
The impact of COVID-19 in China & the US
Sara Flounders is a writer and an activist who has been involved in progressive and anti-war organizing since the ’60s. She is a member of the Secretariat of the Workers World Party, co-founder of the International Action Center, and a frequent contributor to the Workers World newspaper. She has traveled, spoken and organized extensively on behalf of justice and in opposition to imperialism, and it was an honor to speak to someone who is so accomplished.
The focus of our conversation was the just released book, “Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of Covid-19 in China & the U.S.” of which Sara is a co-editor. The volume is an anthology of articles by over 50 activists and independent journalists from around the world covering the pandemic from December 2019 to August of this year. The book covers a lot of ground under the over-arching theme of “cooperation vs. competition.”
We discussed the basic facts of China’s response, including the role of their local community associations; how younger people in the US are more skeptical of capitalism than the older generations; the sorry state of health in the US; the myth of Chinese “backwardness”; the US military’s “pivot to Asia”; China’s aid to countries all over the world; the role of the US media in concealing the broader picture of the problems with US healthcare; the squashing of alternative media online by algorithms; the bipartisan consensus in the US; and the censorship of this book by Amazon.
Article by Sara, referenced in interview: “China’s global vaccines – a game changer”
Sneak preview of “Capitalism on a Ventilator,” including four sample chapters
Buy the eBook | Buy the hardcopy