How is the current resurgence of the virus affecting the US population, and in particular the working class, today? The impact of the virus can be summed up in the following points.
One, the disease is continuing to spread. A stunning 3,628 people died on December 29 alone. The overall number of deaths exceeds 339,000. It will take some time for the effects of the vaccinations to be felt—especially given how much the rollout of the vaccine has already fallen well short of projections. An upturn in infections following holiday parties is widely anticipated. Concerns have been raised about the new “British” strain with a greater contagion danger.All in all, the shadow of the virus still hangs over the country.
Two, every day hundreds of thousands of workers go to dangerous workplaces. This can be because interaction with the public is unavoidable, for example in public transportation or grocery stores. It is also the case in industries where management has not done the retooling needed for safety, such as meat packing.
Three, a large number of workers are laid off from employers temporarily closed due to the pandemic. The restaurant, hospitality, and entertainment industries have seen wave after wave of this. Disney provides a symbolic example.
Four, many jobs are never going to comeback. This is not just the case in small businesses that have gone under. Capital is using the pandemic to reorganize itself. Recessions allow capital to push weaker capitalists to the wall, enabling stronger and more profitable rivals to come to the fore. This process allows the strong to survive and clears away those whose profit rates are subpar. The virus shapes the way capital is doing this today. A recent Financial Times article captured this clearly. It was titled, “US Goliath trampled David in K shaped 2020: Titans from Starbucks to Mondelez grow in clout while rivals lacking scale, top brands or robust finances nurse wounds.” (December 30, 2020) This process will make the scars from today very serious for the working class in the future. And the biggest companies have done well during the crisis. Moreover, some companies have fared well during the pandemic. A recent Washington Post analysis “found 45 of the 50 biggest U.S.companies turned a profit sinceMarch. The majority of firms cut staff and gave the bulk of profits to shareholders.”
Five, even those workers receiving unemployment benefits are not out of the woods. The recently passed stimulus bill gives workers $300 per week above widely varying state benefits. This will last for eleven weeks.After some kerfuffle over Trump’s threat to not sign a relief package that didn’t include a $2000 payment, he finally signed the bill granting only $600. The main point is that these benefits are not big enough, don’t last long enough, and are too hard to apply for.
Six, there are few things more stressful than the fear of losing one’s home. It’s estimated that twelve million people would be in danger of eviction if there were no moratoriums. The new Federal moratorium is set to expire on January 31. The absurdity and sickness of contemporary US capitalism was captured by the headline from the website of WBOC in Maryland, “Stay at Home Orders Difficult in the Face of Eviction”!
Seven, working from home places great pressures on parents. There is not only the difficulty of trying to work while watching the children. There is also the problem of having children with unfamiliar online activities at the same time. Any parent or child who remembers frequent evening arguments about homework can visualize what it would be like to have to go through those arguments all day long.
Eight, the psychological toll from the pandemic is obvious. The first component is worrying about catching the disease and possibly dying. The second component is the anxieties caused by the economic problems caused by this situation. Finally, these components play in the crowded confines of being home for weeks and months. The four walls begin to close in. The increase in domestic violence has been widely reported.
Nine, the fundamental and intrinsic racism of US society has come to the fore during the virus. The latest evidence of this is the third quarter unemployment figures. They are 7.9% for whites, 11.2% for Latinos, and 13.2% for Blacks. Thepandemic hospitalization rate for Blacks is 4.7 times that of whites. Black people’s mortality rate from Covid is twice the white rate. The gross discrepancies in the availability of healthcare are well known.
Ten, anyone who has turned on the television news in the past months will have seen the pictures of hospital overcrowding: patients on gurneys in the hallway, sick people packed into small rooms, and doctors and nurses working impossible hours. Today, Southern California is the center for this. Tomorrow, it will be somewhere else. There is a real danger of hospital systems being overwhelmed when Covid has a particularly sharp local spike.
Eleven, for months now attention has been focused on the eventual rollout of the vaccine. You would have thought that this would have given medical authorities plenty of time to prepare a robust and rapid vaccination program. But this has not happened. So far only three million people have been vaccinated in the US—15% of the goal. Yahoo News wrote that, “the distribution is more like a dribble so far.”
It’s not hard to find the reasons for this sluggishness. Corporate greed and competition, the long term running down of the US medical system, the wanton incompetence of the Trump administration, and the lack of a centralized national healthcare plan have combined to create the current situation.
Twelve, food insecurity is a rapidly spreading contagion caused by the current situation. The pictures of vast lines of vehicles waiting for free food packages is as striking as the pictures of patients on beds in hospital hallways. The organization Feeding America estimates that 50 million Americans will be facing food insecurity this year, a sharp increase from previous figures.
Thirteen, savings are a safety net for many working class people. They provide for the future and for the proverbial “rainy day.” The marked loss of income has led to many workers having to cut into their savings in order to cover daily expenses. It’s estimated that one third of people have had to take money out of their savings or retirement accounts.
Fourteen, 29% of called back workers have returned to lower wages or fewer hours. Many workers who were able to avoid layoffs find themselves on short shifts and facing smaller paychecks. This is another important factor causing a decline in working class living standards.
Finally, cuts in social spending are coming down the road. The lack of federal direction and support has led to state and local government bearing the brunt of the response to the pandemic. This has led to large expenditures by these institutions. In order to recuperate from this situation, state and local governments are going to cut future spending. We have already seen threats of this in Illinois and California. Obviously, there’s more going on here than just recuperating from special medical expenditures. Capitalist politicians, long desirous of cuts in social expenditure, can use pandemic expenditures as a cover for cuts that have been on their wish list for a long time.
This list of the effects of Covid on the working class doesn’t cover everything. The different effects overlap and reinforce each other in many ways. However, the main point is clear: the US working class is in a very adverse and difficult situation.Obviously, this has had negative effects on the self-confidence and combativity of the working class.This can be seen at the low number of strikes taking place at the moment. In November, there were no ongoing strikes at any workplaces with over 1,000 workers. The Labor Notes year-end round-up provides a good, careful overview.
However, our task is not just to assess and lament this situation. Our task is to do something about it. Socialists face three priorities.
One, to support any actions by workers and communities fighting against unsafe and premature reopenings. For example, the Chicago Teachers Union and its community allies are fighting plans to reopen the Chicago Public Schools before they are safe for children and staff. We should take our cue from trusted scientists, not from management.
Two, to support campaigns for a rapid and fair vaccination program. The current fumbling is unacceptable. We support actions which call for a nationally organized and equitable distribution of the vaccine. Trade unionists are right; industries such as meatpacking are hot spots and should be priorities. Prisoners’ rights activists are right, prisons are also hotspots and should be the top of the list for vaccinations.
Three, as always workers solidarity is at the top of our agenda. While there are not many of them today, every workers’ struggle is important to us. They are the hope of the future. In this regard, supporting the current struggles of healthcare workers is an important socialist priority as we enter 2021.
Adam Shils is a member of the International Socialism Project in Chicago.
