As the pandemic began spreading, people all over the world demanded that their governments take action to protect them from it. Eventually, their pressure forced government after government to develop rules for public activity, which they claimed would defend their societies. Some of these restrictions on commerce and large gatherings did follow the recommendations of public health experts and slowly helped limit the spread of COVID-19. But after one year, it has become obvious that some of these governmental actions were really aimed at strengthening the power of the ruling class’ wealthiest and most powerful leaders.
As early as April 2020, the not-for-profit publication The Conversation reported on scholar Ramya Vijaya warning that some rules “seem designed to curtail human rights, suppress dissent and consolidate authoritarian power.” Quickly, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban got parliament’s approval for unlimited authority to fight the coronavirus by suspending elections and imprisoning people for the new crimes of “violating a quarantine” and “spreading false information.” India’s Hindu Nationalist ruling party used their new COVID-19 lockdown to justify clearing out a months-long sit-in by Muslims in Delhi. And Peru’s government exempted police and soldiers from criminal responsibility for any death or injury caused during their state of emergency.
Americans are told our government does not abuse people’s rights by such fascist means. In fact, our ruling class has been incrementally transitioning towards fascist economic and political policies as high-tech globalization eliminates millions of jobs and wrecks capitalism beyond repair. For example, with only 4 percent of the world’s people, the United States holds over one-fifth of its incarcerated population.
When the University of Chicago recently asked “How COVID-19 Could Change the Law,” professor Sharon Fairley reported that “Since the pandemic really hit hard in March, officials have reduced populations in many city and county jail facilities by percentages as high as 30 and 40 percent.” However, at the same time, millions of essential workers were not freed from having to work in unsafe meat plants, warehouses, and other workplaces. Millions more had to work at home online, under inadequate or unhealthy conditions.
In the same University of Chicago forum, Professor Robert Weinstock reported COVID-19 has facilitated weak workplace enforcement while “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waived environmental monitoring requirements on polluters and declared it would forgo enforcement of important environmental and public health protections.” And for the millions of unemployed who get thrown into homelessness, the pandemic is also being used by state and local governments to outlaw “unhealthy street encampments,” forcing their residents into government-funded shelters of various types.
The old fascism of the 20th century took root in some countries to help their ruling classes overcome the Depression or the threat of revolutions. They stirred up hatred of specific ethnic groups, so-called “races,” or religions to mask that their true loyalty was to the continuation of the capitalist system. But 21st-century fascism is developing because capitalism itself is becoming inoperable for the capitalists, so they require a new system to protect their wealth and power. Today’s fascists manipulate new pandemic policies and old hatreds to mask that they are merging corporations directly into the operations of the State machinery.
Inevitably, society’s new class—those dispossessed of jobs, homes, and personal security—is fighting for an alternative future. South Africa provides a stark yet inspiring example. When the lack of vaccines and rising deaths sparked protests of thousands outside government agencies, Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane called such rallies “unhealthy” and “irresponsible.” But Johannesburg human rights activist Mark Heywood responded that when HIV was first ravaging that country, similar mobilizations forced the government to provide some healthcare and protection for the masses.
Though South Africa’s elites claim that limiting protest rights is necessary for the fight against COVID-19, Heywood insists that “expanding rights during an epidemic may be a means of epidemic control … that is something that we learned from HIV.” He believes that his government’s pandemic policies are a threat to life itself because “the measures taken have impacted profoundly negatively on constitutionally enshrined socio-economic rights, to basic education, access to health care services, sufficient food, etc.”
The millions who have fought for safety from police murders and for basic needs in our own country are class brothers and sisters with those being endangered by their ruling classes in Africa and around the world. Once they all rid themselves of a class that resorts to new fascism to maintain control, those millions can protect their health by creating a new economy of shared ownership and circulation of what they need.
Published: August 12, 2021
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