Liberation Audio11 Apr 2020

Where are the ventilators? How Wall St & Trump created the ventilator crisis

Ventilators are the most the most important piece of equipment for keeping COVID-19 patients in crisis alive. Yet there is an acute shortage. There is no central coordination for getting supplies. The states have been advised by the federal government to buy ventilators and PPE on the open market. This has forced states to compete against each other for what exists. Corporations have responded to the demand by jacking up prices. Why does China have ventilators when the U.S. doesn’t? China has ventilators because, while there are capitalist businesses there, China has the centralized government of a socialized country. This government prioritized meeting human needs and saving human lives. In marked contrast to the U.S foot-dragging, when the seriousness of the virus became evident, the Chinese government immediately centralized the retooling of more than 1,000 factories to produce needed supplies. Applying science and the principles of public health, China has contained COVID-19. Now it is producing for export many thousands of ventilators, masks, gowns, test kits and other PPE , often given these as gifts to countries hardest hit. Cuba, a socialist country whose government puts people’s needs first, instituted science-based practices to protect its population. It has very few COVID-19 cases, and is sending anti-viral medications and doctors around the world to assist other countries. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the capitalist system to be so bankrupt that, for the sake of humanity, it must be put out if its misery. Capitalism is the virus and socialism is the cure. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/how-wall-st-trump-created-the-ventilator-crisis/

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Episoder(364)

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Thomas Sankara: Assessing the 3rd year of a revolutionary process

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Every year, Pew Research publishes a study on the U.S. population’s political priorities. Their 2024 report shows that, like the previous years, “no single issue stands out after the economy,” with al...

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Hearing or reading about the “contradictions of capitalism” in an article or at a rally might be intimidating, like a foreign language or a term only a certain group can understand. While the contradi...

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Extradition of Alex Saab: U.S. takes effort to starve Venezuelans to new lows

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From allies to comrades

Despite its association with sovereign nations involved in wartime alliances, the term “ally” has become influential in activist circles on the US left. Attention to debates over what it means to be a...

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Liu Liangmo: China’s anti-imperialist, anti-racist, Christian revolutionary (pt. 2)

Liu Liangmo’s story is as remarkable as it is unknown. An anti-imperialist, pro-Communist Christian, with a significant relationship to the Black Liberation Movement and the Indian Freedom Struggle, L...

26 Aug 202324min