he RCIT has warned from the very beginning in spring 2020 that the COVID policy is not designed to serve the interests of public health. It is rather used as a pretext for dramatically expanding the police and surveillance state so that the ruling class can better control the masses in a period of deep economic crisis and popular unrest. [1]
We explained that the system of the “Health Pass” (or “Green Pass”) plays a key role in such a policy to increase surveillance of the popular masses. Such a pass allows to massively restrict the freedom of movement for people who don’t meet the official standards imposed by the government (e.g. if they are not vaccinated). Furthermore, such a pass is often combined with a specific app on the mobile phone. (“Corona App”) This app allows the state apparatus to trace where you are at any time. The official excuse for this is that this would help to contain the spreading of the virus. But only those with naïve illusions in the capitalist state will deny that such a tracing app can and will also be used for other purposes!
It goes without saying that such a system of control and surveillance can only be managed if it is accompanied with the massive expansion of a state apparatus. It requires a centralized data entry system of the health conditions of all citizens and of information of who has been at which place at what time. Without such a centralized data entry system no “Health Pass” system could work. In addition, the state needs to massively increase the personal of the repression apparatus (police, army, etc.) so that it execute the restrictions in public places, transport, cafeteria, etc.
The implementation of this system is already far advanced. In October 2021, the EU announced that more than 591 million EU Digital COVID-19 Passport have been issued so far. [2]
A recently published report of the European Union – in cooperation with the OECD – confirms our analysis that the ruling class plans to further expand and to extend these instruments of control and surveillance. This report – called “State of Health in the EU: Companion Report 2021” – provides an interesting insight into the plans of the leading circles of the EU. [3]
“Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most European countries employed some digital health tools in the area of public health to support infectious disease monitoring and surveillance. (…) During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health tools were also employed to support contact-tracing, a key component of an effective disease containment strategy. However, contact tracing is also a very labour-intensive process that became unmanageable without the support of digital tools once the number of infections reached a certain threshold. As the number of professional contact-tracers was insufficient in most European countries in the early phase of the pandemic, most EU countries developed their national mobile contact-tracing and warning apps to support this process.“ (p. 19)
“The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up ‘by necessity’ the implementation of major changes required to increase the use of digital health technologies. As outlined at the beginning of this section, technical challenges were only one of the obstacles to implementation prior to the pandemic. In fact, for several digital health technologies, evidence suggests that important enablers of their increased adoption during the pandemic consisted in changes to the rules that governed their use by health workers. Even though changes to the regulatory and reimbursement frameworks contributed to increasing the adoption of digital health tools, in some countries these changes have been conceived as temporary measures linked to the COVID-19 emergency. Looking beyond the pandemic, it will be important to investigate the experiences of both health workers and patients who have used digital health tools during the pandemic, also with a view to evaluate their effectiveness and devise adequate financial and regulatory provisions.” (p. 22)
If one translates the diplomatic language into plain English, the meaning becomes clear. The “digital health tools” (read: Contact Apps on your mobile, Green Pass with QR Code, etc.) were employed to support contact-tracing (read: surveillance).
The report says that “in some countries these changes have been conceived as temporary measures linked to the COVID-19 emergency.” This means, in turn, that “other countries” have conceived these new surveillance tools from the beginning not as temporarily but as permanent.
The final sentences of the quote above indicate that the EU Commission wants to extend the use of these surveillance instruments also for the period after the official end of the pandemic.
In fact, the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, did already announce earlier this year that she wants to introduce a universal “Health Pass” in the whole of the EU. This pass shall contain information about the health status, the status of vaccination, as well as a QR code. “Later, additional information can be added.”. (Hm, which information could this be?!) Such vaccination passports „will be an important instrument for citizens during the pandemic but also after (!) we have overcome it.“ [4]
Let us note in passing that it is neither accidental not without irony that the husband of Ms. Kyriakides, a Cypriot millionaire, is under suspicion of corruption after getting several loans worth millions of Euros from a state bank. [5]
Let us conclude that the system of a “Health Pass” is not a temporary instrument. It is – and it has been designed as such from the very beginning – an instrument of the ruling class to control and surveil the popular masses which they plan to keep even after the pandemic might have officially ended.
It is both a shame as well as a tragedy that most sectors of the reformist and centrist left still refuse to recognize the extraordinary bonapartist character of the COVID policy which has always been designed to expand massively the powers of the capitalist state. In fact, the Lockdown Left has capitulated to the COVID Counterrevolution since the very beginning. In contrast, authentic socialists must refuse this opportunist course and join the RCIT in fighting for a revolutionary and democratic perspective!
[1] The RCIT has analyzed the COVID-19 counterrevolution extensively since its beginning. Starting from 2 February 2020 we have published about 100 pamphlets, essays, articles and statements plus a book which are all compiled at a special sub-page on our website: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/collection-of-articles-on-the-2019-corona-virus/. In particular we refer readers to two RCIT Manifestos: COVID-19: A Cover for a Major Global Counterrevolutionary Offensive. We are at a turning point in the world situation as the ruling classes provoke a war-like atmosphere in order to legitimize the build-up of chauvinist state-bonapartist regimes, 21 March 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/covid-19-a-cover-for-a-major-global-counterrevolutionary-offensive/; “Green Pass” & Compulsory Vaccinations: A New Stage in the COVID Counterrevolution. Down with the chauvinist-bonapartist police & surveillance state – defend democratic rights! No to health policy in the service of the capitalist monopolies – expand the public health sector under workers and popular control! 29 July 2021, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/green-pass-compulsory-vaccinations-a-new-stage-in-the-covid-counterrevolution/; In addition, we draw attention to our book by Michael Pröbsting: The COVID-19 Global Counterrevolution: What It Is and How to Fight It. A Marxist analysis and strategy for the revolutionary struggle, RCIT Books, April 2020, Chapter V, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/the-covid-19-global-counterrevolution/. See also our very first article on this issue by Almedina Gunić: Coronavirus: „I am not a Virus“… but WE will be the Cure! The chauvinist campaign behind the “Wuhan Coronavirus” hysteria and the revolutionary answer, 2 February 2020, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/wuhan-virus/. Almedina Gunić and Michael Pröbsting: On Some Ideological Features of the COVID Counterrevolution. Comments on an interesting interview with a German liberal historian, 14 November 2021, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/on-some-ideological-features-of-the-covid-counterrevolution/; See also a number of Spanish-language articles of our Argentinean comrades: Juan Giglio: La izquierda de la „Big Pharma“, dejó de defender las libertades, 1.10.2021, https://convergenciadecombate.blogspot.com/2021/10/la-izquierda-de-la-big-pharma-dejo-de.html; Juan Giglio: ¿Por qué la izquierda no cuestiona las políticas de la OMS? 8.9.2021, https://convergenciadecombate.blogspot.com/2021/09/por-que-la-izquierda-no-cuestiona-las.html
[2] More Than 591 Million EU Digital COVID-19 Passport Issued So Far – Commission Calls It a Global Standard, October 18, 2021, https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/more-than-591-million-eu-digital-covid-19-passport-issued-so-far-commission-calls-it-a-global-standard/
[3] State of Health in the EU: Companion Report 2021, Commission Staff Working Document, Brussels, 10 December 2021
[4] Quoted in ZDF: Experten einig über Eckdaten – EU: Nächster Schritt zum Corona-Impfpass, 28.01.2021, https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/panorama/corona-eu-impfpass-100.html (our translation)
[5] Johannes Edelhof: Ehemann von EU-Impf-Kommissarin Kyriakides unter Korruptionsverdacht, Das Erste, 06.04.2021, https://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/aktuell/Ehemann-von-EU-Impf-Kommissarin-Kyriakides-unter-Korruptionsverdacht,kyriakides100.html
taken from here