On the Pandemic (Online Article)

This online article was published on 11/12/21 by the co-ordination group Os Dame (That's enough) on facebook.

ON THE PANDEMIC

The dead of the pandemic are also our dead - they were not killed solely by the virus but also by the long-term, criminal degradation of public healthcare. The pandemic is real, the virus is deadly, the human losses come mainly from our class.

We condemn in every way the bombings and other attacks at schools, which are a result of conservativism and religiosity that have been spread in society, with the participation of the government and its representatives. We express our solidarity to the teachers who were victims of these attacks.

Had the Education ministry expressed even a rudimentary sensibility for the health of students and teachers, it would had invested in air-filtering systems, instead of wasting two years patching cheaply-made chipboards on desks. If this was done, schools would not have continued being infection hubs.

While we recognise the existence and dangers of the pandemic, we condemn the repressive policy of the government, which chooses to invest in policing, repression and exclusion, instead of investing in the public healthcare system, in the medical treatment and care for all of us; as well as the proper and extensive informing in relation to the pandemic and the vaccines.

What do we mean when we talk of repression? We mean the exhausting fines, the ongoing removal of fundamental freedoms such as protesting, thechooses to invest in policing, repression and exclusion SMS and the curfew, and the punishing and anti-scientific methods, such as the charging of rapid-tests for the unvaccinated. This repression is further fuelled by the caressing of far-right audiences to which abundant space and time is provided by media friendly towards the government. Repression is fuelled further by authoritarian governance via decrees; and by investments worth of millions in military equipment, policing, fences and surveillance technologies of during a pandemic.

What do we mean when we talk of health and care?

• Free and mass tests for all of the population
• Ongoing investment in health, with an increase in primary healthcare, intensive care wards & personnel, respectable conditions of work for healthcare workers
• Sufficient access to vaccines and tests for everyone, especially to those groups of the population living in seclusion, such as the elderly and the migrants; yes, these people also exist
• Economic support to all individuals in need of self-isolation and to all who stay at home because their underage children are isolating.
• Support to workers that continue to be affected by the pandemic
• Investments in schools so that children can attend them safely
• Remote working, where possible, should had been a choice from the beginning of the pandemic, without the need of pleading towards the employers to allow it, every time that cases spike up.

18/2 ENOUGH WITH EVERYTHING

Why do we “mix” so many different topics in our call? Because all those different topics constitute our very life. Because the corruption of the golden passports is the other side of Pournara and institutional racism. Because “growth” promised to us is the other side of inflation and poverty. Because the pandemic has eroded the social web and has increased social and class inequalities, both in Cyprus and internationally. Because the exploitation of our natural and cultural wealth is the other side of the investment programmes. Because all of these problems that we experience have a source: capitalist barbarity, which exploits the working class for the perpetual enrichment of a corrupt elite that controls both wealth and power. Our own struggle is a struggle for life, for us and for the others, for the social and environmental justice.

On 18/12 we descend to the streets to break again the fear and terror, to put forward our pursuits: health, solidarity, freedom.