There is some truth to what the British Workers Party (WRP) are arguing the different capitalist classes are very frightened about mass upheavals due to them trying to impose more austerity to make millions of workers and some middle class elements pay for tens of billions of losses on the stock market and on speculative capital investments. These speculative investments Marxists call fictitious capital because instead of productive investments to take production and services forward, capitalists try to find more profitable outlets by doing each other.
Capitalism as a system are finding it increasingly harder to deal with major disease outbreaks due to the profit motive being unable to cope with diseases like Coranvirus. The problem with the ultra-left maxiamist approach of the WRP is that they lack a proper Transitional Method of how to win millions of workers to see the necessity of overthrowing capitalism.
Trotsky defined the Transitional Method as starting from fights against austerity; cutbacks; privatisation and say the NHS are not fully effective in fighting Coranvirus due to the cuts in the number of beds or lack sufficient investment by the Tory government. Trotskyists in alliance with the overwhelming majority of Labour Party members, and the unions popularise among the masses that any further privitisation and fragmentation of the NHS will make it even harder to cope with major illnesses such as Coranvirus.
From these struggles and going through an experience with millions of workers they will see the necessity to fight for Socialism. Louis Proycet on Facebook in re-reading Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution is drawing similar conclusions to me that Trump and Biden could lead to mass unrest due to their inability to comprehend what is happening among millions of our fellow workers who are being made to pay for a capitalist crisis.
The capitalist class are doing these things so bankrupt (insolvent without state bailouts) capitalist private owners of bankers and industries can survive. Trotskyists call for nationalisations which benefit workers. These are the immeadiate and partial demands Trotskyists raise in order to improve the conditions; wages; and social security for unemployment + disabled people. This we tie up with the rest of our Transitional method of fighting for the workers to overthrow capitalism.
How do Trotskyists apply our Transitional method in the Coranvirus crisis? We call for the unions; proper health care professions independent of the capitalist state to check the facts of how serious Coranvirus is to society and individuals! This is the application of opening the books within industries and services when the capitalists try to justify closure of workplaces and cutbacks due to lack of funds.
Obviously Trotskyists would be in favour of those potentially having or spreading Coronvirus to be isolated. There should be other options also explored. If there is proper resources like in China where despite all the bureaucratic secrets and corruption they can build hospitals in 12 days. These Transitional demands about opening the books in capitalist countries can link up with the mass struggles against austerity by saying if there were an NHS system within Italy or the British NHS was appropriately funded you would have more options available for individuals and larger layers in society than just self-isolation at home! Trotskyists raise Transitional demands in our struggles against Stalinism where they rule as part of our fight for Political Revolutions! We fight for workers democracy as part of this struggle for Political Revolution.
When in Italy they are having a curfew of 16 million people this is potentially A very serious over-reaction. Are the real motives to stop millions of Italian workers stopping mass redundancies and cuts in wages/salaries? By having the Transitional approach I suggest in this article we can test in practice what is anti-working class and what are in the interests of millions/individuals health! As American Trotskyist Joseph Hansen argued democratic demands can be converted into Transitional demands. You can only stop mass repression by mobilising millions of workers in alliance with layers of the middle classes; combined with social movements of the oppressed!
Anthony Brain apply Trotskyism for today and tommrow! 