#CoronaCapitalism

How are corporations and capitalism responding to the corona crisis? How have they contributed to it? How are they affected by it? And how are people supporting each other and fighting for a different future as it continues?

Capitalism helped create this crisis: see our article here on a few of the ways this economic system makes and spreads the healthcare crisis and its wider impacts. And as with every crisis, capitalism looks for ways to cash in. Companies like Amazon put workers at risk to pump out deliveries, hedge funds make millions short-selling the stock markets, everyone from banks to landlords push for government handouts even as they lay off staff. Governments take advantage of the panic to ramp up authoritarian powers.

People are organising against this, in their communities and workplaces. Responding to increased isolation, mutual aid groups have sprung up across the UK and the world (see https://covidmutualaid.org/). Fear can turn into anger, not against each other, but against the system that has brought us here. And radical change can happen.

To help us stay informed and think through these important issues, we are using this page to compile some of the most useful and interesting articles, news and resources on coronavirus and capitalism that we come across. If you see some yourselves, tweet @corpwatchuk with the #CoronaCapitalism hashtag or email us at contact[AT]corporatewatch.org. Sign up to our news update emails to receive info straight into your inbox.

In solidarity,
the Corporate Watch crew

Our own articles on Corona Capitalism

6 ways capitalism spreads the corona crisis: industrial agriculture, Big Pharma, healthcare profiteering, work conditions, panic media, lockdown inequality and repression — and the profit system that drives it all.

Riots, resistance and releases — the corona virus and the Prison Industrial Complex: an overview of prison struggles worldwide in the time of corona

Companies cashing in on the crisis — Part 1: featuring Big Pharma; Crispin Odey; Amazon; Deliveroo; Balfour Beatty; Britannia Hotels; Marshall Wace; Richard Branson

Companies cashing in on the crisis — Part 2: featuring airline bailouts, Travelodge, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Wren Kitchens

 

Other recommended Corona related compilations

Netpol and the Undercover Research Group have a regularly updated blog on the policing of Britain’s #COVID19 state of emergency #PolicingTheCoronaState: https://policing-the-corona-state.blog/

The Anarchist Library has a section devoted to documenting and archiving various anarchist and libertarian literature written about the COVID-19 pandemic: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/topic/covid-19

Writing from the web

Obviously the situation with Covid-19 is developing pretty rapidly, but we’ve tried to make sure that the content we’ve chosen will still be worth reading well beyond it’s publication date and some of the older pieces have some great analysis.