Pandemics have not only spread death and destruction, but they have also changed societies in fundamental ways. The world will not look the same once the COVID-19 pandemic is over: either through vaccination or infections. But will it lead to society confronting capitalism’s greed against people’s lives? That is the challenge before all of us; this is how history will judge us.

The present crisis mixes public health, economic and political crises. Each consists of the pandemic bringing decades-long processes of decay and decomposition to a head. As more and more governments move to relax lockdown restrictions while curves of infections and deaths flatten, rather than letting up, each of these crises is intensifying.

This pandemic has exposed Canada’s weaknesses and failings—in particular, how it has failed to care for the oldest and most vulnerable among us. Beyond flattening the curve, provincial policies must drastically change towards eliminating the disparities in Canada’s current publicly funded, privately delivered system that provides dysfunctional, two-tiered health care.

The word Nakba is used to describe the period between 1947 and 1949, when over 700,000 indigenous Arabs were driven from their homes during a “cleansing” operation that made way for the creation of the state of Israel. Since the Nakba is intentionally excluded from mainstream narratives, most Canadians receive a narrow version of history.

Planet of the Humans is not without its faults, but I hope the debate it has sparked will come to embrace a thorough discussion of the bankruptcy of green capitalism and the need for solutions based on principles of social and economic justice which genuinely challenge overconsumption and unlimited economic growth.

In the months ahead, Canadian employers and the political right will increasingly demand rollbacks, a fiscal reckoning for the emergency measures put in place, and a return to austerity. Preceding this struggle, however, is the current battle over workplace health and safety, workloads, staffing levels and the pace and intensity of work.

The COVID-19 crisis is making us do some of the things required to live within the planet’s ecological boundaries. We have a stark choice before us. Rework our economy and polity around the possibilities that tackle climate change, or continue to ratchet up the labour market to produce ever more jobs while paying no attention to their ecological implications or levels of pay and conditions of work.

Over the last few weeks, it has become increasingly difficult to watch Brian Pallister deliver updates during his COVID-19 livestreamed press conferences at the provincial legislature. The situation in the province is developing in such a way that it may soon become a case study in the disastrous effects of austerity policies on societies recovering from the pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis presents a remarkable opportunity to realize a post-pandemic Canada in the interests of the many through unity and action. To achieve fundamental change, we need to find a unified voice and to coalesce around and embrace a historic project of democratic decision-making. Are we up to it?

There is no pre-pandemic normal to return to. Neoliberal capitalism is certain to emerge from the present crisis transformed. There is, however, the question of how and by whom: by left forces in a progressive direction or by those of capital and the right in an even more authoritarian direction? That is what is politically at stake in the present moment. That is what this manifesto is about.