Corona Virus and the World Economic Crisis

MayDay Leaflet circulated in Athens 1st May 2020

Corona Virus and the World Economic Crisis

Today’s demo in support of Mayday is occurring under peculiar conditions. In reality under a concealed illegality. A demo under ‘conditions’. Under what conditions those gather, how many metres apart from each other, what type of health accessories are going to be required (masks, gloves etc.)! A Mayday demo we wouldn’t even dream in our wildest nightmares…



A cause for today’s ‘under conditions’ rally, and for all the stressful hardship which we have suffered in the last months (psychological and mainly economic) is Coronavirus! Which originated from where? In what manner? It’s hidden under a blanket mystery. Did it escape from a Chinese lab? Was it deliberately planted? Was it planted by the Americans? Is it humans fault, bats, nature? The essence is that we have a coincidence, a very big coincidence that it erupted just prior to the dawn of a great economic depression which all the international organisations and economists over a year ago were predicting was coming at full speed. Today the modest word depression has been replaced by the same people with the phrase the greatest economic crash ever. Which appears to be closer to reality. Comparing it with that of 1929 they say it will be bigger. How could it be any different? When in the last few years the profits of big business, the parasites of the world was based on massive financial bubbles which bore no reality to the real productive economy. Where unemployment grew massively and the demand for daily products fell exponentially. With the result being that capital abstained from any productive activity as it bore no …profits.

All these macabre developments which have occurred, met ‘by coincidence’ with Coronavirus. Without realising it we are in the midst of a global economic crash. How else can the measures be characterised that are taken to confront ‘Corona’ when suddenly 700.000 workers and professionals are on the streets and 260k businesses have shut down? How many of them will reopen? How many will be able to reopen? How many will be forced to close from now on?

We have no desire to listen to government pronouncements regarding a general indefinite return to ‘normality’. We are in a position to realise, that from now on we will live under totally new conditions. That using Corona virus, the first phase of the EU-IMF programme 2010-2012 with whatever was withheld from us will appear to be an idyllic situation compared to what is coming from the world system and the Mitsotakis government is preparing to serve us. The issue is that the popular movement, the working class and the youth must be prepared slowly but surely, for forms of struggle, which must in no way have the nature of the passive resistance of 2011…

Patriotic Left