Danny Shaw: Covid-19 Exposes Capitalism Like Never Before

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TEHRAN (FNA)- Danny Shaw, professor of City University in New York, says the growing inequality caused by capitalism is manifested during coronavirus outbreak by the wealthy who are getting richer day by day, amid people’s struggle to feed their family.

Speaking in an interview with FNA, Professor Shaw said capitalism prioritize the profits over people, citing the US as a prime example of a country that "has been hardest hit because it has always prioritized the military, war and invading other countries. Healthcare has always been neglected.”

Professor Danny Shaw is an author and lecturer of Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender. He works as an International Affairs Analyst for TeleSUR, RT, Press TV and other international news networks. He has worked and organized in seventy different countries, opening his spirit to countless testimonies about the inhumanity of the international economic system.

Below is the full text of the interview:

Q: Shutting the borders may be an indication of a real threat to globalization, which is born by capitalism. Do you believe Covid-19 poses a real threat to capitalism?

A: This pandemic has exposed capitalism like never before. As many people in the “richest” cities in the world make lines to get donations for food and wait all day to try to get an answer on unemployment insurance, the richest of the rich continue to grow richer. A country like the United States has been hardest hit because it has always prioritized the military, war and invading other countries. Healthcare has always been neglected. Putting profits over people is having dire consequences right now.

Q: Political leaders and heads of the states were not seen busy only with collecting face masks for people, at the same time counting the daily tolls; but many of them implied authoritarian methods to rule their people. What are we taught by Covid-19 about leaders of Western capitalist states?

A: US leaders like Trump and Pence have flouted social distancing rules and the advice of experts to wear masks. They are setting a bad example, especially for their conservative base. These conservative demonstrations that we see in Wisconsin, Michigan and beyond do not take into consideration the devastating effects that going back to work too early has. The class and racist nature of these
demonstrations shows that they do not care about the essential workers, from immigrant and Black communities, who are already risking their lives day and night to feed their families.

Q: At the time many Westerners practiced “modern piracy”, China was sending health supplies and Cuba its volunteer doctors to Covid-19 hit countries such as Italy. Do you think if this will awaken people to the reality of capitalism?

A: One of the great contradictions of capitalism is how quickly they close their borders for human beings but continue to drain capital, natural resources in profits from the exploited countries. They are departing hundreds of Guatemalans, Mexicans, Haitians and other immigrants back to their homelands without any regard for who has the virus. This is a violation of immigrants’ human rights and of the sovereignty of the homeland countries who are ill-equipped to deal with the pandemic because of years of neocolonialism. It is clear that the blockade countries with a more human approach to education, healthcare and other services are best equipped to deal with this humanitarian disaster. Just look how China, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Vietnam have fared in comparison to the United States and Brazil. The internal and external contradictions of imperialism prove once again that the rich “will be their own gravediggers.”