May Day Statement

Photo Courtesy: WION

May Day Greetings to all workers around the world.

The Ongoing Corona crisis has affected millions of people and many have lost their lives or their loved ones to this Covid pandemic. The mass media is projecting that the governments propaganda that they are handling the situation. But Social media is filled with pleas form the public requesting assistance for corona treatment in terms of medications / O2 resources / hospital beds even. Many lives are lost in the parking lots of hospitals as patients wait for getting admitted into hospitals. Currently there are huge queues outside hospitals and crematoriums as the lives lost to this pandemic daily rose to numbers to never seen before. Presently India has become the country with the largest Covid affected population and least in in the number of vaccines administered. Such dismal situation has dampened the spirits of the common people and especially the workers, that has become the most affected of all. This situation has dampened Mayday celebrations in the country and worldwide too.

Working class as a whole has lost a lot since the beginning of the pandemic. The unplanned lockdown put in place last year bought unspeakable horrors on the working class of the country who were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres back to their hometowns as their livelihood were shut and their governments failed to address their needs for sustenance. While the fate of the migrant labor were such on the other side the frontline workers of domains like, Healthcare, sanitation, banking, delivery, storekeeping, were forced to work on prolonged shifts for abysmal pay without proper safety gear to cater to the needs of the privileged few. It has to be noted that the wealth of global rich grew multifolds even as millions of lives were lost and even as conventional economic activities were halted.

It’s been a year since the viral pandemic unfolded. Still the Indian government had not taken adequate steps to protect its people. There have been no thoughts for compensating the people for their sustenance or investments to better the healthcare facilities as the crisis worsened. In fact the government even handed the only tool that we had to fight this pandemic-Vaccines to profit making companies. The government neglected its own Pharmaceutical PSU’s and handed over the ambitious Vaccination effort to the private companies like SII, who have fixed their own prices for the vaccine. This shows the indifference of this regime to the people sufferings and they prefer to protect the profit making motive of the global elite instead.

The global powers too have voted at the UN to not revoke the Intellectual property on Vaccine production furthering the suffering of the emerging countries worldwide.

Most of these sufferings are directly a result of the failed Capitalist system that has consistently neglected the wellbeing of the very working people that keep this world moving. It has instead enriched the very few elites that have vested interests in maintaining this system for their own betterment. This capitalist system cannot mend the affected people as profit is its ulterior motive. This system has failed to protect both the people and the planet in its pursuit of profit.

This brutal profit oriented system cannot be allowed to continue further like this if the earth is to be saved. The working class has to act and get rid of this rotten system- to end the mass suffering of the people and make the world a better place.

We at New socialist Alternative demand  

>Immediately Nationalise Healthcare, Free healthcare for all 

>Revoke IP laws governing Vaccines and covid treatment drugs, implement door to door vaccination campaign for all free of cost. 

>Use existing Pharmaceutical PSU’s to produce Vaccines and Covid management drugs 

>Mobilise all PSU’s to create oxygen production and Covid management supplies. 

>Provide adequate healthcare and safety equipment’s for all frontline workers 

>Provide Hazard pay for all frontline workers 

>Strengthen and use existing Public distribution Infrastructure to provide essential goods

>Stop layoffs by companies Compensate employees who have lost their jobs in this pandemic.

Naveen Angamuthu

New Socialist Alternative (Bangalore)