Coronavirus, A New World Historical Era and the Socialist Movement
Two years ago, a scientific paper on bats and wild habitat loss stated that “an ecological threshold has been crossed.” Such a topic might seem pretty esoteric, pretty minor in the bigger scheme of things, but as it turns out it is not. The world working class including the socialist movement within that class, had better pay attention. It signals the dawn of a new era in world capitalist development, an era in which capitalism is sharply colliding with its own contradictions. But in this case, the nature of the contradictions are fundamentally different from anything we have seen before.
At the dawn of the 20th century, a similar new era had opened up. That was the era in which imperialism had spread all over the world, had conquered the entire planet. All that was left for it to do was fight to re-divide the world among the major imperialist powers. Coupled with a subsequent economic crisis (the Great Depression), this spelled disaster for tens-of-millions. That disaster came in the form of two world wars and the rise of fascism.
Today’s capitalist crisis, however, is fundamentally different: It is a crisis created not by the laws of capitalist economics nor by inter-imperialist rivalries. This crisis, this new era, is caused by the collision of capitalist development with the laws of nature.
Dinosaur wing of capitalist class: “purge the rottenness”
The capitalist class and their leaders are divided into two camps on how to deal with this first global outbreak of this crisis—the Covid-19 pandemic, just as they were at the outbreak of the Great Depression. The position of one wing of the capitalist class was expressed by the banker and “robber baron” Andrew Mellon, who advised President Hoover: “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system.” FDR and his wing, however, understood that steps had to be taken to mitigate this crisis, and this they did with the New Deal. Neither wing, however, was able to prevent the greatest capitalist disaster the world had seen up until that time—the rise of fascism and WW II.
The reform wing
Similarly, today, there is a wing of the capitalist class that is inclined to simply let Covid-19 rip through society, which will end up with “herd immunity.” This wing is represented by the editors of the Wall St. Journal. Politicians like Britain’s Boris Johnson and the U.S.’s Donald Trump have also been inclined in that direction, as is Richard Epstein of the conservative Hoover Institute. (See this interview with Epstein.)1 The other, somewhat more-sane wing, is best represented by the conservative, anti-labor governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, the state where the pandemic hit first and hardest. Every day, Cuomo is on TV, explaining the statistics and what steps are being taken to mitigate the disaster. He is the voice of sanity and reason.
Both wings led to disaster
Just as in the 1930s the reform wing of capitalist strategists sought band-aids while they ignored the basis of the crisis—the laws of capitalist economic development—so today the Cuomo wing ignores the basis of this disaster. That basis, as we said, is the collision of capitalism with the laws of nature. And by ignoring this basis, this wing is allowing the cause of the crisis to continue unchecked. This will only lead to a new and even more devastating crisis in the future.
Socialists
One would think that socialists would be on the cutting edge of recognizing this new era and the unique nature of this crisis. Sadly, they are not. Nor is that unprecedented. In the then-new era of the domination of world imperialism at the turn of the last century, the majority of the socialist movement was caught flat footed. They were unable to adjust. The great majority ended up supporting their own capitalist class.
Today, we see a similar failure to catch up. The overwhelming majority of the socialist left is focusing exclusively on the struggles of workers for safe workplaces, the way that the federal government is putting prisoners (including undocumented immigrant prisoners) at risk, and similar issues. Of course, the daily struggles must be fought. But at the same time, it is necessary to discuss the basis of this crisis. It is necessary to find a way to bring this into the wider working-class movement.
Over the last 30 years or so, we have seen the “neoliberalization” of nature. As evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace put it in his book, Big farms make big flu. Like everything else, the natural world has become simply another source of immediate profit with the longer-term costs “socialized.” Economically, that means postponing the payment of the economic costs and ultimately making society, meaning the working class in the main, pay the longer-term costs economically. Nature, too is being treated the same way, but there’s a huge difference: If the working class is weakened and is not well enough organized, it can be made to pay the costs that the capitalists should bear. But in the collision between capitalist development and the laws of nature, the laws of nature will win every single time. No amount of new technology, no number of new medicines and vaccines will ultimately “conquer” nature. The laws of nature are more powerful than capitalism. Period. Their operation might be temporarily suppressed in one realm, only to reassert themselves ever more powerfully and in an even more devastating form in another.
Capitalism is colliding with nature in several ways. There are two developments in particular that are driving the present pandemic as well as a whole host of other new “zoonotic” diseases—diseases that jump the species barrier from other animals to human beings. These are wild habitat loss and factory farming. If these are not reversed, then the rise of even more devastating pandemics seems to be just a matter of time. We can, we must, find a way to start to raise this issue. If we do not, we will render ourselves as irrelevant as did social democracy in that era of 100 years ago.
Factory farming and NAFTA flu
One of the earliest warnings of the Covid-19 pandemic was the “swine flu” epidemic of the 1990s. (The name was subsequently changed due to the objections of the hog industry.) This flu is caused by the H1N1 virus and, according to Wallace, it first jumped the species barrier in hog factory farms around Veracruz Mexico. These giant factory farms, in which hundreds, maybe even thousands of pigs are packed together like New Yorkers on the subway during rush hour. The difference is that the pigs live out their entire lives like that, eating, breathing, shitting all packed in. And with almost no genetic variation.
These factory pig farms replaced the small pig farmers in Mexico through the process that NAFTA accelerated—the penetration of Mexico by huge U.S. agribusiness. These agribusinesses are, in turn, subsidized by the U.S. government, largely through the farm bills, and the small pig farmers were unable to compete with them.
Wallace explains: “…Industrial livestock appear ideal populations for supporting virulent pathogens. Growing genetic monocultures of domestic animals removes whatever immune firebreaks may be available to slow down transmission. Larger population sizes and densities facilitate greater rates of transmission. Such crowded conditions depress immune response. High throughput [see explanation of term below], a part of any industrial production, provides a continually renewed supply of susceptibles [those animals who can catch the germ,] the fuel for the evolution of virulence [deadliness of germ.]”2 Let’s break that down.
Genetic monoculture: If there is wide genetic differences in the herd, then if a germ (“pathogen”) gets a foothold in some of the herd, the genetic differences can prevent it from sweeping through the entire herd, just like a fire break stops a fire from overwhelming an entire forest. On the other hand, the larger and more-dense the population, the faster the pathogen will spread.
Closely packing the population together weakens the immune system and allows the pathogen to spread more easily.
“High throughput” refers to how much faster animals are slaughtered. According to Wallace, for example, chickens used to be slaughtered at 60 days old. Now, it’s 40. Therefore, the faster an animal (the “host”) dies, the more easily and quickly the virus has to be able to be passed on for it to survive in nature. This selects for viruses that can be passed on ever more easily and ever faster. It might seem that it’s in the virus’s interest to evolve into not killing its host since if it does, it can’t be passed on. (That’s what the uninformed Richard Epstein claims in the interview cited above.) However, how deadly a virus is doesn’t matter as long as it can be passed on before it kills its host. It is vital, as we will see, to remember this point.
So, we see the treating of nature as one more exploitable, the rise of world trade (as exemplified by NAFTA), the domination of large capitalist enterprises in the production of food leading to the domination of factory farms have all encouraged the multiplication of new zoonotic diseases. Factory farming has also helped pave the way for wild habitat loss. The two interact, they multiply the effects of each other in the spread of zoonotic diseases.
Habitat loss
This novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 seems to have originated in bats, although nobody seems certain exactly how it jumped the species barriers to the human species. But the role of bats is significant since it seems that they are the host to an unusually large number of different viruses. And bats are coming into ever closer contact with both human beings and domesticated animals.
Especially in Asia, but world-wide, wild habitat is being cleared for agriculture (from everything from palm trees for palm oil to cattle raising) as well as for real estate development. This is forcing bats to change their roosting habits. Whereas a bat might in the past have roosted in trees in the wild, now it might be roosting under the eaves of a barn or house.
Bats that eat fruit—fruit bats, also known as flying foxes—play a particular role. Known as messy eaters, they might drop a piece of partly eaten fruit, loaded with their saliva, over a pig farm, and a pig would then eat those remains.
Wild fowl and wetland loss have a similar dynamic. As wetlands are developed, wild fowl are forced into closer contact with monoculture domesticated fowl, thereby “exporting” their pathogens to their domesticated cousins.
In all such cases, the fact of the animals being all packed in together also has an impact. It leaves huge amounts of animal feces with which the factory farm workers come in contact, leading them to acquire whatever germs the animals had and excrete.
Covid 19
The path for the transmission for the corona virus that causes Covid-19 was a little bit different. The virus was passed through a “wet market.” Scientists don’t know exactly how it was passed in this market. But in this case, the conditions of the market combined those of a factory farm with those of habitat loss. In other words, the wet market mimicked the production of food but in this case, it was through the distribution of food.
Future crises
It’s possible that researchers will come up with a vaccine for this virus. Then capitalism will say that the danger has passed, and we can return to business as usual. But new zoonotic (animal to human) diseases constantly threaten. One such virus from the recent past—the Nipah virus—had a mortality rate of 40–75 percent according to the World Health Organization.
Can you imagine the effect if a new and as deadly virus jumped the species barrier that was as deadly as Nipah and as easily transmitted as COVID-19? Or take another example: With the feedlot method of raising cattle and force feeding them corn comes the necessity of giving the cattle antibiotics. This is a major factor in the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria. If such bacteria continue to spread, then such everyday operations like an appendectomy or a knee replacement can become life threatening events.
We cannot escape the laws of nature.
Urbanization and
“conquering” nature
So, basically, what we have is this: Centuries ago, millions of human beings were packed in together into large cities where they lived cheek by jowl in unsanitary conditions. This was the urbanization of society, and it was what created the conditions for the first mass plagues. Now, we have the urbanization of other animals—pigs, chickens, cattle (in the feedlots.) A similar situation has been created.
Urbanization—the driving of masses of people out of the country-side—also had a cultural impact. It opened the door to the illusion that we live outside of nature, that we can conquer nature like the capitalist conquers human labor power. And why not think that way since that is the view of the capitalist—that everything in the world is simply there for conquest and exploitation?
Karl Marx’s co-thinker, Frederick Engels, disputed that view. He wrote “Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us….Thus at every step we are reminded that we by no means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature—but that we, with flesh, blood and brain, belong to nature, and exist in its midst, and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to learn its laws and apply them correctly.”
Regenerative farming3
Monoculture agriculture depletes soil fertility and health. Ploughing enables it to blow away. Ever increasing use of pesticides poisons not only human beings but also the soil and wild animals from worms to bees. There is another method: What is known as regenerative farming. (This is not the space for an extended explanation, but oaklandsocialist has written more extensively on it in Global warming, “Grass” farming, and a planned economy.) Basically, regenerative farming mimics nature, rather than trying to conquer it. Just as bison used to group together and keep on a constant move and find new grazing areas in order to avoid predators like wolves and grizzly bears, the regenerative farmer groups his or her cattle together and moves them from one field (“paddock”) to another every few days. They move into each paddock different animals—chickens, pigs and others—each of which plays a role in revitalizing the soil. Regenerative farmers do not plough the soil. Instead, they use seed drills. Through these and similar methods, they can actually restore soil health and also, these methods enable the soil to capture huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
These methods directly relate to the dominant cattle industry in the U.S. In the giant feedlots, cattle are more or less force-fed corn and corn derivatives, which is a food cattle don’t naturally eat. (They naturally eat grass.) Because of this, the cattle tend to get sick, and therefore it’s necessary to give them antibiotics. This then encourages the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
There are powerful forces aligned against regenerative farming. These include agribusiness and the chemical/pesticide companies. For it to really become the dominant form of agriculture, a mass movement would be necessary. (We urge the reader to read the article referred to above to more fully understand the method and the politics involved.)
The main point, though, is that socialists—and Marxists among them—must start to raise these issues and raise some related transitional demands. This won’t be easy since it seems so foreign to the actual working-class movement. The very fact that it seems so foreign makes raising these issues all the more important. So, yes, we have to deal with and help build the immediate struggles, but in the course of it, we have to find a way to link it to these deeper issues.
Some transitional demands would revolve around the steps the government should take to encourage regenerative farming, including ending the farm assistance programs (which are little but handouts to millionaires) as we know them and, rather, for the federal government to assist farmers to transition to regenerative farming. We also need programs to link up urban workers and youth with our rural sisters and brothers and encourage the urban workers and youth to participate in food production. In addition, we need to link up agricultural workers and rural workers worldwide. This is necessary to build a movement which stops and reverses wild habitat destruction from the Amazon rain forests to the jungles of Borneo.
Finally, the movement should call for the expropriation of agribusiness giants like Monsanto and Cargill and plan food production under the democratic control and management of agricultural workers and workers/consumers themselves. This should be linked with the expropriation of the real estate and construction sector of the economy, both in the U.S. and worldwide.
—Oakland Socialist, April 6, 2020
1 “The Contrarian Coronavirus Theory That Informed the Trump Administration,” By Isaac Chotiner, March 30, 2020
2 Wallace, Rob, Big Farms make big flu, pp. 56-7
3 A fuller transitional program for regenerative farming is here:
https://oaklandsocialist.com/2019/09/17/global-warming-grass-farming-and-a-planned-economy/