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
May 18, 2020
Across the country, lines for food banks have been stretching for miles. In April, almost one in five households with young children in the U.S. reported either that their children weren’t eating enough because they couldn’t afford food, or that the food they bought didn’t last and they didn’t have money to get more.
The COVID-19 crisis touched off a massive increase in hunger, but more than 10% of people in the U.S. already faced “food insecurity” before the pandemic. And hunger was already about to get worse because of a new work requirement that was set to go into effect in April for the main program providing food aid in the country, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. That work rule has been temporarily suspended during the COVID-19 crisis—but at least so far, it has not been suspended for the economic crisis that will continue for who knows how long.
While hunger is growing especially among children, this country has plenty of food—more than can be sold, in fact. Farmers have been plowing under crops, disposing of animals raised for meat, and dumping millions of gallons of milk because they cannot find buyers.
This capitalist system that actively destroys food while leaving millions of children to go hungry belongs in the dustbin of history.