VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
ICOR Declaration on the Corona Pandemic
The Corona pandemic has developed into a global health crisis with drastic and threatening consequences for the world's population. It is clear that many such new diseases and viruses are emerging at an increasing pace.
SARS in 2003, MERS in 2012 and now the COVID 19. It's becoming more obvious each day that the capitalist countries and the imperialist countries, respectively, have created a world in which climate and environment are changing in such a way that there is a real threat to human existence. In many imperialist countries the main problem right now is the exponential spread of the virus. This coincides with a situation in the countries in which the public health systems, with their orientation to maximum profit, have been economized to the point that they are on the verge of collapse or are already in a state of collapse. In many countries there has been no functioning public health system for years. The ICOR is in its thoughts with all the victims so far, their family members, and those who are ill.
At the same time the Corona pandemic is being used to obscure the emergence of a new world economic and financial crisis and shift the burdens of the crisis onto the shoulders of the broad masses in the wake of Corona. Capitalist governments are holding billions in readiness for corporations – but not for the masses and the health system. On top of that, industrial production is supposed to be maintained at all costs under totally inadequate hygienic conditions, and exploitation even increased. In Italy and Spain, the US, China strikes against this have developed, which the ICOR appreciates, promotes and supports.
Armies are being deployed in the interior while democratic rights and freedoms are increasingly being restricted, e.g. by canceling or banning demonstrations and protest activities and the surveillance by tracking of mobile phone data is expanded. Although the situation is urgent, often every state operates on its own against others as far as research, diagnosis and treatment are concerned. Today a big part of the world is in a lockdown. In this situation even the few attempts of governments to provide the masses with vital material prove to be completely inadequate. Food, medicine and sanitary materials are not being made available to the working masses. It is as if the only thing left for the exploited and oppressed, for the poorest of the world, to do is to die. Those in power and the rich take care of their own survival.
Imperialist blockades against dependent countries are a further crime that aggravates the dramatic situation because of the pandemic.
This situation shows the whole degeneracy and incompetence of the imperialist world system! It shows that imperialism has entered a phase where it is no more viable. Socialism is the only answer. This is why the ICOR stands for the international coordination and cooperation of revolutionary parties and organizations in a revolutionary and socialist perspective on the whole world.
Even though the virus knows no class boundaries, the health systems are two-class systems. It becomes patently clear today that the future of humanity lies in classless communist society and the building of a world community without exploitation of humans and nature.
The ICOR demands
• Far-reaching measures to ensure health care on the costs of profits. Food, sanitary materials, and other essentials for the masses!
• Comprehensive creation of new jobs in the health system!
• Immediate comprehensive protection measures for all the workers in the health sector and other vital sectors!
• Immediate increase of salaries for those working in the health sector.
• In-depth health information and free health care for everyone!
• Stop national egoism and competition in research into the causes and in diagnosis and in treatment. For an open scientific discussion, but comprehensible to the masses!
• No shifting of the crisis burdens onto the backs of the broad masses and the working class!
• Resignation of irresponsibly acting politicians!
• Immediate stop of socially non-vital industrial production! Release of blue and white collar workers from duty, with full wage compensation!
• Disinfection of machines and tools for necessary production, observance of the minimum distance of 1.5 to 2 meters between workers!
• Immediate state aid and emergency care for children and the elderly and people in need of help. Immediate help for homeless people, refugees, undocumented migrants and people in precarious situations.
• Establishment of national emergency storages in all countries. In these, medical emergency provisions, chemical flame inhibitors for bush fires, flood pumps and other requisites for the handling of unprecedentedly critical pandemics and natural climate catastrophes shall be stored and be made available immediately when needed.
• Suspension of debt burden for oppressed countries!
The ICOR proposes to its member organizations:
• Report on the situation of the masses in your countries! What demands are your parties putting forward?
• Make protests known in other parts of the globe, making reference to the ICOR website!
• Report on your neighborhood assistance work, on new forms of action and on your discussions about the societal alternative of socialism!
• Report on how you are able to make your parties known and build them up. Win new members for ICOR and new participants for the anti-imperialist united front!
• Mobilize scientists and experts from among your contacts to investigate the causes of the virus!
Together with the popular masses worldwide the ICOR seizes the initiative for:
• Fight the shifting of the crisis burdens and the restriction of democratic rights and freedoms!
• International cooperation for research into the causes, diagnosis, and treatment – instead of nationalism, chauvinism, and racism!
• Fight for health, work, bread, peace – socialism!
Onward with the building of ICOR – Onward to socialism!
Signatories (as of 3 April 2020, further signatories possible):
1. PCPCI Parti Communiste Proletarien de Côte d'Ivoire
2. ORC Organisation Révolutionnaire du Congo (Revolutionary Organization of Congo), Democratic Republic of the Congo
3. MMLPL Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line
4. PCT Parti Comuniste du Togo (Communist Party of Togo), Togo
5. PPDS Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia
6. MLOA Marxist-Leninist Organization of Afghanistan
7. CPI (ML) Red Star Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Star
8. Ranjbaran Hezb-e Ranjbaran-e Iran (Proletarian Party of Iran)
9. NCP (Mashal) Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)
10. PPRF Patriotic Peoples Republican Front of Nepal
11. БКП Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)
12. PR-ByH Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina), Bosnia and Herzegovina
13. MLPD Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)
14. UCLyon Unité Communiste Lyon (Communist United Lyon), France
15. UPML Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France
16. KOL Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)
17. RM Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands
18. MLGS Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)
19. TIKB Türkiye İhtilalci Komünistler Birliği (Union of Revolutionary Communists of Turkey)
20. TKP-ML Türkiye Komünist Partisi – Marksist-Leninist (Communist Party of Turkey – Marxist-Leninist)
21. MLKP Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)
22. KSRD Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine
23. MLP Marksistsko-Leninskaja Platforma (Marxist-Leninist Platform), Russia
24. PCC-M Partido Comunista de Colombia – Maoista (Communist Party of Colombia - Maoist)
25. PCP (independiente) Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan Communist Party (independent))
26. PC (ML) Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic
27. PS-GdT Plataforma Socialista - Golpe de Timón (Socialist Platform – Change of Course), Venezuela
28. ROL Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA
29. PCR-U Partido Comunista Revolucionario del Uruguay (Revolutionary Communist Party of Uruguay)
30. CPA/ML Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
The Corona pandemic has developed into a global health crisis with drastic and threatening consequences for the world's population. It is clear that many such new diseases and viruses are emerging at an increasing pace.