Covid Pandemic Exposes Class Lines
Whilst we are still in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s hard to fully analyse its consequences, beyond of course, the devastating loss of life and the immense sacrifices being made by all front-line workers. As of today, 1st April 2020, the number of deaths internationally is close to reaching 40,000. A pandemic of this magnitude has not been seen since the Influenza pandemic (‘Spanish Flu’) of 1918-1920, and we are living in a very difficult situation, in a much more globalized world.
In the Six Counties, communities have been left defenceless against this pandemic, as the politicians who sit themselves at the top of the hill, continually delayed the closure of schools, nurseries and universities; despite the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO). While Six County politicians argued over whether to follow the inadequate, dangerous approach of the British government in London, or the inadequate, dangerous approach of the Twenty Six County government in Dublin; people took matters, that are quite literally life or death, into their own hands.
We saw school principals declare that the rest of the school week was now to be teacher training days, to ensure that for their safety, the pupils could stay at home. Parents, in fear and panic, shared information with each other over social media; writing in solidarity that for the safety of their families, and their communities, they wouldn’t send their children to school. University students emailed sympathetic lecturers and tutors, who replied explaining that they too were self-isolating, a precautionary measure that would save lives.
Then the schools were closed, and after the schools, the universities. But by then, these institutions were empty buildings, as the people whose presence normally filled these spaces knew better. Going against the government’s advice, they knew to stay away to prevent contagion.
As socialists, we have always known that it is the people who actively keep our society running who should be in charge of how this society is organised. But nothing has illuminated this fact in flashing, neon lights as the pandemic we are faced with has done. It has taken a global virus to effectively strip back the neo-liberal, capitalist myth that the politicians will take care of us. That workers in so-called “low-skilled” jobs are undeserving of decent wages, of a comfortable lifestyle. These are the lies that we are told over and over, but their repetition does not make them truth.
What we know, and what we can now clearly see in the midst of this pandemic which has brought the capitalist economies to its knees, is that these “low-skilled” workers are our front line of defence. The doctors and nurses saving lives in our hospitals, the cleaners who are bravely putting themselves into direct contact with the virus to ensure the safety of others; those tirelessly searching for a vaccine, care workers caring for the most vulnerable in our society, at a time when everyone else is advised to stay away. The workers putting food on the shelves, those who deliver it to our shops, those who work on production lines to ensure that we can continue to access what we need to survive. It is these people who are taking care of us, at the risk of contracting the virus themselves.
When this is over, and normality returns, we must remember who it was that saved us all. It was not any CEO. It was not the owners of big businesses. It was not the politicians, who live off our taxes, that saved us from preventable deaths. It was the shop workers, who placed tape on the floors of our supermarkets and shops, so we knew where it was safe to stand and queue. It was the taxi drivers who continued to bring essential workers to their place of work, putting themselves and their livelihood at risk by doing so. Every worker who placed themselves in harm’s way to ensure people continued to have access to food, medicine, electricity and heating; these were the people who will have saved us all.
The pandemic we are still battling through, and will be for the foreseeable future, has laid bare the class lines that divide our society and perpetuate inequality. Some self-isolate in luxury homes, with sufficient entertainment and large open space for leisure and fresh air. Others are under quarantine in small, cramped houses, in high rise flats with little to no access to the outside world.
Citizens living in the Six Counties are already suffering through a suicide epidemic and a long-term mental health crisis. Drug addiction and abuse is rampant, and perhaps the most terrifying consequence of Covid-19, beyond the deaths it will inevitably continue to cause, is the effect the isolation will have on our already struggling communities. People’s lives are already being ruined and cut short by austerity, which has continually attacked essential support networks, such as the welfare system, the National Health Service, social care, and community services.
When the worst of this pandemic is over, when life begins to go back to normal; we must remember everything we are seeing today. Instead of just clapping for the health workers, we must actively fight back against health privatisation. Instead of merely thanking our essential workers in words, our actions must show our gratitude, by fighting for their job security, decent pay and safe working conditions. We must not go back to normality, because our normality of laissez-faire capitalism is what has left us defenceless against this pandemic. We can see for ourselves now that the money to house the homeless, the money to fund health services, the money to pay everyone a decent wage; that money has always been there.
When this is all over, it will be the time to fight for it.
