Skip to main content
  • 662 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter describes the origins and spread of COVID-19 in terms of capitalist and state processes. Despite the rapid expansion of (previously underfunded) public health systems in response to the outbreak the virus continues to spread globally accelerated by the creation and maintenance of the capitalist world market. The expansion of the world market, concentration of working-class populations and destruction of national borders, as described in the Communist Manifesto, also produce connected human factories for viral production. This short introduction also outlines the theoretical approach and the structure of this book.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

eBook
USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agamben, G. (1990). The Coming Community. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonefeld, W., Gunn, R., & Psychopedis, K. (1992). Open Marxism. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castoriadis, C. (1998). The Imaginary Institution of Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Day, R. J. F. (2005). Gramsci Is Dead: Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social Movements. London: Pluto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G. (1983). Nietzsche and Philosophy. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Federici, S. (2004). Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York: Autonomedia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graeber, D. (2009). Direct Action: An Ethnography. Oakland: AK Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2000). The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holloway, J. (2005). Change the World Without Taking Power. London: Pluto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katsiaficas, G. (1997 [2006]). The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life. Oakland: AK Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kropotkin, P. (1897). The State: Its Historic Role (V. Richards, Trans. 1997). London: Freedom Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kropotkin, P. (1902). Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, ed. W. Jonson (2014). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurz, R. (2012). No Revolution Anywhere: The Life and Death of Capitalism. London: Chronos Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurz, R. (2014). The Crisis of Exchange Value: Science as a Productive Force, Productive Labour and Capitalist Reproduction. In N. Larsen, M. Nilges, J. Robinson, & N. Brown (Eds.), Marxism and the Critique of Value (pp. 17–76). Chicago: MCM’ Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K. (1976). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2002). The Communist Manifesto. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, C. (1980). The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mies, M. (1986 [2014]). Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Postone, M. (1980). Anti-Semitism and National Socialism: Notes on the German Reaction to “Holocaust”. New German Critique, 19, 97–115. https://doi.org/10.2307/487974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Postone, M. (1993). Time, Labor and Social Domination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Postone, M. (2017). The Current Crisis and the Anachronism of Value: A Marxian Reading. Continental Thought and Theory: A Journal of Intellectual Freedom, 1(4), 38–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sitrin, M. (2007). Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina. Edinburgh: AK Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. (2013). Class, Self, Culture. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tenkle, N. (2014). Value and Crisis: Basic Questions. In N. Larsen, M. Nilges, J. Robinson, & N. Brown (Eds.), Marxism and the Critique of Value (pp. 1–16). Chicago: MCM’ Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Virno, P. (2004). A Grammar of the Multitude. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, C. (1973). Anarchy in Action. London: Aldgate Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zerzan, J. (2012). Future Primitive Revisited. Port Townsend: Feral House.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Preston .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Preston, J., Firth, R. (2020). Introduction. In: Coronavirus, Class and Mutual Aid in the United Kingdom. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57714-8_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57714-8_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-57713-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-57714-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics