The York Left Consortium: Reflections on Capitalism’s Half-Life is a blog that gathers written interventions relating to the coronavirus and its aftermath by leftist faculty and grad students at York (as well as some non-York experts invited by York faculty and students). It features short blog posts as well as longer thought pieces, and speculations. Authors can provide not just original writing for the blog but link and re-post pieces from other websites (personal or organizational). Ultimately, it is hoped the site will become a platform for York’s Left beyond the current moment associated with COVID-19.
We look forward to your submissions. Contact Robert Latham (rlatham1@yorku.ca) and Raju Das (rajudas@yorku.ca).
York Left Consortium: Reflections on Capitalism’s Half-Life
COVID-19 and ‘Actually Existing’ Unions
Steven Tufts | York Faculty
The shut-down of non-essential work in response to COVID-19 has decimated labour markets. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 20.5 million more workers lost their jobs in April, as official unemployment skyrocketed to 14.7%. It is the largest single-month increase in unemployment since the data series started in 1948. In Canada, the news was not any better as Statistics Canada reported that another 2 million jobs were lost in April following 1 million jobs lost in March as the unemployment rate increased to 13%. This percentage is a wild underestimation of the full impact of reduced hours and underemployment.
Read moreWe’re not all in this together
Lesley Wood | Piece of Interest
As CoVid19 cases in shelters and Long Term Care facilities soar, the police in Ontario are ramping up their enforcement of physical distancing bylaws. They ticket those gathering in groups, people standing closer than 2 metres apart, and those using closed park facilities. They can be fined $1000. In addition, police have the right now to ask anyone to show identification with their name, address and date of birth. Those who don’t comply can be fined up to $750.
Read moreNotes on Lenin at 150: Theoretical Preparation for Revolution in the Time of COVID-19
Kevin B. Anderson | Piece of Interest
Two weeks ago, April 22, was the 150th anniversary V.I. Lenin’s birth. What does it mean to consider Lenin 150 years after his birth and at the time of COVID-19? To many on the global left — from anarchists to social democrats — the answer would be a resounding, “He means nothing at all to us,” or, “We reject his legacy.” I believe that this would be misguided, as we still have a lot to learn from the Russian revolutionary thinker, even today, and in spite of the many valid criticisms of his politics and the fate of the USSR that he founded.
Read moreWorking Hypotheses for the Political Economy of Modern Epidemics
Stavros Mavroudeas | Guest Contributor
During the last 30 to 40 years, capitalism has become more and more prone to epidemics, in contrast to the prevailing belief that the advances in medicine and the creation of universal and developed health systems had put an end to such phenomena. Especially after 1975, we have the appearance of the ‘emerging epidemics’, i.e. dozens of new diseases, mainly due to viruses, with a frequency that has no analogue in history. These new epidemics are mainly zoonoses, i.e. animal viruses transmitted to humans.
Read moreHuman suffering during the pandemic and the need for a new society
Raju Das | York Faculty
During the on-going pandemic, humanity’s suffering has increased enormously. By May 11, 2020, 4.2 million people in the world had contracted the coronavirus, and 285,000 had died. In the richest and most powerful country of the world, more than 1.4 million cases have been reported, with 81,000 deaths. The pandemic is producing massive adverse impacts, including on income and employment opportunities (Davis, 2020; Toussaint, 2020). The pandemic is forcing us to think about what kind of society we wish to live in. This article discusses the ‘consequences’ of the pandemic for people and what they say about the nature of the society we live in. The article then talks about what a different kind of society would look like, one that is worth fighting for now.
Read moreViews of the Naked City: Pictures from the Daily Round in a City of Emptying Streets
Stefan Kipfer | York Faculty
In the middle of March, I started to post short photo essays on my social media feed. These snapshots were inspired by daily walks and bicycle excursions in Toronto as well as news from around the world about the spread of COVID-19.
Read moreA Better Performance than Prior Presidents?: Trump and the Pandemic
August H. Nimtz | Guest Contributor
Historian Allen Guelzo argues (that Donald Trump has done “substantially more than [George] Washington, [Andrew] Jackson or [Woodrow] Wilson did in the hour of a health crisis.” But is Guelzo guilty of comparing apples and oranges, contexts that are radically different? Perhaps true for the first two presidents. But the Wilson administration was only a century ago. Is it unfair to subject the most academically credentialled of all White House occupants to a comparison with the current one? Who on the face of it ought to have been more open to the best science of his day? And whose Presbyterian certitude ought to have been superior to arguably one of the most morally challenged U.S. presidents?
Read moreAu Maroc, la crise sanitaire au service de l’autoritarisme
Merouan Mekouar | York Faculty
Surprenant renversement de situation au Maroc où la crise générée par le Sars-CoV-2 a donné lieu à des scènes inattendues. Des hôtels de luxe transformés en foyers médicaux, des agents pénitentiaires raccompagnant des prisonniers à leur domicile, des médecins et des policiers en uniforme applaudissant des patients convalescents à leur sortie de l’hôpital, des aides financières distribuées en quelques semaines aux travailleurs informels, des grandes fortunes locales dépensant sans compter au nom de la solidarité, comment expliquer ces mesures dans un pays, acquit il y a quelques semaines encore à une des formes les plus socialement violentes de néolibéralisme en Afrique du Nord ?
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