THE capitalist world has been gripped by a crisis since 2008, the basic cause of which is the unsustainable neoliberal capitalist system.

Crisis-ridden capitalism has been trying its level best to come out of this crisis. But whatever methods and steps were adopted had failed to overcome this problem, unlike in earlier such crises. This showed the hollowness and vulnerabilities of the finance driven neoliberal order.

In this backdrop, the sudden and unforeseen spread of the coronavirus pandemic has come like a bolt from the blue. It has at one go plunged  the world into a crippling economic depression and shown up the inhuman and predatory nature of capitalism.The deadly attack of coronavirus has undoubtedly ravaged the world. It is not only taking away innumerable human lives, but also devastating the social, economic and cultural life on this planet. However, much of this damage is man-made and is a result of the social system that prevails in the major part of the globe.

To tackle the Covid-19 threat, the first necessity was to have an effective public health system in each and every country. But the sad reality is that almost all the advanced capitalist countries who used to boast about their material property, had failed to safeguard the health of their people by making health-care a profit making enterprise and running down public health-care. They handed over their healthcare  and educational systems to the hands of private capital. Neoliberalism led the State to abandon the responsibility to universalise these two important and basic elements for the well being and development of human beings. Globalisation has meant liberalisation, privatisation and profit maximisation in all spheres. After the fall of the Soviet Union, these anti-people policies became dominant.

The Covid pandemic and the response of the rulers in these countries has laid bare the inhuman and exploitative character of the system. The United States of America, which is the most powerful capitalist country in the world, is a grim illustration. The US has a health sector which is run by big business and it has only a skeletal public health system. Access to health care for the people is restricted by  expensive private insurance. The US has the dubious record of having the largest number of Covid cases in the world (nearly 2 million) and the highest number of deaths (over a hundred thousand). That this could happen in a country with the best medical facilities and technology at hand is a grave indictment of capitalism. It puts profits before people.

This is in stark contrast to the socialist countries who have effectively dealt with Covid pandemic through public health and public action.  China, Vietnam and Cuba have all shown the difference a socialist system makes. As against the dismal US record, Vietnam has zero deaths due to the virus.

At the heart of the difference is the fact that a socialist State will not leave the basic needs of the people to the vagaries of the market – health and education in particular. It would intervene in allocation of resources to various sectors of the economy through planning, keeping the welfare of the people uppermost. Even when faced by enormous difficulties  due to economic blockades and sanctions, Cuba has never given up these principles. That is why it has a public health and educational system which has exemplary standards.

After four months of the pandemic, people around the world are able to see how capitalism and socialism have tackled the situation. For the people in the capitalist countries which were already suffering from rising inequalities and erosion of social welfare measures, the pandemic which has wreaked havoc with their lives is only confirming that they can get no justice or equality within this set-up. They are faced with no jobs and lives of penury for their families.

This has set the stage for a churn in the thinking of people, particularly the working people and the younger generation. That they will not take things lying down can be seen from the widespread mass protests in America against the racist murder of a black man  by police.

All over the world, efforts will be made by the ruling classes to overcome the deep and comprehensive crisis that has engulfed their exploitative system by imposing burdens on the people and to curtail their rights further. This is something which will be opposed and resisted by the working people.  But this resistance can be of a qualitatively different nature if the consciousness develops that a different world is possible.

For such a churn to acquire the force of material change, it requires collective action and organisation. That is the task cut out for all progressive and Left forces in the society. The situation cries out for bold thinking and innovative ways to build movements.