Pandemic: This Video Statement is Just as Applicable to the US

Richard Mellor

This is a very good presentation and is just as applicable to the US as it is in the UK.

The only point I would make is the issue of the social system itself is absent. The politicians have  class interests; the state itself has class content and and it is the system of production we know as capitalism that they are defending. In this system, where a minority own the means of producing the necessities of life and this production is set in to motion on the basis of profit for those who are the directors of it rather than the needs of society as a whole; the economy is primary. We must shop, we must accumulate we must maintain the labor process as this is the source of their profits.

The professor is genuine we can see that. But it's not just a question of "trust" as he says. The politicians are driven by the laws of this system. He's right about fascism and how it thrives on division and turning us against each other, the capitalist class does this at all times, that's why racism cannot be eradicated under this system, it is the most useful divide and rule tactic as is religious sectarianism and at all times, the oppression of women. They do not like racial conflict, or racism to be so blatant and break out in to the open necessarily as when it does as we are seeing, it gets expensive for the ruling class. They prefer it to simmer on the back burner, constant social tension, competition, just like tanything, housing, a home, a job. That's why unemployment is always useful. Those of us working are less likely to complain when there's people on the outside looking for work. Organizing the unemployed is crucial ink our struggle for security.

He says they must invest in public health when for decades in the UK they have been dismantling the public health system that was one of the greatest advances for the British working class and poor. In the US it's even worse, public health is condemned as is public anything. We are in the belly of the beast here and the market is touted as the answer to all things. We spend $4 trillion a year on our health care and have the worst in the industrialized world.

Here in the US, religious fanaticism plays a huge role in undermining human progress. Evangelism has penetrated the body politic to a great degree and Middle East foreign policy for example is influenced by those who believe the developments in that region are not about economics, markets raw material so on, but Biblical prophecy. White racist Christian nationalism is on the rise. Since it's inception, the founders of the US nation state has been a Christian nation.

He says we have "false messiahs" these messianic figures like Trump, Putin and Johnson who surround themselves with "yes men and women". Too true, Trump is a master of it.  But this is a consequence of the global crisis of capitalism and the degeneration or decay of the traditional capitalist parties and institutions. Here in the US both Democrats and Republican parties are in crisis and despised by the majority of the population. 100 million never participated in the 2016 election and the vast majority of those that will vote for the corporate shrill Biden are doing so on one basis only, to get the sexual deviant Trump out of there.

Another comment I thought hit home was that the media give equal time to a minority with regards to the anti-vaxxers and others that argue the Pandemic is a hoax. This is true here in the US as well but when you have the head of state promoting conspiracy theories, let alone defending right wing neo-fascists, this gives confidence to the most backward elements in society. Trump has on more than one occasion defended racists, fascists and white nationalists, the most recent being the wannabee 17 year old fascist who killed to protestors in Kenosha Wisconsin. Trum is supposed to visit there today despite the governor opposing it. He is calling his troops out, appealing to them.

Trump would like nothing more than more social unrest and it is impossible to think that there are not agent provocateurs and other right wing forces ensuring there is plenty more looting and property destruction so Trump can come in and make us safe.

Anyway, I said more than I thought I would but I hope you watch the video it's quite good.