Under normal circumstances, socialists advocate for workers to fight capitalists. During this pandemic, that’s still true — in fact, it’s our only hope. If our society is going to win the war against COVID-19, workers need to continue to fight against the bosses and landlords.

Scientists are warning that not only will this crisis be unimaginably deadly and disruptive, it could last for eighteen months or longer. While our society is adopting “social distancing” measures that will save lives but could put tens of millions out of work, some “nonessential” companies are still insisting on continuing operations so as not to lose profits. And companies in “essential” industries like health care and logistics are set to make huge profits off the crisis. In the name of profit, companies are putting their workers and our whole society at risk by not helping to slow the spread of coronavirus and “flatten the curve.”

The Intercept revealed today that investors are hoping health-care firms will raise prices on critical goods like N95 masks and experimental pharmaceuticals. In California, Tesla, owned by union-buster billionaire Elon Musk, fought a losing battle against an order to shut down “nonessential” businesses, to keep production going at its ten-thousand-worker Fremont factory. Pharmaceutical companies, with the help of Joe Biden, are hoping that an eventual COVID-19 vaccine will be a huge profit-maker, instead of affordable or free to all. At least three Republican senators and Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein of California have all been caught off-loading millions of dollars in stocks, before the public caught on to the seriousness of the pandemic and the markets crashed — and after confidential briefings they received in their positions on Senate committees. Amazon is failing to protect its workers, meaning already poorly paid and overworked warehouse workers and delivery drivers risk contracting and spreading the virus to keep our logistics supply chains flowing — all because megabillionaire Jeff Bezos wants to keep profit margins high.