Covid-19

Is the NHS facing breaking point?

July 16, 2021

Tom Barker
Cummings lifts lid on deadly Tory failures. Now organise the fight back

May 27, 2021

Connor Rosoman
Socialist Alternative Issue 15 Editorial: Mass struggle looms as lockdown comes to an end

April 30, 2021

Becci Heagney
Tory callousness exposed by infighting – now organise and fight for socialist change

Claire Laker-Mansfield
Open Letter to leaders of health unions and associations: The time for action is now! Coordinate the strikes

March 7, 2021

Socialist Alternative
NHS pay disgrace: unions should fight for the 15% now!

March 5, 2021

Mike Forster, National Chair, Health Campaigns Together (personal capacity) and Socialist Alternative Political Committee

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Is the NHS facing breaking point?

What does “breaking point” in our NHS actually look like?

After more than a decade of real terms funding cut, it has become normal to hear claims that the NHS has, or is, reaching “breaking point”. Here in my home city, Leicester, we heard reports from back in December 2019 of patients waiting in the back of ambulances for up to six hours because of a lack of capacity. As of November 2019, there were already 4.4million people on the NHS waiting list – a 5.7% increase on the previous year!

Add a pandemic into the mix, and it was always clear that the NHS could crumble.

It has also been common to hear how the NHS is reaching breaking point because of understaffing. Before the pandemic, there was more than 100,000 vacant posts in the NHS, with more than 40,000 of these in nursing. These problems were driven by the hostile environment nurtured by the government; the cuts to the nurses’ bursary; the loss of increments for NHS workers, and the fact that many NHS staff have seen a real-terms pay cut of up to 20% over the last 11 years!

However, the fact that the NHS still exists, despite all these unbearable pressures – the fact that it is still providing services – for some, seems to stand in contradiction to these claims. Indeed, the persistence of the NHS is something which the government has actively tried to claim credit for, in their claims to have “protected the NHS” throughout the pandemic for example.

But breaking point was never going to be a single event, like a ship capsizing. Breaking point was always going to be a process and what we have seen over the last 18 months is a serious acceleration of that process.

Breaking point in the NHS was the many hundreds of NHS workers who died because they did not have access to adequate PPE; breaking point was patients being denied life-saving treatment because of a complete lack of capacity due to decades of cutting beds and selling land. Breaking point is the number of health workers now living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the experiences of the last year.

In the wider picture, breaking point was the more than 150,000 people now dead due to covid – the highest per capita figure in the world, despite the fact that we are the sixth richest economy in the world!

And how do the government respond to all this? Is it to reward our NHS workers? To pay them what they deserve? No. It is to offer a pathetic 1% pay increase – in reality, a real-terms pay cut – to those who have spent the last year putting themselves in harms way to protect us.

And how do they respond to the structural problems that our NHS has faced, particularly over the last 18 months? Do they plough money into the public sector, which is responsible for both the vaccine and its successful roll out? Again, no! The government responds with more privatisation! The Tories’ new Health and Care Bill, which had its second reading in Parliament on Wednesday, poses a serious danger to the NHS as a public owned organisation. The Bill divides the NHS in England into 42 different ‘integrated care systems’, each with its own tight budget with the principal aim of driving down the costs of health care. While the Bill is promoted as reducing privatisation in the NHS, the reality is the opposite. Private companies are even being allowed to sit on the integrated care system boards in each area – thus partially running the NHS.

And we need to understand the development of this bill in the context of the last 18 months because the purpose of privatisation could not be any clearer. Profits for the few, misery for the many. Just look at the disaster of test and trace: £38 billion squandered on a vitally important service, which should have saved lives! Apparently having learned nothing from this failure, late last month the Tories went ahead and awarded Serco yet another contract, this one worth £322 million, to run more test and trace centres!

But we should be clear that this is not just about incompetence. The government isn’t simply making mistakes when it hands swathes of our services to profiteers, who have no idea and no experience of how to run them. This government’s pandemic response, and its approach to our NHS in general, is dripping in ideology. A decent pay rise for NHS workers would cost a fraction of the money wasted on test and trace. It would also pay for the student nurse bursary more than 50 times over. But this government is not interested in policies which would benefit ordinary people. They are using this pandemic to hand our services over to their mates in the private sector.

A reckoning over this government’s continued mishandling of the pandemic is already overdue. The national day of action on July 3, with protests taking place at 70 different locations across the UK, showed widespread support for NHS workers and opposition to privatisation. We need to build on this momentum.

This means building support in our communities, in our workplaces, in our trade unions, to mobilise people to fight back against this government and this system. Back in January, education workers provided a glimpse of the latent power of organised workers when they forced the government to retreat from their deadly reopening of schools, saving lives in the process. This was a direct result of pressure from below which pushed trade union leaders into action. Similar pressure will need to be mounted on the leaders of health unions when the government does finally announce its pay offer!

To those who say it is no longer possible to maintain the NHS, I say this: 73 years ago, despite a war-ravaged economy with huge debt, we created the world’s first universal health service. This was not handed down to us from on high, like some claim. It was the result of the enormous sacrifices that ordinary working-class people made during the war, and the insistence of these people that the old conditions would no longer be tolerated.

Much is different today, but I think we are living at a similar historic crossroads.

One thing that most people agree on is that we cannot go back to normal… normal was the problem. After all this, we must not allow a return to pay cuts, to underfunding our services, to scapegoating the most vulnerable in society while the billionaires make record profits. We need to build a society where good publicly funded services is a priority. Where zero-hour contracts and fire and re-hire practices are banned. Where workers are not victimised for organising in trade unions. But to get there, we will need to struggle. We know that we have the type of money for this kind of society because the global billionaire class has made out like bandits during this pandemic.

It will be a turbulent road ahead. We will lose some of the battles – but even losses will be important for us as they will sharpen our ability to fight back. We will learn how to fight effectively in the process of struggle.

But fight we must, because there is a future to win!
Cummings lifts lid on deadly Tory failures. Now organise the fight back

Dominic Cummings, the former right-hand man of Boris Johnson, gave evidence to a select committee of MPs on Wednesday around the government’s handling of the early stages of the pandemic in the UK. In doing so, he has shone a light on the carelessness and the callous disregard for people’s lives that has defined Boris Johnson’s government for the past 18 months. In this personal crusade against his old allies, Cummings has blown the lid on a Tory cabinet wracked by internal chaos, but also a stubborn refusal to deal with the reality of a rapidly worsening situation, as the then new coronavirus ran rampant through the country.

This was demonstrated last year in the government’s approach of aiming for “herd immunity” – a strategy that was predicted to lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and one which government ministers, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, have repeatedly denied supporting. Cummings’ confirmation of this approach, only confirms what many of us already knew, but it also serves as a reminder that after 150,000+ deaths in this country as a result of the pandemic, the blame falls squarely at the government’s feet for the disastrous spread of Covid. The Tories have blood on their hands.

Profit vs health and lives

What Cummings fails to mention is the driving force behind the Tories’ failure to deal with the pandemic. Over the last year, the Tories have consistently taken every opportunity to ensure big business can make a profit. This included outsourcing the NHS track and trace system to infamous corporations such as Serco, with disastrous results, and a reckless premature reopening of the economy. As a result, for all the government’s apparent discussion about avoiding a ‘worse’ second wave in the Winter by allowing a wave of infections in the spring, they totally failed.

This is also one of the core reasons for the deadly delay to the initial lockdown, as well as the second lockdown toward the end of 2020. Cummings makes the point that Johnson had to be pushed into announcing the first lockdown due to the potential economic damage it would do. But he made the mistake not once but twice, delaying the announcement of a second lockdown as Covid rates soared again. As socialists, we understand that the pro-capitalist Tory government is at the whim of the short-sighted interests of capitalist profits. The government only stepped in and introduced the lockdown, as well as state support for businesses, as a last resort to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed to the point of collapse and stave off economic catastrophe.

Shockingly, at the same time as the virus surged, Cummings has revealed that Johnson’s cabinet was preoccupied with plans to join the US in a potential war in the Middle East, putting their imperialist interests ahead of the lives of thousands of working class people in Britain and in Iraq.

It was not just incompetence or ignorance that led to the catastrophe of the last year, although these certainly played a part. But far more crucial was the government prioritising the profits of the capitalist class over the lives of the rest of society. Their drive to maintain, and then to return to, “business as usual”, all the while undercutting the NHS with deals to dodgy corporations, is a fundamental reason for the mishandling of the virus’s spread.

We need a mass, working-class opposition

Cummings’ evidence is a damning indictment of this government, but it would be a mistake to see Cummings as any sort of champion of the working class. Despite his apologies in recent weeks, the central role Cummings played in creating this situation, and his own disregard for his government’s own rules as illustrated in the now-infamous ‘Barnard Castle’ incident will not be lost on ordinary people for whom the effects of the Tories’ long list of failures have been all too real.

It is clear this government has to go – lives depend on it. But we can’t rely on people like Cummings to change things. We need to get organised to build a real fight back and to build a new, mass party of struggle which can offer a real alternative. If you agree with us, get involved!

We say:
- For a fully independent inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic – led by trade unions, health workers and bereaved families
- Save our health service. Fight for a fully funded, publicly owned, democratically run NHS. Kick the privateers out. Nationalise all aspects of health and social care currently in private hands, including track and trace and the pharmaceutical giants, under the democratic control and management of workers
- Courageous health workers deserve a pay rise. Reject the government’s 1% insult. Unions must organise a fight for 15%
- Make solidarity the new normal. The government’s covid failings stem from their prioritising private greed over human need. Fight for a socialist society – based on public ownership of the big monopolies and an economy planned democratically to meet the needs of people and planet
Socialist Alternative Issue 15 Editorial: Mass struggle looms as lockdown comes to an end

Lockdown was partially lifted on Monday 12th April when non-essential shops, pubs and gyms reopened. However, the de facto lifting of lockdown began a few weeks earlier as far as social protest is concerned, forced so by thousands of young people. After the brutal response by the police at the Sarah Everard vigil at Clapham Common, the government soon realised that wouldn’t be the end of the matter as people continued to protest, and were even forced to exempt protests from covid restrictions from 29 March.

Their fear of revolt hasn’t yet been translated into the umpteenth U-turn for Johnson’s government and the dropping of the Police and Crime Bill. However, if the movement can be stepped up in the coming weeks. it doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination to think that is where it will end up. Despite the need for the Tories to prepare for continuing and escalating protests in the coming weeks and months, it may be viewed that challenging a whole generation of people over the right to protest itself isn’t worth it at this stage. Weeks after the murder of Sarah Everard, ‘Kill the Bill’ protests are continuing in many towns and cities. What’s more, this is just one of many thorns in the side of the capitalist establishment right now, which could unleash further protests and struggles.

It’s true that Johnson is benefitting from a so-called ‘vaccine bounce’ in the polls, charging points ahead of Labour leader Keir Starmer. It’s likely that the Tories will do well in the local elections in England on the back of this. However, not only does this say more about the lack of opposition from Starmer, it is also not a clear cut situation. Of course people want ‘the government to succeed’ when it comes to the roll-out of the vaccine, if they were to fail it would mean a disastrous situation for us all! However, this is not tantamount to support for the Tories, whatever they do.

Crises on multiple fronts

Cronyism is a major problem for politicians, particularly when they remember the expenses scandal in 2009 which compounded a deep feeling of disillusionment amongst ordinary people in MPs who were seen as out of touch and in it for themselves. The recent revelations around Greensill, along with the contracts handed out to private firms to deal with various aspects of the covid pandemic, showed that, of course, capitalist politicians haven’t changed their behaviour. However, it does mean they are very touchy about it, scrambling to try and distance themselves or launch toothless investigations into what has gone on. The fact that former Prime Minister David Cameron’s involvement in Greensill was completely legal is not even being used as a defence. Capitalist spokespeople themselves bring in the question of ‘morality’ and raise potential changes to the rules because they are so fearful of stoking further anti-system feelings.

It comes at the same time as the government is fighting on many other fronts. The explosion of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland is an indication of how the bodged Brexit deal will play out. The formation of a border down the Irish Sea has predictably caused problems for what was already a very ‘fragile peace’, but in reality it could have been any issue which broke the logjam. There has been a complete failure of all political parties from both sides of the divide to solve any of the problems faced by working class and young people in Northern Ireland, and it shows the need for a cross-community socialist alternative to be built. In the absence of such an alternative, there is always a risk of sectarian violence, because capitalism is not able to provide for people from all backgrounds and the existing political parties have a vested interest in the continuation of division.

In a similar vein, the issue of Scottish independence is coming to the fore in the run up to the Scottish parliamentary elections on 6th May. The SNP is still expected to win and there is likely to be an expanded majority in favour of independence (including Salmond’s newly formed Alba and the Scottish Greens), in the context of the continued refusal by Westminster to grant a second independence referendum. This is even causing concern for some pro-Union Tories, such as the UK’s lead negotiator during the last referendum saying that denying the right to self-determination is changing the union from “one based on consent, to one based on the force of law”. This will not be lost on the working class of Scotland as they prepare for a mass pro-independence protest in Glasgow on 1st May.

The tendency towards greater fragmentation, threatening the existence of the “United Kingdom” itself, is set to be an increasingly central feature of British politics in the 2020s. It is an expression of how undermined the pillars of British capitalism have become, and the burning desire for change which decades of austerity have fostered.

‘Back to normal’?

The Tories will attempt to use some of the recent figures about growth in the economy as a way of presenting a ‘return to normal’. Job vacancies are reportedly at pre-pandemic levels, but mainly this just reflects an increase in job adverts in the hospitality industry as it reopens, and average predictions of GDP growth this year are at 5.7% as of April (up from 4.7% in March). It’s hardly surprising that there is some rebound (or even a significant one) in the economy now that hospitality and retail are starting to reopen after months of being closed, and with a certain degree of pent up demand for goods and services. A ball dropped to the floor will bounce back, even if it’s just a little bit.

What is beyond question, however, is that the economy will not continue to grow on any kind of stable basis. Even the most optimistic predictions put forward by the capitalist economists foresee a lasting damage to the economy from this crisis. The unprecedented levels of stimulus, money pumped into the economy as part of the furlough scheme and other bailouts, loans and subsidies, means that there can be a temporary rebound. Stimulus on this scale comes with its own risks for the capitalist class, including inflation and the stacking up of debt, leading to bubbles in the economy and the threat of a new financial crisis in both the public and private sector.

Even assuming that the ‘roadmap’ can be adhered to and there is no new wave, or new variant, of coronavirus, it can not be assumed that working class and young people will simply accept a return to normal. In fact, all things point to the opposite of that, to an increase in protest and struggle. Whilst the previously loud praise of our key workers by the government is now a mere mumble, as part of trying to avoid giving NHS workers a decent pay rise, figures are being released to show the reality for millions of front-line staff. The TUC found that shockingly workers on zero-hours contracts are twice as likely to have died of covid-19 than other workers. These include care workers and delivery drivers but isn’t just because they were on the frontline, but because they are likely to have no sick pay and therefore may still go into work even when they are ill, with little or no ability to self-isolate if they started to get covid symptoms. It is also the case that women, disabled people and people of colour are more likely to be part of this precarious layer of workers. And how does the TUC respond to this? They call for more research to “understand the links”. We understand why this is happening, what we need is a mass fight-back to stop it from happening again!

Strike action by workers demanding that they are not forced to pay is part of the new normal. Manchester bus drivers have been on strike for over 8 weeks against plans to fire and rehire the entire workforce on worse terms and conditions. Disgustingly, at the same time, British Gas has gone ahead with its threats to sack its workers despite their heroic strike to resist it. British Gas was quick to reclaim their vans from the workers they were sacking, workers who refused to sign new contracts which would amount to working more hours for no extra pay and other attacks on terms and conditions. Members of the GMB union took 43 days of strike action but faced bullying and blackmail from the employer. It highlights the need for coordinated strike action across the union movement to have a strong and united resistance to this brutal method being used by the bosses in many places.

Further struggle on the horizon

As we come out of lockdown it might also be the case that workers begin to take offensive, rather than defensive, struggle to fight for what they are owed. This is part of the absolute refusal by NHS workers to accept a 1% pay rise and why many have left unions not willing to take strike action to fight for a 15% increase, instead choosing to join unions such as the Royal College of Nursing who have set up a multi-million pound strike fund in preparation for a lengthy battle against the government. In another example, Deliveroo handled transactions worth £1.65bn in the first three months of 2021 alone and the company is worth around £4.6bn. However, workers haven’t received their share of that and have been taking strike action to demand sick pay, holiday pay and a decent wage. There were protests in London, Sheffield and other towns and cities during the strike as workers demanded to be counted as workers, not ‘independent contractors’.

Struggle against oppression is also something which is likely to grow. School students at Pimlico led the way with their protest just before the Easter Holidays against a racist uniform policy. The chairman of the school, Lord Nash, has since written to parents threatening disciplinary action against students if they protest again! Not only is this letter provocative it also shows a complete lack of awareness of the deep seated issues young people are beginning to challenge. The government’s own investigation into institutional racism concludes that it doesn’t exist and those who experience racism should not act like victims! The Pimlico students also raised opposition to poverty and sexual assault as part of their demands. Along with the Everyone’s Invited initiative, which received 1035 testimonies about sexual harassment and assault in education institutions in just one week, it shows a willingness to fight racism and sexism. Socialist Alternative fully supports school students taking action and calls for a national school student strike to stamp out racism and sexism from schools.

All of these problems that the Tories are facing indicate both the bankruptcy of capitalism to provide the basics we need in life and the growing militancy in workers and young people to fight against this system. All those mobilised now, from the strikes against fire and rehire, to the school students protesting racism, should join up into an almighty movement which can really begin to challenge the greed, corruption and inequality of class society. Such a united movement, if it develops an independent political voice, can and must place the goal of a socialist society in its sights.

What we say:
- Make resistance the ‘new normal’ as we come out of lockdown – step up the fight against the Tories’ police, crime, sentencing and courts bill. Defend the right to protest!
- Workers’ must not be made to pay for capitalism’s crisis – for trade union action to defend all jobs and conditions under threat, and for safe working conditions during the pandemic.
- Build the fight against oppression – support school student protests against racism and sexism. Form organising groups in schools to take the struggle forward and link up between schools to prepare for a national school strike.
- No faith in the capitalists to take us out of this crisis – take the top corporations into democratic public ownership, under workers control and management. Only socialist planning can ensure an end to economic turmoil.
- For an independent, socialist Scotland as part of a voluntary socialist federation of the British Isles, a socialist Europe and a socialist world

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