COVID 19: The Rulers Can’t Keep Us Safe:
Fight for a Communist World Where Workersâ Health Will be #1!
USA, October 2â âAs a teacher, I am frightened,â wrote a comrade. âUnvaccinated students are attending school. There is no vaccine mandate for adolescents, although there is an approved vaccine. But as a teacher I am mandated to teach in person, while school district officials hide in their offices, safe (if anyone is safe) from the COVID. They don’t give a damn about the education or the safety of those students. They did nothing to stop school shootings and they are doing nothing to stop the spread of the pandemic.â
After US President Biden called for vaccine mandates, many private and public institutions (including schools) are implementing them. Â Hundreds of health-care and airlines employees have already been fired for refusing to submit proof of vaccination.
In capitalism, being fired puts a worker at risk of homelessness and starvation. That wonât be true in communism, where all will be supplied according to need. If someone canât or wonât comply with health and safety measures, they could be excluded from doing a particular kind of work. We would find some other work for them, and meanwhile they would have food, health care and shelter just like everyone else.
Follow the Science â and Fight for Better, Communist Science
In communism, the masses will be able to trust science in a way we really canât today. Now, capitalists control, profit from, and sometimes distort scientific research. Politicians lie about it. In contrast, communist science will be done by and for the masses!
In the meantime, though, we should try to follow the science. Vaccinations save lives. So do masks. Â Wearing a mask is a concrete and crucial act of social solidarity. Â Except for a very few people with unusual medical conditions, we urge those around us to be vaccinated.
Health is a class question.
The worldwide death toll from Covid-19 surpassed five million on October 1. The highly contagious Delta variant has exposed the wide disparities in vaccination availability worldwide and the anti-scientific vaccine hesitancy in some places where vaccine is available.
Maps in the capitalist press show vaccinations and cumulative numbers of deaths as percentages of each nationâs population. They donât show who in any country has access to vaccines, or to medical care, clean water, nutritious food or safe housing.
Capitalism is a worldwide system. The existence of racism, poverty, exploitation and war means that it is an unhealthy system. This deadly system will lead inevitably to more pandemics like COVID until we get rid of it.
The capitalists have a problem. They want to rein in the pandemic to stabilize their economies. But they canât do that, or create a healthy world, while managing a society based on exploitation, racism, climate disaster and war.
Some capitalists are expanding vaccination mandates. Others are refusing to allow any mandates at all. The result is mass confusion. This is classic divide and rule. Having failed to stop the virus, they now want to shift the blame for its spread to those yet unvaccinated.  Still without providing the social supports many need to get the vaccine, such as childcare, sick pay, transportation, and time off work.
Vaccination is an act of solidarity and a socially responsible choice. But we as communists never call on capitalists to coerce the working class.
Communists call for communism.
It is our responsibility, always, to struggle for class solidarity and to fight for a communist world. In that communist world, social relations, not profit, will govern our lives.  We will rely on collective struggle against all forms of anti-social behavior. That means collective organization to protect each other from criminals as well as collective struggle against less serious anti-social behavior. We wonât rely on cops, or the external discipline of bosses, markets, pay checks and unemployment lines.
Acting on that commitment now means struggling with our co-workers, friends, neighbors and relatives to act in their class interest, in solidarity with other workers. That includes masking up. It means following the science and getting vaccinated where we can.
Some of our friends and comrades have been convinced, out of fear, to support capitalist vaccine mandates. But we donât call for the bosses to protect us, or to keep us safe. We donât call for more power in the hands of the capitalist state. And we donât side with the capitalists in calling for the disciplining of unvaccinated workers and their children.
We call for the workers to overthrow the capitalists and their murderous system. We will build a new society where we work together to build healthy social relations and a healthy society.
There are no short-term, reform solutions to this crisis. The only solution is communist revolution.