destroyed and multiple organ failure.
A Japanese epidemiologist working in China believes there may have been a further 300 unreported cases with unknown numbers of deaths.
The virus has a very high mortality, but as yet there are no contirmed human to human transmissions. The concern is that with people living so close to poultry and being dependent upon it for protein it is only a matter of time before exposure to the virus from blood or faecal matter will lead to a new, novel viral subtype infecting humans.
This will occur when the H5N1 virus swaps genetic material with a human influenza virus - reassortment- making human to human transmission possible and inevitable.
No one can tell how virulent and pathenogenic the new virus will be; the proof will be in the infecting. Experiments, in the U.S., on the virus extracted from a victim, buried in permafrost, of the 1918 Spanish flu identified major similarities with H5N1 suggesting high virulence and pathogenicity.
Pandemics are rare, there were three in the last century, of the 3 prerequisites two, the emergence of a novel virus which causes serious infection in humans are in place.
The third, human to human transmission is a matter of time. Models suggest a local cluster of 100 cases with human to human transmission is all that is required to kick start a pandemic.
The outbreak of SARs in 2003 shows how rapidly a viral infection can spread via air trial. Originating in Hong Kong, it spread to 24 countries. Being novel, the human immune system will have no memory and little prepared defence; a vaccine cannot be made until the strain is clearly identified, possibly 3 months.
Anti-viral drugs exist but are expensive, in short supply, difficult to make, protected by patent and uncerlall in oulcome.
Prevention at source is the preferred option, as in 1997, but is surely no longer a viable solution.
This is why a flu pandemic is inevitable. Whether it will have a high mortality as in 1918 or a low mortality as in '57-58 and '68-'69 only time and 'global action' will determine. The Party: The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988 - Volume 1, The Sixties: A Political Memoir, by Barry Sheppard, Reviewed by Tami Peterson Barry Sheppard was a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party (US) for 28 years. In this well told and engrossing book, one is transported to the sixties, not through the eyes of smug historians or lamenting liberals as so often is the case, but through the eyes of a revolutionary who was attempting to build a mass movement and at the same time, a party.
Sheppard's writing style Hows one lo envision e numerous demonstrations, situations and people that he meets as a result of his political work, including Gls in Vietnam, French students in '68 and many members and leaders of the Fourth
It is through these stories one gets a sense of the human face of the left during the Sixties and the important political events that they helped to make and transform.
Despite the decline of the influence and importance of the SWP on the US left today, and arguably for quite some time, Sheppard tells about near ideal forms of organizing from participation in the anti-war and civil rights movements through to the discipline required to print a weekly publication to local branch finances and a strict internal democracy.
He also points to failures and mistakes. In one example he tells of his regret at having had to ask two comrades to leave the organization for being openly gay in the period before the LGBT movement took off and led to a change in policy.
This is not to say that Barry's book concentrates for any great length on merely organizational aspects, but rather fills in the historical events with personal anecdotes that make this incredibly tumultuous time period live again. In the section of the book covering 1967-68, one is astounded by the world and local events, popping one after the
Sheppard does an excellent job at conveying the electricity of the anticipation among those who were trying to change the
When he meets with Malcolm X in the Hotel Teresa in Harlem after his break with the Nation of Islam and weeks before his assassination he writes "Malcolm was dressed immaculately, as always, but I noticed that the collar of his white shirt was frayed.
Clearly he was having financial troubles since the break with the Nation". It is the smallest detail that evokes in the reader an amazing image of this unbroken revolutionary.
The book holds useful lessons for anti-war activists in particular. As is made clear from Barry's description, and in a telling contrast to the present, the SWP (US) participated in and helped to build mass demonstrations, often playing a role on leadership bodies while fighting for the broadest possible participation and supporting demoCratic voting in large groups at a time when every decision mattered.
It is inspiring, to say the least, to read of 2,000 students at Berkeley in California democratically voting to continue an action at a spontaneous meeting.
These stories serve as a useful reminder on how mass organizing is done correctly and Sheppard's book should be a welcome addition to every revolutionary's library. • "The Party: The Socialist Workers Party 1960-1988 -Volume 1, The Sixties: A Political Memoir" by Barry Sheppard can be ordered online from Resistance Books http://www.resistancebooks.com or by contacting Socialist
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socialist www.socialistresistance.net