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UPCOMING EVENTS

  • 2021: an opportunity for building the socialist fight against capitalism

    Most working class people welcomed the end of 2020 with relief, and may greet 2021 hoping for a better and easier year. For millions around the globe 2020 meant isolation, fear, illness and loss. It meant stress, job losses and trauma. But for a big and important section of working class and young people, it also meant an awakening. The capitalist system has rarely been so exposed for its destructive, chaotic inability to meet the needs of humanity. And so, as well as hope for an easing of personal difficulties, Socialist Alternative steps into 2021 with confidence in the possibility of important struggles against capitalism and its ills, and for the growth of socialist ideas to combat them.

    The capitalist class and their political representatives are also probably glad to see the back of 2020, but if they hope for an easier ride in 2021 they are likely to be disappointed. The fallout from the Covid pandemic will continue for years to come. The battle to roll out vaccines to sufficient numbers to allow a safe opening of the economy will be only the first stage (and this itself complicated by the scepticism of some towards the vaccine, which is entirely the fault of the capitalist governments’ disastrous response to the pandemic so far). The devastation of whole sectors, particularly hospitality, retail and tourism, is yet to be fully appreciated. Not to mention that, in another showing of the horrendous inequality of capitalism, there is no realistic prospect of the vaccine reaching the majority of the neocolonial world any time soon – which in this era of interconnectivity leaves the whole world at risk. 

    Crisis of political representation

    In Britain, the pandemic rapidly undermined the idea at the time of the Tories’ election victory last December that Boris Johnson would be in a strong position as prime minister. His government has been forced to make at least 18 U-turns, on issues ranging from extending the furlough scheme and the ban on evictions, to mandatory face coverings. Some U-turns have in part reflected the deep divides inside the Tories, others more so a huge social pressure and the government’s desperation to prevent the anger that exists in society pouring onto the streets. On issues like the grading of A-level exams and extending free school meals, small but determined mobilisations played an important role, giving a glimpse of what may be possible on a much bigger scale when lockdown restrictions are eased and the vaccine takes effect. 

    The divisions within the Tory Party will not disappear in 2021, and in fact can be widened as the impact (or lack thereof) of Brexit is revealed. The devastating last minute curbs on guidelines about seeing loved ones over Christmas was met with rage around the country, leading senior Tory politicians to speak out against Johnson. The long-term future of this government and it’s prime minister is far from certain.  

    But unfortunately the challenge presented to the government has been weakened in the last year by the mistaken resignation of Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party and his replacement by right-winger Keir Starmer. Starmer’s approach to the pandemic has largely been to (in his own words) support “whatever measures the government takes” in the interest of ‘unity’. The counterrevolution has not stopped at the top, but has been followed by a flurry of suspensions, including of Corbyn, and of left activists at branch level too. There have been multiple waves of resignations from Labour as a result and an important part of the struggle in 2021 could be sections of the workers and young people who were drawn into political activity by Corbynism fighting for alternative ways to have their political voice heard and make an impact on events. 

    Health crisis

    Over two million people in the UK have had positive Covid-19 tests, and over 80,000 have died where Covid is mentioned on the death certificate – the fifth highest death rate in the world. The true cost in lives lost is hard to measure, taking into account those who have had treatment for other illness delayed, or avoided seeing a doctor for longer than they otherwise would. It hasn’t been an even impact across society, with decisively higher rates of infection and death amongst poorer communities, and particularly those of Black And Minority Ethnic backgrounds. This fed into the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer in solidarity with the protests against the killing of George Floyd in the US. These facts led to a generalised discussion about inequality, which cannot be allowed to slip backwards. 

    As we have pointed out, the scale and impact of this pandemic was not inevitable, but reflects the inability of capitalism to plan for crises and respond rapidly and efficiently. That was shown in the embarrassment of the track and trace app failure; the scandalous figures on private companies with links to MPs being given government contracts; and perhaps most clearly in the first spike when basic medical supplies, particularly gowns, reached critically low levels in many areas. While it is not yet the case that big sections of the working class are drawing the necessary, socialist conclusions, this series of scandals has undoubtedly increased anti-capitalist thinking and planted seeds in many minds of the need to search for an alternative way to organise society. 

    A popular vote would almost certainly give health workers in particular, and key workers in general, ‘hero of the year’ status. Millions took part in the ‘clap for carers’ for many weeks. Health workers themselves are likely ending the year justifiably feeling mainly exhaustion and frustration, which can undoubtedly have an effect in delaying the potential for explosive struggles of health workers in 2021. But fundamentally the bitter anger towards the government, alongside the public support built up, will not dissipate, and the ingredients exist for this to feed mass protests and even strike action down the road. A glimpse of this has been seen in the very active and angry rank-and-file health workers’ Facebook groups that have developed and the limited but vibrant protests organised in the autumn. 

    Economy and jobs

    2020 saw the worst recession the UK has experienced in more than 300 years. We’re yet to see figures on the performance of the economy at the end of the year – likely to show further contraction aligning with the latest lockdown measures – but despite a rise in GDP in the summer quarter when the economy had largely re-opened, there remained a 9.7% gap between the position in September and before the pandemic. While the wealth of billionaires hit record levels, so too did the number of people in Britain using food banks. Nearly 700,000 in the UK have been forced into poverty because of the pandemic. The rate of job losses in the autumn was a record high, despite the continuation of the furlough scheme likely staving off many others that will follow. For example, in November 32% of accommodation and food service industry businesses said they had low or no confidence they would survive the next three months. 

    There will be further pressure on the government to step in to bail out businesses – either through further extensions of the furlough scheme or government-backed loans. The retail sector is in crisis with many shops laying empty, and companies who own the properties looking to local authorities to buy them out, potentially to turn them into housing. The crisis of funding in local authorities themselves will continue to be an issue, but due to the political situation it’s likely that central government will either relax borrowing rules or step in to give extra funding to councils to stop them going bust. Increasingly, councils are looking towards taking services back in-house as a cost saving exercise. Even though there are splits in the Tory party on this issue, Rishi Sunak is likely to announce more stimulus measures in the economy in 2021. The question will be, who is made to pay for it? 

    Brexit has been a source of uncertainty for businesses and even with a deal being reached, there will be economic problems. Workers will need to fight any attempt to use Brexit to attack pay, conditions or health and safety in the workplace, as well as any attempts to further push a race to the bottom. All of the problems – such as the feeling of alienation from the capitalist establishment, the lack of jobs and attacks on services – which led to a majority voting to leave the EU have not gone away, and in reality have actually been deepened in the four years since the referendum. The blatant truth that Johnson lied about having an ‘oven ready’ Brexit deal will not be lost on working class people and the fact that Brexit will not lead to a fundamental improvement in their lives will potentially lead to a questioning of what else should be done. 

    A major question in 2021 is how the trade unions will respond to the bonfire of jobs that is coming. In general the trade unions have not made a decisive impact in the working class experience of Covid. This has been in contrast to some vital battles at local level – the rights won for care workers in Salford for example, or the ongoing campaign to reinstate Louise Lewis, teacher trade unionist suspended after raising Covid safety concerns. 

    Mass unemployment can sometimes make workers more cautious of organising and fighting back in the workplace. But it also puts greater responsibility on the trade unions to place themselves at the forefront of a movement for decent, environmentally sound jobs with trade union-agreed pay and conditions, as the only way to unite those in and out of work. Those unions who fail to meet the challenges of this period, including potential complications like the rise of homeworking and bogus self employment, may well find themselves pushed aside by those most willing to fight in this way. 

    Young people

    In particular, it is young people who are suffering as a result of the jobs cull, with a 348% increase in redundancies of 16-24 year olds in the third quarter compared to the same time last year. This particularly reflects the concentration of young workers in retail and hospitality – jobs that already held the lowest wages and poorest conditions.

    The next generation of workers have already shown their willingness and ability to organise and fight back – notably in the significant campaigns taking place on university campuses last term. The rent strike movement has spread to dozens of universities, with students at Manchester University securing a 30% reduction in rent for term one, which can become a beacon for others to continue demanding the same. The scenes of students locked into halls and charged extortionate fees for poor quality food while paying full tuition fees for online teaching was met with widespread solidarity from workers too. 

    In fact education at every level has been a central issue for the working class as a whole throughout the Covid crisis. In schools there has been a constant battle to try to ensure safe working to enable education to continue. Instead the government refused first to ensure such safety measures and then to close schools when the situation had become so bad as a result. Only now, when the situation has become completely untenable, have they been forced to partially delay the start of the spring term. And even then, they have made none of the necessary provisions for things that would ease the impact of school closures on working class families – for instance guaranteed indefinite full pay for those needing time off for childcare, and the cancellation of all exams. The anger among education workers over these issues can manifest in 2021 as further battles over safety, but also longer-standing issues such as workload. 

    Women on the frontline

    Those who have had to take the biggest burden as a result of school and childcare closures, as well as informal childcare arrangements being cut off, have been women, and working class women in particular. The ‘double burden’ found whole new meaning in 2020, highlighting the previously widespread lack of understanding of the scale of women’s unpaid work in the home. That’s not to mention the horrific situation facing those suffering from intimate partner violence when being cut off from friends, family and work. Or the disproportionate impact of job losses in sectors like retail on women workers, and the impact of stress and burnout on frontline women workers. 

    But on these points too, an increased consciousness of the issues and resulting pressure has led to some small victories – for example the NHS conceding that all women should be entitled to one person to accompany them in labour and to pregnancy scans, and also the discounting of children under school age in the rule of two during lockdown, meaning mothers of young children could meet others outside. 

    For many women, the experience of the last year will have been eye-opening on the need to struggle for decent pay, childcare and genuinely affordable housing, but also more generally the need for socialist feminist ideas to fight oppression. 

    Strength of the working class

    Here we have outlined the huge and often unprecedented difficulties faced by working class people in 2020. That has been reflected in a spike in, for example, mental health crises. But the overwhelming lesson should surely be not the difficulty, but the ability of ordinary people to overcome this adversity; that in their millions they made huge sacrifices and rapid adjustments to their lives in the interests of the common good. The capitalist class has exposed its weakness, the working class has shown our strength. This potential strength can and should be brought to bear in 2021. 

    2020 was Socialist Alternative’s first full year as an independent organisation, since we launched in September 2019. We have experienced significant growth on the basis of a determined and methodical approach to how we organised under the pandemic. Our members are itching to get back to normal meetings and activity as soon as is feasible, and to throw ourselves into the struggles of working class and young people to come this year. Make 2021 the year you join us in the fight against capitalism and for a socialist world – the only way to guarantee a safe, free, and decent future for all.

  • The race for Covid-19 vaccine: Is this the end of the pandemic?

    It was recently announced by a news release that Pfizer and BioNTech have developed a vaccine for Covid-19 that showed it was 95% effective in preventing the disease. Moderna, another pharmaceutical company, announced it had developed a vaccine using a similar technology with 94.5 % effectiveness. AstraZeneca – Oxford vaccine developers, also said their data indicates that their vaccine is up to 90% effective. All these companies are finishing phase 3, which includes clinical trials in tens of thousands of volunteers, a phase that normally takes years. There are eleven companies over all that are in late-stage trials before authorisation. The high percentage of effectiveness is also in contrast to many vaccines that are already approved to use, such as the Flu jab which is 40%-60% effective.

    This had been received with a sigh of relief amongst millions of people, fearing for themselves and their loved ones. The virus took a high toll, with 1.3 million people dying as a result of contracting it; many times combined with the high strain of the virus on underfunded health care systems. 

    The vaccines are not yet authorised but there are assumptions the US FDA (the Food and Drug Administration) in an emergency act may authorise one of them later this month after the recommended two months of safety data has been collected. If it’s authorised it will still take some months and even years before the vaccine will be available for the broader public in most of the advanced capitalist countries. By the end of the year potentially 15 to 20 million people could be immunised. 

    Yet, there are still important unresolved questions. For example, for how long immunity would last, how effective the vaccine is for new strains and mutations of the virus, how accessible it will be for the wider public and also if there is a significant disadvantage for the poor in the neocolonial world that needs to be addressed. 

    There are also two other vaccines authorised to use in Russia and China. However, trials involved far fewer participants before and data is missing. For example, the Sinovac Biotech vaccine that was approved to be used in China, had data released only from the first and second phases of clinical trials (that included up to 600 volunteers) and the success rate hasn’t been published. Lack of transparency had been an issue for all of the big pharmaceutical companies that announced success and data hasn’t been released in peer review research but in press releases. 

    Record-breaking speed

    If any of the vaccines will be approved to use, this will be a record-breaking fast result. Normally it takes ten to 15 years to develop a vaccine if at all, and the fastest vaccine ever made took four years from research to production. However, research on different types of coronavirus had been taking place for decades as in the last twenty years there have been two outbreaks of different types of coronavirus (SARS and MERS). An available treatment or a vaccine for any of these could mean we would have had a vaccine available at a much earlier stage. 

    As we explained in May this year: “While research was conducted in order to deal with those types of Coronavirus, it was stopped before reaching clinical trials in humans because the scientists involved “tried like heck to get investors or grants” but “could not generate much interest” as the outbreaks had ended. The lack of interest was found to be fatal and is now crucial in this pandemic. As professor Jason Schwartz told the Atlantic: “Had we not set the Sars vaccine research programme aside, we would have had a lot more of this foundational work that we could apply to this new, closely related virus.”

    Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines

    The most promising candidate for the Covid-19 vaccine is the one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The first is a big-pharma giant that made £52 billion in profit just in the last year.

    According to analysts at the US investment bank Morgan Stanley, Pfizer and BioNTech will make £9.8 billion in sales next year. Its agreement with the US government is one of supplying 100 million doses at a price of $39 dollars for two doses, with the option to supply another 500 million under ‘new terms’, which most likely means on a rip-off price. The EU has also ordered 200 million doses and the UK ordered 40 million. 

    The second candidate, Moderna, also plans to sell the vaccine, has priced its vaccine at $32 to $37 a shot (£24 to £28). This in contrast to other pharmaceuticals that promised not to make profit during the pandemic.

    About 82% of the Pfizer vaccine stocks up to the end of next year have already been hoarded by rich countries such as the UK, US, EU, Japan and Canada. Collectively these countries represent just 14% of the global population, which shows this health crisis is far from being over. 

    Lack of collaboration and ‘vaccine nationalism’

    Throughout this pandemic there was a lack of an international collaboration, sometimes even within the same blocs, such as countries within the EU or tensions between the federal government and the states in the US. This was reflected in stockpiling PPE and medical treatments for Covid-19. In the case of developing a vaccine it’s not much different. 

    This was demonstrated very explicitly In September this year. Thom Tillis, a US Republican Senator introduced the America First Vaccine Act, which if legislated means pharmaceuticals that received money from the federal government will be prevented from exporting vaccine doses outside of the US until home demand is met. Pfizer for example received £1.47 billion for 100 million doses from the Operation Warp Speed (a US federal initiative). However, despite this sounding like a crude ‘Trumpist’ approach, in practice it means nothing new. A similar approach was taken in 2009 when countries that could produce the H1N1 Flu vaccine refused to export doses until they met domestic demands. 

    Hoarding vaccines, medical equipment and treatments for Covid-19 shows the failure of capitalist big pharma and the capitalist governments that finance them in dealing with this health crisis. If a vaccine is approved, having the virus continuing to spread in other countries will be devastating for workers and the poor people everywhere. Many in the richer countries will have limited access to the vaccine at least in the first half of 2021. This means the level of infections and the scale of the pandemic will decrease, but the health crisis will continue.

    This is a serious obstacle in the war against the virus. In such a severe health crisis, when there is an urgent need not only to develop a vaccine but also to have a mass production and distribution. But capitalist governments or big pharma being willing to work together is not the only thing required to achieve this. Such collaboration would mean the complete sharing of data, research conclusions, as well as practical collaboration. However, under the capitalist system – in which pharmaceutical companies are among some of the largest profit-making private companies in the world – the race to find a vaccine is driven by power, prestige, and, most of all, profit. Each company hopes to be the first to ‘cash in’ and is desperate to do so before their rivals. There is therefore a direct financial disincentive for such companies to collaborate – lest they risk being beaten to the finish line and lose out on the ability to be the sole manufacturers and suppliers of a patented vaccine once one is produced.

    The parasitic character of big pharma

    Pharmaceutical companies have received billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money as an ‘incentive’ to invest in developing a vaccine without any commitment to transparency, details about the cost of the clinical trials, the production of doses, publishing data etc. It’s also not clear whether companies who failed to develop a vaccine will get to keep the billions that were poured on them. In addition, another important question will be if successful candidates are prevented from monopolising their vaccines via the use of patents. So far the six front runners of the vaccine candidates received over 12 billion dollars of public funds.

    Despite the huge public funds big pharma receive, the deals with pharmaceuticals are often unknown and discrete to the wide public. What’s been revealed so far has been worrying. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported about a deal with AstraZeneca::

    “AstraZeneca has committed not to profit off any COVID-19 vaccines ‘for the duration of the pandemic’ and to sell the vaccine at cost, in a deal with Oxford University. However, another deal to develop a COVID-19 vaccine with Brazilian public research body Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), recently revealed that AstraZeneca has given itself the power to declare the pandemic over as soon as July 2021. This means that, after July 2021, AstraZeneca could charge governments and other purchasers high prices for a vaccine that was entirely funded by public money.”

    This lack of transparency fuels distrust and scepticism amongst many. A particularly vocal minority even outright opposes the idea of a vaccine. However, avoiding treatment and denying the scope and seriousness of the virus is not the solution but will lead to a  continuation of the currently horrendous situation facing healthcare workers in particular, along with those groups most vulnerable to the virus in society. Socialists fight to nationalise the pharmaceutical companies, and for them to be run according to the incentive of fulfilling health needs, not profit, under full democratic and transparent control by workers. Read more about our response to the anti-vaxxers movement here.

    ‘Equitable distribution’ in the neocolonial world

    So what’s been clear so far is that the richest economies were able to secure the highest share of vaccines, which puts the majority of the world population at risk. Proposals by world health organisations aren’t providing a real solution. 

    In April, Gavi (formerly Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation), the World Health Organisation and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness launched COVAX. This a facility which has the stated aim of pooling the purchasing power of countries while giving funding to pharmaceuticals. In return, participating countries will get a minimum portion of vaccines covering initially 3% and finally 20% of their populations. As of 9 November, 94 countries have contracts with COVAX. So far COVAX collected £2 billion and managed to secure 700 million potential doses with the aim to reach 2 billion by the end of 2021.

    Initially COVAX promised to provide free vaccines to the poorest countries; however, in September, Gavi’s board decided they should be sharing the cost and pay up to $4 for two doses. 

    Having an authorised vaccine is not the end of the story. The distribution of the Pfizer vaccine, for example, requires an ultra-cold chain-storage at -80C. Lack of facilities to store and transport the doses, and staff trained to use them is also something that has to be taken seriously. If even countries like the UK will most likely be unable to take on the burden of storage and distribution on a mass scale due to decades of underfunding, outsourcing and privatisation, then we can only begin to imagine how the poorest countries exploited by imperialism will be able to cope. 

    The pneumococcal vaccine

    COVAX’s model is based on Gavi’s initiative in 2005 in regards to the pneumococcal vaccine. A vaccine was available in 2000 but was way too much expensive for poorer countries to purchase. 

    The idea was to give incentives for giant pharma, committing for their investment to be covered, In return for a guarantee from the vaccine-makers for a lower price for a certain period. The model was similar to the one of COVAX and was described as ‘advance market commitment’. 

    As a result, a new vaccine was developed and the price of the pneumococcal vaccine was less expensive. Yet, the big pharma companies still get subsidies from Gavi, without a guarantee to reduce the price of the vaccine, even though a cheaper option is available. This is while these companies made almost $50 billion in profit from this vaccine in the last decade. 

    It is not only that these companies still didn’t meet the high demand. The patent system stopped the vaccine being produced on a higher scale. Pharmaceuticals don’t want to share their patented vaccines as they wouldn’t want to lose their opportunity to make profit. This system has to go. Not only does big-pharma receive big public funds, but they also have no commitment to sharing their research data. 

    This model exposes the parasitic character of big pharma. Pharmaceutical companies have no interest in developing a vaccine because of the profit guarantee, but they’re also relying on external funding (many times public funding) and demand all of their costs are covered. Their colossal profits will not  stop them from charging high and unaffordable prices once the peak is over. 

    Also, Covid-19 vaccination in the neocolonial world is very important, but there are some very worrying figures about deaths as a result of other vaccine-preventable diseases. Lack of vaccines for diseases like Hepatitis B, Measles, Mumps, Polio, Yellow Fever, Tetanus resulted in deaths of over 2.6 million people in 2017; This is the double amount of all people that died of Covid-19 worldwide. 

    Conclusion

    Unlike the neoliberal and capitalist mantra of ‘free market’ and ‘competition’, the pharma industry is an oligopoly, which means it’s dominated by a very small number of firms. There are very few pharma companies that can actually produce drugs and vaccines on a mass scale. Many of these corporate giants actually produce medicine and vaccines that they didn’t develop in the first place but still get huge subsidies from the state. 

    The so-called ‘no-profit pledges’ from pharmaceuticals don’t hold water when these companies refuse to disclose the costs of vaccine development and production. The worrying conditions in which companies commit to a price only for a certain period, also raises a big question about its availability for the long term.  

    In regards to the Covid-19 vaccine, the least that should be demanded is for free access to all research data and scrap all intellectual property rights. There is absolutely no reason why production and development of life-saving treatments and vaccines should be limited and kept in secret because of the profit incentive for companies. The choice between saving lives or making profits should be clear. But under capitalism profit always comes first which shows we need to go beyond these demands and take big pharma under public ownership.  

    Nationalisation of the pharmaceutical companies to be run under democratic and transparent workers’ control will also be in the interest of guaranteeing that a vaccine and other medical treatments will be accessible and free for all who need them. 

    There needs to be a democratic, socialist plan for production which can retool the economy to produce the vaccine on the scale needed to protect the world’s population from this deadly virus.

    In other words, the task of overcoming this virus requires socialist measures on an international scale. We fight for and defend all reforms which increase the accessibility of medicine and the widest expansion of free healthcare. But the only way to guarantee a future where public health is put before private profit is to build a movement that can replace this crisis-ridden capitalist system with a socialist society, run by and for working-class people.

  • NHS contracts scandal: Tories are still putting profit before people

    The phrase ‘prevention is better than cure’ is often attributed to the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus in around 1500. Today it is a fundamental principle of modern healthcare. But it is a principle that has been conspicuously absent in the Tories handling of COVID.

    Back in March, preventative measures to stem the spread of infections were taken too late. When other countries were locking down, super spreader Boris Johnson was touring hospitals, sharing wet handshakes with staff and patients; the Cheltenham Festival was allowed to go ahead between March 10 and 13, with more than 150,000 packed into stands. Even though they knew the infection was spreading unchecked in the community, it was still more than a week before the government shut the pubs and schools, and 11 days before the fuller draconian lockdown was brought in. Had the government acted earlier, the extent of this lockdown could easily have been avoided.

    When the infection rate began to ease, the Tories prematurely rushed toward an overly wide reopening the economy, even when it was clear the threat was still imminent. New research now links Rishi Sunak’s ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme with 8-17% of newly detected infection clusters today. In October, apparently having learned nothing from all of this, the government ignored the advice of its own scientists who called for a ‘circuit breaker’; only when faced with the prospect of a ‘worse-case scenario’ situation did they impose another lockdown, despite promising never to do this again.

    A key preventative measure throughout these many months was always going to be a properly functioning track and trace programme. The Tories promised us a ‘world beating’ system by June 1. We never needed a ‘world beating’ system, we just needed one that worked. Now, close to the end of the year, we don’t even have this.

    With preventative measures failing and a second wave of COVID infections sweeping across the country, treatment by NHS workers will, for many, be the last line of defence. But NHS workers are not machines. They are human beings, many of whom are still traumatised by the first wave of the pandemic. They are also vulnerable to the virus. Globally, the nurse death toll from COVID has now matched that recorded in the First World War, despite figures only being available from less than a quarter of countries.

    The strain that these experiences have placed on NHS staff is palpable within our hospitals; it is also compounded by the absence of any real political opposition to the Tories, either politically or industrially. After many months of praising the Tories approach and promising to support whatever the government did, Starmer’s Labour has now taken to characterising Boris Johnson as a bumbling incompetent. Actual political criticism from Starmer’s Labour is nowhere to be heard – giving the impression that Labour have nothing to offer but the same, only more capable.

    But was it incompetence that led to the death of 72 people at Grenfell Tower in 2017? Or was it a callousness which comes from supporting a system which places private profit above human life? In reality, the Tories have acted faithfully in the interests of sections of British capitalism, whether by acceding to demands to reopen the economy before the infection was under control, or by handing over multibillion pound contracts to private corporations to run COVID response services, without even the pretence of tendering.

    As the trade unions are not currently providing a lead and as the crisis in the NHS deepens, it will be vital for NHS workers themselves to get organised, to prepare for the necessary fight needed to demand safe working conditions and a pay rise. Local protests, such as the ones in the summer, should be organised by health workers and they should demand that the unions support and mobilise for them. Socialist Alternative members who are health workers, campaigners and active in the trade unions will do all that we can to help build this type of action.

    We say:

    • Bring all test and trace services in house. No compensation for SERCO or SITEL

    • For an immediate public inquiry independent of government and composed of trade union representatives and health experts into the Tories’ mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic

    • Renationalise the NHS, under democratic control and ownership of workers. Don’t repeat the mistakes of the past by leaving representatives of capitalism in control. Kick out ALL the profiteers with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need.

    • Bring the pharmaceutical industry under democratic public ownership to ensure an efficient and joined up response to producing a vaccine

    • Pay NHS and care workers what they deserve. Unions must ballot for industrial action! Strike and organise for a 15% pay rise. Reinstate annual increments.

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