"The People" Are Not the Problem -- They Are the SolutionLast week, in the name of being transparent with the public, the Ontario government issued its COVID-19 modelling projections. The press release states, "In doing so, the province is providing the public with full transparency about the consequences should everyone but essential workers fail to stay home and practice physical distancing." It goes on to declare, "Had Ontario taken no action, the impact of COVID-19 would have risen to an estimated 300,000 cases and an estimated death toll of 6,000 people. Due to timely public health measures, Ontario has avoided much more dire impacts, preventing an estimated 220,000 cases and 4,400 deaths to date."
This kind of talk is diversionary, to deprive the people of their own outlook and point of reference from which to survey what is being made apparent as a result of the pandemic and to justify police powers as "the solution." Ontario regulation 116/20, for example, made on April 1 under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, suspends collective agreements of health care workers in hospitals and long-term care homes and empowers boards of health to act arbitrarily and with impunity in deployment of workers. Why? Where was there any evidence that the front line health care workers were doing anything but going above and beyond the call of duty to provide health services to those in need, just as they did during the SARS outbreak? As Ontario Nurses' Association President Vicki McKenna said: "We are not a barrier to a well-coordinated and appropriate response to the pandemic, we are part of the solution." Without the mobilization of the human factor/social consciousness of the working people and their organizations to address the crisis of the pandemic, all that is left is police powers, repression and blaming the workers and people. Under state of emergency measures, in the Toronto area, cars have been stopped and and each person inside fined $700 and upwards if they are unrelated, for failing to practice "social distancing." Others for failing to identify themselves when stopped by police and asked to explain their presence in the area. A man in Orleans was confronted by a bylaw officer while kicking a soccer ball with his four-year-old autistic son in an empty field and given a warning. Another was warned for walking a dog -- all in the name of curbing the spread of COVID-19.
The pandemic exposes into the light of day that the reorganization of society according to the anti-social offensive of the rich has undermined, if not completely broken, the social fabric and infrastructure and industrial production necessary to guarantee the well-being of the people and society. The rich and their cartel party system have imposed this anti-social offensive on society and created a situation such that 46 per cent of hospital nurses are reporting they do not have access to necessary PPE to safely evaluate and treat patients for COVID-19. These same rich and their cartel parties blame the people and applaud the police powers that are put forward as "the solution." People and organizations, such as Green Jobs Oshawa -- a coalition of workers, community leaders, environmentalists, labour and social justice advocates -- are calling on government to place the Oshawa GM plant under public ownership so it can be repurposed for socially beneficial manufacturing, such as producing to meet Canada's requirements for PPE and medical equipment. It should have been done long ago. The GM manufacturing complex covers 10 million square feet and it is said 90 per cent of it is unused.
What is the game plan? What will happen when the defined emergency period ends? More intensified police powers? And, blame the people, but accept no responsibility themselves for the social conditions, including the complete failure to vigorously test, and quickly identify infected people and anyone they have had contact with, as recommended by the World Health Organization? The workers and people must actively take up their social responsibility to organize themselves and their collectives to be the force for change that stops the spread of this virus and sets a course to change the direction of society, in favour of the well-being of the people.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The projections
are staggering indeed, however speculating on the
potential death toll,
applauding the government's own actions to date
and setting the stage
to blame the scope of whatever unfolds on
"everyone but essential
workers" who "fail to stay home and practice
physical distancing" is
far from being transparent!
Who, however, is
to be held responsible for the restrictions placed
on testing for
COVID-19 infection or for the unacceptable delays
in processing
results? Why are there not enough labs, or
personal protective
equipment (PPE) for health care providers, or
ventilation equipment?
Who is responsible for the fact that even before
the pandemic hit more
than 1,000 people a night were receiving hallway
medicine because
hospitals were already filled to capacity?
No matter which way
one turns,
the spotlight of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals
that this society, which
is geared to pay the rich, fails to meet the human
needs of a modern
society. The federal government, for example,
shamelessly pledges to
send bottled water to Indigenous communities to
promote hand hygiene,
and to provide tents so people living in
overcrowded decrepit housing
can "self-isolate." Health resources? No! Send in
the military to build
temporary field hospitals and declare a state of
emergency in isolated
Indigenous communities while the underlying social
conditions are not
addressed!