Covid-19: What is to be Done?

The present public health emergency is the most serious pandemic any of us have experienced in our lifetimes. And it is global.

One problem with the coverage of the crisis in the bourgeois press is that the effect on people’s health and on the economy are constantly conflated. For us the effect on public health must come first and not its impact on the capitalist economy. If hundreds of thousands or even millions are forced to withdraw from the world of work for the sake of their health, and the economy slows down or contracts as a result, then so be it.

When we think about the economy we are not concerned about falling share prices but about the fate of perfectly healthy workers who have already been laid off on account of the virus, and are confronted with a drastic loss of income. Our second priority must therefore be to protect the welfare of the weakest and most vulnerable in these trying times.

Labour’s official response to the government strategy in Britain so far has been weak. Why? Understandably they do not want to be accused of exploiting a ‘natural’ disaster to lambast the Tories. The government is claiming ‘we’re all this together’. But this is not just a natural disaster and the Conservatives bear a heavy responsibility for its impact.

The Tory government’s initial instinct has been to carry on with ‘business as usual’. Those governments who have not adopted this approach have been most successful at combating the virus. After three weeks of denial and chaos, this was the case in China. Drastic measures of lockdown have succeeded in damping down the virus’s ill effects.  The Chinese government declared war on Covid -19 and instructed more than 80 million Communist Party members to mobilise mass support in every locality to suppress it. This appears to have had some success. The South Korean government learned from Xi’s hesitation and adopted similar measures, including mass testing of the population, also successfully it seems. Korea has always had a much more state-directed model of capitalism than Britain.

The British Tories automatically assumed that free markets would magically provide the mass provision of testing kits, and later ventilators. It didn’t happen. Britain also needs to declare war on the virus and put the economy on a war footing. Even during the Second World War British capitalism survived by instructing capitalist firms what to produce in the overall interests of the war effort. Forward planning, even under capitalism, was the order of the day. That should be the case in the crisis today, as with test kits and ventilators.

Johnson’s government has been consistently behind the curve. The World Health Organization is demanding that all countries implement a policy of testing and tracing. But the Tories have been telling those feeling ill to self-isolate without being tested. They have refused to publish the medical advice on which they base their decisions. Surely the WHO’s policy is based on expert advice?

Since the virus can be diffused before victims show symptoms, not testing and tracing may well prove a fatal policy. The authorities can have no knowledge of how far Covid -19 is spreading. If they can’t monitor it and trace those who might also have been infected, how can they check its progress? The government has persisted with this stupidity for weeks and weeks, making a massive loss of life much more likely.

There has been a suspicion that the government has been pursuing a strategy of ‘herd immunity’. This would entail allowing sufficient people to catch the disease so that most of us would no longer be vulnerable. If correct, this policy has been correctly described as insane, and could have led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. The true concept of herd immunity is that members of the herd are immunised against disease, not left to be wiped out. The Tories have denied the charge, but that is the logic of their laissez-faire approach.

The government’s preparations have been so inadequate that it seems like incompetence. Could it be worse? We know Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings has flirted with the pseudo-science of eugenics. The right wing Telegraph is reckoned to be a paper close to Johnson’s thinking. Its assistant editor, Jeremy Warner, wrote in his column, “Not to put too fine a point on it, from an entirely disinterested economic perspective, the COVID-19 might even prove mildly beneficial in the long term by disproportionately culling elderly dependents” (Daily Telegraph, 3/3/20) What goes on in the minds of the ruling class is truly sinister.

The government has drifted towards the present lockdown in a desultory manner. Earlier advice not to attend pubs, restaurants and cinemas etc proved disastrous to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands who work in these industries. It devastated takings, but left no recourse to owners to claim insurance. The only beneficiaries of this policy seem to have been the insurance companies who, as usual, are trying to dodge their responsibilities. The following Friday the government ordered the closure of all these small businesses.  Another mistake, another enforced U-turn.

The government is offering loans to struggling businesses. But if the closures serve to destroy the livelihoods of struggling cafe owners and the like for the indefinite future, how will loans help? Though the government has shown willing to splash billions at capitalist firms, it has till recently evinced no such preparedness to protect workers and the most vulnerable.

Workers are already having their hours reduced, being laid off or sent home because of the emergency and their incomes slashed or disappearing altogether. Millions of people in precarious employment have absolutely no savings to fall back on. The government has suddenly recognised the impending catastrophe that millions on the dole would represent for capitalism, and belatedly offered to pay up to 80% of workers’ wages in order to stop the economy crashing. In this they are playing catch-up, following the example of countries such as Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Austria.

Some low paid are not even entitled to statutory sick pay - a magnificent £94 per week. It should be paid from day one, should apply to those self-isolating as well as those actually certified ill and be extended to the self-employed. Above all it must be raised to a civilised level, a level that workers can actually exist on.

Those not entitled to statutory sick pay are enjoined to apply for Employment and Support Allowance, administered as part of the notorious Universal Credit. There is a five week wait for this benefit and innumerable hoops for claimants to jump through before being paid. Have any of the Tories ever tried ringing the DWP to claim their entitlements? To be fair Labour has consistently criticised these weaknesses. All we get from the Tories is vague waffle that they will sort it all out later. But people are suffering now. They cannot wait.

At the time of writing there is still no relief for the self-employed. The Tories seem to be completely unaware of the precarious existence of millions in Britain under twenty-first century capitalism - insecurity which they have encouraged. There are five million classified as self-employed and ineligible for redundancy pay. Many of these work in the gig economy. They are not really self-employed but have been stripped of workers’ basic rights. Despite the draconian provisions of the emergency Coronavirus Bill the Tories have still not come to terms with how to deal with the emergency provision for the self-employed.

Mortgage borrowers will have their debts frozen, but there is at present no protection for renters. Landlords can apparently do what they like since they are the owners.  They have the right to evict if they are not getting their rent. In this crisis nobody should lose their home through no fault of their own. Millions of renters are being threatened with eviction now. That must stop.

How do we help the poorest and most vulnerable? It seems we live in the best of times, and the worst of times. There has been mass panic buying, including for the motive of profiteering, which has left food banks struggling and left the poorest without. At the same time volunteers have shown astonishing generosity and been eager to help those unable to help themselves. We cannot rely on this uncaring government to tap this enthusiasm.

Neither can we rely on the usual capitalist institutions to care for the worst off. Supermarkets have made it clear they cannot deliver food and other supplies to what could be millions of self-isolating people. They would be overwhelmed. Neither can they be relied on to ration resources among the population in the wake of panic buying. If rationing becomes necessary, then it has to have clear rules and be seen to be fair, and to protect the most vulnerable. It should therefore be imposed centrally by the government.

Over the past ten years the Tories have systematically run the National Health Service into the ground. Fifteen thousand beds have gone; there are 43,000 fewer nurses. The NHS is utterly unequipped to face a pandemic. It is particularly grotesque that private hospitals are being bribed with £2.4m a day to help out as the pandemic spreads. Which is more important - human life or private profit? Private hospital facilities should just be requisitioned to help deal with the crisis. Likewise there are masses of empty buildings in London. It they are needed for people to self-isolate, be treated or recover they should simply be taken over.

The situation with social care is even worse, but social care should be an important safety net. Sufferers will often be discharged from hospital into the arms of social care. We know the elderly are particularly at risk. Where is the plan to cope with those self-isolating for months at a time or recuperating, but still needing help? There is nothing. We have been waiting for a Green Paper on social care since 2018. Now the situation is desperate.

Much of social care is administered by the local authorities. Councils have been systematically starved of funds since 2010. Ealing council for instance has lost two thirds of its government funding since that year. What about elderly people facing isolation for months, and often terribly lonely since their family has been advised not to visit for risk of infecting them? The social fabric has been rent apart by the cuts.

Not only has the policy of austerity been particularly brutal to those most in need, it has also proved to be penny wise and pound foolish. In the face of the crisis the Tories have announced a massive additional rescue package of £30bn. This is a complete reversal of their insistence for the past ten years that ‘there’s no money’. Suddenly there is money. There is money when they need to save the capitalist system, not because of the livelihoods of working class people.

A capitalist government is going to pay most of the wages of private sector workers to stop a collapse in demand and potentially a deeper recession than in 1928-33. In addition they have finally stepped up testing and requested firms to produce more ventilators.  They must have known the pandemic would get worse. They should have started preparations weeks ago.

At the same time the Tories decided to close down the schools.  This again was an imitation of what more resourceful capitalist states had done earlier. The government realised it couldn’t close them completely. What about the children whose parents are frontline workers fighting the pandemic?

Johnson decided the schools had to stay open for the children of key workers and for the vulnerable. Acting without thinking, the government gave no advice as to who these key workers were, and left head teachers scratching their heads.

At present the advice is to ‘stay at home’. Except, except, except. Parks are to remain open - except when they are closed. The Tories defined construction workers as essential and permitted to travel to work, against the strong advice of London Mayor Sadiq Khan. This is one reason we see pictures of crowded tube trains in the rush hour, with workers cheek by jowl in danger of infecting one another. Madness. The police, numbers devastated by a decade of Tory cuts, are in no position to enforce instructions on numbers using the tube or gathering together in parks.

To this day the Tories are incapable of supplying a definition of a key worker. The list must include at least supermarket workers, cleaners and delivery drivers, all in the frontline of dealing with people who may carry the virus or its effects. They are putting themselves at risk. They must be looked after.

The government is unable even to provide enough personal protective equipment to key workers - who are surely in the front line of fire from the virus. At present not all emergency workers are being tested. This is ridiculous, since some may self-isolate unnecessarily and be removed from the front line. They should be tested at least weekly.

Medical staff say they feel like lambs to the slaughter. One nurse commented, “I have just completed four 12-hour shifts in five days. There are no hazmat suits for this ward, though we had six Covid-19 contacts in isolation. I have a pair of gloves, a paper face mask with plastic shield and a plastic apron. It’s a f***ing joke.”

We must demand:

·         The government follows the WHO’s advice on testing and tracing.

·         Statutory sick pay is completely inadequate. Workers must not lose out through no fault of their own. They should be provided work or full maintenance.

·         Private hospitals and facilities must be taken over by the government.

·         We need price controls on drugs and equipment; no profiteering from the pandemic.

·         Rents should be frozen for the duration of the crisis; no evictions.

·         Likewise utility bills should be suspended for the duration.

·         The funds just promised for the NHS sound impressive, but will not make up for a decade of dereliction and neglect. An emergency plan and injection of funds are needed.

·         Health and social care workers and other emergency workers are in the front line. They must be supplied with the equipment they need to do their job and to protect their persons.

·         In view of the school closures parents should get immediate leave to care at full pay.  

The Tory government has failed all along the line because of their commitment to ‘business as usual’. This is not just a ‘natural’ disaster, but one made worse by Tory neglect and rundown of essential social services.