IYSSE (UK) public meetings: Imperialism and the Ebola crisis

17 November 2014

The worldwide death toll from the Ebola outbreak has surged past 5,000. Many of those currently suffering from the disease are likely to perish from the virus, which has been killing up to 70 percent of those who contract it in Africa.

Ebola emerged nearly 40 years ago, yet no vaccines are available to treat the disease and there is no cure.

The development of a vaccine able to prevent the outbreak of the disease in West Africa has been blocked by the irrational and anti-social priorities of an economic system based on private ownership of the pharmaceutical and health care industries and the profit interests of giant corporations.

Thousands have needlessly died and millions have been put at risk in the latest in a long line of disasters (Hurricane Katrina, the Asian tsunami, the Gulf oil spill, famines in Nigeria, Ethiopia and other countries) either directly caused or made infinitely more deadly and destructive by capitalism.

These meeting s will discuss the Ebola crisis and the social devastation caused by capitalism , and the necessity for a fight against it based on a socialist perspective.