Portside

Reader Comments: Reopen or Re-Infect; The Black Plague; Voting Imperiled - Today and Remembering the 60s; Coronavirus - The Crisis This Time; Nurses Wearing Garbage Bags - Really?; The Killing Floor at Smithfield; Killing the Post Office; more...

“The global struggle against the pandemic has little chance to succeed if personal hygiene, the main measure to prevent contagion, is unavailable to the 2.2 billion persons who have no access to safe water services.”

Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin tackle the questions of what lessons we can learn from this pandemic and how society may organize moving forward.

The magnitude of the current crisis compels us to cooperate and practice solidarity despite political differences. The virus knows no boundaries or ideologies. It threatens the lives of all and therefore it is up to all of us to fight back.

The crisis this time is unique in an especially topsy-turvy way. In past capitalist crises, the state intervened to try and get the economy going again. This time, the is not on how to revive the economy, but how to further restrict it.

Reader Comments: COVID Crisis: Congress Must Lead; This is Our Future; Massive Unemployment-One-Third of Young People Lost Jobs; Sanders Campaign; Crisis Exposes How Fragile Capitalism Was; Bailout the Pension System; Workers Fight Back; Farm Crisis;

...the super-capitalism of today has become an absolute fetter on the development of the productive forces necessary for our species survival.

If the financial downturn proves to be intractable, “all bets are off,” says scholar Walter Scheidel.

The American people deserve and require leadership from Washington amid this horrific pandemic and economic meltdown. In this unprecedented moment in American history, we need an unprecedented legislative response.