This measure results in a temporary residence permit and avoids crowding of the public at the SEF (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteiras – Immigration and Borders Service) during the pandemic. Beatriz Dias, Bloco’s MP, welcomes the decision that guarantees access to social benefits for many "migrant people who work and contribute to social security revenues".
The Corona Virus Pandemic and Past Pandemics
4 April 2020, byThe Corona virus threat has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation. How not to respond to it from the left is easily seen, by apparently leftist posts circulating in social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter), which suddenly wake up to how many people die because of hunger, how many die due to dengue, or due to various other ailments. These are not serious responses, and usually by individuals who on other days seldom care about the collapse of public healthcare, or the causes of world hunger.
Swiss government rejects confinement and relies on “individual responsibility”
3 April 2020, byWith 11,888 positive cases and 193 deaths to date [27 March] for 8 million people, Switzerland is the country with the most Covid-19 cases per capita in the world. 13.74 cases per 10,000 inhabitants on average in the country as a whole, 39.65 in Ticino, 35.19 in Geneva and 29.49 in the canton of Vaud.
Car manufacturer PSA backs down under pressure from employees
3 April 2020Although the management of the PSA plant in Valenciennes - Trith-Saint-Léger wanted to resume activity, as of Tuesday, 31 March 2020 it had to back down following opposition from the CGT and CFTC unions represented on the establishment’s Economic AND Social Committee (CSE). A first victory against the plans of PSA who wanted to make this a test factory.
How China contained Covid-19 and the dangerous world to come
3 April 2020, byThis interview with Kevin Lin explains how medical personnel in Wuhan, China sounded the alarm in late December as the coronavirus began to spread. After an initial period of denial and scapegoating, Chinese leaders took decisive actions to contain the virus, even as some of those actions produced unintended consequences. As Covid-19 deaths spike around the world, China faces a potential resurgence of the pandemic and a mounting ecomonic crisis that will test the Communist Party. And although civil society in mainland China and street protests in Hong Kong have been quashed, the crisis may open a path for labor, feminist, and democratic organizing to spread among the youth, even as nationalist tensions rise between the US and China.
Towards social crisis in Italy
2 April 2020, byThe Italian health crisis, after three weeks of lockdown, is taking on even more dramatic aspects and, so far, there are no convincing signs of limitation of the epidemic: it has now affected [as of 29 March 2020] 80,000 people and claimed more than 10,000 victims. At least, these are the official figures. On all sides, including international scientific communities, such as Nextstrain, there is the hypothesis of much higher figures. In any case, the entire national health system is no longer able to guarantee adequate care for all patients and even less to keep the other services running: one million “normal” operations have been postponed.
“To fight the Coronavirus is to fight capitalism!”
2 April 2020, bySince the announcement on 10 March, 2020 of the first case of infection and, a week later, of the first death due to Covid-19, Turkey now has 7,500 infected and 108 dead. We are thus entering the weeks when the number of cases and deaths are very likely to increase dramatically. But which will also show whether the measures taken so far have helped to contain the spread of the virus.
Germany “more determined” v. coronavirus than U.S., but not out of the woods
2 April 2020, byMore than 60,000 Germans have tested positive for the coronavirus and 577 have died from Covid-19 as of March 31. Yet, Germany has not yet suffered the terrible casualty rates seen in France, Spain, and Italy where approximately 25,000 people have died in the last few weeks. And while workers have suffered neoliberal cuts, Germany’s powerful capitalist class has partially succeeded in forcing weaker states in the European Union to bear the brunt of the long-running economic crisis. But the monster is next door and Germany is not out of the woods. And even if it Germans are spared the worst, the far right is growing and the parties of government may well use this crisis to buttress surveillance powers to strengthen their hand in preparation for the deep recession that will no doubt strike at the heart of the countries manufacturing industries.
The Coronavirus Strikes and their Significance, So Far
1 April 2020, byAcross the United States we are seeing workers walk off the job in wildcat strikes in response to the employers’ failure either to shut down the workplace or to make it safe. The strikes are too few to call them a strike wave, but we should be aware that on their own initiative workers are taking what practically is the most powerful action they can: withdrawing their labor. The strikes are taking place in both the private and public sector, in both unionized and non-union workplaces large and small.