the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Apr 20, 2020
In 2010, Newport Medical Instruments got a contract to produce ventilators for the federal government’s depleted emergency stockpile, to be used for situations like the current coronavirus pandemic.
But a larger company, Covidien, bought up Newport Medical Instruments in 2012. Covidien refused to honor the contract to build ventilators. There wasn’t enough profit in it.
The takeover by Covidien and its cancellation of the contract was approved by the Federal Trade Commission and the federal government. These much-needed ventilators were never built. And the federal government’s stockpile of ventilators was still depleted when the Coronavirus pandemic hit this country.
For the corporations and the government that serves the wealthy, nothing comes before profit, not health care, not even life and death. That is how capitalism functions. It is a system that must be replaced by a system that serves the needs of all humanity.