Special post-script to The RNL Show, Episode 2:
Andy Zee with a statement on COVID-19

April 1, 2020

April 6, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Since we recorded this second episode of the RNL—Revolution Nothing Less! Show... the scale and scope of what lies ahead has, at least for the moment, gotten through that thick anti-science fascist head of Trump... and now even his criminally negligent regime has sounded an alarm that 100,000 to 240,000 people may die in this country with the first major spike in deaths unfolding now... with a peak in the next three to five weeks.

I began this show speaking of the pre-existing conditions of this system and the fascist regime that now rules it. The magnitude of both of these conditions—a system of ruthless competition to maximize the exploitation of people and the planet in pursuit of its god of profit with the interests of humanity be damned, AND that it is currently ruled by a fascist, white supremacist, anti-science regime—has led us to send me out to this correctly deserted parking lot in the suburbs of Los Angeles to issue this closing statement for the second RNL Show.

This is a moment when the reality of this system stands naked before the world. The killing myth that this as the greatest country in the world and a beacon for humanity stands criminally absurd in the face of what it is bringing down on the people of this country and the world.

MUCH WILL BE DEMANDED OF THOSE WHO SEEK TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. Doctors, nurses, EMT workers, and all who are on the front lines of providing care for the sick are risking their lives and well-being to meet the need. We at the RNL Show and the movement for an actual revolution and all who yearn for a better world must in this time do no less to bring the truth and the cure to the masses of people here and around the world that there is another way the world could be, through revolution, as we have brought to life in this episode.

The reality is stark:

• 100,000-240,000 potential deaths in this country.
• Millions in countries like India and Nigeria, where masses face starvation in the face of the medical lockdown, compromising their immune systems making them more susceptible to the virus.
• In New York City there are tent hospitals in Central Park.
• Prisoners at the Rikers Island jail in NYC are being offered $6 an hour and personal protective equipment if they agree to dig mass graves at a public cemetery on Hart Island. Federal prisoners have to buy their own soap—and at a moment like this.
• Water—WATER—is shut off for 10,000 people in Detroit because they are poor... how are they supposed to wash their hands as the primary health measure?

With almost half of America living one or two paychecks away from poverty in normal times, what will happen with a third of the country registering as unemployed?

All while the homeless are being bedded down in parking lots in the shadow of Las Vegas casinos.

We have spoken already in this episode of the RNL Show to the catastrophe on top of a catastrophe that is beginning to unfold as the coronavirus begins its rampage through immigrant communities and the detention centers and border concentration camps.

ALL OF THIS HORROR IS ONLY PART OF THE STORY. WHAT MUST EMERGE OVER THE COMING WEEKS AND MONTHS IS INCREASING RESISTANCE AND A MOVEMENT FOR AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION.

Already there have been:

• Hunger strikes taking place in five ICE detention centers;
• Car caravans around the country to demand the release of detainees;
• Refuse Fascism taking to Times Square in an in-person, safe-distance, breathing-masked protest to demand the Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!
• In Brazil, opposition politicians demanding the fascist leader Bolsonaro resign... while every night people bang pots and chant out their windows. Can we do no less? And, actually much more?
• And, as we saw earlier on this show, the revcoms are releasing communiqués calling for bringing science to the people, calling on people to spread the revolution and the leadership of Bob Avakian and become a part of the great struggle to emancipate humanity.
• On revcom.us there are letters from prisoners responding to this moment. I will read an excerpt from one and we will be getting into more of these in future episodes. Remember, these are from those who are locked into what will be hellish incubators for COVID-19, but which at the same time can be incubators of a moral and determined force for a revolution for a radically new world. I read:

• “...This virus has knocked amerikkka off its ‘high-horse’—for the lack of a better term—as it has exposed the underlying workings of this system—a system which operates through racism, oppression, and corruption....
• “...This nation has been exposed and the time is ripe for us to declare our revolution against these corrupt leaders. In order for us to achieve our true liberation from this corrupt system, we need an actual revolution which overthrows this system and replaces it with a radically new and far better one that will allow us to live in a society in which production is actually organized to meet the needs of all peoples—black, brown, yellow, red, and white. This revolution needs to happen now while this beast is tormented with the confusion and destruction of covid-19...
• “...We are heading for turbulent times either way it goes, doing something or not, we are still heading ‘that way,’ so to speak, because the system dictates it to be ‘that way.’”
• So, with the words of this prisoner, I will wrap up this second episode of the RNL Show, echoing my cohorts’ call to spread this show far and wide. And more, to call on everyone: Confront what is upon us, cast away illusions and prepare for serious crisis that must be met with a scientific approach to nature and to society with a morality that has the interests of all of humanity put first, and with resolute struggle that raises the understanding, determination and organized strength to prepare for the time when this system can be overthrown and a far better world brought into being.