Above photo: Albert Dowdell wears a protective mask on a bus during the COVID-19 outbreak in Detroit. Paul Sancya/AP.
The global capitalist system has produced fabulous wealth and so-called “development” for a handful of nations and their citizens along with degrading and dehumanizing poverty, violence and war on the vast majority of humanity.
Here are some figures:
- 80 percent of humanity lives on less than $10 per day
- 30,000 children die every day from the effects of poverty, primarily lack of clean water and access to healthcare
- 62 individuals own more wealth than 3.5 billion people—half the world’s population
This is the reality of a global system developed after the marauding European powers grew rich and powerful through the invasion of the Americas in 1492 as well as the enslavement of Africans and genocide committed against the people of the Americas.
In the European settler-colony that became the United States of America, systematic brutality and structural violence were embedded in the economic relations and social institutions of the state. That millions of people lack adequate healthcare, have been subjected to racist decision-making that placed toxic industries in their communities—resulting in asthma, cancers and upper-respiratory diseases—while simultaneously closing down clinics and hospitals in those neighborhoods, represents the objective logic of capitalist decision-making that renders some people and communities disposable.
Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) members are not moved by the pretend concern for African/Black and Brown workers deemed today “essential” when yesterday they were the disposables who couldn’t even get an increase in wages. And yet during a pandemic, these essential workers are still unable to get hazard pay, personal protective equipment and support for childcare while their children are forced to stay home from school.