Covid 19 pandemic apart from taking a toll on human life has almost brought the global economy to a grinding halt. Capitalism that was already limping has been paralyzed with no signs of recovery visible on the horizons. World over governments are forced to admit that they are in midst of a crisis of scale hitherto unheard or witnessed in the recent past. The neoliberal model that bases itself on the edifice, as David Harvey says, of fictitious capital, vast supply of money and debt creation even before the pandemic was grappling with demand constraints, to realize the value that capital is capable of producing (Harvey 2020). Impact of Covid 19 would be analyzed and its effect on various facets of social economic relationship would be studied ad-infinitum, yet it has brought to the fore misery that capitalism inflicts on the people.
In India, the myth of poverty alleviation and reduction in absolute poverty of population, was dispelled in thin air when the world saw a mass exodus (shamelessly called as migration by the government and the mainstream media) of workers from the various industrial centers to their own villages. They were whom Marx defined as, group of people whose origin is rural but whose occupation in most part is industrial.
The pandemic may have driven as many as 100 million people back into extreme poverty, World Bank President David Malpass warned on 20 August, 2020.
He further said: " the other side We can start calling it a depression. Our focus is on how do we help countries be resilient in working out on."
In our country hundreds and thousands of workers in absence of any transportation and devoid of any means of livelihood were forced to undertake grueling travel on foot to their village situated hundreds of kilometers away. On their way this mass of workers were subjected to the worst form of state apathy and despotism. They were hounded up like criminals, sprayed with pesticides, mercilessly beaten by police and even mowed down by train. A refugee in their own land. With no food, no money, they are the victim of a system that, Marx had said in a different context, comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt. Many fell victim to the state's apathy, before reaching their destinations. They died or as Engels had written more than one and half centuries ago were socially murdered!
Capitalism, which already was in deep crisis before the coronavirus pandemic, is now proved that it is the least efficient system in handling the present crisis. Whatever the World bank or any other institutions are doing is nothing but measures to safeguard capitalism.
What capitalism in its any forms, like social democracy or fascism can do or doing is exploiting the working class and the oppressed people with more severity, amassing more capital by extracting surplus value and plundering the country and the people) and adding it into its already existing gigantic capital. In all its forms, like a black hole and on the other hand, the counter effect is, millions of people becoming pauper and getting into penury.
Point to remember is, the present-day crisis and its manifestations are the result of neo liberalism and is limping from one crisis to other, which decreases or increases with the severity of capitalist crisis (lack of profit or rising resistance of the people, threatening the existence of capitalism itself). Capitalism cannot solve the problem, which it creates and with the passing time, it creates a crisis of much higher dimensions, with more complications.
The manifestation of capitalist crisis can be seen all round, in all the fields concerning the very existence of the people, their welfare and subsistence. We would tackle few of them, especially those issues, which are glaring and are vanishing from the domain of the proletarian class, which we understand as "Social Security", necessary for the survival of the working class and the oppressed people and their growth.
We are witnessing in India, the increasing attempt towards the surplusing of population, The land acquisition and the process of dispossessing peasants from their primitive means of production (crucial being their land) that Marx conceptualized as primitive accumulation helps us also to understand the current development paradigm being dished out by the State. "Primitive accumulation is the process by which the producer is divorced from her/his means of production. For Marx, it was clear that the primitive accumulation, therefore was nothing than "...the historical process of divorcing the producers from the means of production".
Employment: We all are aware of the loss of employment. Even though the GOI has stopped collecting data on many problems, like on unemployment rate, farmers' suicide, etc., we are aware that before Lockdown, unemployment rate had risen to 23% in India, in March 2020, which now has swelled more than 30%. Recent data says, we have further lost approx. 2 Crore jobs. The return of the workers (not all) to their work places is different than what it was earlier, with increase in working hours, increase in the intensity of the work and reduced wages.
There is nothing like unemployment allowance, which could sustain the workers. We saw the condition of migrant workers, in hundreds of thousands on road, with old, children, women. They were on roads walking in thick of summer, on hope of reaching their homes, villages, towns. The government and its machinery ignored in totality, which included SC. The police and administration showed their extreme cruelty, not only denying them the basics, water, food, medicine, transportation but also beat them ruthlessly. Corporate media was with the government in hiding the miseries of the workers and changing the narrative to Hindu Muslim or Pakistan and other non-existing issues. Social media was at full play, which is controlled by the international imperialist powers, and flooded by the paid trolls. Few independent youtubers, bloggers, individual journalists who tried and showed the realities were prosecuted by the state with the most lethal weapon, like NSA.
As far as the individuals were concerned, whether on road or in houses, were unsafe, due lack of any external help. Whatever tiny savings they had vanished over weeks. The so-called Social Security hardly existed for them, vanished in this crisis, which could have been controlled very effectively and efficiently if we had a socialist society, or even a pro people government.
Education: Whatever we had are being turned into the hands of the private concerns, including foreign capital, for the sake of ensuring high rate of profit, which has a tendency of falling to zero, in present crisis has gone below zero. US has declared itself officially that it is in economic recession. In our case, we talk about religion, temple, mosque, church, Dalits, Pakistan, China, the "greatness" of the individual's visions and leadership quality, which in normal days, we would have despised.
This brings us to the question of education, its reach to the lowest strata of our society, its quality, like is it providing one knowledge or mere skill to earn and serve the bourgeois class, may be highly paid or otherwise? Is our education sharpening our critical brains or making our brains dumb, unable to stand against ignorance and superstition, injustice and exploitation? Is it distancing us from the animal kingdom or making part of animal kingdom in glorified fashion or in a despicable condition and on most of the occasions making us part of the Reserve Army, need of the capitalist class?
Be sure, the old and now the new education policies are the need of the market, and accordingly we are being used, as personified labor power, to create surplus value, the profit. If the capitalist class could use robot or beasts to create surplus value, they would done so, abandoning us in toto, would not have cared to "waste" their capital in educating or training us. But they cannot do so. The relation between the capitalist class and the proletarian class is that of deep hatred and dependence on each other, as long as capitalism exists. The moment socialism establishes, the production and the distribution of the products (not commodities) would be done by men and women, they will be the owners of the country, means of production and the products created by them. The existence of capitalist class and proletarian class will vanish, and the education will be for all, free and scientific, better to say, will be compulsory for every child or youth or the grownup people, if deemed necessary by the then society.
Health Services: Whatever, public health services or otherwise we had, which the workers and the peasants of low income could use, was defunct, not only in India but the world over, barring few countries, like Cuba, DPRK, Taiwan, Scandinavian countries. The coronavirus pandemic exposed them fully, which includes Italy, Spain, US, UK, Brazil, Russia and our own country, India.
Health system is fully open for the need of the market, if you have money, you will be looked after like VIP, if you do not have money, you will not be treated even like an animal.
Housing or shelter: An old estimate says, India has more than 3-4 Crores population, who do not have houses. They are vagabonds, have no identity, do not have bank accounts or PAN, Aadhar or Voter cards or any identity card. In fact, they are not human beings but only living creatures, they are not part of production system of the country. When we talk about shelter for a living human being, we assume they are not Hume pipes, huts, railway tracks, abandoned debris, without provisions of toilettes, and also, they have provisions of electricity, drinking hygienic water, privacy and safety from wild animals, natural calamities.
If we accept, houses or shelters are unworthy of human beings, the data of homeless men and women will be more than 10 times.
Reducing wages: Loss of dearness allowance and nil rise in wages or even direct reduction, or rises in wages is not commensurate with the increase in the working hours or the intensity of the work, the relative wages are reducing. This reduces the ability of the masses to maintain their living standard, forget about rising, thus eroding their social security.
Minimum wage is the barest wage of any worker to sustain himself and his family, and return back for the work next day. The "legal" wage is what a worker deserves for the value of his labor power. The demand for minimum wages is nothing but begging for survival. It is not social security, below which he is like a pauper, destined to get deformed physically and mentally premature and die.
Pension: When a worker retires from his work, for whatever reasons, he expects to be looked after by the society, and whatever he gets then after, on monthly basis, we call it pension. Private sectors never give any pension. Now the government servants, too, are being denied pension. Vajpayee government started "New Pension" system for the Para Military Force personnel, which demolished their old pension system, in short that meant end of pension for them. This is being implemented in most of the Government concerns. In fact, the privatization is automatically destroying old age look after system. Imagine the workers of the unorganized sectors or of the informal sectors, consisting of 93% of the work forces of India!
How about pension for the old people, who were never part of the organized or semi-organized sectors, in agriculture sector, where more than 35% Indians live, work, and die. Accidentally, the agricultural workers are part of the "floating reserve army", who migrate to other states in hunt of works, as skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled workers, return back home, at the time of sowing or reaping the agricultural yields.
State Protection: Where police, media and judiciary have openly joined the bourgeois class, as managers to look after its interests, what protection can be expected? What we have witnessed or witnessing recently, speaks volume of state protection, its neutrality. In fact, we have example of Delhi Riots this year only, where even the International Amnesty has, in its report, said that Delhi Police was complicit in the riot. The state sponsored riots, violence is very common these days.
Privatization: A big issue in itself, seemingly out of the preview of Social Security, but it does concern the people's ability to face eroding social securities. But this erodes the left over ensured employments, related securities, like PF, EPF, medical and health services, paid leave, DA, pension in whatever form, etc. The public wealth, created over decades by our ancestors, is being looted by the capitalist class and their political agents, including foreign capital. The depth in social security or ability of the state to look after the people in normal days or in crisis is being reduced progressively and dangerously.
Degrading culture: The effect of the crisis in capitalism is showing its effect on the culture, social, legal and spiritual status of the people also. The rise in religiosity, casteism, cultism, national chauvinism is visible, and more distressing is the fact that they are being propagated by the bourgeois class, with the help of its proxy government, media.
The effect is seen in rise in communalism and communal flare up, like in Delhi, UP, etc. The mob lynching, the rise of cow vigilante, Anti Romance Squad under the protection of state is visible. An environment of mass fear is created and is deepening. Forget about social security of personal health, education, survival, the life is in question.
Conclusion: 1. We must note here that "Social Protection" is not part of Marxism. It is in nutshell, welfare of the citizens of a state, looked after by the state, whose funding is done by the state, but those funds are collected by the state from the citizens only, in forms of the various taxes and the gains from public concerns, and the capitalists, financiers. These collections are also used to run the state and the politicians, and other "managers" of the capitalist class.
2. How much welfare? How much subsidies in education, health services, transportation, housing, loans, etc.? How much unemployment allowance? Who all shall be eligible? Like in sudden lockdown, in India, the government opened some free food and money distribution, including direct transfer of funds to banks, for the poor people, the unemployed workers. But the recipients needed to show certain papers, or registration, and a big section of the needy could not provide the papers. By the way the question of CAA, NRC comes straight forward hounding Crores of Indians, where an estimate says 35-40 Crore Indians will be declared non-Indians and will have to prove their citizenships or the government will provide them and the process will take more than 5 years. For medical facilities, if one needs to be insured, one needs to pay the insurance money.
3. The degree of concession, social security, subsidies from the bourgeois class and its government is the resultant outcome of the struggle between the bourgeois class, trying to ensure maximum profit rate and the working class trying to maintain its livelihood and living standard and improve its conditions.
4. Social security is not part of the Marxist-Leninist ideology, nor the revolutionaries strive for it in a capitalist society. The fight is for the establishment of Socialism, where an individual is ensured of all the basic means of subsistence and much more than that for his/her personal growth, safety, freedom from the worries of employment and food and others necessities.
5. The working-class revolutionary party does join the working-class struggle in ensuring social security, which generally flattens to the basic needs, which again barely meets the requirement, as we see in India, where the working class has been reduced to paupers, living in the most despicable condition. This helps the working-class party to mobilize the working class, educate it politically, grow the class affinity and unity, prepare for the class struggle.
6. The party must understand the difference between the demands, slogans and the need of the revolutionary preparation. If it fails to do so, the revolutionary demands, slogans are likely to fall into reformism (and vice versa for the revolutionary party). Nationalization and welfare measures are not part of socialist construction, especially in a capitalist society. Socialization is entirely different method to mobilize the working class and the social wealth, free the productive forces from the chains of capital, a dead entity, annihilate the base of any exploitation of a man by another and is the base of socialism. This measure is essential, once the state power is in the hands of the proletarian class, its party.
7. The rise of revolutionary situation, for which we are preparing ourselves, is not in our hands, and which could start with some spark. We must not negate any demand, slogan, struggle with the working class, especially if they rise from their within, as they could be the tinder. Our task is to penetrate into them the revolutionary ideas, from survival to socialist revolution, from an individual worker to part of a class, from identity politics to the class politics, from a sympathizer to a cadre of a leader in the party.
The post Covid world would witness this conflict between capital and labor intensified. The setback received to the neo liberal project globally and the churning within the ranks of the working class would open vistas for new struggle. It is time for the Left to rethink its old tactics and ways of struggle. The hitherto practice of considering the working class as a homogeneous group has long lost its appeal and so has the politics of trade unions amongst the organized section, the great majority of the working class is where the traditional left has paid no serious attention. The new radicalized working class would have to be drawn from the latent, stagnating and floating population, those who have been surplused and have one-foot wallowing in pauperism. We have to bring Marx's methodology of critique of capitalism back into our polity and jettison the politics of Lassalleian and Berstenians that has permeated amongst us.
Old forms have become outdated and a new struggle would have to emerge.
Workers of the world unite! Inqilab Zindabad!!
