The Communist Fight Against Racism Will Make Us All Healthier
Seattle (US)—Seven thousand healthcare workers and others fill City Hall Plaza to demand racism be declared a public health issue. Only communism can eradicate the deadly disease of racism.
The current pandemic has exposed how unhealthy capitalism is. It has also exposed how devastating the racism of this system is to health. Much of what makes us sick in the 21st century will be eliminated by the destruction of capitalism through the mobilization of the masses and the leadership of the International Communist Workers’ Party.
Life under capitalism is extremely stressful for all workers. We have to worry about paying the rent or mortgage, buying food, health care, transportation, clothes, etc. We have to worry about losing a job or getting sick. Stress aggravates almost all illnesses, from diabetes to depression. The top two causes of death worldwide (though not in Africa), heart disease and stroke (APHA), are very strongly linked to stress.
Ironically, it is the very healthcare workers we depend on during this pandemic who are subject to extraordinary levels of stress.
This stress is multiplied many times more for Black and Latinx workers, who face lower wages, dangerous working conditions, less access to healthcare, increased incarceration rates, and death by police violence. Huge numbers of healthcare workers and others have demonstrated to recognize racism as a public health hazard.
Racism means that Black, Latinx and Indigenous workers experience higher rates of illness, impairment and death in the U.S. and globally. For example, Black women are far less likely to have breast cancer, yet are 40% more likely to die from it than white women (Centers for Disease Control). Racism is clearly a killer.
One of the main ways that health will improve under communism is by the fight against (and eventual abolition of) racism. Health and healthcare will no longer be dependent on race or economic status.
Communism will abolish money and wage slavery. Without capitalist exploitation, we can win the struggle to end sexism, racism and xenophobia. Working together for the common good will provide fulfilling lives, rather than the self-serving, individualistic lives we are encouraged to live under capitalism.
Work itself will be both meaningful and productive. Instead of working to make the bosses rich, we will be working together to meet the needs of our class brothers and sisters. There will be no economic incentive for racist speedup and harassment.
In order to maximize profits, capitalists must develop production systems that break down work into the simplest tasks possible. Workers are forced to do the same repetitive jobs, day after day.
Communist production, on the other hand, focuses on fulfilling the needs of the masses, not profits. As matter of course, workers will do a variety of jobs, even on the same day.
Communist production is much more flexible and resilient. It will allow the party to mobilize millions of worker to produce whatever is needed at a particular time. Without profits, we can prioritize good housing, sewage systems, clean drinking water and clean air. Racism and imperialism make these necessities inaccessible to most worker under capitalism.
Almost all activities will be communal, greatly reducing isolation. Loneliness is known to be a health risk factor – as harmful as smoking or obesity.
Good food is vital to good health. But for capitalism, what’s vital is cheap food, so bosses pay low wages, expose workers to pesticides and force us into dangerous working conditions. For example, in Yakima, the center of farming is Washington state, the percentage of people with COVID-19 is six times higher than in the city of Seattle. Most of the farmworkers there are Latinx.
There will be medicine, healthcare workers and hospitals under communism. They’ll be available to all those who need them. If there are pandemics and other forms of new diseases, we’ll mobilize the masses to eradicate them.
For all these reasons, we believe that in communism workers won’t experience illness on the scale they do under capitalism. This is especially true for those who are subject to racist attacks. Communism is key to workers’ health.
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