The Covid-19 Siege of Melbourne

Police “guard” public housing towers in Melbourne. Image from http://www.sbs.com.au

The Covid-19 Siege of Melbourne

12-07-2020: Melbourne is currently enduring a medieval siege by the state, with a return to “stage 3” lockdowns for the whole city, and “hard” lockdowns for nine public housing towers, including Flemington and North Melbourne. No notice was given[1], and police were deployed to prevent residents leaving for any reason. Police effectively barricaded people inside their own units and were often deployed to each floor of the towers. The flimsy rationale for such action was an alleged increase in coronavirus “cases”, supposedly found amongst some residents after “testing positive” for Covid-19. This, along with the entire Covid-19 narrative, is little more than a torrent of lies. Even the moderate Australian Greens, who nonetheless back nonsensical lockdowns, wrote a letter to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews complaining that there was no notice given to the public housing residents, who were locked in their homes without any information as to how they would secure essential provisions such as food and medicine.[2] The full force of the state has been levied against some of the most socially disadvantaged in the community, who have been made scapegoats in a vicious political game.

Public housing residents aware they are an easy target

Covid-19 is a false pretext for the largest assault on the conditions of the working class since the 1930s.[3] The removal of basic civil and democratic rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, not to speak of freedom of movement, is selectively applied so as to intimidate working people, not their “masters”. For example, billionaire Seven West owner Kerry Stokes was granted an exemption for hotel quarantine on his return to Western Australia, in his private jet, after holidaying on the ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado.[4] Meanwhile, participants of a birthday party in Melbourne were raided by police after being tipped off by paramedics ordering Kentucky Fried Chicken themselves in the early hours. The ambulance officers overheard others ordering 20 meals and reported it, so police then traced motor vehicle licence plates to locate an address. They stormed the residence and issued 16 people with $1652.00 fines, totaling around $26 000.[5] This mind-boggling repression for entirely innocent recreational activity is an indication of the scale and gravity of Covid-19 political repression.

The public housing residents of Melbourne subjected to the brutal siege are more than aware of why they were chosen as guinea-pigs. Such a siege could not have been carried out against wealthy residents of well-heeled suburbs such as Toorak or Malvern. Only public housing residents – some of the most marginalised in society – could be given four sausage rolls over 48 hours for food without provoking a mass outcry. The public housing residents resisted in whichever way they could, with some posting placards at their windows reading..”Treat Us As Humans!…not as caged animals… end this lockdown!….Effective immediately..”.[6] Public housing residents of African origin in Melbourne, especially some in Flemington, had previously been harassed by police over alleged gang violence.

Denial of science

Even a fleeting glance at alternative media will reveal the grand deception which is taking place under the rubric of Covid-19. A still more brief sojourn investigating the science of viruses exposes the sheer criminality of Western politicians, which have unfortunately been mimicked by the politicians governing many independent countries who remain in the cross hairs of imperialism. The corporate media has given up trying to scare people with death counts, as the real numbers of deaths solely attributed to Covid-19 is numerically insignificant. Assuming the federal governments figures are correct, even they admit only 107 deaths currently attributed to Covid-19.[7] 107 is virtually nothing compared to the overall mortality rate, even on a daily basis. Due to Australia’s population, one person passes away every 3 minutes and 15 seconds from all causes.[8] Put another way, around 450 people in Australia pass away every single day. If there have been 107 TOTAL deaths from Covid-19 over a seven-month period, this represents 0.1% of the approximately 94 500 deaths that have occurred this year. No matter which way the numbers are counted, Covid-19 “deaths” are infinitesimal.

This is why the corporate media has switched to flashing numbers of “cases” of Covid-19, figuring that these numbers will be higher, and this will be able to be more easily spun into a web of fear. Yet again, here there are only more brazen lies spewing forth from politicians and bought out health officials. They are deeming anyone who “tests positive” to Covid-19 as a “case”. For one thing, the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique which is being used to detect Covid-19 was never meant to be used as a means of diagnosing illness. It was invented as a laboratory technique to help identify viral strains. Its inventor, the Nobel Prize winning Kary Mullis, passed away last year.[9] If he was with us today, he would be horrified at the PCR technique being used as a test for anything. As someone who did not withhold his opinions for fear of offending “official” science or society, Kary Mullis would today be screaming about the misuse of the PCR technique if he had lived until 2020. The PCR technique may be able to detect the presence of some indicator of the Covid-19 viral strain, but it cannot indicate whether someone will develop the disease that could potentially be associated with the virus.

In fact, medicos have to use the Reverse Transcription PCR technique (RT-PCR), because Covid-19 is only present in RNA, not DNA. Even if it does detect Covid-19 in someone’s RNA, it cannot identify the viral load, or how much of the virus is present. Huge amounts of the virus are required for anyone to develop any discernable symptoms, let alone begin to feel ill. Then there is the question of asymptomatic carriers, which even the totally compromised World Health Organisation (WHO) admits, can only spread the virus “very rarely”.[10] In reality, those who have no symptoms are not contagious.

Yet even if it was, natural or herd immunity remains the best way to deal with a virus. A virus must be allowed to spread amongst those with healthy immune systems (those aged under 65, and without underlying health conditions) in order to reach the herd immunity threshold (HIT). The HIT is the point at which a virus exhausts itself because it can no longer find enough carriers who have not already developed natural immunity. And we now know that the HIT for Covid-19 is as low as between 10-20%, NOT 70% as originally thought.[11] It is most likely that Covid-19 had time to circulate, and therefore reach the quite low HIT, BEFORE the end of March, which was when the absurd lockdown and illogical social-distancing measures started to be enforced. The isolation measures therefore did not contain the virus, as this was scarcely the intention. They did, however, destroy the economies of many countries and many lives through unemployment, poverty, loneliness, depression, untreated illness, anxiety, famine and so on.[12]

Class position of lockdowns

It is not that the lockdown left (self-proclaimed “socialists”), following the lead of the overpaid Union officialdom, are scientifically illiterate per se – though they currently demonstrate this in spades. The lockdown left have strongly advocated for lockdowns – and by extension, for a police state, for the elimination of civil and democratic rights for working people, for the abolition of freedom of movement, i.e., for capitalism and imperialism – due to the fact that the question of the lockdowns most immediately defines one’s class position. That is to say, those who oppose the lockdowns stand with the working and oppressed masses, while those who defend the lockdowns stand with big capital. This remains the case irrespective of the claimed or self-identifying political viewpoints of those on either side of the lockdown barricades.

It is a huge error to assume that the left-wing position on the contrived coronavirus hysteria is the advocacy and policing of lockdowns and social distancing. This is only the position of the lockdown “left”, who occupy a universe light years away from even a basic defence of working class interests, let alone socialism.[13] No party can claim even the smallest grain of loyalty to “Marxism” while simultaneously assisting the entire apparatus of the capitalist state in its drive to enforce severe political repression against workers. To take the bourgeoisie at its word with claims that lockdowns and social distancing are “public health measures” is but a tragicomical farce. The fact that the lockdown left deeply believe the Covid-19 lies of the uber elite is proof positive that they act as the activist wing of social-democracy, i.e., the “liberal” wing of the ruling class.

Due to the fact that capitalism has long ceased to be in a period of expansion – this period arguably ended around 1975 – social-democratic liberalism is no longer progressive in any political sense. The 1970s was probably the last era that Marxists and liberals could potentially work together as allies against political conservatives. In that time, it was arguably even possible for socialists to work within the Labor Party. Obviously, those times are long gone, but the lockdown left has hung on to formulas which were possibly applicable four decades ago. This is one reason why they have steadily moved to the right over the last 20 years. What used to be social democracy is now indistinguishable from the conservatives they formerly opposed. The lockdown left is still tied to this right-wing social democracy, despite claiming in words to stand for some type of “socialism”. This has caused much political disorientation amongst workers and has even caused many workers to reject this false leftism and move towards the political right.

What this has also led to is the fact that working-class opposition to the Covid-19 assault has been expressed through some who are unfairly labelled as “conspiracy theorists” and even those associated with the nationalist right. Yet it is entirely inappropriate to label opponents of lockdowns as “right-wing anti-science nutters” – as the liberal lockdown left is wont to do. As we have indicated, it is in fact the lockdown left who deny the basic science of viruses. While there are those amongst the anti-lockdown movement who research so-called conspiracy theories, and those who have quite principled grounds for opposition to forced vaccinations and the lack of safety precautions for the expansion of the 5G telecommunications network, these views are not universal. Rather, the overwhelming majority of the anti-lockdown movement are composed of those who are rightly concerned about the increasing political power of the state over individuals, and the concomitant removal of civil and democratic rights which were formerly taken for granted.

Build the anti-lockdown movement

It is evident that the forces of what has historically been regarded as the “left” are now mere appendages of the state, and are therefore entrenched in the capitalist right, regardless of their proclamations. The treacherous Union bureaucracy enforced the specious Covid-19 narrative on their members and workers generally, fully aware that it was part of a preparation for imperialist war against China, Russia, Iran and any real or imagined enemy of Anglo/US imperialism. They were slavishly tailed by the lockdown left, i.e., putative “left” parties, who plumbed new depths of class treason by parroting the Prime Minister, every state Premier and the corporate media as they imposed pitiless lockdowns against workers. Patently, these turncoats must be unmasked before the masses.

The horror of re-imposed lockdowns in Melbourne may be extended to other states, new facemask rules introduced, semi-permanent social-distancing and contract tracing, and much more, unless and until there are sustained protests and/or a popular uprising against Corona tyranny. The ruling class will not cede political authority gained through deception unless it is torn from them through struggle. Working people must resist the “new normal”, and forge bonds which break through the traditional labels of “left” and “right”. All those who oppose lockdowns must be united into a powerful movement.

At the same time, the tasks for socialists in such a movement are two-fold. Tactically, there is a need to work alongside those who oppose lockdowns even if they also hold views usually seen as antithetical to Marxism, e.g., anti-China, “pro-life”, a denial of climate collapse, or endorsement of US President Donald Trump. Strategically, there is a vital need to find the ways and means to convince opponents of lockdowns that there will be no escape from Corona tyranny, and whatever they are preparing us for, until the working class is mobilised to overthrow the rule of finance capital and replace it with a socialist order. As difficult as this task is, the forging of a vanguard party based on genuine Leninism will lower the political barriers and could unleash the power the millions strong proletariat.

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@redfireonline.com

PO Box 66 NUNDAH QLD 4012

[1] https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2020/jul/melbourne-tower-lockdowns (11-07-2020)

[2] https://www.corowafreepress.com.au/national/2020/07/10/1441159/demand-for-melbourne-tower-lockdown-probe (11-07-2020)

[3] https://redfireonline.com/2020/04/18/covid-19-savage-assault-under-the-guise-of-health/ (11-07-2020)

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/23/kerry-stokes-near-aspen-colorado-quarantine-exemption-private-jet-perth (11-07-2020)

[5] https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/illegal-house-party-unravelled-by-observant-paramedics-on-a-kfc-run-c-1158022 (11-07-2020)

6 https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2020/07/09/public-housing-coronavirus-test/?fbclid=IwAR1TVQNT7bZGS-TIdrwBcFNc3FWM-8OEVKx4pc5d3xlTzQRFno7aFbokqyw (11-07-2020)

[7] https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers (11-07-2020)

[8]https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a900154b63?OpenDocument (11-07-2020)