While COVID-19 pandemic threatens the lives of Sweden’s working class and people, the state seems to care about how it will protect and safeguard of capitalists’ profitability.
The Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) has been active in exposing the cynical response of the government during the pandemic outbreak and the state’s negligence towards the health of the workers and the less privileged popular strata.
In a statement titled “Class alliance against the state of monopolies: Condemning the state’s actions in relation to COVID-19”, the Communist Party blasts the government for its policy. “When it comes to saving the profits of the Swedish monopolies, lives and deaths of the lower classes do not count in the economic calculations of the state” points out, among other things, the statement.
The Communist Party denounces the argument of the government about “lack of resources” in healthcare. The statement reads: “The lack of resources is, of course, created and carefully maintained by the capital itself, so as not to waste their precious profits – profits, which they derive exclusively from the labor of the workers. Resources are not a natural phenomenon but a matter of priority; the state openly and blatantly deprioritizes the health of workers, poor retirees, students, the self-employed and family business owners in favor of the competitiveness of Swedish monopoly capitalists”.
Swedish communists also slam the hypocritical stance of the government’s leadership: “The Prime Minister sheds crocodile tears in televised speeches while at the same time the state apparatus shifts the responsibility for people's survival on to the
individual. A human life is worth nothing at all in their economic calculations, but the profits are
sacred, because without constantly increasing profits their whole system finds itself in crisis. Their
system is bankrupt”, reads the statement of SKP.
The cynical policy of the Swedish state is exposed: “They coldy expect Sweden’s working class, students, self-employed people and pensioners to accept this. But we cannot the unacceptable. No people should pay with their lives and health to save the profits of the capitalists”. The SKP sends the message that there must be “no illusions about the role of the state during the crisis”.
In its statement the Communist Party of Sweden stresses out that the bourgeois state uses the pandemic as an opportunity to deepen the implementation of anti-worker, anti-people measures for the benefit of the capital. More specifically, it writes:
“Covid-19 is a terrible pandemic, but it is also used by the capitalist states and their media to hide the ongoing crisis of overproduction. The crises of capitalism, each following closer on the heels of the preceding one, always entail merciless attacks on the working class and the other exploited strata of society. This time, the state makes sure to use the turmoil to rush through as many subsidies and laws as possible to secure the competitiveness of Swedish capital in relation to the rest of the world. This will lead to greater unemployment, greatly decreased job security and poorer care and education for the workers, while ensuring large future dividends for the capitalists”.
The Communist Party calls the working class of Sweden not to be fooled by the government’s declarations. “We are not in the same boat as our bosses. Workers’ power is the only solution for us. The role of the state is to serve the monopoly capital and to secure its profits” reads the SKP statement.
The SKP calls for the establishment of an alliance between workers, civil servants, students, self-employed people, which will fight for a series of demands for public healthcare and protection of the working people's rights.
Police forces instead of medical personnel
In an article published on SKP’s news portal “Riktpunkt”, Aris Patris writes that the Swedish state has deployed emergency police forces ready to crack down possible protests in hospitals. This happens while there are are reports that Swedish citizens have died of Covid-19, after having been denied medical care!
According to “Aftonbladet” newspaper, Patris writes, more than 20 riot police officers trained in “special police tactics” are ready to quickly storm hospitals in case there of a disorder or protest in relation to the outbreak of Covid-19. This plan has been commissioned by Stockholm Police and Stockholm Region.
“The Swedish working class, which has been hit hardest by the virus, is anything but grateful that the Left Party and all other parliamentary parties throughout last year competed over who would provide the most resources to the police”, reads the article on Riktpunkt.
“The fact that the state, even during the current crisis, allocates resources for 20-30 riot police officers instead of 20-30 more medical personnel is reprehensible, but not surprising. That is capitalism”, Aris Patris concludes.