggle. That the proposal was for more than three times what was attacked and repealed in 2018 also speaks to the strength of the movement.

Backing the Democrats’ watered-down proposal, which was a concession from the ruling class were the same hostile business

Signature collecting for Tax Amazon ballot initiative before the July victory in the City Council.

SEPTEMBER 2020

Tax Amazon 2020 kickoff rally, January 2020. union leaders who had claimed 2018’s $47 million was a “tax on jobs” that would turn Seattle into the next Detroit as employers fled the city to dodge payment. A Seattle Times columnist effusively praised the Democrats’ Amazon Tax proposal (which they had neutrally named “Jumpstart” as part of their attempt to shift the narrative) despite the same publication having nothing but scathing criticism for Tax Amazon and Kshama Sawant. This was part of the ruling class’s attempt, having failed to stop the Amazon Tax, to rob the class struggle lesson from workers, while instead praising the class snuggle approach of the liberal Democrats who had collaborated with big business.

Socialist Alternative understood the discussion was now focused on the Democrats’ Amazon Tax proposal, and we had to fight to strengthen it.

By quickly orienting the movement’s energy to the Democrats’ attempted sidestep, we were able to increase the tax by another $40 million and delay the sunset clause to not kick in for 20 years.

The Role of Socialist Alternative This victory did not come from shady negotiations between corporate giants and their paid-for politicians. It happened entirely because of the self-organization of working people through the Tax Amazon movement around a class struggle strategy led by socialists. Every gain made by working people is won through collective organization like this, both through social struggles and particularly in our workplaces. By not relenting, by effectively responding to every attack, by exposing the lies of the bosses and corporate politicians, we were able to galvanize people to win a massive working class victory.

Socialist Alternative members concretely brought out at every turn the failure of capitalism to meet human needs, its corruption, and its incompatibility with real democracy.

Socialist Alternative played the central role in providing political leadership throughout the campaign, arming the movement to navigate and respond to employers’ ploys from the

“regional solution” of the House Bill and its poison pill ban to responding to attacks in the corporate media to navigating the challenges of the pandemic.

As socialists, we use these struggles for reforms both to win change that will have a substantial impact on the lives of thousands of working people, but also to build movements that point towards workers becoming conscious of our power and confident in our ability to use it to advance our interests, and to fight for a socialist world.

There is nothing unique about Seattle that made this battle easier. The critical factor that contributed to this victory was the presence of a Marxist on the Seattle City Council who is determined to fight for every possible gain for working people with ferocity and whose preoccupation is building movements of working people not making friends with the establishment.

If any socialist elected officials across the country are looking to wage a similar battle against big business, Socialist Alternative and our council office would love to provide any and all support.

At the end of the Tax Amazon battle, we continued the momentum and fought hard to Defund the Seattle Police Department by at least 50% and to win an independent, democratically elected community control board that has hiring and firing powers over the police. Despite seven Councilmembers pledging to vote for 50% defunding, only Kshama Sawant did. The other six believe their promise is fulfilled by the 1% cut that was passed.

Going forward, we must be prepared to defend our Tax Amazon victory against a big business repeal campaign or lawsuit. Elsewhere, working people in cities facing down major deficits will need to wage battles to win business taxes. The self-sacrificing working class and young people who wage these battles will be most effective if we recognize that neither corporate party is on our side, and that we need to actively build our own power and independent organization in order to win. J

9

STRUG G LE

Housing Crisis: Millions of Evictions Loom Rebecca Green Before COVID-19, 75% of renter households (around 30 million homes) spent 30% or more of their income on rent. When the pandemic hit, tens of millions of people already struggling to cover housing costs were suddenly out of work. While expanded unemployment benefits, the $1,200 stimulus checks, and a patchwork of federal, state, and local legislation have staved off an immediate, massive eviction and foreclosure crisis, many of these protections have since expired. Without replacements for these protections, a series of new studies forecast that between 30 and 40 million people could be at risk of eviction in the U.S. in the next several months.

At the end of July, the federal ban on evictions and foreclosures, as well as the $600 per week federal unemployment top-up both ended. As negotiations around the next round of stimulus stalled in Congress in early August, Trump issued an executive order that, while touted as a response to the coming eviction crisis, is simply a toothless recommendation to federal agencies to “consider” measures to protect against evictions.

It does not extend the federal moratorium on evictions that lapsed in July, which even if reimplemented would only apply to properties with federally backed mortgages, only about 25% of the country’s 44 million rental units.

In over 30 states, eviction moratoriums have

ended, leaving renters with no protections.

In some places, eviction hearings have resumed, taking place en masse in repurposed convention centers or via video conference. Many renters have been forced out by landlords in violation of eviction moratoriums, or left their homes because they knew they couldn’t catch up on rent.

The housing crisis deepened by the pandemic needs much more than the important step of extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums. We need to fight for rental and mortgage relief and cancelation.

In April, May, and June, there wasn’t the sudden sharp drop in rental payments from residential units that many expected, largely because of the stimulus and unemployment money. Two-thirds of workers who were eligible for extended unemployment protections were making more than their normal wages, and 30% of renters reported using government aid for rent payments.

But as the stimulus money has dried up, now 32% of renters and homeowners have entered August with unpaid rent and mortgage payments, with over 20% owing more than $1,000. The use of credit cards to pay for rent has been steadily increasing since March. Small landlords who have lost rental income are at risk of foreclosure.

To the big landlords and real estate investors, housing is a commodity to buy and sell in order to maximize profit. Evictions, massive rent increases, and intimidating tactics

are just tools of the trade. In the context of the mass unemployment crisis and the exodus from many cities, some landlords are realizing that letting tenants stay is better money in the long run when a vacant unit could sit empty for months. Recent studies show that 49% of renters who entered August with unpaid bills had renegotiated leases, set up a repayment plan, or were in the negotiation process. Only 18% said they had asked about a plan and were denied. Rents are dropping in major cities from San Francisco to Boston as landlords desperately try to lock in tenants. Rents in Manhattan dropped for the first time in a decade. The pressure of tenant organizing across the country that has reignited in recent weeks in New Orleans, Kansas City, Louisville and New York City has also played a role in forcing concessions from big landlords.

A failure to extend unemployment benefits could release a wave of evictions, an increase in homelessness, and desperation for millions

Eviction on the horizon for millions of Americans. amidst a deadly pandemic. Congress, state and local legislators have responded far too slowly and inadequately, and we can’t rely on them and their real estate backers to act. But while renters’ futures hang in the balance, landlords have been forced onto the back foot and the potential to win more concessions is on the table. We need to get organized in our buildings and in our communities and build mass action for eviction defense and to demand a cancellation of rent and mortgage payments. J

Solidarity with the Lebanese People: Bring Down the Corrupt Elite!

We Demand:

Socialist Alternative’s sister organization in Tunisia, Tayaar al’Amael al’Qaaedi, issued the statement below after the devastating explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on August 4. In the days since, thousands of protestors have taken to the streets demanding the ousting and arrest of Lebanese officials, signaling a reignition of the anti-government and anti-corruption protests that began in October 2019.

Protestors have been met with tear gas and rubber bullets but on August 10, the Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his resignation and that of all of his ministers. While a significant development, the future of the Lebanese people hangs delicately in the balance and will be determined by the continued struggle of the poor and working class against the rotten, ruling elite there and across the region.

B y Ya s s i n e L a a b a d i The huge explosion that occurred on Tuesday, August 4 in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has shocked many people the world over.

Hundreds were killed, thousands wounded

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and many housing, administrative, and commercial buildings collapsed leaving over 300,000 people homeless.

While the exact reasons for the explosion are still unclear, the fact that nearly 3,000 tonnes of deadly ammonium nitrate were stored unsafely in a port hangar for six years despite the immense dangers it posed to the population of Beirut is symptomatic of how rotten, corrupt and dysfunctional the Lebanese state has become. The events around this tragic explosion are indeed taking place in exceptional circumstances, as Lebanon has been experiencing a mass social movement since last October. This movement has been demanding an end to the ruling system that has nurtured corruption, sectarianism, widening poverty and indebtedness, enriching a handful of political thieves and bankers while bringing the country to bankruptcy.

The Lebanese ruling elite has tried to bring the resolve of the Lebanese people to its knees by means of repression and by stirring up more sectarian strife. This comes on top of the large spread of the Coronavirus, which in turn has dramatically worsened the country’s

economic crisis.

The port of Beirut, which represents 70% of the country’s trade, has been completely destroyed. This includes the grain silos, which exposes the country to a serious food crisis.

The shortages and high prices of essential medicines, foodstuffs, and other products of basic necessity, as well as regular power and water shortages, were already serious problems for Lebanon’s poor, working class and, increasingly, middle class people before this tragedy. They will be made incomparably worse after it.

Several hospitals were destroyed due to the explosion and others had their electricity cut off, along with large parts of the city, which forced them to treat the wounded in the streets with rudimentary means. Many of the wounded in resuscitation units died due to the interruption of electricity. Many urgent operations are now carried out in the streets with electric generators.

International Socialist Alternative affirms its solidarity with the Lebanese people in their plight, and its unconditional support for their living revolutionary struggle. J

J Open a comprehensive, transparent and independent investigation to determine the real causes behind this tragedy, and hold all involved accountable.

J All relief should be organized, controlled and distributed by the Lebanese people. themselves, for example by establishing solidarity committees in affected neighborhoods, to ensure that supplies reach those who need them.

J We need international solidarity with the ongoing struggle of the Lebanese masses, and for the full repudiation of Lebanon’s debts.

J Bring the banks and construction companies immediately under public ownership and democratic control, to prevent any profiteering on the back of the victims during the reconstruction process.

J Build the struggle for workers and youth in Lebanon and around the world, to fight for a socialist alternative and an end to the world of wars, exploitation, destruction and epidemics of capitalism.

SOCI ALI STALTERNATI VE. ORG

C O N T IN U AT IO N S

2020 Presidential Elections continued from p. 4 remaining stuck in a “lesser evil” two-party logic that will continue to suffocate genuine progressive and working class struggles. The crisis we now face, and the incompetency of either wing of the political establishment to address it, shows the urgency with which we need to build a new political force.

What the Democrats have shown is that all they have to do to win the progressive vote is to verbally denounce the worst reactionary policies of the Republicans – they don’t even have to fight to change them. Despite the work of groups like the Justice Democrats, Our Revolution, and the Working Families Party, as a bloc, progressive voters have built no real power within the Democratic party,. This hasn’t been for a lack of effort or determination, but because of the entirely undemocratic, unreformable nature of the Democratic Party. This is a tragic reflection of the political options working people are bullied into accepting and it’s long past time to abandon efforts to reform a party whose major donors are a who’s who of the billionaire class.

The last Democratic administration should not be forgotten. During the first two years of the Obama presidency, the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate. They could have acted to bail out working families, invest trillions in a transition to green energy, and begun to address the structural inequalities of wealth and race. But when working people were suffering in what was then the

SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE ISSN2638-3349

worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Obama moved quickly to bail out Wall Street, the banks, and the auto industry.

Obama ran on “universal health care” which was widely interpreted to mean that, at the very least, everyone would receive highly affordable coverage. Instead, the public option was abandoned and the Affordable Care Act, while an improvement for some of the uninsured, amounted to a deal to give the health insurance industry millions of profitable new customers in exchange for curbing some of its worst abuses. Obama’s failure to improve conditions for working people also helped create the space for the far right in the Tea Party.

What if Biden Wins?

Should he win in November, Biden would enter office in the midst of a catastrophic economic depression. Trump has signaled that he is not planning to quietly step aside if he loses. He has ramped up an overtly authoritarian approach over recent months to distract from his disastrous approach to containing the pandemic. While he has not found immediate support even among the ruling class for proposals like delaying the November election, this narrative serves a useful purpose for him.

Even if he loses in November, he is laying the ground to continue to build his populist right force on the basis that the election was stolen.

It is extremely positive that the largest socialist organization in the country, the

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has chosen not to endorse Biden and is calling at least formally - for the formation of a new party. We believe that the DSA would perform an enormous service to the left if it declared its intention to to fully break with the Democrats and called for a vote for Hawkins - this includes DSA elected officials like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. More importantly, socialists, including those organized with the DSA, should be raising the necessity of independent politics within social movements, the labor movement and by running independent socialist campaigns.

Working people, especially people of color, have borne the brunt of the pandemic. They are bearing and will bear the brunt of the eviction wave and mass unemployment. For decades, Democrats have proven their allegiance to the corporate elite at working people’s expense over and over again and it’s abundantly clear that a president Biden will do the same.

Socialists should use Hawkins’ campaign as an opportunity to rally those who see the need for a new political force on the left in the U.S. and to then carry this fight forward with urgency under a Biden administration should he win. There is no time to lose in building a political force that will fight for working people’s needs. J

From July 18-25, over 1,500 activists from 34 countries attended International Socialist Alternative’s (ISA) first ever “Virtual Marxist University.” Socialist Alternative is in political solidarity with ISA and had hundreds of members attend and lead sessions throughout the week. More than 78 sessions were prepared for this event, and over 140 members facilitated or gave lectures that were translated into 12 languages. The “World Perspectives Plenary” on the first day had over 600 participants.

Among the most popular commissions were “Marxist Economics: How Could a Planned Economy Work,” “The 1930s - Revolution and Counter-revolution, Lessons for Today,” and “The Movement for Indigenous Rights Across the World.” Other sessions throughout the week covered topics ranging from the history of revolutionary internationalism to a Marxist approach to the anti-racist struggle.

The Virtual Marxist University served not only as a vehicle for political education during the COVID-19 pandemic, but also as a way for ISA members from different parts of the world to share their experiences. Discussions

SEPTEMBER 2020

included theory and history, as well as vibrant exchanges about socialist organizing in workplaces, schools, and mass movements. For example, ISA members shared their experiences participating in and organizing climate strikes and Black Lives Matter protests across the globe. Some of the biggest BLM protests outside of the U.S. took place in Germany, where Socialist Alternative’s sister section Sozialistische Alternative (SAV)‎ has been actively involved. For one full day of the event, commissions brought together members from different sectors (health, education, transportation, retail, etc.) to learn from each other’s experiences and lay the basis for future coordinated work.

Since its foundation six months ago, ISA has thrived as a rapidly growing, dynamic international with sections on six continents.

ISA functions as a cohesive international with common analysis, a fighting program, and method. This approach enables its sections to work together effectively to build for socialism worldwide in this time of intensified class struggle. The perspectives and program of a united international offer a strong and concrete expression to international workers’

EDITOR: Keely Mullen EDITORIAL BOARD: George Brown, Tom Crean, Rebecca Green, Eljeer Hawkins, Joshua Koritz, Calvin Priest, Tony Wilsdon Editors@SocialistAlternative.org

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solidarity.

The ISA has also developed successful initiatives such as ROSA - International Socialist Feminists, which has taken hold in countries from Ireland to Russia to fight for abortion access, an end to gender based violence, and more. ISA members organize solidarity campaigns, joint action on International Women’s Day, and against right-wing regimes - whether it is Donald Trump in the U.S., Boris Johnson in the UK, or Jair Bolsanaro in Brazil.

Since the founding of ISA, many of its sections have experienced impressive growth.

The U.S. section is experiencing its biggest ever period of growth, and Socialist Alternative England/Scotland/Wales increased its membership by 30%. Membership in the Irish, Swedish, and Mexican sections has also risen during this same period. In addition to growing its existing sections, ISA continues to expand and is discussing with activists in a number of countries.

This decade has already highlighted the importance of Marxist ideas in fighting capitalism’s instability and inequality. Become a part of a fighting international by joining Socialist Alternative today! J

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11

ISSUE #66 l SEPTEMBER 2020 SUGGESTED DONATION $2

Congress Debates Jobless Benefits While Billionaire Wealth Explodes R o b R oo k e and K e e ly M ulle n Whether you’re a laid-off food server, app driver, or construction worker, you are likely wondering how you will be able to juggle your income to meet your rent and all your bills in the upcoming months. Over 30 million workers are in the same boat as you. Will the politicians who have failed to contain the pandemic now further fail the unemployed?

Millions of ordinary Americans are glued to their TV screens watching politicians in Washington duke it out over an extension of the $600 per week unemployment topup. It’s possible a resolution is reached in Congress soon, but likely that there will be a reduction in the benefits. Latresh Oseko in Baltimore told the New York Times, “I’m glued to it because I want to know, is there going to be hope for me? They’re fighting, and I have to watch them fight, but they have a place to sleep at night.”

In Washington every politician is eying November’s general election in relation to where they stand. Republicans in Congress support ending the $600 unemployment top-up and replacing it with a total check no greater than 70% of workers’ previous pay.

Democrats are, for now, holding the line on an extension of the $600/week top-up through the end of the year. Trump has performed another act of political theater by issuing an executive order declaring a $400 per week top-up. Trump has no authority to direct federal spending and this executive order is setting him up for a battle in the courts — something he acknowledged when he said, “Yeah, probably we’ll get sued.”

While debating the limits of direct

assistance to American workers, the political establishment in both parties have been silent about the explosion of billionaire wealth since the beginning of the pandemic. According to Forbes, “[the] U.S. billionaire class saw its wealth climb 20% between March 18 and June 17 with 29 new billionaires added to the total.” Even the most robust benefits received by ordinary Americans in this pandemic utterly pale in comparison to the benefits seen by the billionaire class.

Bail Out Workers, Not Wall Street The additional unemployment benefits, combined with eviction moratoriums, have helped to prop up the economy and prevent an all out free fall. A lapse in these benefits could trigger devastating losses for millions of American workers and it is likely that due to this threat to the economy, some form of a compromise will be reached in Congress to extend limited benefits. The logic of many politicians in extending the benefits has little to do with the stability of workers’ lives and much more to do with keeping the capitalist economy afloat. If their primary concern was the health and safety of workers, politicians would be doing much more than providing this $600 per week check.

Both big business political parties refuse to consider a straight up cancellation of rent during the pandemic, an immediate move toward free, public healthcare, and the massive investment we need in public health, education, and social needs spending.

Republicans are fighting to give bosses liability protections to forge ahead with an economic reopening where employers can ignore

culpability in future virus hotspots. If it’s safe to reopen, as many Republicans claim, why do bosses need liability protection?

The Democratic Party hopes to quietly ascend to the White House, keeping Biden out of the picture and arguing for a continuation of the $600 top-up and increased federal aid to the states. However, at the same time Democrats are overseeing budget cuts and layoffs in state after state. New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, despite massive statewide budget shortfalls, is flatly refusing to consider a tax on the rich to pay for this crisis.

Whether Trump or Biden wins, the ruling class may be forced to take further measures to save the capitalist economy from complete collapse. But, as always, they will seek to make the working class pay for the crisis of their system.

We Need an Alternative We need an extension of the $600 per month unemployment top-up. We need a cancellation of rent for the duration of this pandemic. We need Medicare for All urgently to address this public health crisis. We need a workers’ Green New Deal to put millions back to work transforming our crumbling infrastructure.

Our only way forward to these ends is to organize. To organize against every unsafe return to work, to organize against every legal or illegal eviction, and to organize to put socialists into office that will promote the expansion of the movement of working class people for a better world (as socialist Kshama Sawant who lead the victorious movement to

Tax Amazon has done in Seattle).

The rebellion triggered by the murder of George Floyd that burst onto the scene in May and June shows us the scale of fightback we’ll need. The storm of mass demonstrations that swept across the country, filling downtowns and Main Streets, even flowing into rural, small town America, put the billionaire class on the defensive. However, the concrete gains made by the movement have been fairly small. We need the organized working class to bring its social power to bear in the fight against racism in order to win more substantial change.

Organizing against the long list of injustices working people face right now will require a linking up of the struggles of all working people — be it against evictions, against racist policing, or against our individual bosses. Our movements have to be united. In the process of linking up these struggles we need to begin seriously considering what it would mean to have a political force to express the interests of working people.

Neither the Democratic nor Republican parties are our allies in the fight to win what we need. As we’ve seen time and again, their ultimate aim is to maintain the stability of the capitalist system and to placate their corporate donors. We need to begin building a political home for all of our struggles — a working class party that we can wield as a tool against the exploiters in the billionaire class as well as their political representatives. J