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Title: A Fork in the Road
Author: Anathema
Date: April 2020
Language: en
Topics: COVID-19
Source: Retrieved on 2020-04-16 from https://anathema.noblogs.org/files/2020/04/mar-apr_2020.pdf

Anathema

A Fork in the Road

The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing us to a fork in the road. On one side

we see the near future that power wants: an atomized and remote

workforce, a drastic decrease in spontaneous in-person social life, a

big increase in who is considered surplus population as “non-essential”

work is cancelled, and a bunch more surveillance, policing, and social

control. On the other hand, the state is scared, it’s showing that

government is capable of providing social security when the choice is

between that and an uncontrolled breakdown in the social order. Neither

of these paths lead to places that we, as anarchists, can feel good

about. As this pandemic runs its course and society changes because of

it, a new normal will slowly congeal as things cool down. What that

normal looks like and how it comes about is still up in the air.

In the name of “public health” all sort of security measures are coming

together to create an authoritarian wet dream. Internationally borders

are becoming more difficult to cross, and anti-immigrant and

specifically anti-Asian sentiment is on the rise as racists in the media

and politics stir up fear hostility toward China. Earlier in the month

video surfaced of an Asian couple being beaten by a group of people on a

SEPTA platform, and Philly isn’t the only place seeing this sort of

harassment, New York and Los Angeles have also experienced similar

attacks. The state is encouraging what is being called “social

distancing.” People are advised to stay home, cut down on social outings

and gatherings, stay six feet apart, and digitize or give up on

in-person social life. Schools and universities are closing left and

right. At least one school is taking it even further, the University of

Pennsylvania sent an email to its students March 14 explaining that

social distancing is encouraged and that students “congregating on

campus, or off campus, will face immediate intervention by Penn Police.”

It would not be surprising to see other institutions or even the city

itself take on similarly drastic measures. The Board of Health has made

forcing people to quarantine legal. Many workplaces are asking their

workers to work from home, reducing their hours, or laying them off.

Workers that are considered non-essential are falling through the cracks

financially. What we see forming is a way of life that is sterile,

policed, mediated, and closed off. When this pandemic tapers off, who’s

to say that bosses, cops, and politicians won’t like the peace and quiet

enough to keep using all these new ways of controlling the population?

Once those in power have the means and the compliance of the population,

how easy would it be for them to simply keep the ball rolling? Is what

we’re seeing as a crisis response a glimpse into the new “normal” we’ll

live after the crisis?

At the same time, power is scared. The state and capitalists have made

some proposals and offers that would have seemed outrageous a few months

ago. Comcast is offering free access to its internet networks to the

poor, offering unlimited data, and has put a hold on shutting off

connections. Verizon is making a similar offer. PECO, PGW, and

Philadelphia Water Department have all pledged to not disconnect

utilities even if they are owed money (for the time being). A resolution

has passed that prevents utility shutoffs and also places a moratorium

on evictions, foreclosures, and tax-lien sales until the pandemic

clears. This means that the issue of losing ones housing during the

crisis could be less likely if your landlord doesn’t decide to lock you

out illegally (although rent and tax debt will continue to drain our

wallets). Federally the state is expanding who qualifies for

unemployment, and figuring out how to send $1200 to millions of US

citizens. These offers and proposals go to show that the means of

existence — shelter, warmth, water, and communication — could be

provided to everyone by the state and capital. Of course these kinds of

actions by the state are unlikely to last, the aversion of US

politicians to anything that remotely resembles consideration for social

well-being is derided as socialism or communism. Either way the services

and infrastructure to take care of each other and our needs exist and

outside a capitalist economy could be much more accessible than our

current setup. With that in mind why would or should we entrust our

health and social life to the institutions that could, but do not and

never will, meet our needs? This pandemic only makes more clear the

absurd priorities of the state and capitalists. In the unlikely event

that the state and capitalists decided to adopt a welfare state model we

still have no guarantees that this wouldn’t be coupled with intense

policing and isolation, that it would last, or would include those who

are most oppressed.

There is a third way: resisting the isolation and policing, and also

sidestepping a social safety net that could be pulled out from beneath

us as soon as we’re well enough to work and pay, we can take

responsibility for ourselves and self-organize. As we lose our hours or

jobs we are still expected to pay to live, to eat, to move about the

city. As we worry for our individual and collective health, we can

figure out how to meet our needs outside the systems that would rather

see us sick and alone. Schools, offices, stores, and many other places

are sitting empty. Can we imagine open-sourcing test kits and occupying

labs to make them readily available? People are already organizing rent

strikes and opening up squats to make life without work go from a crisis

imposed disaster to a joyful freeing of our time and space? When food

and health care supplies are in short supply, will we have squatted

gardens and autonomous clinics to meet our needs?* Will the local

pharmacy continue to profit off our fears and desire to take care of

ourselves, or will it be taken over to provide medicine, snacks, and

hygiene supplies to whoever needs? Will we take advantage of the crisis

to leave the city to start a farm or food forest on some under-policed

plot of land? This pandemic is making power’s disdain for free and

healthy life more than clear. Will we respond by folding into ourselves,

losing ourselves behind glowing blue screens and locked doors or will we

make our lives our own and create the health and freedom we need to life

in the midst of crisis?