Communique #2 from the Revcoms

The Coronavirus… and the Savage Inequalities of America

March 19, 2020 | revcom.us

The coronavirus puts everyone in danger. Yet the way this disease comes down echoes the howling inequalities and intense forms of oppression that run through the heart of U.S. society.

On March 18, two months into the crisis, an aid bill was finally passed. Who gets what aid and when they will get it is still unclear, and we will cover this next week as that becomes clear.

But even if every single person in the U.S. got an equal share—which will NOT happen—death, disability and hardship will still hit some sections of people far harder. Nearly half the people in this country live paycheck to paycheck. Over 40 million people routinely go hungry, including at least 6 million children. Because of the historic and present-day bitter oppression on which America is based, 1 out of 5 Black, Latino or Native American people live in poverty. 27.5 million Americans lack health insurance, and another 45 million are underinsured. Poor people are 10% likelier to have a chronic health condition like diabetes, or heart disease. Such chronic conditions make the coronavirus up to 10 times as deadly if you get the disease.

The virus has already hit the prisons, and the homeless encampments. It is hitting the immigrants and their children locked up in detention centers, where conditions are horrible and there are few doctors and nurses (a situation we will cover in a coming communiqué). Once the virus is into the prisons, detention centers and juvie homes, what will happen in these overcrowded, understaffed hellholes? Hellholes that hold over 2 million people? How many will suddenly have what will be in fact “death sentences”?

It is important to take this pandemic very seriously. That means we have to take care of ourselves—washing hands, keeping our distances and not being in large groups, isolating ourselves if we get sick, and other things (go to www.revcom.us to find out more dos and don’ts).

But we also have to ask: why, when disaster strikes, must the savage inequalities and forms of oppression built into this society disproportionately determine so much of who lives and who dies, who gets treated and who doesn’t, who ends up in a seriously worse situation and who is able to “make it through” in decent shape?

And why do we even have these savage inequalities and oppression at all?

There is one fundamental reason: the nature of the system we live under—capitalism-imperialism. And as Bob Avakian, the most important political thinker and leader in the world today, has said: “In fundamental terms, we have two choices: either, live with all this—and condemn future generations to the same, or worse, if they have a future at all—or, make revolution!” Bob Avakian has further developed the science of revolution, and he connects this to the people. He’s brought forward a strategy, a vision of the future, and a morality to get to a whole different world. We DON’T have to live like this. We CAN make revolution.

The National Tour to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution is organizing to do that. Find out more about this revolution, and its leadership, Bob Avakian. As you do so, take part in getting out the materials now that can let people know what’s really going on: how to understand it, and how to deal with it. Come to www.revcom.us to find out more about the revolution, and about the coronavirus crisis.

Model of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease.