Friday, November 13, 2020

Hanna Gharib: The socialist ideology has succeeded in the battle against Covid-19, whereas capitalism failed

"The socialist ideology had succeeded in the battle against COVID-19, whereas capitalist-oriented countries had failed. This pandemic had explicitly showed the greedy side of the capitalist system", was the message conveyed by Hanna Gharib, General Secretary of the Lebanese Communist Party, during the online lecture “Socialism and Capitalism in post-COVID-19 era”, organized by the Chinese Communist Party, in partnership with Arab Leftist Parties. 

Hanna Gharib referred on how states like China, Cuba and Vietnam succeeded against the COVID-19 pandemic, in sharp contrast with the failure of most capitalist states to protect their people. (Read here his speech)

Among others, Gharib said:

"The socialist ideology had succeeded in the battle against COVID-19, whereas capitalist-oriented countries had failed. To illustrate more, the Chinese state lead by the Chinese Communist Party, prioritized health over profits, while the USA went in a totally opposite direction. Not only it favored profits over the health of beings, but the USA used this pandemic to perpetuate political propaganda against China whereby several key senior US officials described COVID-19 as being a “Chinese Virus”."

The Lebanese communist leader blasted the Trump administration both for its slanderous attacks against China, as well as for its role in the Middle East region:

"The US administration labeled China to be the enemy of the entire humanity. Furthermore, the latter had supported separatist movements in Taiwan, and Xinjiang, lifting sanctions on the Turkistan Islamic Party and therefore excluding it from the terrorists’ groups list, preventing Hong Kong - through many different ways - from playing its long-standing role as one of the world’s leading financial and commercial center, and igniting a trade war. At the time I am delivering this speech, the American people are joining their hands to overthrow “Trumpism” – which was the number one reason for disastrous policies not only in the United States, but everywhere in the world. In our region, for example, the US administration under Trump’s rule sponsored the “Deal of the Century”- a plan which will have severe consequences to the Palestinian people and the Arab people as well."

Hanna Gharib pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic has explicitly exposed the capitalist system which threatens the fate of humanity. He said:

"This pandemic had explicitly showed the greedy side of the capitalist system which threatens the fate of humanity by depriving people of their moral human values, and their social belongings. The implications that a capitalist system can produce are multiple ones and we can list the following: causing thousands of deaths on daily basis, increasing the suffering of millions of workers, in addition to some other millions of people being forced to enter unemployment, hunger, and poverty zones. During the early months of COVID-19 widespread, private institutions, including hospitals, have sought to enhance their profitability at the expense of the health of the injured and other social forces, especially workers in the health and social sectors. This had reinforced the political discourse calling for the importance of the role of the public sector and the state in general in managing society and the economy, in contrast to the private sector and monopolies whose main concern is to capture profits.

The factors I listed above justify that the battle against COVID-19 cannot be detached from the class struggle waged by the working class around the globe. This is especially evident in the central capitalist states, such as the USA itself, European countries, and the United Kingdom. In comparison, countries whose health policies were developed upon the existence of the Socialist camp, such as China, Cuba, and Russia, proved to be more efficient and successful in the fight against Corona Virus. These countries provided faster medical treatment to their Corona patients, utilized more efficient tools, and supported other counties by providing them with the needed equipment and logistics. Ironically, this was not the case in the “advanced states “or those whose economic models are built upon capitalistic structures."

The General Secretary also praised the role and the achievements of the Chinese Communist Party, stressing out  that a main objective in the present time is to unify efforts, mobilize our resources, and establish cooperation mechanisms to get rid of this world order dominated by US imperialism.

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