73 Communist & Workers Parties Demand Immediate Measures to Protect Peoples’ Health and Rights

Seventy-three Communist and Workers Parties from around the world have issued a joint statement on the global situation created in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Initiated by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the signatory CPs express their support for both medical personnel and those suffering from the disease and denounce the huge shortages of equipment and staff in the public health sector resulting from years of anti-popular policies adopted by governments in the service of the capital, namely the commercializing and privatizing of health services to support the profitability of monopolistic groups.

The statement emphasizes that this particular situation demonstrates the anti-social nature of capitalism along with the necessity and advantages of a socialist society. The Communist and Workers parties demand that all necessary measures be taken immediately to address the pandemic and strengthen of public health systems. The full text of the joint statement reads as follows:

“The undersigned Communist and Workers Parties declare our unflagging social responsibility before our peoples. We are here at the forefront of the struggle to immediately take all necessary measures to protect the health and safeguard the rights of the working class and the popular strata everywhere!

“We extend our heartfelt thanks to the doctors, nurses, hospital and health unit personnel who are fighting this battle facing extreme challenges.

“We express our solidarity with those afflicted by the CoVID-19 pandemic and wish them a speedy recovery.

“We salute the countries that have displayed solidarity with the most impacted countries by sending protective material and equipment and health professionals like China, Cuba and Russia; their actions that are in stark contrast to the absence of solidarity by the states of the European Union.

“The CoVID-19 pandemic tragically demonstrates the huge failings of health systems in all capitalist countries, a fact that was well known before the outbreak of the coronavirus. The shortages are no accident, but are the result of the anti-popular policies pursued by national governments in the service of the big capital allowing it to commercialize and privatize health and support the profitability of monopoly groups. These policies systematically undermine the great scientific and technological capabilities available today that have the potential of meeting all preventative and healthcare needs of the world’s peoples.

“The experience of the last three months exposes the anti-social and parasitic nature of capitalism and highlights the superiority and timeliness of socialism and central scientific planning based on popular needs which can provide primary healthcare and prevention, hospitals, doctors and nurses, medicine, laboratories, medical testing and everything else needed to contend with everyday threats as well as any emergency health situation.

“The slowdown in world economy which preceded the outbreak of the pandemic is now being exacerbated by the spread of the coronavirus and is increasing the risk of a new crisis in the coming period. In spite of the state propaganda about “unity,” governments in the service of the big capital are focusing their financial measures on the support of monopoly groups and will, as in the past, again seek to throw the burden of the crisis on the workers and the other popular strata. The workers and the people cannot and must not pay this price again!

“‘Individual responsibility’ cannot be used as a pretext to hide state and governmental responsibility. Rather taking the necessary measures also requires the struggle of the people against the neo-liberal capitalist policy of supporting monopoly groups, which sacrifices the meeting of needs and the health of the peoples on the altar of capitalist profitability.

“We Communist and Workers parties demand that all necessary measures be immediately taken to address the pandemic, including:

  • Immediately reinforcing public health systems by state funding; recruitment of full-time medical and nursing staff with full labor rights; providing all the needs of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and providing the infrastructure needed for the full functioning of public healthcare and research services.
  • Immediately providing all required means of protection (masks, gloves, antiseptics, etc.) by the state to the people free of charge and an ongoing fight against profiteering; providing all necessary preventive measures to all healthcare personnel involved in the battle against the disease in hospitals who are making heroic sacrifices at their own expense.
  • Protection of the wages and rights of the working and popular strata; halting the unaccountability of capital that, under the guise of the CoVID-19 pandemic, produces massive redundancies and tries to furtherly trample workers’ wage rights, work hours, leave, and other labor rights; immediate action to protect workers in their workplaces.
  • Rejection of any curtailment of peoples’ democratic rights under the pretext of the coronavirus.
  • Ending of all sanctions and measures of economic exclusion which, in the current situation, are even more unjust and criminal than before and which make even more difficult the lives of the peoples residing in the sanctioned countries; Taking all necessary measures to protect the health and lives of the peoples of the world.
  • Rejection of all imperialist interventions and military exercises, such as those of NATO, and the demand that public resources be redirected to support the needs of the peoples, such as the financing of public health and social security systems.”

The following parties are signatories to the above joint statement:

  1. Communist Party of Albania
  2. Communist Party of Argentina
  3. Communist Party of Armenia
  4. Communist Party of Australia
  5. Party of Labour of Austria
  6. Communist Party of Azerbaidjan
  7. Communist Party of Bangladesh
  8. Communist Party of Belgium
  9. Brazilian Communist Party
  10. Communist Party of Britain
  11. New Communist Party of Britain
  12. Union of Communists in Bulgaria
  13. Party of the Bulgarian Communists
  14. Communist Party of Canada
  15. Communist Party of Chile
  16. Socialist Workers Party of Croatia
  17. Communist Party of Cuba
  18. Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), Cyprus
  19. Communist Party of Bohemia & Moravia
  20. Communist Party  in Denmark
  21. Egyptian Communist Party
  22. Communist Party of Finland
  23. Pole of Communist Revival in France
  24. Unified Communist Party of Georgia
  25. German Communist Party
  26. Communist Party of Greece
  27. Hungarian Workers Party
  28. Communist Party of India
  29. Communist Party of India (Marxist)*
  30. Tudeh Party of Iran
  31. Workers Party of Ireland
  32. Communist Party of Ireland
  33. Communist Party of Israel
  34. Communist Party (Italy)
  35. Jordanian Communist Party
  36. Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
  37. Workers Party of Korea
  38. Lebanese Communist Party
  39. Socialist Party (Lithuania)
  40. Communist Party of Malta
  41. Communist Party of Mexico
  42. Popular Socialist Party – National Political Association, Mexico
  43. Nepal Communist Party
  44. Communist Party of Norway
  45. New Communist Party of the Netherlands
  46. Communist Party of Pakistan
  47. Palestinian People’s Party
  48. Palestinian Communist Party
  49. Paraguayan Communist Party
  50. Communist Party of Poland
  51. Portuguese Communist Party
  52. Philippines Communist Party [PKP 1930]
  53. Communist Party of Puerto Rico
  54. Romanian Socialist Party
  55. Communist Party of the Russian Federation
  56. Russian Communist Workers Party
  57. Communist Party of the Soviet Union
  58. New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
  59. Communists of Serbia
  60. Communist Party of Slovakia
  61. South African Communist Party
  62. Communist Party of Spain
  63. Communist Party of the Workers of Spain
  64. Communists of Catalonia
  65. Communist Party of Swaziland
  66. Communist Party of Sweden
  67. Sudanese Communist Party
  68. Syrian Communist Party
  69. Communist Party of Turkey
  70. Communist Party of Ukraine
  71. Union of Communists of Ukraine
  72. Communist Party USA
  73. Communist Party of Venezuela