 Across the world, COVID-19 has affected workers as they struggle against layoffs, delayed payment of wages and attacks on their rights to mobilize. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies reveals that at a time when around 26 million Americans filed for unemployment, the super-rich in the country saw their wealth grow by 282 billion US dollars. The US economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to shrink by 40% this quarter alone. Black and Hispanic workers have been the most affected during the crisis as our younger workers in precarious jobs. According to the International Labor Organization or the ILO, the pandemic-induced economic disruption is expected to wipe out around 10% of working hours globally in the second quarter of this year. This is an equivalent of 300 million jobs worldwide. The ILO's assessment reflects the effects that containment measures will have on almost 2.7 billion workers worldwide. Of the estimated 3.3 billion workers around the world, around 2 billion work in the informal economy, often on short-term contracts or our self-employed. They have suffered a 60% collapse in their wages in the first month of the crisis, of these 1.6 billion face losing their livelihoods altogether. Workers in four sectors that have experienced the most drastic effects of the disease and falling production include food and hospitality, retail and wholesale, business services and administration and manufacturing. Together, they add up to 37.5% of global employment and according to the ILO chief, this is where the sharp end of the impact is expected to be felt. Workers in the informal sector who account for 61% of the global workforce or nearly 2 billion people will need income support just to survive and feed their families if their jobs disappear. In Africa, 86% of employment is informal. The proportion is 68% in Asia and the Pacific, 69% in the Arab States, 40% in the Americas and 25% in Europe and Central Asia. Migrant workers are not protected and are largely undocumented in Africa. South Africa consists of the largest group of migrant workers in the continent. These workers often sustain entire sectors like mining and farming that contribute very heavily to the South African economy. For instance, 50% of farm workers in South Africa are undocumented workers. Most migrant workers do not have South African citizenship and are often excluded from the COVID-19 relief. Most agricultural workers are essential workers, but employers are often not found to be abiding by the necessary safety and health regulations. For the first time in decades, the bulk of the working class in South Africa is forced to celebrate workers' day behind closed doors at home and are unable to fully commemorate this day the way we are used to because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, employers are cutting corners on health and safety, demanding that workers return to work when they've done very little to prepare the workplace to prevent further COVID-19 infections. The working class is enduring a relentless and violent attack from the buses. The coronavirus pandemic has shown us that it is the lowest paid workers, the essential workers who are actually driving the battle against this virus. And going forward, a united working class is the only weapon capable of destroying this corrupt and brutal capitalist system which is responsible for the suffering of the masses and which continues to breed inequality, poverty and unemployment. It's time for the working class to stop surrendering its power to butchers, and for it to lead and drive an agenda for genuine transformation in its own interests and for the benefit of society at large. Informal sector workers are experiencing the worst effect of the pandemic in Asia as well. In Singapore, migrant workers who work in the construction industry report over 90% of all coronavirus infections due to the unhygienic conditions that they are put under and the discriminatory containment policies that the government has recently ruled out. In countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, informal sector workers have not been paid their wages and have been left to fend for themselves by their employers. In India, low-income migrant workers were reported to have been stranded or forced to undertake a mass exodus on foot for hundreds of kilometers during the lockdown. Unemployment rates have soared in the country but few state governments in India have rolled out sustainable relief packages. Most measures have benefited the employers rather than the workers. An estimated 400 million Indians are likely to descend into poverty due to the pandemic and the associated lockdown. A survey found that 96% of migrant workers did not get any food or supplies from the government in the capital of Delhi. 70% did not get any cooked food and 78% have less than 300 rupees or four dollars or less left in their hands. 89% haven't been paid by their employers during the entire period of the lockdown. On April 21, the leftist trade union confederation, the Centre for Indian Trade Unions or CITU called for a protest from the rooftops. The union along with other mass organizations in the left have been demanding better government policy on ensuring wages for workers, food for their families, protection of jobs and safety of frontline health workers. It's a very important thing that we need to remember when we talk about the migrant workers in India. The labour laws, the laws which provide for social security, they actually never covered completely the migrant workers of the country. In fact, most of the migrant workers are always left out of the net of social security or any kind of protection which could have been extended because of the labour laws. Even before this pandemic happened, millions of workers, most of them were migrant workers, they lost jobs in the automobile sector. The reason given was obviously slow down and there were a huge number of job losses in other sectors. Construction sector which is another important sector which employs a good many migrant workers. It saw a steady declining number of workers employed, the job opportunities declined over time. So the time when this pandemic came, the situation of migrant workers was already bad and what we see now is that now that the lockdown has been imposed without consultation with the states, without consultation with the stakeholders, without any planning for these migrant workers, millions of workers are now left without any option. They are there on the roads waiting for the governments to arrange for their transportation, the places they used to work, the factories they used to work, the cities that they have built, they have now refused to take responsibility for these workers. They have refused to provide any relief to these workers. So it's a really bad situation. An overall bad economy and overall situation of unprecedented unemployment rates, they have actually been compounded. This problem has been increased because of the pandemic. In Sri Lanka, a country with a population of 26 million, a significant number of people are self-employed workers including vendors, taxi drivers, tea stall owners and those working in the eateries. According to some estimates, around 60% of Sri Lankan workers are involved in daily wage work. Among the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, migrant workers constitute 24 million people or nearly half of the 54 million population of the six nations combined and that is close to two-thirds of their workforce. In the Gulf, migrant workers labor under the notorious kafala system that binds them to their employers and prevents them from changing jobs. Working long hours in horrendous conditions in the scorching desert heat, they're forced to live for years together in the labor camps that are little short of prisons. This is only to send home money to their families who would otherwise starve. In Australia, unions have complained about the lack of access to the income support scheme for over 2 million migrants and casual workers. Australia had rolled out a major wage replacement scheme called the Job Keeper Subsidy. The move, although welcomed by the opposition and the unions, has been criticised for massive exclusions. According to the Australian Labour Party and the Australian Council for Trade Unions, there are over 1 million casual workers and over 1.1 million workers on temporary visas that have been rendered ineligible to the scheme. The European Trade Union Confederation or the ETUC estimated that the number of unemployed people has increased by at least 4 million across the EU during the crisis and the meanwhile more than 7 million workers are on short-term work schemes that make them extremely vulnerable to economic disruptions. The United Nations too says that Europe will be among the worst affected in terms of employment. Gig economy workers, especially in sectors such as transportation and delivery services, are among the most vulnerable and this is due to the precarious state of employment that they are in and the health hazards that are associated with their jobs. Many of the informal sector workers are also migrants adding an additional layer of risk to them. The coronavirus did not cause the crisis in informal and migrant working conditions but it most certainly has highlighted them. Migrants are some of the most undervalued and underpaid workers in Ireland. There is no permanency in their income, wages are very low which leads to long hours working and a very poor quality diet. Many live from week to week in rented accommodation in very overcrowded conditions. As a result of these disadvantages they are very prone to contracting illnesses and are particularly prone to the coronavirus at this stage. If they get ill they have to continue to work to pay the rent or they will end up on the streets and homeless. This is not unique to Ireland it's the same all over the world but the most vulnerable people are the ones who are exploited the most. The open border policies within the European Union are not to facilitate people to travel from country to country they are there to facilitate capitalism to import cheap labour from countries with lower value economies. It is great and exploit a huge reserve labour force in order to increase the profits of the capitalist class. The accumulation of wealth is always achieved as a result of someone else's misery. As Carol Marx said accumulation of wealth at one point is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony, toil, slavery, brutality, mental degradation at the absolute point. The ILO's report revealed that in Latin America and the Caribbean the pandemic would cause a loss of 5.7% in working hours and that in the second quarter of this year alone over 40 million full-time workers could lose their jobs. The report noted that sectors that employ more than 50% of the workforce in the region such as commerce and services would be the most impacted by the crisis. It also highlighted that the impacts of the crisis on tourism would be felt heavily in the Caribbean countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica among others which are highly dependent on the jobs and income generated by the sector. According to the ILO the informality rate is 53% in the Latin America and the Caribbean. The organization said that the countries with high levels of informality such as Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Brazil and Uruguay would face additional challenges. In addition, the report particularly raised concerns about the employment of women, indigenous people, disabled, immigrants and LGBTQ community who work largely in the informal sector. On this May Day, communist parties and social movements across the world have pledged to fight for workers' rights as well as strengthen themselves to the fight against the pandemic and capitalism that caused it.