By Steve Halpern
Recently I participated in two care caravans demanding a moratorium on rents and mortgages for the duration of the pandemic. We also demanded an end to deportations, safe working environments, freedom of prisoners, and health care for all. A few months ago, there weren’t many people who would have demonstrated in support of these issues. However, the pandemic and the deplorable response by the government and corporations is convincing people that we need to make these demands now.
The 2019 Cuba May Day Brigade
On May Day of last year, I attended the demonstration of over one million people in Havana, Cuba. There I witnessed one million Cubans enthusiastically celebrating their government. I also attended that demonstration in Cuba in 2017, and was so inspired that I wanted to return and see it again.
Seeing these May Day demonstrations, I asked myself: Why are the Cuba people so enthusiastic about supporting their government? Anyone who has travelled to Cuba sees how the Cuban people lack many of the things we have in the United States. At times, Cubans need to wait on lines just so they can have food. So, considering that reality, why is the Cuban government so popular?
Before the Cuban Revolution the Cuban most of the Cuban people lived in dire poverty lacking in health care, education, and decent housing. In spite of the immense challenges facing Cuba, largely because of the United States’ embargo, the lives of the Cuban people have been transformed. Today, every Cuban has the right to free health care, and education.
In the 1990s the Soviet Union collapsed, and Cuba lost about 80% of its trade. Because of the transformation that had taken place on the island, the Cuban people found ways of transforming themselves again. The difficult times Cuba experienced in the 1990s would have toppled any capitalist government in the world. But because of the determination of the Cuban people not to return to the horrors of capitalism, Cuba found ways of dealing with that crisis.
The over three-hundred members of the Cuba May Day Brigades of 2017 and 2019 were all inspired by what we experienced in Cuba.
Returning to the United States
Two events highlighted my shocking return to the United States. First there was an explosion at an oil refinery in Southwest Philadelphia. A refinery worker took action within minutes of the explosion. This saved Philadelphia from being exposed to the potentially lethal substance of hydrofluoric acid.
Responding to this explosion, I supported actions of the Philly Thrive organization. Even before this explosion, that refinery was the biggest source of air pollution in the city. Residents of the neighboring Point Breeze area frequently suffered from cancer as well as respiratory problems. Members of Philly Thrive demanded the right to breathe clean air.
Largely because of these actions the Philadelphia city government held hearings on the future of the bankrupted refinery. Eventually a new corporation purchased the sight where the refinery was located and claimed that land would no longer be used as an oil refinery. As a consequence, about 600 union members at the refinery lost their jobs.
Today, there is a glut of oil and oil production has become less profitable than it once was. President Trump responded to this by making war moves against the nation of Iran. That action provoked instability in the region, and the price of oil went back up. We might consider that while there is a glut of oil today, in about fifty years the world will begin to run out of oil reserves.
The closing of Hahnemann Hospital
At around the same time as the refinery explosion, the owner of Hahnemann Hospital announced that it would be closing. This meant the elimination of the jobs of about 2,500 health care workers. I attended a demonstration of about 500 people who protested the closing of the hospital.
Then, after the hospital had been shuttered, the COVID-19 pandemic struck Philadelphia. Mayor Kenney asked the owner of the former hospital, Joel Freedman, if the city could use the empty building to treat COVID-19 patients. Freedman responded that this would be all right if he received a $900,000 per month rental fee.
That action earned Freedman a national reputation as someone who cares more about money than human life.
Car caravans in Philadelphia
About a week ago I participated in a car caravan that went from the Philadelphia Art Museum to City Hall. This was organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation We demanded a freeze in rent payments and mortgages for the duration of the pandemic. At the beginning of the caravan we stood at least six feet apart wearing facemasks to listen to several speakers.
This was a spirited rally that pointed out how we need a completely different political and economic system to deal with the pandemic. Almost all of the participants in this caravan were young and after riding to City Hall, the caravan went to the home of Joel Freedman. There we expressed our rage at his criminal disregard for the lives of people.
On May Day I participated in another caravan. This one was organized by the Workers World Party. In this caravan, the organizers set up a system where we could listen to speeches on our cell phones using Zoom. In addition to the demand to freeze rents and mortgages, this caravan demanded an end to deportations, the freeing of prisoners, and safe working environments.
This caravan went up Broad Street to Temple University Hospital where we were greeted by hospital workers who also were celebrating May Day and demanded safe working environments. A few years ago, I joined with nurses at that hospital who were on strike. They protested the indifference of Temple management to the basic demands of the nurses.
Then, our caravan went down 15th Street where we viewed the gentrification that had taken place in that part of North Philadelphia. Brand new housing and Temple University buildings stand right next to one of the least affluent neighborhoods in the city.
We stopped in one of the neighborhoods in this part of the city. Here speakers explained why we are demanding a freeze in rents and mortgages. People living in this neighborhood were friendly to this demand.
Returning to Broad Street, we stopped at the Philadelphia Board of Education. Recently I attended another demonstration at the Board of Education protesting the fact that teachers and students had been exposed to asbestos in the schools. A teacher in one of those schools became ill with the fatal disease of mesothelioma while teaching in a school with asbestos. I was also at another demonstration at the Board of Education protesting the cutbacks of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the schools.
We might view the above photograph of our caravan on our way down Broad Street, with City Hall in the background. To the left is a large modern building. This is the Convention Center of Philadelphia. Before the city government cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the public-school system, the government invested $800 million in the construction of that convention center. Half of the revenue of that center comes from the flower show and the auto show. In our caravan, we protested the cutbacks in education, while obscene amounts of money has been spent to support the corporate drive to maximize profits.
Then, our caravan stopped at the shuttered Hahnemann Hospital. We pointed out how there is an increasing need for health care during the pandemic, while this hospital sits empty with 2,500 laid off hospital workers. Even in Spain, a capitalist country, the government confiscated hospitals for the duration of the pandemic. Here, the former Hahnemann Hospital sits empty because the owner wants $900,000 per month in order to keep it open.
Conclusion
These caravans have been joined by job actions at Amazon, Whole Foods, and at meat processing plants. All these job actions are demanding safe working environments. Corporations have responded with indifference to many of these demands, and have fired several workers who demand a safe place to work.
It has just been about two months since most of us became aware of the pandemic. There has been a world of changes since that time. In the past, working people experienced how our standard of living was deteriorating. Now, we are seeing how the government and corporations are demanding that we risk our lives in order to support their drive to maximize corporate profits.
The epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm predicted the pandemic in his best-selling 2017 book Deadliest Enemy. He predicts that the pandemic will last 16 to 18 months. Laurie Garrett predicted the pandemic in her 1994 book The Coming Plague. She argues that the pandemic will last 36 months.
We might consider that the capitalist system was in severe decline before the pandemic. The only reason why the economy was saved in 2008 was because of a massive government bailout. Corporations used that money to buy stocks and this caused the stock market to skyrocket. As a result, a tiny percentage of the population gouged out obscene amounts of wealth.
However, working people had a different outcome. In the world, about 800 million people don’t have enough food to eat. Hundreds of millions don’t have direct access to electricity or running water. In the United States about one out of every ten people had insufficient access to food. Today there are long lines of people waiting for food assistance.
Yet, because of the decline in the market for food for restaurants, farmers are in the position where they need to destroy their crops. The government sees itself as incapable of moving this food from the farms to people who need it.
Yet, the government has found trillions of dollars for a corporate bailout. They have also spent more trillions of dollars on a defense department that isn’t designed to defend people against COVID-19. Yet hospitals have dire shortages in medical supplies.
What does all this mean? The government at all levels is making it clear that they have no intention of taking rational steps to fight the pandemic. Millions of people in this country and around the world are faced with the prospect of fending for ourselves. We do this, while experiencing massive unemployment, while the super-rich continue to hoard their money.
Cuba
My experience in in Cuba, as well as the sixty-year history of that country informs the world that there is a different way. Cuba has been able to withstand sixty years of the U.S. embargo, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union. During those years, Cuba has made health care and education a right for everyone on the island.
Today Cuba has more doctors per capita than any other nation in the world. While Cuba has much fewer resources then the United States, they have sent medical doctors to treat patients in some of the poorest nations in the world. They also developed drugs that have proven to be effective in fighting a number of diseases. Today the Cuban Alpha 2B drug has been effective in preventing COVID-19 patients from getting pneumonia.
When the pandemic struck Cuba, Cuban doctors, nurses, and medical students visited literally everyone on the island. They determined if people had symptoms of COVID-19. If they had those symptoms, they were tested, and if their test were positive, then they were treated and isolated. Because of these measures there have only been about 50 COVID-19 deaths on the island.
Vietnam
According to an article in the Washington Post, there have been no COVID-19 deaths in Vietnam. Vietnam is about 1,200 miles from Wuhan, China where the pandemic originated. Because of policies put forward by the Vietnamese government, that nation was spared the fate of nations throughout the capitalist world.
We might consider that literally millions of Vietnamese lost their lives because of the war the United States government waged against their people. The U.S. military dropped thousands of gallons of agent orange to kill the vegetation in Southeast Asia. This was the unimaginable cost that was required to force the United States military to leave Vietnam.
However, while there are no COVID-19 deaths in Vietnam, the United States has become the epicenter of the pandemic.
This situation is teaching working people that we need a government that makes the needs of people it’s only priority. The friendly response to the caravans I participated in is clear evidence of this. In the coming months, increasing numbers of working people will see that we need a profound political and economic change in this country. Only the masses of people are capable of making this happen. This means that today working people have a real potential to transform the world.
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