URGENT

COVID 19: International Workers’ Survey

On October 2nd 2020, the International Workers Committee against War and Exploitation, for the Workers International proposed to conduct an international working class fact finding survey concerning the consequences, for working people, of the COVID 19 pandemic in relation to the policies of the governments and the positions taken by the labour movement in each country.
An 8-point questionnaire was drawn up and published on ==> this page <==.
This survey will contribute to the preparation of the 2nd International Conference against War and Exploitation, for the Workers International, which will be held in 2021.We are publishing here the first results of this survey.

MOROCCO The state has taken advantage of the pandemic to aggravate its repressive policies, violence and arbitrary arrests, budget cuts in the health budget itself, and corruption in the markets and in the aid to the health sector

2021-02-12

The pandemic has had catastrophic consequences on the Moroccan population, be it political, economic, social or cultural. 

Politically, the state has taken advantage of the pandemic to aggravate its repressive policies, repressive practices by the authorities, violence and arbitrary arrests, budget cuts even in the health budget itself, and acts of corruption in the markets and in the aid to the health sector.

Economically, almost all the vital economic sectors have been frozen. The rate of development has gone down to below 0 %; there has been an increase of the foreign debt, with the state resorting to foreign debt seven times in the course of just two months, exports have diminished, which has increased the trade deficit, and depleted foreign currency reserves, which has left the State unable cover its imports..

Socially, increased poverty rate, the number of poor people has risen to 24 million citizens, among whom those belonging to the middle classes. Public services have been frozen, education, healthcare, etc., except for those services directly related to the pandemic.

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ITALY « Poor and economically and culturally disadvantaged neighbourhoods are the most affected »

2021-02-03

Report n° 9  ITALY  Author : The redaction of Tribuna libera Date: December 29th, 2020  1/ What have the consequences of the health crisis for the population been especially for the working class? What has the covid impact been on employment, how many jobs have been lost?  The coronavirus and in particular the lockdown periods have created a real economic and social problem that affected the working and middle classes. In the wake of the decrees issued by the president of the council of ministers of the government, many commercial and small business activities those related to tourism, entertainment, culture and self-entrepreneurship have been closed for several months and are still partly closed. For workers in these occupational categories, the government has provided for a « compensation » scheme, i.e., small, purely symbolic compensations that many of them have not yet received.  In the meantime, precarious and/or undeclared workers who were already [...]

CHINA Migrant workers, disadvantaged groups, university graduates are mostly affected

2021-02-03

Report n° 8  CHINA  Author: A labour NGO (1) Date: January 5th, 2021  1/ What have the consequences of the health crisis for the population been especially for the working class? What has the covid impact been on employment, how many jobs have been lost?  Most of the workers cannot travel normally, so they cannot do the normal work. Their living standard has dropped a lot. The covid-19 has made the majority of the 200 million working people harder to sustain their livelihood. The business of many big business decline and make workers redundant or reduce wages; the small and medium size enterprises face even harder environments. Travel, food and beverage, transport, wholesale and retail industries are confronted directly. Thus, migrant workers are discouraged to postpone their plan to find work outside. Migrant workers, disadvantaged groups, university graduates are mostly affected. All in all, this pandemic has robbed the job opportunities of 1.6 billion people [...]

MEXICO Companies systematically violated the decrees ordering the closure of non-essential activities, accompanied by international pressure from the United States

2021-01-18

Report n° 7 MEXICO Authors: Liliana Plumeda and Juan Carlos Vargas, Members of the Political Organization of the People and WorkersDate: December 28th, 2020 1/ What have the consequences of the health crisis for the population been – es­pecially for the working class? What has the covid impact been on employment, how many jobs have been lost? According to data from the Mexican So­cial Security Institute, the cumulative loss of formal jobs from March to the end of No­vember was 1,113,677 – but this number is lower than reality, because it only records formal jobs in the private sector. It does not take into account workers who work illegally and are not registered for social security, nor does it include workers in the so-called infor­mal sector, which accounts for 60 % of the labour force according to INEGI (National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Infor­mation). The informal sector, i.e., precarious wor­kers without rights or organization, has [...]

GERMANY « With the « rescue plan » of 1.3 trillion euros, they accepted the bases for the banks and capitalists to organize hundreds of thousands of layoffs »

2020-12-29

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With the almost unanimous decision of March 25, when all the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag accepted the "recovery plan" which at the time amounted to about 1300 billion euros, the bases were in place for the banks and capitalists to organize hundreds of thousands of layoffs under the control of the banks, speculation and hedge funds, etc., which grant the loans, but which above all are manoeuvring to decide whether or not to grant them. 

And this at our expense, at the expense of workers who have been forced into partial unemployment by the millions (6.7 million workers in partial unemployment in May, who receive only 60 to 67 % of their last net salary), as well as precarious workers, temporary workers and part-time workers, who have been reduced to unemployment by the hundreds of thousands. There were indeed 6.3 million unemployed in October. The number of officially unemployed in October 2020 was 2.76 million 556,000 more than in 10/2019, to which must be added 3.552 million workers in "underemployment" (according to the ILO definition) – 420,000 more than in 10/2019. A further sharp increase is expected in the winter months. The budgets of the Länder, and even more so the municipal budgets, have been organized in such a way as to provide for "restrictions on municipal services" – with incalculable consequences for public services and the socalled welfare state. 

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BENIN Activities have Slowed Down Especially for those Working in the Informal Sector – Workers are Managing to Protect themselves from the Danger Around them

2020-12-21

In Benin, the working class has been hit hard by the crisis linked to the COVID 19 pandemic. 

Since March 2020, activities have slowed down in many sectors, especially for those working in the informal sector. Workers are managing to protect themselves from the danger around them. Accompanying measures adopted by the government have mainly targeted a portion of small and medium-sized enterprises. 

Public sector workers were not affected at all by the social measures. However, the price of transport and basic necessities has been increased. 

Concerning employment, the private sector and the informal sector have been adversely affected by COVID. Some bank branches were suspended for 3 to 4 months, or closed permanently. Many small businesses in transportation and catering put their employees out of work. Unfortunately, we do not have figures to illustrate this. 

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INDONESIA « 67% workers were still obligated to go to work. However, 25% of them did not received any protective equipment, such as hand-washing facilities, and disinfectants from the factory »

2020-12-12

During pandemic of Covid 19, Indonesian government published some policy that against workers right. 

In the middle of March, the Minister of Manpower issued circular letter which legitimate the cut of wage and furlough. Many workers that employed with short term contract found it was even worse. They were being laid off without compensation. Besides, based on online survey we conducted at the end of March to early April, 67% workers were still obligated to go to work. However, 25% of them did not received any protective equipment, such as hand-washing facilities, and disinfectants from the factory. 

The Ministry of Manpower stated that over 3,5 million workers have been laid off during the pandemic, while KADIN (Indonesian Chamber of Commerce & Industry) claimed the number reached 6,4 million. 

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AUSTRALIA Australia Asia Worker Links « Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost »

2020-12-05

1) What have the consequences of the health crisis for the population been – especially for the working class? What has the COVID impact been on employment, how many jobs have been lost?

Australia, being an island, was able to shut its borders totally before the virus was able to take hold internally.

As of late October, there were almost 28,000 Covid-19 infections recorded in Australia, with just over 900 deaths.

The state of Victoria has been the worst affected with just over 20,000 infections and around 820 deaths.

Most of the deaths have been of people over 60 years of age.

The major outbreaks have affected the aged care sector, plagued by cost cutting and insecure work, and those working in the hospitality sector and health care.

The former due to the insecure nature of their employment, the latter due to their constant exposure of the virus from patients.

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CANADA “Unanimous vote in Parliament: 107 billion dollars for the banks and bosses”

2020-10-12

What are the effects of the pandemic?
 
The death-toll of the Covid-19 has reached 9,636. By mid-June, health workers infected by the virus represented 25% of the cases that had been declared since the beginning of the pandemic.
 
Hospital workers complain of the lack of personal protective equipment, especially face-masks and other such protective equipment. In Canada, a federal State, the health sector depends on provincial governments, whose only action is to impose such measures as wearing masks and respecting social distancing.
 
No provincial government has instituted a systematic screening programme, has devised ways to accommodate contaminated people, to massively recruit doctors and medical staff [...]

PAKISTAN All-Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF) – Capitalists and pro capitalist government harshly attacking on Working class

2020-10-05

The ruling party PTI was took in a power with close allies Pakistan Army and some extremists groups too. With the help of Pakistan Army they will able to win election, got bogus votes put all opposition in Jail whether they belong’s to PML-N or PPP. NAB actively started work, arrested politicians and PUT it in NAB custody, trial started not end till politician didn’t accept that no prove and reason to put in the custody of NAB.
 
Pakistan is on the cusp of a political storm after most major opposition parties demanded the country’s powerful generals surrender their stranglehold over politics and withdraw support for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration, which the opposition has vowed to oust through street agitation.
 
The newly form Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) announced it would kick off a nationwide protest campaign on October 11, now they postponed the date on October 18th. The announcement came a day after the showdown between the government and the opposition reached a fever pitch following the arrest of opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif in a money-laundering case that he says is politically motivated.
 
Asif Ali Zardari, a former president and leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was indicted in a separate money-laundering case the same day. The Awami National Party in KPK is still silent, because during eletion and before election the genuine voice of the party person were killed in terrorist attack.
 
Asif Ali The ruling elite along with huge support from Army chief is fulfilling imperialist and capitalist agenda, they are not bother about the suffering of the common people. Inflation is growing day by day, sucides and crime rates are increasing. People and the working class are unable to buy basic house hold commodities. [...]

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