The Marxist Studies in a Global and Asian Perspective (MSGAP) blog—York Left Consortium: Reflections on Capitalism’s Half-Life—serves as an accessible location for written interventions of various sorts relating to COVID-19 virus and its aftermath (from short blog posts to longer thought pieces and speculations) on the part of leftist faculty and grad students at York University as well as guest contributors. 

The blog is curated by York University faculty Robert Latham (Politics) and Raju Das (Geography).

York and other universities in Canada, the United States, Western Europe and across other regions of the world are mobilizing faculty in the natural sciences and closely allied fields to address various issues around the novel coronavirus such as potential treatments or public health practices, said Latham.

“York is especially known worldwide for the strengths of its politically progressive social justice focused faculty and graduate students across the social sciences, law, humanities and the arts,” said Das. “Together they have an incredible array of expertise and experience relating to the social, political, economic and environmental issues in society that are brought into relief by the virus and its anticipated aftermath such as economic depression, increasing state retrenchment and/or oppression, and expanding environmental degradation.” 

The initial featured pieces include those from a range of York faculty and grad students coming from various websites. Two pieces written originally for the blog include  ‘COVID-19, Mass Consciousness, and Left Organizing’ by Latham and on ‘Death from COVID-19, Collateral Damage, and the U.S. Capitalist-State’ by guest contributor Vince Montes. New pieces will appear on a regular basis. There is also the possibility of the site turning into a more longstanding effort beyond the current moment associated with Corona.

Links from faculty and graduate students to their existing writings on websites or contributions of original reflections for the blog are very welcome. Contact via email rajudas@yorku.ca and rlatham1@yorku.ca. 

MSGAP is a research initiative within the York Centre for Asian Research at York University. MSGAP is Marxist-oriented and is open to all frameworks on the left and which can be or are in conversation with the Marxist tradition. For more information, visit: http://marxiststudies.blog.yorku.ca/.