---
Title: This is what they meant by “recovery”
Date: 26/01/2021
Category: EU
Tags: covid crisis green-deal pauperization
URL: https://marxismo.school/communia/en/this-is-what-they-meant-by-recovery
---


The level of pandemic disaster is such that [**Portugal** is considering requesting international aid](https://www.antena3.com/noticias/mundo/portugal-estudia-pedir-ayuda-internacional-enviar-pacientes-coronavirus-otros-paises_20210126600fedf0a81ee90001d6574a.html). Over the last seven days, in **Spain** alone, 1,369 additional deaths have been declared due to Covid. Hospital, ICU and emergency room overcrowding is openly acknowledged. The slaughter's mark is already felt [even in the figures of the pension system](https://www.lainformacion.com/economia-negocios-y-finanzas/gasto-pensiones-sube-3-2-supera-10-000-millones-euros/2827473/). In **France** the figures are also terrible, but Macron is reluctant to organize a new lockdown because [he considers the economic price of doing so _just_to save a few thousand lives](https://www.rtl.fr/actu/politique/les-infos-de-5h-coronavirus-emmanuel-macron-agace-par-l-idee-d-un-reconfinement-7800960915) to be _unbearable_. The **European Commission**, which until [less than a week ago was calling against closing borders](https://www.dw.com/es/la-comisi%C3%B3n-europea-pide-mantener-abiertas-las-fronteras-internas-de-la-ue/a-56268027), is now [calling for the closure of human flows between regions](https://www.dw.com/es/europa-pide-confinar-regiones-de-alto-riesgo-y-reducir-viajes-no-esenciales/a-56342439). Always too little and always too late

![](https://marxismo.school/communia/en/assets/espana-covid-enero-800x697.jpg)

Covid evolution in Spain, the third wave is on the rise

And what's the point? The [labor contracts fell by almost 30%](https://www.lainformacion.com/economia-negocios-y-finanzas/pandemia-recorta-contratacion-minimo-7-anos/2826550/). And according to the [Oxfam report published yesterday](https://www.oxfamintermon.org/es/nota-de-prensa/pobreza-severa-aumenta-espana-covid-19), severe poverty, that is, the number of people living on less than €16.1 a day, could increase in Spain by 790,000 people and reach 5.1 million, raising the poverty rate to almost 23%. [According to _Eurostat_](https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2021/01/20/companias/1611136324_713951.html), today over 9% cannot even heat their homes to the minimum temperatures deemed by the WHO to render them _inhabitable_.

And yet when we read the business press, capital seems happy. According to the cited Oxfam report, [the global bourgeoisie has already made up for its wealth losses](https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/24/economy/oxfam-inequality-rich-poverty/index.html). The [Swiss bank has doubled its profits](https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/boersenhausse-schweizer-grossbank-ubs-verdoppelt-jahresgewinn-a-c29f0db3-cb9c-43c4-accc-53d0ef6deb31). And listed companies are heading for a [dividend recovery](https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2021/01/25/mercados/1611568342_281559.html).

At the heart of so much happiness: the _Green Deal_, that never-ending festival: [takeover bids](https://www.elperiodico.com/es/economia/20210126/grupo-ifm-opa-naturgy-11477774) and [billion-dollar pledges](https://www.iberdrola.com/sala-comunicacion/noticias/detalle/iberdrola-reitera-compromiso-francia-donde-preve-invertir-4-000-millones-euros-proximos-cuatro-anos) on a weekly basis, [massive projects](https://en.energinet.dk/Green-Transition/Energy-Islands) in the most [absurd places](https://www. terna-energy.com/financial-press-release/new-investments-in-the-field-of-floating-photovoltaic-fpv-systems/), [war-scale supply deals](https://www.iberdrola.com/sala-comunicacion/noticias/detalle/iberdrola-danone-espana-unen-para-impulsar-creacion-planta-fotovoltaica-grande-europa), daily announced [_start-up_ purchases worth hundreds of millions](https://www.audaxrenovables.com/ndp-audax-r_incorporacion-portfolio-y-giro-estrategico/)... That _new economy_ as Biden and Sanders, Lagarde and Errejón call it to a chorus is made of outrageous figures that do not fit together on any side:

> The [Red Eléctrica de España website](https://www.ree.es/es/clientes/datos-acumulados-generacion-renovable) (REE) states that there are 121.7 GW of wind and photovoltaic power with access and grid connection rights awarded, plus another 47.6 GW in the pipeline. That volume of power [more than doubles the country's needs over the next decade](https://www.eleconomista.es/empresas-finanzas/noticias/10313736/01/20/El-Gobierno-sube-la-inversion-en-clima-y-energia-hasta-los-241000-millones-durante-la-decada.html), and in addition to revealing a tremendous bubble, is backed by 6,772 million in guarantees, [quantified at 40,000 euros per MW](https://www.eleconomista.es/empresas-finanzas/noticias/9438894/10/18/El-Gobierno-cuadruplica-los-avales-de-renovables-y-evita-la-especulacion.html).
> 
> [El Economista](https://www.eleconomista.es/empresas-finanzas/noticias/10924320/12/20/Las-renovables-recuperan-1572-millones-en-avales-al-renunciar-a-los-derechos-de-acceso-a-la-red.html), 3/12/2020

But whatever. [_Thinking green_ already profits even small speculators](https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2021/01/26/caracter_independiente/1611649992_482129.html). On the [first day of Davos](http://www.china.org.cn/business/2021-01/26/content_77153952.htm), Lagarde is calling for more fuel for the new green bubble. [Biden will launch tomorrow the first guidelines of his own _Green Deal_](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/climate/biden-climate-change.html), brought forward in part [by Princeton University](https://cmi.princeton.edu/annual-meetings/annual-reports/year-2019/the-net-zero-america-project-finding-pathways-to-a-carbon-neutral-future/), lest we forget that environmentalism is supposedly a _grassroots movement_. Merkel and Macron no longer know what is more important, either the opportunities that the US joining the celebration will bring for European companies, or worrying about the competition that is coming their way. And the fact is that, after the first courtesies, Biden went head-first into the fray. He first phoned Johnson, setting the hierarchy of relationships, then Macron - who was once a young banker in the London City - and finally Merkel... the only one who [formally invited Biden](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/merkel-biden-telefonat-1.5185958). When journalists asked German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas if that was a bad sign, he replied:

> You can look at it that way, but you shouldn't look at it that way.

This also applies to the pandemic and the _recovery_. What do they mean when they say that we are reaching _stabilization_? Do we consider 400 deaths a day reassuring? What do they mean by recovery when they unabashedly acknowledge that we are on the eve of [new waves of layoffs](https://www.lainformacion.com/economia-negocios-y-finanzas/fogasa-indemnizaciones-quiebras-empresas/2827404/) and that one in four people will be living in poverty in a matter of months? _You can look at it that way, but you shouldn't look at it that way_, they reply to us, _stabilization is this, recovery is this_. Actually, in their language, it has always been like this. Stabilization of economic expectations, recovery of dividends. Poverty for all, helplessness for the victims.

For workers who still harbored hope for the class ruling society to _correct_ and stop prioritizing profits over lives, for workers who chose to wait for the stabilization of the pandemic and the recovery of the economy, it is time to shatter the illusions. This is the way it is. And there is no room for us and our needs within this so-called "stabilization".