Tories are using the pandemic to dismantle the NHS

 These videos are a must-see.

Behind the pro-NHS rhetoric, Boris Johnson's Conservative government are covertly selling off, and systematically undermining, our public health service.

The Great NHS Heist film

Why was there NO Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)?

Surely, in a dangerous pandemic, the number one priority has to be a vast increase in the provision of PPE, both to protect the as yet uninfected, and to isolate the infected, to prevent ever more general contagion?

Why didn't that happen in the UK?

Well it wasn't for the reasons given at all!

Imagine if large amounts of such PPE had been made widely available. All NHS staff would be suitably equipped. As would all those care workers looking after the elderly and infirm in Care Homes. All those still having to be involved in all forms of Public Transport would also be equipped and protected! Any lockdown would only need to be temporary as small local areas could be provided with the right Protection, to allow a local raising of the Lockdown.

And a sequence of short term Lockdowns - followed by fully PPE-equipped free movement areas could have been instituted! The worldwide Pandemic could have been controlled and even greatly minimised in its most disastrous effects!

So why was it not quickly established as The Priority Policy from the Start?

It is obvious why didn't it happen! It was because the ideal place to lock up the entire population was in their own homes ON PAIN OF DEATH!

Otherwise safe behind appropriate PPE, The People could be ON THE STREETS DEMONSTRATING - and that, for the Powers that be would be the Worst Case Scenario!

Even the avalanche of deaths, particularly of the old (and even if a majority of those are reliable Tory voters) would be a better outcome for them than armies of masked and angry citizens taking to the streets.

Instead of being isolated from each other and limited to their own homes, they would be meeting outside their places of work, or demonstrating in enormous joint actions demanding the safety of workers be put first. 

Low paid key workers would finally realise their power and number.

They would walk out of places of work which were dangerous to their health! New organisations and groups would spring up out of Trades Unions and Political Parties.

NO! There are far too many of them! Such a crisis as this could be what triggers a World-Wide REVOLUTION, and the Many could finally replace the Few!

It could be the End of Capitalism!

Better to keep the lockdowns and restrict PPE than risk that...

Corona Solutions: The only way out of this Catastrophe!

Italian police breaking up a Coronavirus protest outside a prison

Part I

Though Governments and their subservient Media, throughout the World, attempt to insist that they already are, as adequately as is humanly possible, effectively addressing the Global Calamity of the Coronavirus Pandemic: that is certainly NOT THE CASE!

For they will never ever admit their own and absolutely crucial liability, or, that the main sufferers from what they propose are overwhelmingly the ordinary People - The Working Class, the "key" workers - along with the Old and the Poor. And these authorities demand a trenchant and unwavering obeying of their chosen solutions, which are primarily to give trillions of Dollars, Pounds and other currencies, to help Big Businesses (themselves and their class), as being the ONLY thing that they could possibly do to keep us all afloat.

These measures will, of course, maintain their current Economic System, and the consequent and gross inequality of wealth, resulting in the tiny social class that owns, rules and directs everything, once again calling all the shots.

But, of course, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people will die with what they have instituted as solutions.

And, if they get the workforces back to work very soon, which is indeed the demand from sections of that same Ruling Class, those fatalities could soar even further in yet further, so-caused Waves of Infection.

Our demands as workers should be obvious.

All Work and Living Spaces MUST first be made safe - immediately!

And to achieve that it will be necessary for as many as possible to be got back to work, BUT with the sole, essential and primary job of making things safe to work there! And vague talk of achieving this WILL NOT DO! For, it will have to be addressed piecemeal, and with a detailed strategy. 

Decontaminating public spaces in South Korea

First, well defined local areas must be made safe, and thereafter kept safe, one at a time.

And, that process must commence with testing everyone in each such small-and-well-defined-area, and all acting accordingly with what is increasingly found to achieve that state! Then, the brought-in, allocated workers along with the uninfected from the area, will together then make the area safe to work in physically.

Thereafter, sufficient workers to maintain the continued precautionary testing AND keeping-the-area-safe, especially including not only public areas, but also workplaces and leisure areas and necessary facilities and shops.

This MUST BE the primary task!

And, this must also be backed-up by the still isolated-at-home workers, who MUST refuse to go back to work unless-and-until their intended workplaces, and their means of getting there, are BOTH made safe.

Clearly, a choice of these areas must be determined by where BOTH of these complete sets of requirements are covered by a single-defined-area! For, if both workplaces and their at-home-workers are situated close-together, they must get priority, and these must occur first, in areas where these conditions are available.

The Essential Discipline for doing all this, must be organised, within the areas, and constantly open-and-informing! So, it must NOT be provided by elite forces like the Police or Army, BUT by the people involved themselves, and NOT imposed from without and top-down.

So, getting that MUST first involve a local-to-each-area, and democratically elected committee, organised either electronically or by post. But, such a "Local-Area-Council" must have instant-recall and replacement of its members, if this delivers an undemocratic committee: it MUST reflect the majority opinions of those it represents and acts for!

Outside of these areas, concerned with everything that they need, must be organised initially solely by newly-formed Sections of and from within the NHS, along with workers in the Public Transport and Goods Delivery Industries, again organised via defined Regions with similar democratic structures to defend their own conditions too.

The Myth that workers aren't up to decision-making must be dumped immediately, and throughout these arrangements, for it has and always will construct a privileged decision-making elite, who ultimately will primarily represent only themselves and their ilk in their decisions!

Only these forms of organisation will be able to do the job in the interests of the people. They will make better choices, for they will be concerned to defend their own families and workmates, and friends where they live and work, and not to defend the right to make profits as has been the case in the response and decisions made thus far!

The only ones we should trust to protect our health are the NHS workers and the people working at the front line. 

Who delivers the News?

Graphic from Another Angry Voice

Without the facts, how can the People understand whats going on?

Can we really have a Democracy, without also having the necessary information to make informed decisions at the ballot box?

Who actually owns the Press and other Media? Who now organises the Social Media Platforms, and prioriotises their content?

It is always the Tories of this world, and their penumbra of "privileged-service providers"!

And it is clear what cause they serve - PROFIT!

Did the Working Class cause the Slump of 2008?

NO, it was them - the Profiteers and Bankers, extending the profit-making reach ever deeper into the poor, and then blaming them for their inability to be sucked any drier, and even shutting down the social services that are there to aid them: the completely disingenuous project known as Austerity.

And where in the Media is this truth exposed?

Absolutely nowhere.

Can the informing of the People be left in the hands of those whose sole purpose is to exploit those they are supposed to be informing?

NO! 

Of course it can't.

We have a National Health Service - so why not a National News Service? It could be independent of government - as an extension of a Real Library Service perhaps, financed through taxation, and NOT advertising. Local Papers would be produced by Local Libray News Servvices, which would also include a major presence on the Internet. And National Newspapers would come out of regional hubs in major centres throughout the country.

And why stop there? The publishing of books currently only survives if it makes a profit for the owners. A Public Publishing Service under the democratic control of its employees, would be very different, and it would also transform publishing on the Web. Indeed, the publishing of Music and Recordings, and the organisation of Concerts and Gigs, without the money making parasites, would benefit everybody involved. And, clearly, such would also be the home for Film Making - for writers, performers and artists would all be involved.

But, it would certainly NOT be as a top-down hierarchy, a bureaucracy as was established in "Soviet" Russia! It would be built out of grassroots Worker Co-operatives - today's real "Soviets", so that Democracy would dominate at every level.

Clearly, this would never be allowed under a Capitalist System, but would be ideal in a truly Socialist State. For, the fight for Socialism is never merely the switching of the Ruling Party of Government: it has to be far more fundamental than that!

Here is the key question:

If Corbyn's Labour Party win a General Election, what will the rich do to undermine it? 

And will we let them do it?

Socialist Society: How do we get it...?

In 1945, with a landslide victory in the General Election, a Labour Government was elected with a Socialist Agenda. The Electricity, Gas, Coal, Steel and Railways Industries were all nationalised - taken into Public Ownership, to be run as part of a Planned Economy for the benefit of the People. And, the National Health Service was set up, as a service for all, free at the point of use. Education was reorganised to provide different kinds of instruction, with places allocated solely upon the basis of ability alone.

BUT, the Wealth still remained substantially in the hands of the Owning Class! They were even given substantial Compensation Payments for their now Nationalised Industries, which actually made them even richer in terms of actual spendable money.

And, they still owned the whole printed Media Industry - the Newspapers and Magazines, and the Book Publishing Organisations. 

In addition, all their Private Schools and Charitable Foundations and "Research Organisations" continued to provide privileged education to their children, and energetically peddle their views totally unrestricted. Generous donations to like-thinking organisations, and even individuals with political ambitions, actually increased.

So, ranged against the Labour Government, attempting to build Socialism out of the Ruins and Debts of the Second World War, were the still very well-heeled rich, totally determined that Labour should fail, and they would regain their property, their wealth and their power.

And they succeeded in just 5 years! 

The Tories were back in power after only a single Labour Administration, despite the fact that Clement Attlee's Labour government had been elected with the largest swing ever achieved in the country.

In other papers in this series, the myths of supposed Democracy have been spelled out, to make very clear that a great deal more than just "The Vote" is required to establish a truly Democratic State. Money will always undermine true democracy.

Now, Corbyn's Labour Party is ready-once-more with a somewhat similar agenda to 1945! But, after years of Blairite degeneration, he has a Party apparatus saddled with anti-socialist neoliberals and pro-capitalist elites. Yet, by a successful recruiting drive, he and his colleagues have established a pro-socialist majority within the rank-and-file.

So, without the victory of that majority, inside the Party, that Socialist Agenda will be betrayed from within!

Clearly, both the lessons of 1945, and the transformation of the Party simply MUST be achieved, or the next Labour Government and the People that elected them will again be defeated.

Are you clear what must be done?

For example:

• What are the important lessons of 1945?

• Do we give the rich any compensation?

• Can we leave the Media in the hands of the Ruling Class?

• And, if not, who should take on that vital responsibility?

• Can we leave the Banks in private hands?

Now, these questions should clarify why these papers have been about:

Achieving Real Socialism!

For, without true Socialist Democracy at every level, the 1945 mistakes such as both Socialism-from-above, as well as leaving the Enemy Class adequately equipped to reverse any gains made, will undoubtedly re-occur.

Can you see what will be necessary?

And, will the Capitalist Class ever allow it?

I am sure you can guess the answers to these questions! Remember what happened with the Slump of 1929-1939? Will those solutions be tried again?

Why Socialism Failed I

Park Hill, Sheffield by Michael C Coldwell, 2016 

Key Questions for Socialists: Part I

Beyond Within-Capitalism Activism

Historical Introduction 

As a socialist all my adult life, and a committed and a still-producing Marxist theorist, and finally someone who has been actively involved in the Revolutionary Left for most of that time, I have some important criticisms of what comrades concentrate upon, while often ignoring other absolutely essential areas without which the successful conclusion of our efforts will be impossible.

In truth, the state of socialist priorities is, indeed, a consequence of acting within Capitalism, to win hearts and minds of the Working Class, for many things are considered to be unaddressable in that context - they are questions about what will have to be done both establishing a nascent Socialist State, and thereafter implementng its required structure.

Nevertheless, such questions cannot be left unaddressed. Not even a Revolution can switch Capitalism off, and at a atroke, institute Socialism as-a-readymade, well-understood alternative.

Indeed, originating from a Victorian slum, in Gorton, Manchester almost 80 years ago, I knew that you voted Labour from infancy, but what it then meant was the achievements in Nationalisation of the post-war Atlee-led government. And, the gains made seemed prodigious, and even the basis for a possible Socialist Society: but as history has shown, that was far from the actual case! All the wealth remained in the hands of the Owning Class, as did the Media of all kinds, and every possible hostile activity and undermining was brought into play, both within the country and from outside (due to the debts incurred in fighting the then recent War).

Manchester in the 1950s, Shirley Baker

And, in spite of significant gains by the actions of that Labour Government, who was it that was then charged with implementing it for the benefit of the people? Literally all the doctors involved had been, and were still, opposed to the project, and continued to treat Working Class patients as they had done in the past.

How about this!

My father, an ex-wartime fireman, died, aged 59, of a treatable illness, which was never diagnosed.  My maternal grandad died of pneumonia ONE DAY after being sent packing by his GP "as a malingerer". My mother, after two detached retinas, two years apart, was first made totally blind in one eye due to the failure of a new technique, and then lost the sight in the other due to exactly the same reason.

Now, the Tories lyingly blamed the NHS, as it indirectly infers now, at every possibile opportunity, for such tragedies, but it wasn't, and still isn't, true: it was the doctors who treated them, and their low opinion of their patients from the poor!

Oh, and by the way, I too have had very similar inadequate diagnoses and treatment, and have been chronically ill for almost 40 years, having to retire early after working with that disability for 14 years due to the results of a damaging operation.

Perhaps I digress, but my point is surely clear - Social Democracy is not enough! We got a committed Social Democratic government in 1945, but the economic power remained with the rich.

So, what are the implications for what we should do now?

The economic slump of 2008 did not only expose the inadequacies of Capitalism, but unleashed an almighty assault upon the Working Class to pay-the-bill, while, at the same time, attempting to remove every single gain remaining from the nationalisations and social programmes of the 1940s, and the achievements in living standards by the Working Class. 

Today, I watched a "debate" between Peter Taafe of the Socialist Party and Michael Crick, a clear enemy of our class - proved throughout his contributions, which were a continuation of his attacks upon that organisation in three previous books, AND, in this "debate"the usual lies repeated heatedly and often, AND in spite of his anti-Labour stance, displaying a clear union with those still-present in the Labour Party of today, who had expelled them in the past.

NOTE: If you're wondering, the writer of this article was also expelled from the Labour Party too, but in 1964, having transformed the campaign in my city, in our electoral efforts to achieve a Labour Government, in which we succeeded! Peter Taafe's expulsion came 20 years later, after major successes for his grouping in Liverpool. By the way, Crick was also involved in "exposing" that "criminal insertion" into the Labour Party then too.

As an aside to this you don't invite agents of the enemy class to a debate, ever!

So, what has to be done? Finally, we get around to my main purpose in writing this essay, "What are the Key Questions now imperative for the Revolutionary Left to address?"

The first is obvious, but strangely absent.

Where are the necessarily constant Marxist Economic Updates, such as Professor Richard Wolff supplies both weekly and monthly on 80 radio stations across America and on YouTube?

Don't you think they are necessary?

Chunkymark isn't really a Marxist, but he finds it absolutely essential to deliver a daily YouTube rant against the Capitalist establishment. And, he is right! 

For he's genuinely angry, and so should we be! Politics isn't measured argument: it is heart, anger and commitment, that strikes at the arrogance, greed and hatred of the enemy class - especially NOW! It is a rallying call for recruiting allies that will trust you, and when the time comes will remember.

And, where is the rest of Marxist Theory?

When I was a young Physics student, I joined the Communist Party after reading Lenin's Materialism and Empirio Criticism, as it correctly destroyed, philosophically, the Positivist position of physicists Henri Poincaré and Ernst Mach. Here was the answer to the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory I was being force-fed in my University course.

But, I was mistaken: it wasn't the place.

Indeed, the number-one-priority, intellectually, for Marxists to tackle in Science was this crucial philosophical question. And, in spite of seeking that theory wherever I thought it might be, I didn't succeed.

The switch by Marx from Idealism to Materialism was precisely to unify Philosophy with Science, and he demonstrated how to do it in the volumes of his work, Das Kapital. It took him the rest of his life to complete it, and he fully expected his followers to complete the same sort-of-undertaking on Science. The books on Science by his colleague Frederick Engels, along with his own Mathematical Manuscripts proved his intentions.

It is over a century since Lenin's book, where are the vital following works?

The question was rhetorical, for I know the answer: I have had to do it myself, and like Marx I had to work many decades part-time and the last 10 years full-time to complete it.

And, there are other important omissions,which I will outline in Part II...

Building the Left

Where will we find the resources?

What must be our policies?

Who should we target?

The approaches pursued by the Left for decades have never been effective!

Yet, the circumstances over the last 25 years, and increasingly since the economic collapse of 2008, could not have been more conducive to an informed, vigorous and appropriately-directed push, within the Left, to finally marshal the forces to change things fundamentally.

The Social Democratic "Left" has invariably revealed its total inadequacy to the necessary tasks, and when they get the chance to act, merely line-up with the Right to make the Working Class pay for the current, irreparable mess that is 21st century capitalism. When they get into power, even with a mandate from the Electorate to dump Austerity, they simply betray-and-administer that essentially the-very-same Austerity.

They are totally bankrupt politically - observe France!

"François Hollande's vision of an anti-austerity Europe was just a dream"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/30/francois-hollande-anti-austerity-europe-dream

What is needed is a real Socialist Agenda - for the End of Capitalism! And, the resources to do it must be the Youth.

But, we must not be diverted into social-adjustments, which do not permanently address the real problems. The issues of Gender, Race, Jobs and Health must be predicated upon the fight to change the Capitalist Economic System.

Capitalism - if essentially left unchanged, can only make the situation worse - observe Trump!

It's got to go - this must be our Prime Objective.

All the many consequent evils of that system must still be pursued, and even more vigorously, BUT with an insistence upon these necessary political objectives.

When seeming allies warn against bringing politics into particular struggles, drive them out: they don't agree that Capitalism is the major engine for all our problems, and any gains they make will be both inadequate and temporary.

We must bang the drum for Real Socialism!

Oppose any inwards-turning or purely local "suggested solutions", whether they concern Racism, Jingoist Nationalism, Gender Equality or even Defence of the NHS. All of these battles will be lost without economic change. All must be centred upon the main thrust of Socialism!

And, the Youth will be the Vanguard.

Recruit them within all activisms as polemicists and partners for the Main Purpose! For example recruit Moslem Youth, Black Youth, Unemployed Youth, Striking Youth, Demonstrating Youth, Student Youth, Homeless Youth, Young Musicians, Young Artists and Youth at Music Festivals.

They must be our forces for change!

But, we must also be serious about Socialism. We must know what we are talking about, and why. We must be Marxist!

We must understand what we are fighting and what we will need to replace it with.

And the time for this type of struggle is NOW.

Why me must save the NHS!

Michael Sheen speaks on protecting the NHS - Bedwellty Park