“Neoliberalism and finance capital have been defeated by coronavirus”
In this article written for People’s Dispatch, João Pedro Stedile – member of MST’s national board analyses the current international and Brazilian contexts in wake of the coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is an uncontrollable element in politics, but it has accentuated the economic crisis of global capitalism. It has provoked a situation that questions the fundamentals of neoliberalism and of capitalism itself. The idea that the market resolves everything, which is defended by neoliberals, and that everything is controlled by finance capital and the transnational companies – all this stares at defeat.
Even the three leaders of populist, neofascist governments that positioned themselves against the measures to combat the virus – Boris Johnson in the UK, Trump in the US and Bolsonaro in Brazil – were defeated by the virus. In this context, we can say that we are going to emerge from this crisis, with problems of public health of course, but also with the US empire facing defeat.