It has now come out that the Mexican government in cahoots with the US government knew about the swine flu as early as February. But they did not act on it as they want to use it to repress the working class movement in the country and more thoroughly carry through their policies.

Look at some of these policies. 100 Mexican children die every day from hunger and malnutrition. But there is no state of emergency for them as there is for the swine flu. No the deaths of these children are seen by capitalism as just an unfortunate result of the capitalist policies of the Northern American Corporations which are implemented under the name of the North American Free Trade Association. Under this Nafta the poor peasants and workers are driven off their land and out off their jobs and the public health care systems are dismantled. This sets the scene for the increase in poverty, starvation, disease, and unregulated production which lets the capitalists do what they like and makes diseased production such as swine flu much more likely.

The increased crisis and attacks of the capitalist class has increased opposition from the working class. Mass marches of two to three million took place earlier this year over the right of Obrador to run for President. Hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied Mexico City for almost six months. The movement of the teachers was an inspiration.

This in turn has meant that the capitalists have moved for more repression. They use the swine flu and the phony war on drugs to justify more and more attacks on the working class and the poor. A new decree just issued allows the government to ban all public assemblies. All May Days this year are already banned.

What is needed is a mass working class movement throughout North and Central America against the corporations. End Nafta and replace it with a North and Central American democratic socialist federation in which the wealth of the corporations would be taken over and instead of being used for profit would be used to build a public democratic socialist system the priority of which would be the needs of all not the profit of the few.

Sean.