1 00:00:01,937 --> 00:00:05,194 Around the world, we have seen national governments 2 00:00:05,294 --> 00:00:09,020 approach the COVID-19 pandemic in different ways. 3 00:00:09,121 --> 00:00:13,667 From encouraging voluntary social distancing measures, 4 00:00:13,767 --> 00:00:17,329 through mass electronic surveillance of the population, 5 00:00:17,429 --> 00:00:20,533 to total quarantines imposed by police 6 00:00:20,633 --> 00:00:23,738 using their entire apparatus of repression. 7 00:00:24,959 --> 00:00:29,871 We watched scenes that could have come out of science fiction films. 8 00:00:32,182 --> 00:00:35,180 Measures that a short time ago most of us would consider absurd, 9 00:00:35,281 --> 00:00:40,023 dystopian and nightmarish have become commonplace. 10 00:00:40,747 --> 00:00:42,800 In Brazil, curiously, 11 00:00:42,900 --> 00:00:46,216 many people who criticize Bolsonaro for his authoritarianism 12 00:00:46,316 --> 00:00:47,941 and for defending the dictatorship, 13 00:00:48,041 --> 00:00:51,213 also criticize him for not taking more authoritarian measures 14 00:00:51,313 --> 00:00:53,187 to contain the pandemic. 15 00:00:54,102 --> 00:00:57,942 Billions of people all over the world have seen their lives 16 00:00:58,042 --> 00:01:00,719 radically transformed overnight. 17 00:01:00,819 --> 00:01:03,442 Social distancing, the fear of a new unknown virus 18 00:01:03,542 --> 00:01:06,570 and the threat of a deep and prolonged economic crisis 19 00:01:06,671 --> 00:01:09,462 have shaken us in ways that would have been 20 00:01:09,562 --> 00:01:11,176 unimaginable earlier this year. 21 00:01:11,276 --> 00:01:14,197 The simple fact that crowds pose 22 00:01:14,297 --> 00:01:16,382 a great health risk to everyone 23 00:01:16,482 --> 00:01:17,999 already disempowers us, 24 00:01:18,099 --> 00:01:21,438 regardless of how the State in our region is reacting. 25 00:01:21,538 --> 00:01:25,314 After all, many of our tools for collective self-defense 26 00:01:25,415 --> 00:01:28,957 depend on physical concentration in large numbers. 27 00:01:29,278 --> 00:01:32,269 Yes, the pandemic is extremely serious. 28 00:01:32,369 --> 00:01:35,363 Tens of thousands of lives have already been lost. 29 00:01:35,463 --> 00:01:40,701 In Brazil, the virus has killed more people in the first four months of 2020 30 00:01:40,801 --> 00:01:43,209 than the police did all last year. 31 00:01:44,305 --> 00:01:46,021 We need to take care of ourselves. 32 00:01:46,021 --> 00:01:48,654 We need to do everything possible to protect ourselves. 33 00:01:48,754 --> 00:01:52,746 But is asking for more authoritarianism the best path? 34 00:01:52,846 --> 00:01:57,186 Will giving more power to governments and corporations solve the problem? 35 00:01:57,967 --> 00:01:59,600 And what will the world be like then? 36 00:01:59,700 --> 00:02:02,093 Will it be a world that we want to live in? 37 00:02:03,253 --> 00:02:07,489 It would be a huge mistake for us to allow fear and uncertainty 38 00:02:07,589 --> 00:02:10,248 to push us to let the State and corporations 39 00:02:10,348 --> 00:02:12,542 concentrate even more power. 40 00:02:13,300 --> 00:02:16,675 Fear often causes us to make hasty decisions, 41 00:02:16,775 --> 00:02:19,413 without analyzing all their possible impacts. 42 00:02:19,513 --> 00:02:22,546 The State takes advantage of this in every crisis. 43 00:02:22,646 --> 00:02:24,363 Whether at the beginning of wars, 44 00:02:24,464 --> 00:02:25,806 economic crises, 45 00:02:25,907 --> 00:02:27,993 or a pandemic that threatens millions of lives, 46 00:02:28,093 --> 00:02:31,792 it will always tell us that if we give up a little more power, 47 00:02:31,893 --> 00:02:35,336 if we give up a little more of our freedom, 48 00:02:35,336 --> 00:02:37,806 it will keep us safe and sound. 49 00:02:38,899 --> 00:02:41,118 Giving police the power to control 50 00:02:41,218 --> 00:02:43,657 who can and can’t circulate in the streets, 51 00:02:43,757 --> 00:02:46,275 and to detain, fine or otherwise punish 52 00:02:46,375 --> 00:02:49,393 those who do not comply with social distancing guidelines 53 00:02:49,493 --> 00:02:51,791 can set a dangerous precedent. 54 00:02:51,891 --> 00:02:53,657 These measures can be used 55 00:02:53,757 --> 00:02:56,004 - and are already being used in some parts of the world - 56 00:02:56,104 --> 00:02:58,468 to repress dissent 57 00:02:58,568 --> 00:03:01,331 and increase the criminalization 58 00:03:01,431 --> 00:03:03,234 of people on the street 59 00:03:03,335 --> 00:03:05,070 without a home to isolate themselves in, 60 00:03:05,170 --> 00:03:07,965 and poor communities where people 61 00:03:08,065 --> 00:03:11,946 need to leave home and work to put food on their table. 62 00:03:12,046 --> 00:03:15,235 The same goes for the monitoring of our movements 63 00:03:15,336 --> 00:03:17,281 through mobile phone networks. 64 00:03:17,381 --> 00:03:20,041 This was done on a large scale in South Korea 65 00:03:20,141 --> 00:03:21,939 to track contaminated people, 66 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:24,137 figure out who they’d been in contact with previously, 67 00:03:24,238 --> 00:03:27,545 and then ensure that all these people were isolated. 68 00:03:27,645 --> 00:03:30,470 But do we want the government to be able to track 69 00:03:30,570 --> 00:03:32,657 people of a certain political orientation, 70 00:03:32,757 --> 00:03:34,482 who accessed a certain website, 71 00:03:34,582 --> 00:03:36,931 or who were in such a place at such a time? 72 00:03:37,032 --> 00:03:40,652 Even if it were possible to “anonymize” this data (as they claim) 73 00:03:40,753 --> 00:03:42,690 and only use it to monitor 74 00:03:42,790 --> 00:03:45,987 the movements of crowds and specific populations— 75 00:03:46,087 --> 00:03:50,608 these tools will still be available in two to five years. 76 00:03:50,708 --> 00:03:52,583 Who guarantees that these measures won’t be used 77 00:03:52,684 --> 00:03:54,929 to repress unwanted assemblies, 78 00:03:55,029 --> 00:03:58,143 such as meetings of political and/or religious movements, 79 00:03:58,243 --> 00:04:01,775 by an authoritarian government led by fundamentalists? 80 00:04:01,875 --> 00:04:05,381 Or even by a “democratic” government seeking stability? 81 00:04:06,901 --> 00:04:10,572 Of course, Bolsonaro has blood on his hands 82 00:04:10,673 --> 00:04:15,203 for denying the gravity of the situation and inciting people to take to the streets. 83 00:04:15,303 --> 00:04:17,917 But is a corporation like Twitter or Facebook 84 00:04:18,017 --> 00:04:19,914 censoring the president’s posts 85 00:04:20,014 --> 00:04:22,239 really a reason for celebration? 86 00:04:22,339 --> 00:04:24,726 Is it clever to silence a dissonant opinion, 87 00:04:24,827 --> 00:04:28,221 just because it goes against the scientific consensus of our time? 88 00:04:28,321 --> 00:04:31,423 As important as it is to ensure that scientific thinking 89 00:04:31,523 --> 00:04:33,953 is properly heard and considered, 90 00:04:34,053 --> 00:04:36,996 it’s just as important to protect our ability to question authorities— 91 00:04:37,096 --> 00:04:39,515 even scientific authority. 92 00:04:40,512 --> 00:04:42,983 We will regret it if we let 93 00:04:43,083 --> 00:04:46,148 these measures be implemented without resistance, 94 00:04:46,248 --> 00:04:48,795 because they are likely to outlast the crisis itself, 95 00:04:48,895 --> 00:04:51,283 or provide a reason to prolong the crisis 96 00:04:51,383 --> 00:04:53,590 in order to justify their continuation. 97 00:04:55,481 --> 00:04:58,705 History shows that concessions of expanded power granted to the State 98 00:04:58,805 --> 00:05:01,810 or corporations during an emergency are never temporary. 99 00:05:01,910 --> 00:05:04,878 We must bear in mind that these measures 100 00:05:04,978 --> 00:05:08,425 are likely to continue and expand when the crisis has passed. 101 00:05:08,525 --> 00:05:10,465 This happened in the United States 102 00:05:10,565 --> 00:05:13,965 with the laws that emerged after the 9/11 attacks, 103 00:05:14,065 --> 00:05:16,710 and which were only supposed to be in effect for five years. 104 00:05:16,810 --> 00:05:20,164 They allowed the State to arrest and torture people 105 00:05:20,264 --> 00:05:22,773 on suspicion of terrorism without evidence. 106 00:05:22,873 --> 00:05:25,524 These laws are still in force today. 107 00:05:25,624 --> 00:05:29,309 It would be foolish to believe that the same thing won’t happen with the pandemic. 108 00:05:29,409 --> 00:05:33,592 After all, who will determine when the risk of contamination has passed? 109 00:05:33,693 --> 00:05:35,553 Or decide that there’s no other virus or threat 110 00:05:35,653 --> 00:05:38,477 that justifies prolonging these measures? 111 00:05:40,239 --> 00:05:42,644 In a society where almost all wealth 112 00:05:42,744 --> 00:05:44,444 is in the hands of a few people, 113 00:05:44,544 --> 00:05:48,256 a large part of the population does not have the resources 114 00:05:48,356 --> 00:05:50,545 to stay at home and protect themselves from the virus. 115 00:05:50,645 --> 00:05:53,304 When measures to contain the pandemic 116 00:05:53,404 --> 00:05:54,998 are imposed through violence, 117 00:05:55,098 --> 00:05:58,040 people are forced to choose between taking the risk 118 00:05:58,140 --> 00:06:02,682 of contracting COVID-19 to continue surviving under capitalist oppression, 119 00:06:02,783 --> 00:06:05,015 or complying with the impositions of confinement 120 00:06:05,116 --> 00:06:08,448 ordered by technocrats who haven’t taken their experiences into account. 121 00:06:09,268 --> 00:06:11,865 When authoritarian measures become attractive, 122 00:06:11,965 --> 00:06:15,547 we need to think not only about all the ways in which society 123 00:06:15,647 --> 00:06:17,934 will be permanently modified, 124 00:06:18,034 --> 00:06:19,907 but also how these measures will affect 125 00:06:20,008 --> 00:06:22,285 the lives of the most precarious people. 126 00:06:23,734 --> 00:06:26,430 We need to think about and discuss the cultural, 127 00:06:26,530 --> 00:06:28,855 social, psychological, and political changes 128 00:06:28,956 --> 00:06:31,316 brought about by the pandemic and confinement. 129 00:06:31,416 --> 00:06:34,335 Just being isolated from each other 130 00:06:34,435 --> 00:06:37,035 is already a huge change. 131 00:06:37,626 --> 00:06:40,862 If the isolation measures last at least another year, 132 00:06:40,963 --> 00:06:42,067 as they’re saying they might, 133 00:06:42,167 --> 00:06:45,428 what will be the consequences of spending all that time at home 134 00:06:45,528 --> 00:06:47,408 on our physical and mental health? 135 00:06:47,508 --> 00:06:49,979 And the health of our communities? 136 00:06:51,392 --> 00:06:54,888 We were already living in a world where we were increasingly isolated, 137 00:06:54,988 --> 00:06:57,473 living in apartments within buildings 138 00:06:57,573 --> 00:06:59,928 where we didn’t know most people, 139 00:07:00,028 --> 00:07:02,320 working all day in front of a screen. 140 00:07:02,420 --> 00:07:05,149 Now we are being trained to see other people 141 00:07:05,249 --> 00:07:06,919 as threats to our health, 142 00:07:07,019 --> 00:07:08,903 as possible carriers of a virus, 143 00:07:09,003 --> 00:07:11,346 as “the other” that should be avoided. 144 00:07:11,446 --> 00:07:13,576 As the State gains new powers, 145 00:07:13,676 --> 00:07:15,183 this weakens us even more, 146 00:07:15,283 --> 00:07:17,704 physically, mentally and socially. 147 00:07:18,581 --> 00:07:22,095 Moments of crisis can bring about new political arrangements. 148 00:07:22,195 --> 00:07:24,324 Groups that long for power and control 149 00:07:24,424 --> 00:07:28,080 will seize opportunities to increase that power and control. 150 00:07:28,802 --> 00:07:31,931 How can we ensure that these new arrangements are better, 151 00:07:32,031 --> 00:07:35,827 not worse, than those we have available at this time? 152 00:07:37,971 --> 00:07:41,168 Pandemics are no longer unexpected events, 153 00:07:41,268 --> 00:07:45,156 but the result of a system that pursues economic growth at any cost, 154 00:07:45,257 --> 00:07:47,984 and which will continue to invade wildlife habitat 155 00:07:48,084 --> 00:07:50,596 and trigger new diseases. 156 00:07:50,696 --> 00:07:53,475 We must remember that the greatest threats, 157 00:07:53,575 --> 00:07:56,218 not only to human life, but to all life on the planet, 158 00:07:56,318 --> 00:07:59,667 are the actions taken by the State and capitalism. 159 00:07:59,767 --> 00:08:01,829 That it is this system that imposes 160 00:08:01,929 --> 00:08:04,674 degrading living conditions on billions of people— 161 00:08:04,775 --> 00:08:08,504 conditions that not only make the coronavirus more lethal, 162 00:08:08,604 --> 00:08:11,718 but which kill every day, with or without a pandemic. 163 00:08:13,386 --> 00:08:15,332 The State wants to convince us 164 00:08:15,432 --> 00:08:18,259 that its oppressive and invasive solutions 165 00:08:18,359 --> 00:08:22,540 are the only effective ways to fight disasters. 166 00:08:22,641 --> 00:08:25,172 But if this pandemic 167 00:08:25,272 --> 00:08:27,840 has had any positive impact, it’s been to show us 168 00:08:27,941 --> 00:08:29,935 the power of mutual aid. 169 00:08:30,035 --> 00:08:33,474 People are self-organizing everywhere 170 00:08:33,488 --> 00:08:35,190 to help each other: 171 00:08:35,290 --> 00:08:37,090 donating supplies to those in need, 172 00:08:37,190 --> 00:08:40,026 distributing hygiene and protection materials, 173 00:08:40,126 --> 00:08:44,383 cleaning public spaces, distributing meals, 174 00:08:44,483 --> 00:08:46,731 offering psychological support, 175 00:08:46,831 --> 00:08:48,787 among many other actions. 176 00:08:50,802 --> 00:08:54,379 Governments justify their existence by claiming that they protect us, 177 00:08:54,479 --> 00:08:58,174 providing us the conditions for a dignified, safe and healthy life. 178 00:08:58,274 --> 00:09:01,690 If this wasn’t true before, what to say now? 179 00:09:01,790 --> 00:09:04,277 This pandemic is showing us that 180 00:09:04,377 --> 00:09:08,220 governments do not have the coordination or the resources 181 00:09:08,321 --> 00:09:10,427 to deal with crises of this size. 182 00:09:10,528 --> 00:09:13,752 And that banks and corporations can only survive 183 00:09:13,852 --> 00:09:17,517 thanks to the billions of dollars in aid that they receive from the State. 184 00:09:17,617 --> 00:09:19,921 The rule of the State and capital 185 00:09:20,021 --> 00:09:22,508 is much more precarious than we imagined. 186 00:09:22,608 --> 00:09:25,378 It is up to us to take advantage of this moment 187 00:09:25,479 --> 00:09:27,690 to fight for the changes we want to see. 188 00:09:27,791 --> 00:09:31,118 If we want a world where life is worth more than profit, 189 00:09:31,218 --> 00:09:34,587 where freedom, joy and cooperation 190 00:09:34,687 --> 00:09:37,468 are valued more highly than economic growth, 191 00:09:37,568 --> 00:09:40,065 perhaps it is time to get our hands on it. 192 00:09:40,165 --> 00:09:42,672 Right now, even during the pandemic, 193 00:09:42,772 --> 00:09:45,714 there are people all over the world doing just that, 194 00:09:45,814 --> 00:09:49,320 and finding ways of protecting themselves and resisting at the same time. 195 00:09:49,421 --> 00:09:53,072 There are things worth risking our lives for. 196 00:09:53,421 --> 00:09:56,355 Perpetuating capitalism is not one of them. 197 00:09:56,455 --> 00:09:58,481 Some people face even more 198 00:09:58,581 --> 00:10:01,182 deadly threats than COVID-19. 199 00:10:01,282 --> 00:10:04,321 So it’s also worth risking our lives to fight for a world 200 00:10:04,422 --> 00:10:07,024 in which no one will be murdered in the same way that João Pedro, 201 00:10:07,124 --> 00:10:09,626 George Floyd, and so many others have. 202 00:10:10,469 --> 00:10:14,163 We must do what we can to survive this pandemic. 203 00:10:14,263 --> 00:10:15,831 But surviving is not enough. 204 00:10:15,931 --> 00:10:18,718 We need a life worth living.