For a Proletarian Pandemic Policy!

(We are sharing here a brief article for the readers consideration written in 2022 by an ICFI (1953) Supporter concerning the Covid-19 pandemic. Significantly, this piece pushes forward an independent policy for the working class as against the approach of the modern IC, which had veered into outright uncritical political support for factions of the bourgeoisie which undertook measures against the pandemic such as lockdowns.) 

The breakdown and failure of the "zero-covid" to “herd immunity” and “let it rip” policies of the bourgeois states show the need for a proletarian policy for the Covid-19 pandemic. Everywhere policies have been implemented in an attempt to contain or eliminate the pandemic, they have been accompanied by reactionary measures or non-measures (such as insufficient support to those affected.) On the other hand, "herd-immunity" policies and "vaccine-only" approaches have led to mass sickness and death, particularly for the most vulnerable populations such as the disabled and elderly. It has been estimated that twenty million excess deaths can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic so far, while masses of people are suffering the lingering effects of “Long-Covid.” 

The failure of the bourgeoisie’s pandemic measures (and non-measures) expose the key error of all reformist logic: the idea that the capitalist state can be pressured to carry out policies inimical to the class forces on which it is based.

Insofar as they had no control over the drafting or implementation of the packages of haphazard public health measures carried out by capitalist governments and bore the brunt of their worst sides, many sections of the working class were vulnerable to skepticism and right-wing opposition to lockdowns and related policies. These policies found their strongest support amongst various upper middle class professionals able to maintain their livelihoods by working from home and able to withstand or avoid any of the financial or other impacts faced by other sections of the population. It is from this layer that uncritical support for the measures of the capitalist states was drawn and on the basis of which they were (temporarily) sustained. Expressing the inconsistent and fleeting "progressivism" of these middle class segments, this support has gradually given way, especially with widespread vaccination and increased availability of treatment options, to support for the mass social murder of “herd-immunity.”

In the wake of mass protests in China against its onerous zero-covid policies, the last stronghold of pandemic "eliminationism" is set to fall as the government makes preliminary moves towards a herd-immunity regime. In China's case, imperialist governments have ratcheted up the campaign for China to abandon its program of elimination, and it is also responding to this pressure. The imperialists' campaign for the lifting of the grueling program China has been pursuing until now has nothing to do with concern for any blowback encountered by the masses of workers and oppressed; instead, they hope the implementation of herd-immunity policies which will bring mass death will open up a larger arena for profitable investments by global finance capital. Nevertheless, the attempt at "elimination in one country" was always utopian, and the measures’ implementation were always "deformed" by the class nature of the authoritarian capitalist Chinese state. 

Despite their "deformation," public health measures undertaken by various capitalist governments around the world pointed to the techniques which could be used by workers’ governments to save lives and tackle the pandemic on an international scale. It is necessary to wage war against the pandemic, but this war can only be carried through under the leadership of the working class! As China opens itself up to the virus and as the death toll climbs there and globally, the international working class will be reminded of the need to develop its own policy to address the pandemic - a proletarian pandemic policy. The starting point of such a policy is the fight to place enforcement of the entire arsenal of necessary public health measures - such as lockdowns, testing, contact tracing, masking policies, etc - under the control of safety committees subject to the democratic control of the working class. These committees will need to elect a world council of workers representatives able to coordinate these efforts internationally, beyond the limits imposed by the nation-state and its system of borders.