Disgust with the Trump Administration’s feeble defense of American lives during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many of the votes for Joe Biden last November. So did the massive outrage over the government’s failure to deal with murderous police killings in Black communities and others across the country. But one year into the Biden Administration, it’s clear that our health and safety cannot be secured without fundamental systemic change.
Tent encampments across the country reflect how harshly poverty and homelessness are overwhelming individuals and families. Yet, the Administration has shown itself willing to sacrifice the needs of the majority while prioritizing corporations. And whatever needs were included in its $3 trillion plan soon got whittled down in Congressional negotiations—not only by Republicans, but also a core of Democrats equally dedicated to serving the ruling class.
Meanwhile, the worsening pandemic and poverty in the Caribbean and Central American regions generated a new wave of migration toward the United States, against which the new government unleashed ICE and the Border Patrol to commit the sickening abuses for which the last administration was hated. To distract attention from these political disasters, Biden’s team has desperately focused on rising COVID-19 vaccination rates and declining death rates as being proof of his effectiveness in protecting the American people. They doubled down on their self-congratulations as infection rates from the emerging Delta variant began to slow down.
Certainly, increasing vaccinations and declining COVID death rates are positive developments, produced not only by the federal government but by the hard work of millions of health workers, members of service organizations and local public agencies. And their successes can be undermined if efforts to combat the coronavirus are not strategically linked to actions that eradicate poverty. The new border crisis shows that the spreading pandemic of poverty and homelessness is also a threat to public health.
By not adopting such a strategic approach, Biden has handed the new American fascists a dangerous new weapon. As the Haitian migrant catastrophe grew, anti-immigrant forces used COVID to whip up a fear of migrants as threats to people’s health, in addition to the old propaganda accusing them of stealing jobs. Their aim is clearly to undermine the Administration’s claims of pandemic success as the midterm elections approach.
Defeating this fascist tactic will require mobilizing our society to fight both the virus and the growing poverty. For example, the Administration could undercut the fear of migrants as disease-carriers by promoting vaccination for these human beings who arrived seeking only to survive the worsening global economic and health crisis. Americans have regularly supported such responses to global hunger and other disasters in the past, even before today’s growing support for diversity and equality. There is a huge base of support for defending the health of these migrants, including those lacking health care in their homelands.
Meanwhile, the fight for domestic healthcare must also be linked to the struggle to ensure people have the basic necessities for decent lives. Organizations across America have mounted that demand. As just one example, Rev. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) told Democracy Now! they had urged President Biden to directly mobilize the poor against the Democratic politicians blocking the funding for needs, saying he should “go to West Virginia and meet with people in Appalachia who would benefit. Just go right in the heart of Manchin’s state. You’re the president of the United States. Go to Texas. Go to Arizona and meet with those people….”
Whenever homeless groups take over vacant housing, or when parents demand affordable healthcare for their kids, it strengthens the leadership of a new class with little or no connection to the jobs and housing of the old economy. This empowerment is critical to keeping their struggle from being diverted by politicians and corporate leaders. Revolutionaries can play an important role in that process by exchanging ideas and information with them about how to restructure society so its technologies and wealth become public property, rather than remain captured by a ruling class that has proven its disregard for the lives of the people.
Published: November 7, 2021
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