---
Title: The four truths being blurred by governments and the media
Date: 10/05/2020
Category: Global News
Tags: class-struggle crisis imperialism
URL: https://marxismo.school/communia/en/the-four-truths-being-blurred-by-governments-and-the-media
---


Four clues of what we are living and what is to come, about topics the media are barely talking about in order to sweeten an unacceptable reality.

## "De-escalation" is unwise and shows that the priority is to save investments, not lives

[![](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/curva-contagios-muertes-mayo.png)](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/curva-contagios-muertes-mayo.png)

Daily deaths from Covid in Italy, Spain - [the second most affected country](https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2020-05-10/ultima-hora-coronavirus-espana-segundo-pais-contagiados_2556204/) - and France are still in the hundreds daily ([179 deaths yesterday in Spain](https://cnecovid.isciii.es/covid19/#niveles-de-gravedad)). It is not a massacre; it is a daily massacre.

In a context in which even countries that "flattened the curve" as [Korea](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/war-south-korea-reports-spike-coronavirus-cases-200510045251049.html) and [China](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/coronavirus-global-cases-pass-4m-as-china-reports-first-case-in-wuhan-since-april-1.4249656) are experiencing dangerous rebounds, what is pushing governments is the rush to minimize costs for companies, [as admitted by Madrid](https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2020-05-09/empresarios-y-350-millones-de-perdidas-al-dia-convencieron-a-ayuso-de-pedir-la-fase-1_2586948/), instead of reducing infections and deaths as much as possible.

## "Anti-covid" policies focus on making our working conditions and pensions suffer as well

[![](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/deficit-ss.png)](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/deficit-ss.png)

Around the world, the [direct attack on the length of the working day, which had already been underway for the past few years](https://scroll.in/article/961450/eight-hour-day-states-are-using-the-pandemic-to-deny-factory-workers-a-hard-won-right), has accelerated during the pandemic. The leap in the discourse on pensions is noticeable throughout the Southern European press. Not even the language is sweetened by a perpetual candidate for socialist minister of the economy like Jose Carlos Díez, and he aims to do with pensions [what the Sánchez government had been doing with wages](https://marxismo.school/communia/es/el-nuevo-pacto-social-bajo-el-gobierno-sanchez): reduce them [to the minimum wage, but now by decree](https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2020/05/05/opinion/1588688975_335437.html):

> Spain needs a Bravo Murillo or a Raimundo Fernández Villaverde ‎both 19th century Spanish politicians‎ to implement a fiscal reform that will increase income by 2% of the GDP in the coming years. And to trim the minimum structural public spending another 2% of the GDP. The main problem lies in pensions, which this year will have a hole of more than 30 billion euros. Pensions were created to protect against poverty and 70% of pensioners earn less than 1,000 euros and are on that threshold, the rest are unsustainable. The Administration needs a comprehensive digital transformation plan and to increase the productivity of civil servants. Confinement has shown that teleworking with far fewer public employees is possible.

## Europe is not the alternative to the attack on living and working conditions, but an accelerator and a cover for it

[![](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/s%C3%A1nchez-y-von-der-leyen.jpg)](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/s%C3%A1nchez-y-von-der-leyen.jpg)

The anti-crisis measures in the EU are brutally asymmetrical. Germany is using the crisis and the benefits of the euro as [a tool for its national capital to gain an advantage over its rivals within the EU and to condition the upcoming balance of power](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/towards-a-new-world-chaos). "Aid" such as the ESM, from which Spain [will ask for credits equivalent to 2% of its GDP](https://www.lainformacion.com/mercados-y-bolsas/espana-pide-el-rescate-europeo-al-mede-por-25-000-millones-frente-al-covid-19/6565576/), will only further and more peremptorily make each state attack working conditions and pensions.

The ["European minimum income" promoted by Iglesias (Podemos) and the Ministers of Labour of Portugal (PS) and Italy (M5S)](https://www.publico.pt/2020/05/08/opiniao/opiniao/rumo-rendimento-minimo-europeu-1915597) is not a guarantee, but a means and a cover. Even if it were to become a "universal basic income" like the one tested in Finland. Finnish social security [simply reported that UBI has no relevant effect on the labor market](https://www.kela.fi/web/en/news-archive/-/asset_publisher/lN08GY2nIrZo/content/results-of-the-basic-income-experiment-small-employment-effects-better-perceived-economic-security-and-mental-wellbeing). It does, however, open the way to the pure and simple elimination of pensions in the sense that Díaz pointed out in the above quote: they become a universal right to assistance. All pensioners will be relegated to the edge of poverty... or beyond.

## The process of "de-escalation" is not a period of laborious "sacrifices" and rapid "recovery" but of social precarization, instability and war tensions

[![](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/fronteras-mar-de-la-china-areas.jpg)](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/fronteras-mar-de-la-china-areas.jpg) Maritime borders claimed by the various countries bordering the South China Sea.

And it's already started. Currency exchange disasters are coming, [starting with Brazil and Argentina](https://www.cronista.com/finanzasmercados/Disparada-del-dolar-en-Brasil-genera-nuevo-foco-de-presion-para-el-tipo-de-cambio-en-Argentina-20200508-0013.html). We are seeing imperialist tensions at unbearable levels, such as those in the South China Sea, where [China has banned fishing](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3083572/beijings-south-china-sea-fishing-ban-threatens-raise-tensions) and accelerated the [risk of armed confrontation with the United States](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3083698/us-china-tensions-south-china-sea-fuelled-increase-military) and weapons build-up, both its own stockpile and that of its American rival [supported by neighboring countries such as Japan](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3083649/japan-wards-chinese-coastguard-vessels-caught-chasing-fishing).

It is true that the US is [reducing its direct military presence in the Persian Gulf](https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2020/05/removing-military-assets-saudi-arabia-200509180414615.html) and [the Middle East](https://www.debka.com/mivzak/esper-is-reported-pushing-to-cut-us-sinai-peacekeeping-mission/), but only to the extent that it allows the US to concentrate forces on [its growing pressure against China](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/towards-a-new-world-chaos). China, [ever more closely linked to Russia](https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3083634/china-and-russia-must-work-together-defeat-covid-19-xi-jinping), is betting instead that [the new nuclear arms race will play against the US this time](https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3083397/donald-trump-urges-nuclear-talks-china-call-russias).

## What is to be done?

[![](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/huelga-5-diciembre.jpg)](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/huelga-5-diciembre.jpg)

Every day new strikes and struggles are breaking out. They are the only counter-trend to all this horror that is hanging over all the workers of the world. But they are still company or sector-based strikes. We have to [bear in mind recent experiences](https://marxismo.school/communia/es/chubut-los-sindicatos-y-la-extension-de-las-luchas). A strike that extends to all the companies in a region or district and is organized in assemblies is more effective in causing changes and conditioning the governments than a national or continental strike organized by a sector-based union. In many places, starting with Italy, we are already reaching this dichotomy. In other countries, such as France, Spain, Portugal and Greece, it is foreseeable that, [after the end of the temporary layoff extension](https://www.lainformacion.com/economia-negocios-y-finanzas/diaz-prolonga-los-erte-hasta-el-30-de-junio-y-vigila-la-desescalada-por-sectores/6565534/), in the middle of summer, [extremely violent legal reforms will take place against pensions and employment conditions](https://www.elconfidencial.com/economia/2020-05-10/ajuste-cuentas-publicas-coronavirus-politicos-ocultan-deuda_2587531/). It will then become decisive to be able to give a political response, a mobilization as a class. We must prepare ourselves.