Xing Caili: New Explorations of the Crisis of Capitalism by Western Left-wing Media in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Although world socialist and leftist movements fell to a low ebb following the drastic changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the revolutionary "sparks" seeking justice and critiquing capitalism were never fully extinguished. In recent years, as capitalist countries have once again entered a period of crisis, leftist forces have shown a trend of steady growth. In particular, with the development of media technology, the left in Europe and America has gained broader channels of dissemination, allowing them to transmit their political propositions and theories to a wider range of the masses. Taken as a whole, the rapid development and popularization of new internet media and self-media [1] have provided better conditions for the Western left to propagate revolutionary claims and political ideas, and to organize more people to participate in the struggle.
I. The Current State and Categories of Western Leftist Media Development
Recent years have seen the rapid development of Western leftist media. Relative to mainstream capital media such as the BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News, leftist media is undoubtedly "marginal media" in the West. However, these outlets actively disseminate their political concepts and viewpoints, offer insights into social hotspots concerning the working class and the general public, and inspire the awakening of class consciousness among more people, playing an important role in the struggle for the interests of the broad masses.
Generally speaking, Western leftist media can be divided into three major categories:
First are the websites and electronic versions of newspapers sponsored by Marxist parties that currently possess relatively large strength, influence, and activity. Examples include People's World (peoplesworld.org) of the Communist Party USA; Liberation News (liberationnews.org), the official site of the Party for Socialism and Liberation; Workers World (workers.org), the official site of the Workers World Party; The Guardian (cpa.org.au/guardian), the party publication of the Communist Party of Australia; The Communists (thecommunists.org), the official site of the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist); Socialist Voice (socialistvoice.ie) of the Communist Party of Ireland; the Communist Party of Canada's official site (peoplesvoice.ca); and the Italian Communist Party’s website 21st Century Marx (21stcenturymarx.org).
Second are comprehensive leftist websites, such as Solidnet (solidnet.org), Peoples Dispatch (peoplesdispatch.org), the American leftist review site Monthly Review Online (mronline.org), Jacobin (jacobinmag.com), and Defend Communism.
Third are the personal websites, blogs, and Twitter accounts of leftist activists and theorists. This category includes David Harvey's personal website (davidharvey.org), the website of revolutionary activist and leftist historian Max Elbaum (organizingupgrade.com), and the blog of leftist activist Carlos Martinez (invent-the-future.org).
II. Western Leftist Perspectives and Debates on the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Crisis of Capitalism
After the outbreak of COVID-19, Western leftist theorists utilized new global media technologies to first loudly call for workers to unite against and condemn the racism and xenophobia exposed by the pandemic, and to remain vigilant against the contemporary restoration of neo-fascism. Subsequently, as the pandemic spread and deepened globally, an increasing number of articles and reports in Western leftist media began to reflect on the pandemic's impact on the crisis of capitalism. Centering on the crisis of capitalism—a key focus of theoretical circles—active leftist theorists such as David Harvey, Slavoj Žižek, and Alain Badiou have proposed several new perspectives.
(1) COVID-19 Exacerbated the Crisis of Capitalism
1. Žižek: The virus has dealt a fatal blow to capitalism and will evoke a kind of latent communism. In his article "Is Barbarism With A Human Face Our Fate?" [3], Žižek argues that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the world we are familiar with to stop functioning: "a radical change has occurred." Before this, in the consciousness of most people, a public health crisis like COVID-19 was considered "something thought to be impossible." The pandemic seems to have forced people to reflect on past social orders and values, leading humanity out of the satisfaction and comfort brought by material consumption. He further argues that when faced with the threat of death and the pressures of unequal and uncertain survival, people have recaptured their imagination regarding a future order. Within the visions and calls for a new order reflected in leftist media, "socialism" and "communism" appear frequently. Žižek contends that this proves that once a crisis occurs, everyone becomes a socialist—even Trump is no exception; only measures with a socialist character can stop the rapid collapse of capitalism. The $2 trillion fiscal stimulus package adopted by Trump and the invocation of the Defense Production Act to allow the government to direct private industry to respond to the pandemic are all "socializing" the American economy, even if they are not called "socialism." Just a few weeks prior, Žižek’s own use of the term "communism" was met with ridicule, yet now the headline "Trump Proposes Takeover of Private Industry" appears directly in the news, which is quite ironic.
In fact, the call for a new order has become a key issue discussed by Western intellectual circles through various media. For instance, Judith Butler believes that "socialism" becoming a high-frequency term indicates that the pandemic has "revitalized a socialist imaginary" in the Western world, and people’s "collective desire for radical equality" has been strongly awakened once again. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed people to see the immense inequality in healthcare within the existing capitalist order—an inequality that involves almost all aspects of class, geography, gender, and race. Moreover, this inequality manifests as strict control over the basic right to survival. Money and a series of social identities constitute the "survival of the fittest" standard of the 21st century, dividing people into "those who are not worth protecting from disease and death" and "those who should be protected from death at all costs," or "grievable lives" and "ungrievable lives."
2. Harvey: The crisis of consumerism and neoliberalism. As the most radical critic of capitalism in the West over the last twenty to thirty years, David Harvey did not cease his reflections on social realities during the COVID-19 crisis. In "Anti-Capitalist Politics in the Time of COVID-19," Harvey points out that in recent years, capitalism has relied on consumerism to maintain its operation. Now, the pandemic has caused the driving force of consumerism to decline, which is highly likely to lead to an economic collapse. In Harvey’s view, the four circuit breakers triggered in the US stock market within ten days, the large-scale shutdown of catering and tourism worldwide, and the disruption of supply chains for supermarket goods have caused the global economic recession to exhibit an "abruptly out-of-control" state. This will not only lead to reduced market demand and increased unemployment but is more likely to lead to the internal collapse of capitalism's "spiraling endless capital accumulation" model due to the weakening of the consumerist drive.
Harvey points out that since the outbreak of the 2008 US financial crisis, consumerism—as the "lifesaving straw" of capitalism—experienced explosive growth. For example, international tourism expanded rapidly between 2010 and 2018, with international visits increasing from 800 million to 1.4 billion, simultaneously attracting large inflows of capital to drive the development of hotels, catering, and transportation around airports. Under the impact of the pandemic, all of this has stopped, including "Super Bowl" sports events, art exhibitions, and film festivals that bring in massive capital income, plunging the hotel and catering industries into an unprecedented depression. Harvey also uses a report from The New York Times regarding the Tokyo Olympics to illustrate the massive impact that the loss of the consumerist drive has had on Japan, which was already on the brink of economic recession—namely, that the cancellation of the Olympics due to the pandemic would plunge Japan into an even deeper "economic disaster." Harvey defines consumer forms like international tourism and sports events as "event-based" experiential consumption. When "events" are cancelled one by one under the impact of the pandemic, these consumerist models are forced to cool down. Meanwhile, the "compensatory consumption" desires belonging to the vast working class have rapidly Receded due to pay cuts, unemployment, or inflation. Under such circumstances, the consumer-driven economy no longer faces small-scale, short-term fluctuations in consumption levels caused by a local volcanic eruption or earthquake, but rather the gangrene of the consumerist capitalist economy.
Harvey further points out that beyond consumerism, the neoliberalism that has prevailed in Europe and America for many years has led public health issues into an even darker abyss, revealing the crisis of contemporary capitalism from another perspective. He argues that while Western mainstream media holds global discourse power, and Euro-American countries are endowed with the meaning of "civilization," the tax cuts and subsidies provided by their governments' fiscal stimulus policies often flow into the pockets of large corporations and the wealthy. The public is tossed directly into the crisis with nothing to rely on. This proves that "everyone is equal before the virus" is an illusion; the pandemic has exacerbated the crisis of neoliberalism.
(2) COVID-19 Will Not Lead to Fundamental Changes in Capitalism
Differing from the views of Harvey and Žižek, other theorists do not believe that the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to fundamental changes in capitalism.
The French radical philosopher Alain Badiou believes that this plague, like any epidemic that occurred before it, sits at the intersection of the natural and social dimensions; it will not bring about a political revolution on its own. If we compare the ecological crisis that has existed for decades with this public health crisis, we find that Badiou's claim is grounded in fact. Global warming and environmental pollution caused by the pursuit of economic interests and consumerism have also long threatened human survival and development, yet capitalism has not been seen to actively slow its pace of greedy wealth accumulation to protect the ecology. Were it not for the struggle of victims and environmental movements, global ecological problems might be far more serious than they are now. Badiou argues that in the face of COVID-19, the so-called "return of the welfare state" is merely a strategic tool for integrating bourgeois and popular interests during a special period, exposing once again the primary contradiction between politics and economics in the current capitalist world.
Regarding Žižek’s view that the pandemic will fundamentally change the world, the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han offered a diametrically opposed opinion: "Žižek claims that this virus will deal a fatal blow to capitalism and evoke a kind of latent communism. Žižek is wrong. None of this will happen... Digital surveillance will now be promoted as a successful model for fighting the pandemic. It will use this opportunity to display its system with even greater pride. After the contagion, capitalism will move forward with even greater force."
In the article "Is the Pandemic the Fault of Globalization?", sociologist Karl Polanyi [7] argues that facts have proven that the laissez-faire market cannot truly move toward self-regulation in real life to bring about its proclaimed "prosperity, equality, and individual dignity." Under the background of neoliberalism, the nesting of the laissez-faire market and social relations presents only a monotonous face of "consumption." Individuals appearing in the labor market in an "atomized" fashion—especially those at the bottom—must adapt to capital at the cost of sacrificing individual rights, being hurriedly swept into the "Satanic Mill."
Thus, we see that laborers at the grassroots are trapped in a dilemma: going out to work means exposure to the virus, potential infection, and death; not going out to work means starving to death due to an inability to pay the bills. Polanyi [8] particularly points out that it is not the elites, billionaires, or industrialists who are exposed to the dangers of the COVID-19 pandemic; these privileged classes can fly their private jets to relatively safe private estates. This reality shatters the illusion that "everyone is equal before the virus."
Although the virus does not differentiate between humans, many existing inequalities within the world shaped by capital cause infection and mortality rates to differ significantly across various groups. As the American urban theorist Mike Davis points out in "In a Plague Year," a plague directly exposes regional global inequalities and class inequalities within societies, making the poor more vulnerable to being deprived of their health. According to Davis’s research on Indian data, 60% of the population who died in the 1918 "Spanish Flu" lived in Punjab, Bombay, and other parts of Western India. These areas, filled with slums, suffered from severe food shortages, chronic malnutrition, poor environmental sanitation, lack of clean drinking water, and backward medical care. Davis believes that if effective measures are not taken, the historical tragedy of the 1918 flu is very likely to repeat itself in the slums of contemporary Africa and South Asia. Infectious diseases allow global inequalities to be expressed vividly [9]. Slogans such as "we are with you" can never bridge the chasm between regions; on the contrary, they reveal a kind of hypocrisy.
III. Leftist Media Issue Protests and Cries for Help from the Working Class
While discussing whether a fundamental crisis has arrived, some leftist media and scholars have begun to analyze the issues of struggle strategy and subjects, as the people in peril have already been forced to begin a practical struggle. As the Italian leftist thinker Antonio Negri points out, COVID-19 has dealt a severe blow to capitalism. It (the virus) has been accompanied by a series of anti-neoliberal struggles, such as those in France and Britain, the violence of which is unimaginable. The limitations of neoliberal politics have been fully exposed, not only in terms of nature, pollution, and all the consequences of the pandemic, but also in the excessive attacks on reproduction and the "commune" (comune).
In contrast to Badiou, who believes that "we have nothing to do but try to stay self-isolated at home like everyone else; we have nothing to say but to encourage others to do the same," Negri calls for us to "take this path and enter the battle." He proposes that the Marxist abstraction of labor and society can become a core element in the struggle of general intellect — that is, in the struggle within the sphere of communication.
However, "the virus will not defeat capitalism." Whether capitalism will change depends not only on the pandemic itself and the economic crisis it caused; the more important decisive factor is the struggle and revolution launched by the working class in the field of capitalist production. That is, the struggle of a united workforce may defeat capitalism. For this reason, a statement initiated by the Communist Party of Greece in March 2020 and jointly published by Communist and Workers' Parties from over 60 countries on the leftist website "Solidnet" (www.solidnet.org) proposed: "Governments serving big capital are focusing their financial measures on supporting monopoly groups and are seeking once again to shift the burden of the crisis onto the workers and other popular strata. The workers and the people should not and must not pay for the crisis again!"
The working class, bearing the catastrophic consequences of the capitalist crisis, will be the subject of the struggle to achieve a thorough transformation of the social system. Marx and Engels once pointed out that when disasters such as plagues occur, the working class is the first to suffer. Their health status is not guaranteed, and their means of production are further lost, resulting in the abject poverty of workers and a relative surplus of population. Therefore, when the health and life safety of workers are threatened, the proletariat will inevitably fight relentlessly. For example, the potato blight that occurred in Britain and Ireland in 1845 led to three years of agricultural failure and the 1847 pan-European economic crisis, becoming the fuse for the European revolutions of 1848. As Engels pointed out in "Principles of Communism": "All these evils are from now on to be ascribed solely to a social order which no longer corresponds to the requirements of the real situation," and "the means are at hand... to do away with these evils altogether by means of a new social order." (This) "necessitates a complete change of our hitherto existing mode of production and with it of our whole contemporary social order."
Overall, in the face of the COVID-19 public health crisis, Western leftist media have combined existing social problems and systemic defects of capitalism to further analyze whether the crisis of capitalism has deepened against the backdrop of the pandemic. Exploring whether the COVID-19 pandemic will change the capitalist system and how to effectively organize workers for struggle helps us understand the new changes occurring in the capitalist world.