Watch our second livestream with Claudio Bellotti, editor of the Italian Marxist newspaper Rivoluzione, right here on marxist.com! We will discuss the ongoing political crisis and strike wave in Italy, where the working-class are showing the world how to fight the bosses’ attempts to make them shoulder the burden of the coronavirus pandemic.

With the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic shifting to Europe, the region now faces its most serious crisis since the Second World War. All of the pillars of so-called European integration are buckling under the pressure.

As of midnight 23 March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has declared a UK-wide lockdown. All non-essential businesses are being closed to contain the coronavirus outbreak. It is clear that this is too little too late from a big business government that places profits ahead of human lives.

A perfect storm of private sector profiteering, reckless production practices, environmental destruction and underinvestment in medical research has made global pandemics more common, and undermined our capacity to deal with them. Capitalism not only gave rise to this invisible and deadly enemy – it is the biggest obstacle in our fight against it.

Back in 2007, the activist author Naomi Klein wrote a book called The Shock Doctrine. In it, she described ‘disaster capitalism’: a political approach to natural and man-made disasters that seeks to maximise private profit in their aftermath. As the scale of the COVID-19 crisis becomes clear, Klein and others are sounding the alarm that the shock doctrine is about to strike again.

The website of the Colectivo Marxista in Portugal – colectivomarxista.org – is live today! We have been working on this project for some time, but have decided to move the launch forward to today. This decision has been taken because we think that, in this time of economic and social crisis, it is more important than ever to spread and discuss political ideas.

Faced with strike action by the working class and pressure from the bosses, the Italian government has flip-flopped on shutting down non-essential production to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Now the workers in Lombardy are preparing a general strike, with other parts of the country set to follow. A stormy new period is being prepared.

Following Labour’s election defeat, a massive battle has opened up to determine the future direction of the party. With the right-wing seeking to regain control, all sorts of ideas are being put forward, sowing confusion on the left. So not to be left out, the so-called left journalist Paul Mason, already discredited amongst a wide layer of activists, offers his contribution in a 21-page pamphlet: “After Corbynism, Where next for Labour?” His answer, unsurprisingly, is a shift to the right!

The prospects for the world economy are growing grimmer by the day. Governments are throwing everything they have at the situation. But they have run out of ammo fighting the last crisis. There is no way out under capitalism.

In the latest episode of Marxist Voice, a series of livestreams created by the British Marxists at Socialist Appeal, Rob Sewell (editor of Socialist Appeal) discusses the global economic crisis that has been triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trade Union Block of the Social Unity in Chile has demanded that the government introduces an immediate preventative quarantine to fight the spread of Covid-19, otherwise, it will call a “humanitarian general strike” in order to shut down all economic activity “which is not essential for the maintenance of health and life”. Meanwhile the hated Piñera government is attempting to use the health emergency to put an end to the five month old uprising.

The coronavirus crisis has had immense impacts on the airline industry, which is now on its knees. Billionaires like Richard Branson are calling for government handouts to keep their companies afloat. We say: nationalise without compensation!

The following statement by the International Marxist Tendency explains how capitalism has utterly failed to deal with the coronavirus crisis, and is putting the lives of millions of people at risk. In such a situation, half measures and tinkering with the system are futile. Only drastic measures will suffice to avert the impending disaster.

In Defence of Marxism is proud to announce the launch of Marxist University: the ultimate source of Marxist theory and analysis on a range of topics – from dialectical materialism to the national question, from women’s oppression to the role of the state. There is no better way to

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, many governments are nationalising key industries and services. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, however, has relied solely on the market. Profit is standing in the way of an effective response to this crisis.