thenation--2020-12-17--How the Workers of Spain Battled the Spanish Flu

The strike began in February 1919 , during the epidemic ’ s third wave , and brought Barcelona to a grinding halt .
In January , the Ebro Irrigation and Power Company , known as La Canadiense for its Toronto headquarters , lowered wages , and fired 8 oficinistas , white-collar workers , for protesting .
When 140 blue-collar workers were barred reentry after walking out in solidarity , they appealed to the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( CNT ) , a union that had gained enormous traction in Barcelona over the previous year .
The CNT called a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as if it were an epidemic transmitted through air , spreading through contact , ” as activist and historian Paco Ignacio Taibo II writes in his account of the period , Que Sean Fuego Las Estrellas .
The metaphor is a timely one .
We remember this moment in history as one when the whole world was in the throes of the so-called “ Spanish Flu , ” an oft-invoked precedent to the Covid-19 pandemic .
Of course , not Spanish at all , the flu was so named because Spain ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic while the rest of Europe was under wartime censorship .
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience ?
Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation ’ s journalism while you complete your list .
The flu wracked Spain in three waves .
It first arrived in the spring of 1918 as a mild strain with high morbidity but low mortality .
After a summer lull came the now-infamous second wave , much deadlier than the first with a mortality rate of 14 percent .
By the third and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the flu ’ s effects were less pronounced ; it had already done its worst .
According to current estimates , more than 260,000 Spaniards died of the Spanish flu ( 45 percent of them in October 1918 alone ) .
Thus in February , facing social unrest on top of natural disaster , the Spanish government under King Alfonso XIII imposed martial law , arresting more than 4,000 workers and replacing strikers with soldiers .
Even so , power cuts ensured that up to 70 percent of Barcelona ’ s industry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Factories , public services , and trams shut down .
In the epidemic ’ s third wave , Barcelona was a city in the dark .
La Canadiense , as the strike was called , after the company where it began , had transformed from what might have been an insignificant union rights conflict into a battle against not only national government but international capital .
By the end of March , the Ebro Light and Power Company was forced to bow to the CNT ’ s demands : pay raises , reparations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pickets .
The Spanish government became the first in Europe to legislate an eight-hour workday for industry—a palliative to prevent further conflict .
Activist and archivist Jose Pierats writes in CNT and the Revolution that La Canadiense was “ one of the best organized strikes in the whole world , ” not necessarily because of its material gains but because of the symbol of proletarian unity it provided .
La Canadiense marked a culmination of simmering tensions ( the postwar recession , increasing inequality ) that came to a boil during the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to , famously , as “ the forgotten pandemic , ” left out of history books ( and labor histories ) , can still be read in the solidarity that spread among Spanish workers in 1918–19 .
Population growth was negative in Spain only twice during the 20th century : during the 1918 pandemic and at the height of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 .
The war lived on in the popular imagination , memorialized in history and literature : Orwell ’ s Homage to Catalonia , Hemingway ’ s For Whom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not .
Historian Ryan Davis , wondering about the absence of the pandemic in both American and Spanish literature in his book The Spanish Flu , supposes that in contrast to more tragic , “ lingering ” diseases of the early 20th century ( cholera , typhoid , tuberculosis ) , the flu was both too quick a killer to be romantic and so common as to be mundane .
It lacked metaphorical power—even more so because of its proximity to World War I , which , as medical education professor Catherine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” lent itself to “ more complex plotlines than the rapid descent into chaos that characterized the flu.
” Dire as it was—the World Health Organization has described the 1918 epidemic as “ the single most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded ” —the flu came and went with little fanfare .
In Spain , the epidemic was seen not as a crisis within itself but as one crisis among many .
Catalan author Josep Pla was forced to move from his home in Barcelona to the countryside to evade the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since published as The Grey Notebook ) in October 1918 : The fatigue Pla alludes to was wide-ranging .
For the Spanish public , Davis writes , the epidemic was merely “ symptomatic of deeper structural problems then plaguing Spain ( and , indeed , Europe ) .
” At the turn of the 20th century , worker discontent was brewing in Spanish cities , as in many cities in Europe and around the world , propelled by the bad working conditions that accompanied rapid urbanization and inspired by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Spain , ” receiving a flood of migrant workers from the impoverished agrarian regions in the south .
As such , it was the scene of Spain ’ s developing class consciousness , with burgeoning anarchist and socialist movements .
The city ’ s population had increased 300 percent between 1850 and 1900 , and would double again by 1930 .
Housing didn ’ t keep up with rising demand , leading to the construction of so many barracas—shanty houses made from cardboard , scrap metal , and household rubbish—that critics called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I , according to Taibo , “ exploded ” money into Barcelona .
Employers grew rich selling supplies to the rest of war-torn Europe while worker ’ s wages remained stagnant .
When Barcelona fell into a recession after wartime purchasing slowed , strain on workers increased .
Laborers worked 10 , 12 , 14 hours a day in hazardous conditions , subject to brutal discipline by employers and foremen .
As Spanish labor historian Chris Ealham writes in Class , Culture and Conflict in Barcelona , the worker ’ s experience of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ undiluted by social welfare initiatives.
” Workers implicitly understood that government institutions could not be reformed through political maneuvering , and saw them instead as “ an enemy that had to be crushed.
” It was the beginning of los años del pistolerismo , the years of gun law , marked by bloody Wild West–style class conflict on the streets of Barcelona .
Employers hired pistoleros , gunmen , to suppress strikes and assassinate labor union leaders .
Unions relied on grupos de afiliación for protection , young men who guarded prominent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ owners .
These groups had menacing names : Los Desheredados ( The Disinherited ) , Los Indomables ( The Uncontrollables ) and Els Fills de Puta ( The Bastards ) .
And in the midst of this came the flu .
Unlike today ’ s pandemic , the 1918 flu showed an unusual preference for men between the ages of 25 and 29 ; they suffered the highest mortality rate of any demographic .
The CNT therefore represented one of the most at-risk populations , even if the union didn ’ t have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CNT ’ s newspaper , Solidaridad Obrera , mentioned the flu only in passing .
In one case , an account of a labor dispute in the coffin-making industry concluded that it was absurd for employers to refuse salary increases while they were doing such terrific business .
The year of the pandemic , however , would lead to historic changes for the CNT .
While the sindicato had first appeared in Barcelona in 1910 , it was in 1918 that the CNT became what Ealham describes as “ the lodestar of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national membership doubled from 345,000 to 715,000 .
Industrial Barcelona , the seat of the CNT ’ s power , had become one of the most unionized cities in Europe .
This growth came in part out of a congress in the Barcelona barrio of Sants in July 1918 , just after the initial wave of the virus abated .
Here , the CNT united the different unions of the city into a single Sindicato Único , doing away with traditional divisions and eschewing strike funds with the intent to organize solely on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ambient chaos of the flu ostensibly did not deter attendees , but only highlighted the strength of their conviction .
Taibo quotes organizer Joan Ferrer : The unity that came out of the Sants meeting primed the CNT to thrive during the pandemic .
The sindicato kept an eye toward creating a proletarian public space , mobilizing workers in and out of factories through rent strikes , unemployment marches , and literacy programs .
Integrated within communities as a social structure , the CNT ’ s deep roots allowed it to organize where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The vocabulary of anarcho-syndicalism , by situating workers ’ grievances in the language of class , created the opportunity for the barrios to mobilize along these lines during the pandemic .
As the devastating second wave pummeled Spain in October , Madrid-based Republican newspaper El Liberal called for an intervention it gave the remarkable title of dictadura sanitaria—a sanitary dictatorship .
By way of contribution , the newspaper would agree to stop withholding information about the “ havoc ” wreaked by the flu throughout Spain .
The government was vocally enthusiastic about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Madrid newspaper ABC that a sanitary dictatorship had , in fact , been in place even before the flu began .
Its description of a “ powerful health organization to save us from any contingency ” was comically at odds with the widely held sense that the pandemic had revealed the profound scope of the health system ’ s inadequacy and decay .
If this call for a sanitary dictatorship sought to reify a top-down model of power , the CNT ’ s communities , lacking the necessary trust in the government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something a little more bottom-up .
La Canadiense marked the peak for this era of the CNT .
Unsettled by the success of the strike and the declining profit margins of the postwar period , Catalan businesses sought to reassert control .
The violence of pistolerismo increased dramatically in the following years ; key CNT activists were murdered in the streets .
Between 1919 and 1923 , 189 workers were killed in Barcelona , along with 21 employers .
Under attack , ideological divides within the CNT deepened , with more militant members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pitted against “ pure ” syndicalists .
By the time of Primo de Riviera ’ s 1923 military coup , the CNT had become so weakened that its response was only perfunctory .
Angel Pestaña , prominent CNT leader and commentator , wrote that he was afraid the CNT would be held responsible for the success of Primo de Riviera ’ s coup .
Pestaña had a flair for dramatic declarations , but a factitious CNT , according to Ealham , faltered in part because it “ lacked a coherent project for social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vision that had marked 1918–19 , the solidarity that facilitated La Canadiense even in the face of an epidemic—and may have been able to hold off the coup .
Across the Atlantic , the United States was also battling the flu .
As in Spain , the United States saw the peak of the virus in the fall , a lull , and then a final wave , which swept the country in February of 1919 .
Historian Joshua Freeman points out in Jacobin that the pandemic coincided with strike waves all over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thrust of labor action reflected a worldwide sense that the war had disastrously demonstrated the moral and political bankruptcy of ruling elites and opened the possibilities for new ways of organizing society.
” Both the virus and the unrest , Freeman points out , were spread by the war : The flu was carried around the world by soldiers in tight quarters , while labor discontent surged when employers revoked the advances workers made during wartime production .
Both “ were manifestations of the breakdown of the imperial order , ” linked in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ greedy “ rivalries ” that propelled the war .
For the forces of reaction , the pandemic and strike wave were connected only in pestilence , as epitomized by journalist Benjamin Hoare ’ s provocatively titled 1919 pamphlet “ The Two Plagues : Influenza and Bolshevism.
” In Seattle , what began as a strike by shipyard workers expanded into a general strike that shut down the city for a week , from February 6 to 11—coinciding with the start of La Canadiense .
In Radical Seattle : the General Strike of 1919 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the unions did not just shut down the city but in effect took it over , setting up food stations , exempting garage trucks and laundry wagons , and organizing the delivery of milk to nursing babies .
While the general strike ended before the demands of Seattle ’ s shipyard workers were met , Winslow quotes Seattle journalist Anna Louise Strong , who wrote that the unions won simply in “ com [ ing ] out almost as one man ” to “ tie up the industries of the city.
” As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ today ’ s crisis , and cries for coordination from federal or state governments prove futile , perhaps they too will begin to seek out alternative forms of organization .
Freeman points out that “ ordinary people ” can be seen “ stepping into the breach ” to provide relief where political infrastructure does not .
What would it mean to understand this not as individual goodwill but class solidarity ?
In forging the historic alliance of the Sindicato Único at the Sants conference , Pestaña wrote , the CNT turned “ clothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ carpenters ” into a “ phalanx of producers conscious of their rights and ready to defend them at any moment.
” This force , thrusting Barcelona into darkness during La Canadiense , had incredible power .
In the midst of the pandemic , the CNT ’ s ground-up model of community empowerment and mobilization offered an alternative to the “ sanitary dictatorship ” peddled by the floundering monarchy .
Today ’ s labor movements , in both Spain and America , lack the numbers and the force that they had after World War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may produce the solidarity essential to labor mobilization .
“ Even before the pandemic , workers were living on the edge financially , ” Los Angeles County Federation of Labor president Ron Herrera told the Los Angeles Times in May .
“ This crisis has been the glue for workers to come together , blue-collar and white-collar , not just union members .
It sounds corny , but we ’ re moving towards a worker rebellion.
” If action at this scale seems like a distant memory , so did a global pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ago .
The pandemic has thrown into relief the impassable structures which surround us .
Forty-four days of dark in Barcelona helped to show for a moment that they are not as unassailable as they seemed .

Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Get The Nation’s Weekly Newsletter Fridays. The best of the week. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Fridays. The best of the week.
Thank you for signing up for The Nation’s weekly newsletter.
Repro Nation A monthly newsletter on the global fight for reproductive freedom. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
The strike began in February 1919, during the epidemic’s third wave, and brought Barcelona to a grinding halt. In January, the Ebro Irrigation and Power Company, known as La Canadiense for its Toronto headquarters, lowered wages, and fired 8 oficinistas, white-collar workers, for protesting. When 140 blue-collar workers were barred reentry after walking out in solidarity, they appealed to the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), a union that had gained enormous traction in Barcelona over the previous year. The CNT called a general strike, spreading the word “as if it were an epidemic transmitted through air, spreading through contact,” as activist and historian Paco Ignacio Taibo II writes in his account of the period, Que Sean Fuego Las Estrellas.
The metaphor is a timely one. We remember this moment in history as one when the whole world was in the throes of the so-called “Spanish Flu,” an oft-invoked precedent to the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, not Spanish at all, the flu was so named because Spain’s neutral press was free to cover the pandemic while the rest of Europe was under wartime censorship. Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
The flu wracked Spain in three waves. It first arrived in the spring of 1918 as a mild strain with high morbidity but low mortality. After a summer lull came the now-infamous second wave, much deadlier than the first with a mortality rate of 14 percent. By the third and final iteration in the spring of 1919, the flu’s effects were less pronounced; it had already done its worst. According to current estimates, more than 260,000 Spaniards died of the Spanish flu (45 percent of them in October 1918 alone).
Thus in February, facing social unrest on top of natural disaster, the Spanish government under King Alfonso XIII imposed martial law, arresting more than 4,000 workers and replacing strikers with soldiers. Even so, power cuts ensured that up to 70 percent of Barcelona’s industry closed for an unprecedented 44 days. Factories, public services, and trams shut down. In the epidemic’s third wave, Barcelona was a city in the dark.
La Canadiense, as the strike was called, after the company where it began, had transformed from what might have been an insignificant union rights conflict into a battle against not only national government but international capital. By the end of March, the Ebro Light and Power Company was forced to bow to the CNT’s demands: pay raises, reparations of lost wages, and amnesty for pickets. The Spanish government became among the first in Europe to legislate an eight-hour workday for industry—a palliative to prevent further conflict.
Activist and archivist Jose Pierats writes in CNT and the Revolution that La Canadiense was “one of the best organized strikes in the whole world,” not necessarily because of its material gains but because of the symbol of proletarian unity it provided. La Canadiense marked a culmination of simmering tensions (the postwar recession, increasing inequality) that came to a boil during the pandemic. The effect of what is referred to, famously, as “the forgotten pandemic,” left out of history books (and labor histories), can still be read in the solidarity that spread among Spanish workers in 1918–19. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
Population growth was negative in Spain only twice during the 20th century: during the 1918 pandemic and at the height of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The war lived on in the popular imagination, memorialized in history and literature: Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. The Spanish flu did not. Current Issue View our current issue
Historian Ryan Davis, wondering about the absence of the pandemic in both American and Spanish literature in his book The Spanish Flu, supposes that in contrast to more tragic, “lingering” diseases of the early 20th century (cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis), the flu was both too quick a killer to be romantic and so common as to be mundane. It lacked metaphorical power—even more so because of its proximity to World War I, which, as medical education professor Catherine Belling writes in “Overwhelming the Medium,” lent itself to “more complex plotlines than the rapid descent into chaos that characterized the flu.”
Dire as it was—the World Health Organization has described the 1918 epidemic as “the single most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded”—the flu came and went with little fanfare. In Spain, the epidemic was seen not as a crisis within itself but as one crisis among many. Catalan author Josep Pla was forced to move from his home in Barcelona to the countryside to evade the virus. He wrote in his journal (since published as The Grey Notebook) in October 1918:
The flu continues relentlessly killing people. In these past days, I have had to go to several funerals. This, without a doubt, makes one feel less emotion in the face of death. Real and authentic sentiments transform into a kind of administrative routine.
The fatigue Pla alludes to was wide-ranging. For the Spanish public, Davis writes, the epidemic was merely “symptomatic of deeper structural problems then plaguing Spain (and, indeed, Europe).”
At the turn of the 20th century, worker discontent was brewing in Spanish cities, as in many cities in Europe and around the world, propelled by the bad working conditions that accompanied rapid urbanization and inspired by the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
Barcelona had become “the factory of Spain,” receiving a flood of migrant workers from the impoverished agrarian regions in the south. As such, it was the scene of Spain’s developing class consciousness, with burgeoning anarchist and socialist movements. The city’s population had increased 300 percent between 1850 and 1900, and would double again by 1930. Housing didn’t keep up with rising demand, leading to the construction of so many barracas—shanty houses made from cardboard, scrap metal, and household rubbish—that critics called Barcelona a “barracopolis.”
World War I, according to Taibo, “exploded” money into Barcelona. Employers grew rich selling supplies to the rest of war-torn Europe while worker’s wages remained stagnant. When Barcelona fell into a recession after wartime purchasing slowed, strain on workers increased. Laborers worked 10, 12, 14 hours a day in hazardous conditions, subject to brutal discipline by employers and foremen. As Spanish labor historian Chris Ealham writes in Class, Culture and Conflict in Barcelona, the worker’s experience of indifferent industry within a repressive state was “undiluted by social welfare initiatives.” Workers implicitly understood that government institutions could not be reformed through political maneuvering, and saw them instead as “an enemy that had to be crushed.”
It was the beginning of los años del pistolerismo, the years of gun law, marked by bloody Wild West–style class conflict on the streets of Barcelona. Employers hired pistoleros, gunmen, to suppress strikes and assassinate labor union leaders. Unions relied on grupos de afiliación for protection, young men who guarded prominent union members and perpetrated attacks on business owners. These groups had menacing names: Los Desheredados (The Disinherited), Los Indomables (The Uncontrollables) and Els Fills de Puta (The Bastards). And in the midst of this came the flu.
Unlike today’s pandemic, the 1918 flu showed an unusual preference for men between the ages of 25 and 29; they suffered the highest mortality rate of any demographic. The CNT therefore represented one of the most at-risk populations, even if the union didn’t have much to say about it; the CNT’s newspaper, Solidaridad Obrera, mentioned the flu only in passing. In one case, an account of a labor dispute in the coffin-making industry concluded that it was absurd for employers to refuse salary increases while they were doing such terrific business.
The year of the pandemic, however, would lead to historic changes for the CNT. While the sindicato had first appeared in Barcelona in 1910, it was in 1918 that the CNT became what Ealham describes as “the lodestar of the dispossessed.” From 1918 to 1919, national membership doubled from 345,000 to 715,000. Industrial Barcelona, the seat of the CNT’s power, had become one of the most unionized cities in Europe.
This growth came in part out of a congress in the Barcelona barrio of Sants in July 1918, just after the initial wave of the virus abated. Here, the CNT united the different unions of the city into a single Sindicato Único, doing away with traditional divisions and eschewing strike funds with the intent to organize solely on the basis of mutual reciprocity. The ambient chaos of the flu ostensibly did not deter attendees, but only highlighted the strength of their conviction. Taibo quotes organizer Joan Ferrer:
The dates of the congress coincided with a flu epidemic which fell over Barcelona, and in which people died like clouds of flies. I remember that we were obsessed with the creation of a Sindicato Único, that we would leave the organization room and stumble upon trucks loading corpses on the street […] Then we would return briefly to reality and exclaim: Christ! What a cruel epidemic there is. But after, the obsession with the Sindicato Único would continue and we would pass above all that misery, which if it touched you, would surely kill you.
The unity that came out of the Sants meeting primed the CNT to thrive during the pandemic. The sindicato kept an eye toward creating a proletarian public space, mobilizing workers in and out of factories through rent strikes, unemployment marches, and literacy programs. Integrated within communities as a social structure, the CNT’s deep roots allowed it to organize where establishment political structures could not penetrate. The vocabulary of anarcho-syndicalism, by situating workers’ grievances in the language of class, created the opportunity for the barrios to mobilize along these lines during the pandemic.
As the devastating second wave pummeled Spain in October, Madrid-based Republican newspaper El Liberal called for an intervention it gave the remarkable title of dictadura sanitaria—a sanitary dictatorship. By way of contribution, the newspaper would agree to stop withholding information about the “havoc” wreaked by the flu throughout Spain. The government was vocally enthusiastic about the prospect, announcing the next day in the Madrid newspaper ABC that a sanitary dictatorship had, in fact, been in place even before the flu began. Its description of a “powerful health organization to save us from any contingency” was comically at odds with the widely held sense that the pandemic had revealed the profound scope of the health system’s inadequacy and decay.
If this call for a sanitary dictatorship sought to reify a top-down model of power, the CNT’s communities, lacking the necessary trust in the government to request such an intervention, imagined something a little more bottom-up.
La Canadiense marked the peak for this era of the CNT. Unsettled by the success of the strike and the declining profit margins of the postwar period, Catalan businesses sought to reassert control. The violence of pistolerismo increased dramatically in the following years; key CNT activists were murdered in the streets. Between 1919 and 1923, 189 workers were killed in Barcelona, along with 21 employers. Under attack, ideological divides within the CNT deepened, with more militant members deviating from more moderate leadership, anarchists pitted against “pure” syndicalists.
By the time of Primo de Rivera’s 1923 military coup, the CNT had become so weakened that its response was only perfunctory. Angel Pestaña, prominent CNT leader and commentator, wrote that he was afraid the CNT would be held responsible for the success of Primo de Rivera’s coup. Pestaña had a flair for dramatic declarations, but a factitious CNT, according to Ealham, faltered in part because it “lacked a coherent project for social and political transformation.” Gone was the vision that had marked 1918–19, the solidarity that facilitated La Canadiense even in the face of an epidemic—and may have been able to hold off the coup.
Across the Atlantic, the United States was also battling the flu. As in Spain, the United States saw the peak of the virus in the fall, a lull, and then a final wave, which swept the country in February of 1919. Historian Joshua Freeman points out in Jacobin that the pandemic coincided with strike waves all over the United States. The “radical thrust of labor action reflected a worldwide sense that the war had disastrously demonstrated the moral and political bankruptcy of ruling elites and opened the possibilities for new ways of organizing society.”
Both the virus and the unrest, Freeman points out, were spread by the war: The flu was carried around the world by soldiers in tight quarters, while labor discontent surged when employers revoked the advances workers made during wartime production. Both “were manifestations of the breakdown of the imperial order,” linked in that they were driven by the same greedy “rivalries” that propelled the war. For the forces of reaction, the pandemic and strike wave were connected only in pestilence, as epitomized by journalist Benjamin Hoare’s provocatively titled 1919 pamphlet “The Two Plagues: Influenza and Bolshevism.”
In Seattle, what began as a strike by shipyard workers expanded into a general strike that shut down the city for a week, from February 6 to 11—coinciding with the start of La Canadiense. In Radical Seattle: the General Strike of 1919, labor historian Cal Winslow emphasizes that the unions did not just shut down the city but in effect took it over, setting up food stations, exempting garage trucks and laundry wagons, and organizing the delivery of milk to nursing babies. While the general strike ended before the demands of Seattle’s shipyard workers were met, Winslow quotes Seattle journalist Anna Louise Strong, who wrote that the unions won simply in “com[ing] out almost as one man” to “tie up the industries of the city.”
As Americans look for a way forward in today’s crisis, and cries for coordination from federal or state governments prove futile, perhaps they too will begin to seek out alternative forms of organization. Freeman points out that “ordinary people” can be seen “stepping into the breach” to provide relief where political infrastructure does not. What would it mean to understand this not as individual goodwill but class solidarity?
In forging the historic alliance of the Sindicato Único at the Sants conference, Pestaña wrote, the CNT turned “clothing workers, laborers, [and] carpenters” into a “phalanx of producers conscious of their rights and ready to defend them at any moment.” This force, thrusting Barcelona into darkness during La Canadiense, had incredible power. In the midst of the pandemic, the CNT’s ground-up model of community empowerment and mobilization offered an alternative to the “sanitary dictatorship” peddled by the floundering monarchy.
Today’s labor movements, in both Spain and America, lack the numbers and the force that they had after World War I. But the response to COVID-19 may produce the solidarity essential to labor mobilization. “Even before the pandemic, workers were living on the edge financially,” Los Angeles County Federation of Labor president Ron Herrera told the Los Angeles Times in May. “This crisis has been the glue for workers to come together, blue-collar and white-collar, not just union members. It sounds corny, but we’re moving towards a worker rebellion.”
If action at this scale seems like a distant memory, so did a global pandemic, last seen more than a century ago. The pandemic has thrown into relief the impassable structures which surround us. Forty-four days of dark in Barcelona helped to show for a moment that they are not as unassailable as they seemed.


thenation--2020-12-17--As 2020 Ends, It’s Time for News Outlets to Declare a ‘Climate Emergency’

“ I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their own countries until carbon neutrality is reached.
” So said United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in his speech to the Climate Ambition Summit on December 12 , the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement .
Guterres ’ s appeal seemed aimed at leaders of national governments ; the secretary general noted that “ thirty-eight countries have already ” made such declarations ( among them , such big emitters as the United Kingdom , Japan , and Canada ) .
But it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State of Climate Emergency as well .
Journalists and news executives in charge of newspapers , TV , and radio programs exercise a profound influence over how the public thinks and feels about the defining problem of our time—and what , if anything , governments , businesses , and other powerful actors end up doing about it .
Shouldn ’ t news organizations be telling the unvarnished truth about the climate problem and , not least , its solutions ?
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience ?
Check out The Nation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s journalism while you complete your list .
Among major news organizations , only The Guardian has thus far made the kind of climate-emergency declaration the UN secretary general urges .
On October 16 , 2019 , the newspaper issued a statement from Katharine Viner , its editor in chief , promising “ to provide journalism that shows leadership , urgency , authority , and gives the climate emergency the sustained attention and prominence it deserves.
” A month later , the Oxford Dictionaries named “ climate emergency ” its word of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the hundreds of cities , towns , and countries that had declared such emergencies .
Yet news organizations have held back .
Some of my media colleagues will feel uneasy about taking such a step , fearing that this would cross the line between journalism and advocacy .
That is a serious , understandable concern—after all , activists from Greta Thunberg ’ s Fridays for Future movement , Extinction Rebellion , and the Sunrise Movement , among others , have all repeatedly invoked the “ climate emergency ” as a rallying cry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world ’ s economies .
Why Democrats Lose on Social Media While Republicans Lie and Win Big UN Secretary General : Without the US in the Paris Agreement , Humanity Faces Climate ‘ Suicide ’ The Fall of Trump Propels the Climate Story Into a Decisive New Era More in this series But here is a companion fact that too many newsrooms seem unaware of—or , worse , ignore : It ’ s not just activists who talk about a “ climate emergency.
” As this column has mentioned more than once , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chosen the phrase “ climate emergency ” to describe the situation currently facing our civilization .
Skeptical journalists should bear in mind that scientists tend to be data-driven , rationally inclined individuals who generally shun emotionally charged words .
Scientists are embracing the phrase “ climate emergency ” now because the physical realities have become so extreme , the time remaining to fix the problem so limited , and the necessary reforms so difficult that no other words suffice .
Humanity must slash emissions by 45 percent by 2030 to avoid utter catastrophe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will require transforming the world ’ s energy , agriculture , finance , and other key sectors at a pace and scale unprecedented in history .
“ Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to ‘ tell it like it is , ’ ” the statement signed by the 11,000-plus scientists begins .
Journalists demonstrated just such a moral obligation while covering the coronavirus this year .
Despite staff cuts that required many journalists to work what used to be two or three separate newsroom jobs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of informing audiences about what was happening during the pandemic , why it was happening , and how people could protect themselves and others .
The media also held political leaders to account , with most US-based outlets ( aside from Fox News and other cheerleaders for Donald Trump ) spotlighting unfounded or dangerous assertions by the president and other purveyors of misinformation .
No one who followed most coverage of the pandemic was left in doubt that our societies were facing , to recall the climate scientists ’ statement , “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because journalists did not shrink from “ telling it like it is.
” Now , journalists must bring that same sense of professional dedication to covering the climate emergency .
As Guterres pointed out , the earth “ is headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3 degrees [ Celsius ] this century.
” Such an increase , science makes clear , would be a death sentence for hundreds of millions of people , and civilization as we know it .
Saying so is no more partisan than saying this coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ millions but can be contained if people wear masks and physically distance .
Climate journalism has come a long way in 2020 .
If 2019 was the year when the mainstream media , especially in the United States , at last abandoned the “ climate silence ” that had blunted public understanding and political action for so long , 2020 has been the year when politicians and newsrooms alike began treating climate as a top-tier issue that demanded serious attention .
For the first time , climate change was discussed at length during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; it was even raised during the Senate runoff debates in Georgia .
There were still shortcomings : For example , coverage of last summer ’ s hurricanes often did not mention that climate change helps drive extreme weather .
But those errors were later rectified as coverage of the California wildfires generally made the climate connection .
Coverage of the secretary general ’ s appeal for declarations of a climate emergency , however , illustrates that there is still far to go .
Although Reuters ran an article that headlined Guterres ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ referenced it in one sentence , many of the world ’ s biggest news organizations did not even report it , much less headline it .
The coming months will be a pivotal time in the climate emergency .
In Washington , the question will be whether the incoming Biden administration can implement reforms matching the scope and severity of the crisis , and whether Republicans continue to obstruct progress and thereby knowingly condemn young people to a future hell on earth .
Globally , the UN summit in November will decide whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ merely pledge in words to reach “ net zero ” emissions by mid-century but also take actions to do so .
Declaring a “ climate emergency ” is , too , a matter of words , but politics is often a dance between words and deeds .
Words can set the stage for deeds , both by clarifying what is at stake and by providing a standard for holding leaders to account .
News organizations have big megaphones , and in 2020 we used them well to help steer our societies through a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year that we declare , in accordance with science , that humanity is facing a climate emergency—an emergency we promise to illuminate and , we hope , help humanity overcome .

This article is adapted from “The Climate Beat,” the weekly newsletter of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative strengthening coverage of the climate story.
“I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their own countries until carbon neutrality is reached.” So said United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in his speech to the Climate Ambition Summit on December 12, the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement. Guterres’s appeal seemed aimed at leaders of national governments; the secretary general noted that “thirty-eight countries have already” made such declarations (among them, such big emitters as the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada). But it’s time for media leaders to declare a State of Climate Emergency as well. Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
Journalists and news executives in charge of newspapers, TV, and radio programs exercise a profound influence over how the public thinks and feels about the defining problem of our time—and what, if anything, governments, businesses, and other powerful actors end up doing about it. Shouldn’t news organizations be telling the unvarnished truth about the climate problem and, not least, its solutions?
Among major news organizations, only The Guardian has thus far made the kind of climate-emergency declaration the UN secretary general urges. On October 16, 2019, the newspaper issued a statement from Katharine Viner, its editor in chief, promising “to provide journalism that shows leadership, urgency, authority, and gives the climate emergency the sustained attention and prominence it deserves.” A month later, the Oxford Dictionaries named “climate emergency” its word of the year for 2019, partly in recognition of the hundreds of cities, towns, and countries that had declared such emergencies. Yet news organizations have held back. Covering Climate Now How to Stop the Spread of Climate Disinformation Erika Seiber and Michael Khoo A Soundtrack for the Climate Emergency Mark Hertsgaard Can Gen Z Save the Midterms for Democrats? Mark Hertsgaard
Some of my media colleagues will feel uneasy about taking such a step, fearing that this would cross the line between journalism and advocacy. That is a serious, understandable concern—after all, activists from Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, Extinction Rebellion, and the Sunrise Movement, among others, have all repeatedly invoked the “climate emergency” as a rallying cry to demand a rapid decarbonization of the world’s economies.
But here is a companion fact that too many newsrooms seem unaware of—or, worse, ignore: It’s not just activists who talk about a “climate emergency.” As this column has mentioned more than once, more than 11,000 leading scientists have expressly chosen the phrase “climate emergency” to describe the situation currently facing our civilization. Skeptical journalists should bear in mind that scientists tend to be data-driven, rationally inclined individuals who generally shun emotionally charged words. Scientists are embracing the phrase “climate emergency” now because the physical realities have become so extreme, the time remaining to fix the problem so limited, and the necessary reforms so difficult that no other words suffice. Humanity must slash emissions by 45 percent by 2030 to avoid utter catastrophe, UN scientists have warned, which will require transforming the world’s energy, agriculture, finance, and other key sectors at a pace and scale unprecedented in history. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
“Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to ‘tell it like it is,’” the statement signed by the 11,000-plus scientists begins. Current Issue View our current issue
Journalists demonstrated just such a moral obligation while covering the coronavirus this year. Despite staff cuts that required many journalists to work what used to be two or three separate newsroom jobs, news outlets heroically embraced the challenge of informing audiences about what was happening during the pandemic, why it was happening, and how people could protect themselves and others. The media also held political leaders to account, with most US-based outlets (aside from Fox News and other cheerleaders for Donald Trump) spotlighting unfounded or dangerous assertions by the president and other purveyors of misinformation. No one who followed most coverage of the pandemic was left in doubt that our societies were facing, to recall the climate scientists’ statement, “a catastrophic threat”—and this outcome was because journalists did not shrink from “telling it like it is.”
Now, journalists must bring that same sense of professional dedication to covering the climate emergency. As Guterres pointed out, the earth “is headed for a catastrophic temperature rise of more than 3 degrees [Celsius] this century.” Such an increase, science makes clear, would be a death sentence for hundreds of millions of people, and civilization as we know it. Saying so is no more partisan than saying this coronavirus is highly contagious and threatens to kill millions but can be contained if people wear masks and physically distance.
Climate journalism has come a long way in 2020. If 2019 was the year when the mainstream media, especially in the United States, at last abandoned the “climate silence” that had blunted public understanding and political action for so long, 2020 has been the year when politicians and newsrooms alike began treating climate as a top-tier issue that demanded serious attention. For the first time, climate change was discussed at length during the US presidential and vice presidential debates; it was even raised during the Senate runoff debates in Georgia. There were still shortcomings: For example, coverage of last summer’s hurricanes often did not mention that climate change helps drive extreme weather. But those errors were later rectified as coverage of the California wildfires generally made the climate connection.
Coverage of the secretary general’s appeal for declarations of a climate emergency, however, illustrates that there is still far to go. Although Reuters ran an article that headlined Guterres’s statement, and the Associated Press referenced it in one sentence, many of the world’s biggest news organizations did not even report it, much less headline it.
The coming months will be a pivotal time in the climate emergency. In Washington, the question will be whether the incoming Biden administration can implement reforms matching the scope and severity of the crisis, and whether Republicans continue to obstruct progress and thereby knowingly condemn young people to a future hell on earth. Globally, the UN summit in November will decide whether the world’s governments do not merely pledge in words to reach “net zero” emissions by mid-century but also take actions to do so.
Declaring a “climate emergency” is, too, a matter of words, but politics is often a dance between words and deeds. Words can set the stage for deeds, both by clarifying what is at stake and by providing a standard for holding leaders to account. News organizations have big megaphones, and in 2020 we used them well to help steer our societies through a terrible pandemic. Let 2021 be the year that we declare, in accordance with science, that humanity is facing a climate emergency—an emergency we promise to illuminate and, we hope, help humanity overcome.


thenation--2020-12-17--The Blinding Clarity of John Le Carré

The Blinding Clarity of John Le Carré

During this pandemic summer that was no summer , with space constricted and time expanded , I found myself picking up John Le Carré ’ s 1963 spy novel , The Spy Who Came in From the Cold .
I ’ d read the book decades ago , but my memory of the novel had been distilled into its closing final image—Alec Leamas and Liz Gold on the East German side of the Berlin Wall , two human beings trapped in the crosshairs of guns , searchlights , international intrigue , and institutional betrayal .
Reading the novel again after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by how good it is beyond the genre trappings of a spy thriller , a genre that Le Carré came to define more than any other writer in the 20th century .
The characters are surprisingly complex , while Le Carré ’ s politics come across as far more radical than I remembered from my earlier reading .
Fiedler , the Jewish East German intelligence official , is allowed to be convincing in his communist critique of the capitalist West , although what proves most damning about the West , Le Carré reminds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of British intelligence as they sacrifice Fiedler , Liz ( who is also Jewish ) , and Leamas in a plot orchestrated to save Mundt , Fiedler ’ s brutal boss who works as a double agent for the British .
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience ?
Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation ’ s journalism while you complete your list .
Along with the politics , there is the pleasure of Le Carré ’ s style .
Much has been made of his inventive spycraft @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the Circus , ” “ Control , ” “ lamplighter , ” and “ scalphunter ” that seem to combine the 19th century adventure tales of Robert Louis Stevenson with the wartime code-breaking activities of Britain ’ s Bletchley Park .
But in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold , one notices the prose more than the terminology : “ It was cold that morning ; the light mist was damp and grey , pricking the skin .
The airport reminded Leamas of the war : machines , half hidden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their masters.
” Measured and assured , this is the narrative voice of England ’ s elite white men .
Suggestive of careful schooling and a class confidence that reveals itself in unadorned but wonderfully evocative vocabulary , it peaked in the 20th century before vanishing , it seems , as completely as the Berlin Wall and the Cold War in the dawn of the new millennium .
In Le Carré , this style perfectly matches content , a gray prose for a gray world perpetually somber with memory .
This style is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carré ’ s best work—the Cold War spy novels featuring George Smiley , especially Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , The Honourable Schoolboy , and Smiley ’ s People , the books known collectively as the Karla trilogy , after the Soviet spy whose defection Smiley is attempting to engineer .
After the end of the Cold War , the style evolved .
While some of his later novels looked back at the Cold War years , they also were more engaged in exploring the confusing world that the end of that long war @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s politics , unlike that of compatriots such as Christopher Hitchens , also did not take an imperial turn .
With regard to the war in Iraq and to the targeting of Muslims by the US-led “ war on terror , ” he remained a humane , critical voice .
The same was true of his position on Palestine .
Throughout his skepticism of the West remained intact , its duplicity and self-interest explored with blinding clarity , especially its ability , as Fiedler puts it , to justify “ the taking of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the crowded restaurant ” on the basis that Western capitalism is the necessary and best way .
Yet , for all their incisive anger , the later Le Carré novels do not capture the best of his writing .
One gets the impression that the shiny neoliberal order of Tony Blair and George W. Bush , of drone bombings , orange jumpsuits , and the constant churn of bright images on the internet , did not suit his temperament or gray style as an artist .
His particular ability , animating his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the psychology of an empire in decline , the British sense of a world that was suddenly and simultaneously decolonized , Soviet , and American , three centuries of dominance coming to an end in lonely mansions looking up at gray skies pouring with rain .
As Connie Sachs , an Oxford don who has trained generations of spies , puts it to Smiley in drunken , postimperial melancholy , “ Trained to Empire , trained to rule the waves .
All gone .
All taken away.
” It might have been easy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the new millennium , when Britain appeared to have reinvented itself as effectively as New Labour , goaded on by the fulminations of Niall Ferguson and Martin Amis into a digital , consumerist cool and by new imperial adventures in the old staging grounds of Iraq and Afghanistan .
Yet the events of recent years—Brexit , Trump , and , of course , the astonishing , ongoing unraveling precipitated by Covid-19—remind us that imperial decline may , in fact , be the norm of our times .
In this world of shrunken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or race hubristically attempting to rule the waves , the waves themselves rise inexorably over humankind , Le Carré ’ s fiction of decline manages to speak to us all .

During this pandemic summer that was no summer, with space constricted and time expanded, I found myself picking up John Le Carré’s 1963 spy novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I’d read the book decades ago, but my memory of the novel had been distilled into its closing final image—Alec Leamas and Liz Gold on the East German side of the Berlin Wall, two human beings trapped in the crosshairs of guns, searchlights, international intrigue, and institutional betrayal.
Reading the novel again after all these years, I was surprised by how good it is beyond the genre trappings of a spy thriller, a genre that Le Carré came to define more than any other writer in the 20th century. The characters are surprisingly complex, while Le Carré’s politics come across as far more radical than I remembered from my earlier reading. Fiedler, the Jewish East German intelligence official, is allowed to be convincing in his communist critique of the capitalist West, although what proves most damning about the West, Le Carré reminds us, is the cynicism and anti-Semitism of British intelligence as they sacrifice Fiedler, Liz (who is also Jewish), and Leamas in a plot orchestrated to save Mundt, Fiedler’s brutal boss who works as a double agent for the British. Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
Along with the politics, there is the pleasure of Le Carré’s style. Much has been made of his inventive spycraft terminology, the use of words like “the Circus,” “Control,” “lamplighter,” and “scalphunter” that seem to combine the 19th century adventure tales of Robert Louis Stevenson with the wartime code-breaking activities of Britain’s Bletchley Park. But in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, one notices the prose more than the terminology: “It was cold that morning; the light mist was damp and grey, pricking the skin. The airport reminded Leamas of the war: machines, half hidden in the fog, waiting patiently for their masters.”
Measured and assured, this is the narrative voice of England’s elite white men. Suggestive of careful schooling and a class confidence that reveals itself in unadorned but wonderfully evocative vocabulary, it peaked in the 20th century before vanishing, it seems, as completely as the Berlin Wall and the Cold War in the dawn of the new millennium. In Le Carré, this style perfectly matches content, a gray prose for a gray world perpetually somber with memory.
This style is one of the defining aspects of Le Carré’s best work—the Cold War spy novels featuring George Smiley, especially Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley’s People, the books known collectively as the Karla trilogy, after the Soviet spy whose defection Smiley is attempting to engineer. After the end of the Cold War, the style evolved. While some of his later novels looked back at the Cold War years, they also were more engaged in exploring the confusing world that the end of that long war gave birth to.
Le Carré’s politics, unlike that of compatriots such as Christopher Hitchens, also did not take an imperial turn. With regard to the war in Iraq and to the targeting of Muslims by the US-led “war on terror,” he remained a humane, critical voice. The same was true of his position on Palestine. Throughout his skepticism of the West remained intact, its duplicity and self-interest explored with blinding clarity, especially its ability, as Fiedler puts it, to justify “the taking of human life [and] the bomb in the crowded restaurant” on the basis that Western capitalism is the necessary and best way.
Yet, for all their incisive anger, the later Le Carré novels do not capture the best of his writing. One gets the impression that the shiny neoliberal order of Tony Blair and George W. Bush, of drone bombings, orange jumpsuits, and the constant churn of bright images on the internet, did not suit his temperament or gray style as an artist. His particular ability, animating his Cold War novels, was to capture the psychology of an empire in decline, the British sense of a world that was suddenly and simultaneously decolonized, Soviet, and American, three centuries of dominance coming to an end in lonely mansions looking up at gray skies pouring with rain. As Connie Sachs, an Oxford don who has trained generations of spies, puts it to Smiley in drunken, postimperial melancholy, “Trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves. All gone. All taken away.”
It might have been easy to scoff at this in the light of the new millennium, when Britain appeared to have reinvented itself as effectively as New Labour, goaded on by the fulminations of Niall Ferguson and Martin Amis into a digital, consumerist cool and by new imperial adventures in the old staging grounds of Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet the events of recent years—Brexit, Trump, and, of course, the astonishing, ongoing unraveling precipitated by Covid-19—remind us that imperial decline may, in fact, be the norm of our times. In this world of shrunken horizons, where instead of one nationality or race hubristically attempting to rule the waves, the waves themselves rise inexorably over humankind, Le Carré’s fiction of decline manages to speak to us all.


thenation--2020-12-17--It’s Long Past Time to End Inequality

It’s Long Past Time to End Inequality

Martin Luther King Jr. offered this all-too-relevant comment on his moment in his 1967 speech “ Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community ?
” : King concluded that American society was degrading human life by clinging to old thinking rather than turning to bold , visionary solutions—words that ( sadly enough ) ring even truer in our day than they did in his .
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience ?
Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation ’ s journalism while you complete your list .
In late October as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Policy Institute released a study showing that it isn ’ t just morally right but an economic necessity to deal with poverty in this country and fast .
“ If America does not address what ’ s happening with visionary social and economic policy , ” as that study put it , “ the health and well-being of the nation are at stake .
What we need is long-term economic policy that establishes justice , promotes the general welfare , rejects decades of austerity , and builds strong social programs that lift society @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two months later , we remain trapped in an unprecedented crisis of spreading illness , there is increasingly clear evidence that , were those in power to make other choices , we would no longer need to live burdened by the social ills of old .
Oddly enough , because of the Covid-19 crisis , we ’ re being reminded ( or at least should be reminded ) that , in reality , solutions to many of the most pressing issues of our day are readily at hand if those issues were prioritized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directed toward them .
In a moment overflowing with lessons , one of the least discussed is that scarcity is a lie , a political invention used to cover up vast reserves of capital and technology facilitating the enrichment of the few and justifying the pain and dispossession of so many others .
Our present reality could perhaps best be described as mass abandonment amid abundance .
Indeed , the myth of scarcity , like other neoliberal fantasies , is regularly ignored when politically expedient and conjured up when the rich and powerful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no exception .
Over the last nine months , the wealth of American billionaires has actually increased by a third to nearly $ 4 trillion , even as tens of millions of Americans have filed for unemployment and more evictions loom than ever before in US history .
Now , politicians in Washington are haggling over a “ compromise ” relief bill that offers little in the way of actual relief , especially for those suffering the most .
At the same time , with the health of everyone , not just the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the government has proven itself remarkably capable of mobilizing the necessary resources for decisive and historic action when it comes to producing a Covid-19 vaccine in record time .
It should be obvious that the same could be done when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable and abolishing poverty—if only the nation saw that , too , as a crisis worthy of attention .
Where There ’ s a Will , There ’ s a Way In 1918 , with an influenza pandemic raging in the United States , cities closed down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a national debate ( remarkably similar to the present one ) raged over the necessity of quarantine and masks .
At that time , the country simply had to wait for those who were infected to die or develop immunity .
Before it was over ( in a far less populous land ) , at least 675,000 Americans perished , more than in every one of our wars since the Civil War combined .
A century later , when the Covid-19 pandemic exploded this March , the country ground to a similar terrifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For one thing , the shutdown was accompanied by the promise that the government would invest billions of dollars in a potentially successful vaccine produced far faster than any ever before .
Nine months later , after the Trump administration had funneled those billions into research and had guaranteed the manufacture and purchase of viable vaccines ( radically reducing the business risk to pharmaceutical companies in the process ) , it appears that we are indeed there .
Last month , multiple companies released trial data for just such vaccines that seem to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Great Britain has , in fact , just rolled out the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine , with the United States not far behind .
On Friday , the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer ’ s vaccine for emergency use .
A long list of grave questions remains when it comes to the oversight of , and accountability of , those private companies that now hold the health of the world in their hands .
Already , the British government has granted Pfizer , which stands to earn billions by beating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from any complications that may arise from its vaccine , and the Trump administration has made similar agreements .
Much also remains uncertain when it comes to how American-produced vaccines will be fairly distributed , here and across the world , and whether they will be safe , effective , and free .
( I recently signed on to a public letter to the incoming Biden administration calling for a “ people ’ s vaccine.
” ) Still , it does seem that the historic speed with which this novel virus could eventually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( or set of them ) is likely to prove astonishing .
Historically , on average , successful vaccines have taken 10 to 14 years to develop .
Until now , the fastest effective one ever produced was the mumps vaccine and that took four years .
Nearly as remarkable is how so many people have received the news of the coming of those coronavirus vaccines as if it were the norm .
If anything , in a time of constant , rapid technological revolution , there ’ s a noticeable impatience , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over its taking this long .
The Covid-19 vaccine experience does show one thing , however—what can be done when the resources of this country are marshaled to immediately address a crisis-level issue .
Imagine if the same approach were taken when it came to systemic racism , climate change , or the poverty that has only deepened in the midst of the pandemic crisis .
Indeed , if the political will were there , Americans could clearly tackle massive problems like hunger and homelessness no less effectively than they develop a vaccine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on cruel attempts to drive the homeless away by redesigning park benches and other urban architecture to repel those with nowhere to stay .
After all , in cities like San Francisco , where homelessness is rampant , there are more vacant houses than there are homeless people .
Although the politics of austerity generally reign supreme on both sides of the aisle in Congress ( especially when it comes to anti-poverty programs like welfare ) , it ’ s also true that public spending is regularly and abundantly marshaled to solve issues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the private sector and the military .
From subsidies to major companies like big agriculture to critical R & D expenditures for Silicon Valley to public university research that benefits private industry , funding from the state is often the invisible backbone of American business operations and advances .
Likewise , spending on the military makes up more than half of the federal discretionary budget , funding everything from the 800 American military bases that circle the planet to expensive and risky new technologies and war machines .
Back in March , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as “ a portal.
” She was perhaps suggesting that the widespread suffering caused by Covid-19 could open a doorway into a future in which we humans might begin to treat ourselves and the planet with greater devotion .
In another sense , however , the pandemic has also been a portal into our past , a way of showing us the conditions that have laid the groundwork not just for the devastation that now consumes us but for possibly far worse to come .
No one could have expected this exact crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way .
Yet , before Covid-19 , society was already teetering under the weight of poverty and inequality , and a sober look at history offers clues as to why the United States now has the highest Covid-19 case tally and death toll in the world .
Too many have died because our country ’ s preexisting conditions of systemic injustice have gone untreated for so long and those in power never seem to learn the applicable lesson of this moment : Pandemics spread along the fissures of society , both exposing them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid-19 , there were already 140 million people in this country who were poor or a $ 400 emergency—one job loss , accident , illness , or storm—away from poverty .
Across America , that meant that close to 80 million people were uninsured or underinsured , 60 million had zero ( zero ! )
wealth other than the value of a family car , more than a million were defaulting on federal student loans annually , and more than 62 million workers were making less than $ 15 an hour , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ making only $ 7.25 an hour , the federal minimum wage .
And that ’ s just to begin down a nightmarish list .
For Pamela Sue Rush and about 1.5 million other people , it meant a lack of access to piped water and sewage systems .
Before Pamela , who is Black , contracted Covid-19 and died in July , she lived in a mobile home in Lowndes County , Ala. , where human waste pooled in her backyard because she didn ’ t have proper plumbing , in a state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a country that has no federal guarantee of either health care or clean water .
Covid-19 may have been the immediate cause of her death , but the underlying one was racism and poverty .
During these pandemic months , the notion has been popular that the virus is a great equalizer because everyone is susceptible .
Yet the human and economic toll has been anything but equal across society .
It will take more time to find out just what the mortality rate among the poor has been , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us with compromised immune systems , who are disproportionately poor and people of color , are at greater risk of hospitalization and death from the coronavirus , and early reports suggest that poorer counties have higher death rates .
An unsurprising but alarming new study found that more than 400,000 Covid-19 cases are associated with the lifting of eviction moratoriums , forcing people out of the safety of their homes ; such numbers will only worsen this winter as evictions continue , if such moratoriums aren ’ t extended into the new year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself , the economic fallout has been devastating for the poor .
At least 6 million and possibly 8 million people have fallen below the federal poverty line since March .
And that measure is an old and broken standard : The true numbers are undoubtedly far higher .
The last 38 weeks have seen more unemployment claims than the worst week of the Great Recession of 2007–08 .
Some economists are now talking about a possible quick bounce back once the virus is controlled , and yet the long-term damage is only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 10 years after the Great Recession , a time when little in the way of long-term relief was provided , the majority of workers had still not recovered from it .
That this crisis is already significantly deeper and wider should give us pause as we consider what the next decade will look like if this country doesn ’ t alter its bleak course .
The fissures in our society were vast before Covid-19 hit , and they ’ ve only broadened .
A vaccine will address the most visible of them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to stumble from crisis to crisis until we learn the most important lesson this moment can teach : that our yet-to-be-United States will only heal as a society when every person ’ s needs are met .
In a pandemic , one person without food , water , health care , or housing puts everyone at risk .
The same is , in fact , true in non-pandemic times , for a society riven by poverty and deprivation will always be unstable and vulnerable .
King once told a crowd in St. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ live as brothers or perish together as fools.
” Today , the balance is tipping perilously toward the latter category , as Congress painfully debates a thoroughly anemic relief bill that promises little for most Americans and sets a dangerous precedent for the coming months .
In a recent letter to Joe Manchin , the self-proclaimed “ centrist ” senator from West Virginia , the Rev .
William Barber II ( my cochair on the Poor People ’ s Campaign ) wrote : Indeed , the most important things to note in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protects corporations ( that have not protected their workers ) from any accountability or legal responsibility ; it continues to bail out the rich , not the rest of us , with no provisions for stimulus checks and insufficient funding to states and municipalities ; it lowers unemployment benefits to $ 300 per week ( based on wages of $ 7.50 an hour ) rather than $ 600 per week ( based on $ 15 an hour ) ; it is not only significantly less than the nation needs , but less than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The cynicism of this relief bill lies in the way it diminishes life for political gain and corporate profit and in the false contention that this is the most that ’ s available to us , the best the nation can do .
Call it a cruel stroke of history that Congress should be deliberating on the welfare of millions only a few weeks before Christmas , especially since so many of the key players call themselves “ Christians.
” This holiday season and the winter beyond it promise to be a long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as temperatures drop , Covid-19 cases continue to rise , and poverty and homelessness are transformed into so many more death certificates .
The timing of Congress ’ s new “ relief ” bill is particularly wicked if , as a Christian , you were to remember the details of Jesus ’ birth in that manger in Bethlehem .
After all , he was born a homeless refugee to an unmarried teenage mother and had to flee to Egypt with his family as a baby because the ruling authorities already deemed that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to be a threat to the established order of injustice .
But the powers and principalities of his day were never the only ones who mattered .
There were always those who recognized in his birth that to right the wrongs of society , to protect the lives of countless innocent victims , another way was possible , if society started with the poor and marginalized , not with those already full to the brim .
It ’ s too bad that some of the congressional representatives who call themselves Christian are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consider the homeless revolutionary who was long ago sent to lead a moral movement from below .
They should remember that the story of Christmas celebrates the birth of a poor , brown-skinned leader who , in the Gospel of Luke , is born to “ scatter those who are proud , bring down rulers from their thrones , but lift up the humble .
He fills the hungry with good things but sends the rich away empty.
” Rather than , as King said , “ compress our abundance into the overfed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in a time when more children are on the brink of being born into poverty , homelessness , and state-sanctioned violence , Americans would do well to recognize that scarcity could vanish and that it ’ s time to address systemic inequality .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Get The Nation’s Weekly Newsletter Fridays. The best of the week. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Fridays. The best of the week.
Thank you for signing up for The Nation’s weekly newsletter.
Repro Nation A monthly newsletter on the global fight for reproductive freedom. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here.
Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.
Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
Martin Luther King Jr. offered this all-too-relevant comment on his moment in his 1967 speech “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?”:
The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent.
King concluded that American society was degrading human life by clinging to old thinking rather than turning to bold, visionary solutions—words that (sadly enough) ring even truer in our day than they did in his. Looking for last-minute holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your list.
In late October as the coronavirus pandemic raged, the Economic Policy Institute released a study showing that it isn’t just morally right but an economic necessity to deal with poverty in this country and fast. “If America does not address what’s happening with visionary social and economic policy,” as that study put it, “the health and well-being of the nation are at stake. What we need is long-term economic policy that establishes justice, promotes the general welfare, rejects decades of austerity, and builds strong social programs that lift society from below.”
Even as, almost two months later, we remain trapped in an unprecedented crisis of spreading illness, there is increasingly clear evidence that, were those in power to make other choices, we would no longer need to live burdened by the social ills of old. Oddly enough, because of the Covid-19 crisis, we’re being reminded (or at least should be reminded) that, in reality, solutions to many of the most pressing issues of our day are readily at hand if those issues were prioritized and the attention and resources of society directed toward them. In a moment overflowing with lessons, one of the least discussed is that scarcity is a lie, a political invention used to cover up vast reserves of capital and technology facilitating the enrichment of the few and justifying the pain and dispossession of so many others. Our present reality could perhaps best be described as mass abandonment amid abundance. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
Indeed, the myth of scarcity, like other neoliberal fantasies, is regularly ignored when politically expedient and conjured up when the rich and powerful need help. The pandemic has been no exception. Over the last nine months, the wealth of American billionaires has actually increased by a third to nearly $4 trillion, even as tens of millions of Americans have filed for unemployment and more evictions loom than ever before in US history. Now, politicians in Washington are haggling over a “compromise” relief bill that offers little in the way of actual relief, especially for those suffering the most.
At the same time, with the health of everyone, not just the poor and marginalized, at risk, the government has proven itself remarkably capable of mobilizing the necessary resources for decisive and historic action when it comes to producing a Covid-19 vaccine in record time. It should be obvious that the same could be done when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable and abolishing poverty—if only the nation saw that, too, as a crisis worthy of attention. Current Issue View our current issue
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
In 1918, with an influenza pandemic raging in the United States, cities closed down and doctors prescribed painkillers like aspirin as a national debate (remarkably similar to the present one) raged over the necessity of quarantine and masks. At that time, the country simply had to wait for those who were infected to die or develop immunity. Before it was over (in a far less populous land), at least 675,000 Americans perished, more than in every one of our wars since the Civil War combined.
A century later, when the Covid-19 pandemic exploded this March, the country ground to a similar terrifying halt, but under different conditions: For one thing, the shutdown was accompanied by the promise that the government would invest billions of dollars in a potentially successful vaccine produced far faster than any ever before. Nine months later, after the Trump administration had funneled those billions into research and had guaranteed the manufacture and purchase of viable vaccines (radically reducing the business risk to pharmaceutical companies in the process), it appears that we are indeed there. Last month, multiple companies released trial data for just such vaccines that seem to be nearly 95 percent effective; and Great Britain has, in fact, just rolled out the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with the United States not far behind. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use.
A long list of grave questions remains when it comes to the oversight of, and accountability of, those private companies that now hold the health of the world in their hands. Already, the British government has granted Pfizer, which stands to earn billions by beating the competition to market, legal indemnity from any complications that may arise from its vaccine, and the Trump administration has made similar agreements. Much also remains uncertain when it comes to how American-produced vaccines will be fairly distributed, here and across the world, and whether they will be safe, effective, and free. (I recently signed on to a public letter to the incoming Biden administration calling for a “people’s vaccine.”)
Still, it does seem that the historic speed with which this novel virus could eventually be curbed by just such a vaccine (or set of them) is likely to prove astonishing. Historically, on average, successful vaccines have taken 10 to 14 years to develop. Until now, the fastest effective one ever produced was the mumps vaccine and that took four years. Nearly as remarkable is how so many people have received the news of the coming of those coronavirus vaccines as if it were the norm. If anything, in a time of constant, rapid technological revolution, there’s a noticeable impatience, stoked by Donald Trump and others, over its taking this long.
The Covid-19 vaccine experience does show one thing, however—what can be done when the resources of this country are marshaled to immediately address a crisis-level issue. Imagine if the same approach were taken when it came to systemic racism, climate change, or the poverty that has only deepened in the midst of the pandemic crisis. Indeed, if the political will were there, Americans could clearly tackle massive problems like hunger and homelessness no less effectively than they develop a vaccine, instead of spending millions of dollars on cruel attempts to drive the homeless away by redesigning park benches and other urban architecture to repel those with nowhere to stay. After all, in cities like San Francisco, where homelessness is rampant, there are more vacant houses than there are homeless people.
Although the politics of austerity generally reign supreme on both sides of the aisle in Congress (especially when it comes to anti-poverty programs like welfare), it’s also true that public spending is regularly and abundantly marshaled to solve issues that affect certain parts of society—namely, the private sector and the military. From subsidies to major companies like big agriculture to critical R&D expenditures for Silicon Valley to public university research that benefits private industry, funding from the state is often the invisible backbone of American business operations and advances. Likewise, spending on the military makes up more than half of the federal discretionary budget, funding everything from the 800 American military bases that circle the planet to expensive and risky new technologies and war machines.
Lessons from the Pandemic
Back in March, the writer Arundhati Roy spoke of the pandemic as “a portal.” She was perhaps suggesting that the widespread suffering caused by Covid-19 could open a doorway into a future in which we humans might begin to treat ourselves and the planet with greater devotion. In another sense, however, the pandemic has also been a portal into our past, a way of showing us the conditions that have laid the groundwork not just for the devastation that now consumes us but for possibly far worse to come.
No one could have expected this exact crisis at this exact moment in exactly this way. Yet, before Covid-19, society was already teetering under the weight of poverty and inequality, and a sober look at history offers clues as to why the United States now has the highest Covid-19 case tally and death toll in the world. Too many have died because our country’s preexisting conditions of systemic injustice have gone untreated for so long and those in power never seem to learn the applicable lesson of this moment: Pandemics spread along the fissures of society, both exposing them more and deepening them further.
Before Covid-19, there were already 140 million people in this country who were poor or a $400 emergency—one job loss, accident, illness, or storm—away from poverty. Across America, that meant that close to 80 million people were uninsured or underinsured, 60 million had zero (zero!) wealth other than the value of a family car, more than a million were defaulting on federal student loans annually, and more than 62 million workers were making less than $15 an hour, with more than 2 million in Florida alone making only $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage. And that’s just to begin down a nightmarish list.
For Pamela Sue Rush and about 1.5 million other people, it meant a lack of access to piped water and sewage systems. Before Pamela, who is Black, contracted Covid-19 and died in July, she lived in a mobile home in Lowndes County, Ala., where human waste pooled in her backyard because she didn’t have proper plumbing, in a state that still hasn’t expanded Medicaid and a country that has no federal guarantee of either health care or clean water. Covid-19 may have been the immediate cause of her death, but the underlying one was racism and poverty.
During these pandemic months, the notion has been popular that the virus is a great equalizer because everyone is susceptible. Yet the human and economic toll has been anything but equal across society. It will take more time to find out just what the mortality rate among the poor has been, but it’s already clear that those of us with compromised immune systems, who are disproportionately poor and people of color, are at greater risk of hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, and early reports suggest that poorer counties have higher death rates. An unsurprising but alarming new study found that more than 400,000 Covid-19 cases are associated with the lifting of eviction moratoriums, forcing people out of the safety of their homes; such numbers will only worsen this winter as evictions continue, if such moratoriums aren’t extended into the new year.
Beyond the toll of the virus itself, the economic fallout has been devastating for the poor. At least 6 million and possibly 8 million people have fallen below the federal poverty line since March. And that measure is an old and broken standard: The true numbers are undoubtedly far higher. The last 38 weeks have seen more unemployment claims than the worst week of the Great Recession of 2007–08. Some economists are now talking about a possible quick bounce back once the virus is controlled, and yet the long-term damage is only beginning to reveal itself. After all, 10 years after the Great Recession, a time when little in the way of long-term relief was provided, the majority of workers had still not recovered from it. That this crisis is already significantly deeper and wider should give us pause as we consider what the next decade will look like if this country doesn’t alter its bleak course.
The fissures in our society were vast before Covid-19 hit, and they’ve only broadened. A vaccine will address the most visible of them, but we as a nation will continue to stumble from crisis to crisis until we learn the most important lesson this moment can teach: that our yet-to-be-United States will only heal as a society when every person’s needs are met. In a pandemic, one person without food, water, health care, or housing puts everyone at risk. The same is, in fact, true in non-pandemic times, for a society riven by poverty and deprivation will always be unstable and vulnerable.
King once told a crowd in St. Louis that “we must learn to live as brothers or perish together as fools.” Today, the balance is tipping perilously toward the latter category, as Congress painfully debates a thoroughly anemic relief bill that promises little for most Americans and sets a dangerous precedent for the coming months. In a recent letter to Joe Manchin, the self-proclaimed “centrist” senator from West Virginia, the Rev. William Barber II (my cochair on the Poor People’s Campaign) wrote:
I am ashamed of this nation. I know you want to do the right thing, and Republicans are tying your hands, but please don’t call this a “centrist plan.” It’s more cynical than centrist. It’s damn near criminal that millions are hurting, billionaires are getting richer, sick people are dying, poverty is expanding, and the Senate can’t do the right thing.
Indeed, the most important things to note in the coming stimulus bill are these: It protects corporations (that have not protected their workers) from any accountability or legal responsibility; it continues to bail out the rich, not the rest of us, with no provisions for stimulus checks and insufficient funding to states and municipalities; it lowers unemployment benefits to $300 per week (based on wages of $7.50 an hour) rather than $600 per week (based on $15 an hour); it is not only significantly less than the nation needs, but less than what was on offer months ago. The cynicism of this relief bill lies in the way it diminishes life for political gain and corporate profit and in the false contention that this is the most that’s available to us, the best the nation can do.
The Ghosts of Christmas Present
Call it a cruel stroke of history that Congress should be deliberating on the welfare of millions only a few weeks before Christmas, especially since so many of the key players call themselves “Christians.” This holiday season and the winter beyond it promise to be a long, dark portal to who knows where, as temperatures drop, Covid-19 cases continue to rise, and poverty and homelessness are transformed into so many more death certificates. The timing of Congress’s new “relief” bill is particularly wicked if, as a Christian, you were to remember the details of Jesus’ birth in that manger in Bethlehem.
After all, he was born a homeless refugee to an unmarried teenage mother and had to flee to Egypt with his family as a baby because the ruling authorities already deemed that this poor Palestinian Jewish boy would grow up to be a threat to the established order of injustice. But the powers and principalities of his day were never the only ones who mattered. There were always those who recognized in his birth that to right the wrongs of society, to protect the lives of countless innocent victims, another way was possible, if society started with the poor and marginalized, not with those already full to the brim.
It’s too bad that some of the congressional representatives who call themselves Christian are so unwilling to take a moment to consider the homeless revolutionary who was long ago sent to lead a moral movement from below. They should remember that the story of Christmas celebrates the birth of a poor, brown-skinned leader who, in the Gospel of Luke, is born to “scatter those who are proud, bring down rulers from their thrones, but lift up the humble. He fills the hungry with good things but sends the rich away empty.”
Rather than, as King said, “compress our abundance into the overfed mouths” of the wealthy and corporations, in a time when more children are on the brink of being born into poverty, homelessness, and state-sanctioned violence, Americans would do well to recognize that scarcity could vanish and that it’s time to address systemic inequality.