Will socialism rise against the backdrop of coronavirus?

Posted by by United World International April 14, 2020 17 Min Read

“It is time to let go of that ‘anti-communist’ rejection of planning, as this is survival we are talking about.” –

Cornel Ban (link)

The Coronavirus has forced many to rethink not only the issues of nation states, closed borders, migration, etc. – but also the economic system itself. The frightening figures of mortality, overcrowded hospitals and rising unemployment in a number of states have once again raised the question of the possibility of socialism – especially in the United States, where discussions about it have been going on for years.

Do people understand what socialism is?

One of the current problems for socialism today is how deeply the idea is misunderstood and subject to completely different interpretations. The classic definition of socialism as an economic system comes down to the following formula: a society where the state owns and controls the means of production.

However, each country has its own understanding of “socialism”, often emotional and associative. And on a national scale (as Europe clearly demonstrates) it is often associated with a vague notion of “tolerance” that covers up the prosperity of transnational corporations.

For example, the so-called “government of socialists” in Spain (the country most strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic after the US) has been extremely ineffective in stopping the epidemic and protecting its citizens. What have these “socialists” been doing in recent years? Providing jobs? Hardly. They have been focused on gay parades and migrant rights. The centralizing of the struggle against Franco’s Spain is what you might call “pseudo”, or even “anti-socialism.”

In the case of the United States, President Donald Trump and his supporters have set a trend in denouncing anything associated with the S-Word, arguing that socialism is something intrinsically bad that will take away the Americans dream of freedom, entrepreneurship, personal choice and so on. Young supporters of Bernie Sanders (and not only) have also advanced a peculiar understanding of socialism, radicalizing people somewhat to the left of the Democratic party. According to polls, ordinary people understand socialism as “something good and fair” or more generally as “equality”.

For example, according to the results of a Gallup poll in 2018, the majority of respondents said that socialism refers to an equal standing for everybody, the second largest category of people had no opinion, and only 17% gave a more precise definition, referring to state control.

There’s another curious element here as well. As a Reason-Rupe poll (2014) showed, respondents responded positively to the term “socialism”, but at the same time have a bad attitude to state control over business.

Thus, the concept of socialism is now used for nice sounding political rhetoric. We might remember here Harry Truman’s phrase in 1952 -”Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.”

However, everybody, including the most popular “socialists”, are extremely afraid to return to the original meaning – state control and, consequently, state planning in critical areas.

How much does it cost to survive in the US?

As of today, more than 30 million Americans still do not have health insurance, and even more are completely uninsured. Even for those who have insurance, the costs of healthcare in the US are so high that medical bills have become the #1 reason for bankruptcy.

According to forecasts by Health Management Associates, if unemployment reaches 17.5% (and this is not even the worst scenario), 23 million Americans will lose their employment-based health insurance. That is, they will lose access to treatment.

Let’s look at the price for coronavirus treatment in the US. According to FAIR Health, on average, an American without insurance would have to pay between $42,486 and $74,310 – the weekly cost of a bed (with additional costs depending on the severity of the condition).

For insurance holders – part of the amount from $21,936 to $38,755.

The Coronavirus has spared neither the rich nor the poor, and it has exposed the flagrant inequality of all Western societies. It is all the more unjust that workers in the most “contact” areas are people who are not rich (salespeople, utility workers, drivers, etc.), yet carry the economy on their shoulders, and are nonetheless the first victims of the epidemic. They risk not only being unemployed (which is the risk many people are now taking), but also being left without emergency medical care.

It is all the more unfair that the first “carriers” of the disease around the world were wealthy people – travelers and businessmen. The latter, by the way, have already bought themselves luxury bunkers for the apocalypse.

Why is Bernie Sanders so popular?

Bernie Sanders was both criticized (in many ways, fairly) but also praised. In any event, he helped move the discourse of socialism in the US from the marginal sphere to one of the most discussed trends and win the hearts of millions of young people around the world – not only Americans.

The groundwork for Bernie’s success was largely prepared by the Wall Street crash in 2008 and the highly uneven recovery that followed – just as the 1929 crash and the Great Depression that followed prepared the groundwork for the New Deal and the rise of the 1930s.

Now Sanders is out of the presidential race. There are many theories about why he lost and why he dropped out – but this isn’t the most important point. With the pandemic, more and more attention is being focused on his “Medicare for all” policy proposal. Bernie has long advocated for a single-payer health insurance system.

A survey conducted in March by Morning Consult found 55% support for its program, which was nine points above the support level just a month earlier.

“Few would deny that over the course of the past five years our movement has won the ideological struggle,” Bernie said in a livestream video. “It was not long ago that people considered these ideas radical and fringe. Today they are mainstream ideas, and many of them are already being implemented in cities and states across the country. That is what we have accomplished together.”

In his health and coronavirus response plan, Bernie said there is little doubt that we are facing an economic crisis that could be even worse than the Great Depression.

Among Bernie’s proposals were the following: monthly direct payments of $2,000 per person in the country, a guarantee of paid sickness and sick leave for all workers, ensuring the rights of “hourly” (i.e. the most vulnerable workers in this situation) workers, hazard pay for essential and frontline workers, to ensure funding parity for all health and economic coronavirus relief programs.

“Our country is at a severe disadvantage compared to every other major country on earth because we do not guarantee health care to all people as a right.”, Sanders added.

More generally, Sanders has strict conditions on government loans to corporations, which include the requirement to appoint employees to corporate boards of directors, which fundamentally changes the nature of corporate governance. Sanders’ ideas to put pressure on pharmaceutical companies to sell the drugs they produce for this crisis at cost are particularly popular.

Yes, Bernie’s out of the race. But this year in almost every state, regardless of whether Bernie won or lost there, single payer is becoming more and more popular. Ideas that were once outside the American political discourse in general – $15 minimum wage, free tuition in public colleges and universities, universal childcare, taxes for the rich and others – either received almost universal support among Democrats or became more popular in polls.

Exit polls from Super Tuesday confirmed favorable views of socialism across all regions. 60% of Maine Democratic votes had a favorable view of socialism, as did 56% of Democratic voters in Texas, 52% in California, 50% in North Carolina, and 47% in Tennessee.

There are many supporters of socialism in the United States beyond Bernie Sanders.

Socialist countries’ success against the coronavirus

Three socialist countries have had particular success in the fight against the coronavirus: The People’s Republic of China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Cuba: the same countries that are under constant pressure from capitalist countries.

China’s success is based on its centralized planning experience gained under socialism. In China, citizens are included in the health system in a planned manner by district. Each district has extensive and adequate equipment. Everyone has access to general and instant information about health care and its locations. When the 11 million people in Wuhan, the source of infection, were put under a strict lockdown, the city nonetheless boasted a significant degree of self-sufficiency.

Living under embargo for decades, Cuba has been a leader in the fight against coronavirus, unlike developed capitalist countries with companies with a million-dollar budget and global pharmaceutical monopolies.

Cuba currently has 457 cases of infection, a truly remarkable figure compared to Western countries.

Since the first coronavirus cases were reported on the island last month, the authorities have closed the borders and encouraged Cubans to go out only in case of emergency, always wearing face masks. Disinfectant was included in the population’s ration cards.

Now the US is trying to put pressure on Cuba with sanctions and other measures – instead of helping, they are trying to put on more pressure to say: “Look, there is a crisis in Cuba because of socialism, isn’t it terrible!” Even now, the mainstream media are describing the horrors of food scarcity in an isolated Cuba – forgetting how even in the most developed countries people in supermarkets are beating each other over the last roll of toilet paper and worried about empty shelves.

Cuba is not a member of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank or any other multilateral credit institutions – this makes it free to decide on its future economic development.

Despite the propaganda, Cuba has not only managed its own crisis well, it is also helping others, despite its economic hardship. Cuban medical personnel are now working in 59 countries.The country has sent thousands of doctors to work for free in low-income countries in Latin America and Africa.

The island nation is currently sending medical teams around the world to help fight the coronavirus.

In a previous article, we wrote in detail about the unique case of the closed DPRK, which has a strong Soviet health tradition and an average life expectancy of 71.7 years.

How did East Asian countries beat COVID-19?

The secret of the DPRK’s success is its socialist people-oriented system. The country has a sufficient number of doctors, and full state control over health care which is provided for the entire population. All these factors (plus, a priori, a closed state) make it possible to effectively combat the epidemic in the initial phase. Therefore, it is quite possible that DPRK does not have a single case of coronavirus.

Another curious example is Vietnam, which donated 550,000 masks to European countries to fight against coronavirus, and has proved exemplary in the domestic fight against the outbreak.

Opponents of socialism

Not everyone shares socialist enthusiasm. Politico, for example, writes that we are not seeing a bipartisan fight for socialism, we are seeing a bipartisan consensus for a robust Keynesian in response to a sudden economic crisis.

There is also a considerable amount of criticism, especially of American socialists, in terms of their lack of detail and selective politicization of socialism.

“Socialists who want to be trusted with the keys to the White House should spend far less time blasting hot takes about the imminent demise of late-stage capitalism, and more time showing an interest in the nuts and bolts of effective crisis response,” Politico argues.

Many people are against the Sanders program because free medicine for all means strong tax increases in capitalist countries like the US. Although Sanders dodged the question during some of the debates by not discussing the details, he has elsewhere proposed tax increases on the wealthy and large corporations in order to fund his policy plans.

Other polls show that Americans generally support Medicare for all, but are not ready for it when it comes to the logical elimination of private health insurance.

If another democratic socialist wants to run for the presidency in 2024, he or she (probably she) needs to understand that the ideological struggle has not been won, and figure out what should be done differently in order to win it.

Conclusions

Many point out Bernie’s role – even if he has left the fight for the presidency – was to sprout an interest in the ideas that will dominate the future. For example, Barry Goldwater, who took part in the 1964 presidential race, was also accused of radicalism, anti-civil rights viewpoints, etc.

Although he lost, the Goldwater movement not only stayed in place after his defeat, it grew. Almost two decades later, Ronald Reagan was elected on Goldwater-esque principles, and the nation shifted radically to the right. Between announcing his candidacy in 2016 and dropping out of the 2020 race, Sanders definitively dragged his party toward the left. It remains to be seen whether or not his influence will lead to the success of socialism some 16 years down the line.

The pandemic revealed the weakest points of capitalist countries oriented towards unipolar globalism: the vulnerability of the poor, holes in health care, excessive dependence on external supplies, poor coordination of different branches of power… the list is extensive. Socialism (whatever that might mean) will undoubtedly be one of the main trends in the coming years – especially after the pandemic, when unemployed and sick people realize their state was ready to leave them to die..