Covid-19: Update 2

LRC Statement

This article has been revised and strengthened as a result of a recent discussion by the NEC of the LRC.

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 onsider 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 was weak to begin with. 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. More recently Labour, led by the comments of John McDonnell and others, has provided a more sure-footed opposition. They have been assisted in this by the obvious Tory dithering and disasters – particularly on testing, personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators. Even the right wing press has been alarmed by the government’s ineptitude. It remains to be seen how effectively Keir Starmer’s team will hold Johnson and co. to account.

The Tories will try to argue that ‘we are all in this together’. We are not. Mike Ashley Sports Direct) and Tim Martin (Wetherspoons), among others, have tried to use the crisis to impoverish their workers and enrich themselves still more. Jacob Rees Mogg finds this a golden opportunity for Somerset Capital Management to make “super normal returns” – at our expense. We continue to live in a class-divided society. The ruling class will be up to their usual tricks - and may treat the health emergency as an opportunity. The Tories are their party. For this reason it is vital that Labour does not heed the siren voices advocating closer co-operation and even a national government. Labour must hold Johnson and co. to account. For this to happen, Labour’s members must find a way beyond the present Party shutdown to make our voices heard.

Business as Usual

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, that was the case in China. Drastic measures of lockdown have since 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, PPE and ventilators. It didn’t happen. Britain too 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, personal protective equipment (PPE) and ventilators.

Johnson’s government has been consistently behind the curve. The World Health Organization (WHO) was 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 to have been 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? It is likely that the reported figures for those infected, and for coronavirus related deaths, are underestimates as they can only count those identified in hospitals. The government has persisted with this stupidity for weeks and weeks, making a massive loss of life much more likely.

Typical of the Tory approach was their attitude to the Nervtag study in 2015. Nervtag was the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group, set up specifically to prepare for the threat of viruses in the future.  The government decided not to stockpile personal protective equipment, presumably to save money. This was the Tory mindset in action.

Herd Immunity

There has been a suspicion that the government has been pursuing a strategy of ‘herd immunity’. Though they have denied this recently this was the logic of their approach. Informed commentators like Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, knew this was what they were up to. Dominic Cummings made reference to the concept in his blog in 2013. Herd immunity would entail allowing sufficient people to catch the disease so that most of us would no longer be vulnerable. Proponents argue that if enough of the young and fit catch the disease with mild symptoms the rest of the herd will develop immunity. Covid-19 is no respecter of persons and could have a devastating effect on the elderly and vulnerable.

This policy has been correctly described as insane, and could have led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of people according to an Imperial College assessment. The true concept of herd immunity is that members of the herd are immunised against disease, not left to be wiped out! Even recently in April the Mail on Sunday quoted Graham Medley, the government’s chief pandemic modeller, arguing the case for herd immunity.

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 and shocking. Recently concern has been expressed by a consortium of charities that old vulnerable people in care homes, sometimes with dementia, are being pressurised into signing ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ forms, as if their lives were worthless.

Lockdown

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 on March 23rd the government ordered the closure of all these small businesses and imposed lockdown.  Another mistake led to another enforced U-turn. Lockdown can only slow the spread of the disease, not eliminate it altogether. And a side effect is its impact on workers’ livelihoods.

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 have already had their hours reduced, been laid off or sent home because of the emergency and their incomes have slashed or disappeared 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.

At the end of March 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 the schools 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 for everyone 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.

Emergency Laws

The government lurched from casual indifference to demanding draconian legislation as they panicked, realising the crisis that the pandemic unleashed. They pushed through the Coronavirus Act as an emergency law with very little discussion in Parliament. Labour managed some improvements, such as demanding that the emergency powers be reviewed and renewed every six months. Most people will probably accept that this as a life and death issue – for now. They should be careful what they wish for. There has always been a strong authoritarian strand in Johnson’s administration.

Hungary should stand as a warning. Orban’s authoritarian regime has passed laws allowing him to rule by decree. There are no time limits to these arbitrary decrees. Orban presides over a servile parliament. There are realistic fears that a law against passing ‘disinformation’ will be used to jail the few independent journalists in the country who have not already been silenced.

In Britain it is vital that there is full Parliamentary scrutiny and respect for civil liberties built in to emergency laws passed. For instance only one mental health professional rather than two is now needed to authorise the ‘sectioning’, detention of a person in a hospital. Is this really necessary?

Workers’ Living Standards

Some low paid workers 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. UC was specifically designed to torment ‘skivers’ and ‘shirkers’ and make it as difficult as possible for them to claim. There has been 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? Now the system has to deal with a tsunami of a million claimants. How can it cope? 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 Act the Tories have still not come to terms with how to deal with emergency provision for the self-employed.

Given the inadequacies of our social security system it is not surprising that advocates of a universal basic income (UBI) have raised their voices. UBI has been a longstanding proposal. It was advocated by Tom Paine and by the right wing economist Milton Friedman. The idea is to replace the present jungle of benefits with a single payment to citizens. The basic problem is that different people have different needs. For instance people with disabilities may need and deserve extra services. See this article from our magazine Labour Briefing:

 https://labourbriefing.org/blog/2018/3/25/ubi-the-future-for-social-security-or-new-workhouse-nightmare

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.

Protecting the Weakest

Special care and attention will have to be paid to the homeless. Homelessness and rough sleeping have doubled since the Tories took over in 2010. These people are clearly at extra risk. At last the government has released a little money to local authorities to help out the homeless. It’s not enough. Why has it taken ten years? Many others are living in overcrowded conditions. Who is to take account of their problems? Emergency action must be taken to ensure all those who need to self-isolate have the opportunity to do so. That will inevitably mean requisitioning empty properties.

The world is facing the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War. UNHCR reckons there are more than 70 million refugees – now up against a global pandemic. They are horribly vulnerable. Most governments, including Britain’s, have been determined to push them away and ignore them. We need a global alternative and we can’t expect capitalist governments to carry it through. That must be the task of the world’s labour movements and workers’ parties. In Britain we need to defend the plight of refugees and asylum seekers on our shores, who are among the most vulnerable in the community.

Mutual Aid Networks

How do we help the poorest and most vulnerable? It seems we live in the best of times, and the worst of times. There have been racist attacks, using the virus as an excuse, and a spike in domestic abuse and violence. There has been mass panic buying, including for the motive of profiteering, which has left food banks struggling and left the poorest without adequate supplies. At the same time three quarters of a million volunteers appeared from nowhere in four days. Mutual Aid Networks have sprung up all over the country. They 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.

NHS

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 the country. It they are needed for people to self-isolate, be treated or recover they should simply be taken over.

Social Care

The situation with social care is even worse with more than 120,000 vacancies, 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 for the livelihoods of working class people.

Testing, Testing

The government has finally stepped up testing and requested firms to produce more ventilators and personal protective equipment.  They must have known the pandemic would get worse. They should have started preparations weeks ago.

At the beginning of April Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced a target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month. The Institute of Biomedical Science has made it clear that achieving that target is impossible. There is now a global scramble for chemical reagents and even the plastic components for the test kits.

For two months the Tories have ignored the clear and specific advice of the WHO to “test, test, test and trace”. At the time of writing the government is testing only 10,000 a day, while in Germany it’s 50,000, to be ramped up to a million. This is the consequence of our government’s indecision and dithering. There are half a million front line health workers. As of the beginning of April only 2,000 had been tested. This is ridiculous. These workers are putting their lives on the line every day. It beggars belief that their sacrifices are not being matched by the elementary duty to look after their health and welfare in this way. All emergency workers should be tested. This is obvious, since some may self-isolate unnecessarily and be removed from the front line. They should be tested at least weekly.

In addition to testing against the virus, advisers have raised the of antibody tests, to find out who has had Covid-19 and is therefore immune. This will be important as we leave lockdown but for now the priority must be to test those in the frontline and most at risk. Likewise a vaccine could be a game changer but that seems to be in the future.

Equipment to Battle the Virus

The story is similar with ventilators as with the need to test. We haven’t got enough and need more. Johnson ‘s contribution was to make a sick joke calling the problem ‘operation last gasp’, showing only that he is unfit to be Prime Minister. We currently have 8,000 ventilators. Hancock thinks we need 30,000. That is probably a minimum requirement. Britain is one of the richest countries in the world.  It is an absolute disgrace that people could die for lack of medical equipment. There is no shortage of ingenuity in producing and delivering the ventilators. That ingenuity needs to be tapped and channelled.

But the biggest scandal regards personal protective equipment (PPE) – hazmat suits, masks, gowns and eyewear. 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. There is story after story of workers being put in harm’s way for lack of PPE and desperate improvisations by staff to cover for government incompetence. The Doctors’ Association UK comments, “Lack...continues to be a critical issue. It is heartbreaking to hear that some staff have been told to simply hold their breath due to lack of masks...Doctors are dying. Nurses are dying. We are devastated and can no longer stand by and watch as more dedicated colleagues lost their life.”

Complaints pour in. 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.” Not enough gear is being produced, but it seems as well that the supply of equipment is chaotic. It’s all a shambles.

Medical staff are not the only section of key workers who deserve protection. In social care homes agency workers often move from one home to another, all the time dealing with vulnerable people. They must be protected for their own sake and for those they look after. Supermarket workers are in constant contact with customers, some of whom may well be infected. Recently bus drivers have died of Covid-19. Their union is rightly demanding proper Perspex screens, gloves and masks since they are risking their lives at work.

The trade unions can have a crucial role. There have been horrible reports of managers bullying medical staff into working without adequate protection. Of course these workers are determined to do their utmost to fight the pandemic. But this must not involve them risking health and life. Unions must stop management from taking advantage of the crisis. They must maintain their independence and look out for their members. Tim Martin, boss of Wetherspoons, threatened to refuse to pay his workers beyond March 22nd. Amid outrage the Bakers’ Union has fought back to defend the 40,000 employees and forced a U-turn.

Key Workers

Key workers fighting the virus have recently been lionised and garlanded as heroes in the press. For many this will be a novel experience. They are indeed heroes, but when they look at their pay slips they may not feel that their work has hitherto been regarded as important and valuable. Those in the vanguard of the battle against the pandemic have for the most part been miserably paid and disregarded. Their work, though often arduous and involving serious responsibility, is written off as ‘unskilled’.

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. There are many others. They are all putting themselves at risk. They must be looked after and treasured. When this is all over we must not let the Tories go back to ‘business as usual’. Key workers must be rewarded for what they have achieved and deserve.

The LRC Demands

·         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’. A capitalist government is going to pay most of the wages of private sector workers just to stop a collapse in demand and potentially a deeper recession than in 1929-33. That shows their priorities. We are NOT all in this together. This is not just a ‘natural’ disaster, but one made worse by Tory neglect and rundown of essential social services.

END

HEARD COMMUNITY

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