COVID-19: NO GOING BACK TO ‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’

For years we had to accept “austerity” as Britain didn’t have any money. Ordinary people had to “tighten their belts” while the rich became super rich. But Britain was “skint”. We ‘couldn’t afford’ pay rises or increases in benefits. Hospital beds were lost, NHS staff were treated like scum. Jobs we knew were important were seen as “low skilled” so bosses paid minimum wage and use zero hours’ contracts. Prisoners and asylum seekers were “evil” so the only option was to lock them away.

Well ain’t it funny (no) what a virus can bring about!

Look how politicians change their tune when it suits them. Millions are having to claim Universal Credit (UC).  Because these new claimants ain’t the “great unwashed” or “scroungers”, suddenly even the government realise living on £75 a week isn’t possible. So up goes Universal Credit a week by £20. After no increase for 5 years, suddenly we can increase it by nearly 30%. Funny that! Working Tax Credits is also increasing by the same amount, as apparently Boris & Co were forced to realise that was too low as well.

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Published: 11 May 2020

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Why I am angry! NHS worker speaks out

The following is a heartfelt response from a frontline worker in the NHS. We would like to add that some of the comments in the article wouldn’t be shared by all of us in HSG. Nevertheless it is a compelling read which highlights the incompetence and pure disregard of those in power.

I am a deputy sister (nurse) in intensive care (ICU) in a major London hospital, and I am angry. 

(Please read until the end, the second part is an insider’s view of ICU right now. My use of I/me/us/we/our can apply to all healthcare workers and ICUs worldwide. And these views are my own and not that of my employer.)

22nd April 2020
 I am a deputy sister in intensive care in a major London hospital, and I am angry. 
I am angry at the UK government for their COVID 19 response, or lack-of. 
I am angry at the Chinese government for their cover up of COVID 19, amongst many other things they have done. 
I am angry at the members of the public in the UK that are flouting lockdown rules and continuing to spread the virus. 
I am angry for my patients and their families. 
I am angry for myself and my colleagues in healthcare all over the world. 
I am angry for everyone affected by COVID 19, so everyone.

There are also lots of things I am grateful for and amazed by too, but sometimes it’s hard to remember or appreciate them. Last night on my way home from 13 hours in ICU was one of them.
I am aware of how lucky I am to have a job at the moment, I do not take this for granted. And I am also aware of how lucky I am to live and work in the UK, before and during this pandemic. I can’t even imagine what it’s like in Italy and Spain, and ‘less-fortunate’ (I hate that phrase) countries than them and the UK at the moment and always. 
And I am relieved I’m not in the USA, what we’re seeing on the news from their ‘leader’, the lockdown protestors and the way hospital staff are being forced to reuse PPE is truly scary and bewildering. 

Why am I angry at the UK government’s response?
Where to start…
• The non-evidence based ‘herd immunity’ approach at the start of the UK response that was a complete farce
• The delay in starting the UK lockdown and not actually enforcing the lockdown (I live in south London and I can promise you many are not in lockdown mode)
• They ‘missed out’ on the EU scheme to provide ventilators and other equipment (which now sounds like it could’ve been a political move rather than just a ridiculous show of ineptitude)
• The PPE shortages across the NHS and care sector (not the NHS’ fault, it’s nationally at government planning level). 
• The changing of PPE guidelines based on what is or is not available, not WHO guidance, thereby covering their incompetent backs
• The fact that healthcare staff are dying due to these PPE shortages and it’s not being spoken about enough, or being addressed anywhere near quickly enough

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Published: 01 May 2020

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Scrubs: The Story from the Bottom Up

Much like the elderly forced to walk laps and climb stairs to raise money for the NHS, the scrubs movement has been popularised by mainstream media as part of a ‘national effort’ at a time of ‘war’ fighting an ‘enemy’ we allegedly cannot see. We are being encouraged to paint rainbows and clap for the bravery of the health workers, when in reality we are sending them to their deaths. As of today (19/4/2020), at least 86 health and social care workers have died of COVID-19. The enemy is not invisible, it has been sitting in the leathered seats of parliament, imposing years of austerity which have left the health system bare to the bone; it has criminalised and worn down benefit claimants with strategies of surveillance, sanctions and deterrence; it has exploited the labour of key workers living hand to mouth, whilst endowing inessential services with bonuses, tax rebates and bailouts.

The current PPE scandal is no different

At the end of January 2020 it was already clear that a country like the UK, which had been de-industrialised through decades of neoliberal economics, was not going to be able to cope with the demands for PPE. The Tories had a simple answer: “people are going to die” and their fellow eugenicists chimed about “herd immunity” and supposed facts based on “science”. And once again, the working class was put to slaughter. After years of vilification and abuse, they were placed at the knife edge of this crisis. COVID-19 is not the touted ‘great leveller’, it is disproportionately culling the elderly, the disabled, the poor, and BAME communities. 70% of NHS workers killed by COVID-19 are BAME. Workers who have been brought to the point of desperation and are starting to fight under the slogan “no kit, no care”, facing suspensions and potentially prosecutions for negligence if they fail to continue to work, in spite of a lack of protection.

We are now entering our fourth week of running one of the many autonomous scrub production units that have sprung up as forms of mutual aid across the country. We provide scrubs to all sorts of health workers who are lacking access to them in their workplaces. Staff who have had to perform C-sections on women wearing soiled clothes, scrub-less doctors bringing infections back to their family homes, workers on respiratory wards without protection, homeless nurses, social care providers looking after the elderly and disabled, trainee nurses sent to COVID wards wearing flimsy plastic aprons and bin bags. These are just to name a few.

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Published: 28 April 2020

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Clap For carers 2

“Clap for Carers” but now they want our money as well

For the last three Thursdays we have been asked to “clap for carers”. As we have said before, we fully support all NHS staff (and in fact all workers) and the appreciation they are getting. But, we also need to remember why we are in the position we are in, where the NHS is under staffed; doesn’t have enough beds; and many staff have to claim benefits to top up their disgustingly low wages. Presently staff don’t have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); we are scrambling around to find more beds; we don’t have enough ventilators; and testing is woefully short. All of this didn’t happen overnight – it’s because of years of successive governments not giving a damn about NHS staff and ordinary people’s health. This was never a “mistake” or “over-sight”. It was a cynical, calculated policy by our so called leaders.

Now, on Thursday 9^th April we are being asked to not only clap for the state underfunding our health service and putting our health workers lives at risk (and maybe up to a dozen have already died due to this), but we are also being asked to donate.

These donations go to an organisation called “NHS Charities Together” and they are asking for a fiver from all of us. It seems, this money then goes to the charitable trusts most hospitals have to set up to beg for money from local people, because the state under funds them.

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Published: 26 April 2020

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Clap For Carers

A statement from some of us in Haringey Solidarity Group

 We TOTALLY respect, appreciate and support all that those in the NHS are doing and putting themselves through, along with millions of other essential workers. But, we have concerns that the Clap For Carers gesture will be seen as a smoke screen for the government’s handling of the current situation.

 Whilst it was a way for ordinary people to show their genuine support for care workers, it also takes the spotlight off the state for their pathetic attempts at protecting and supporting essential workers, whilst at the same time shoring up the business sector and donors to their parties. The governments lack of foresight and mismanagement is nothing short of astounding.

 Our care workers need more than a two-minute round of applause – as heart felt as it was from all of us. They need us to support their demands for the tools they need to do the job effectively.  They don’t have enough personal protective equipment, resulting in staff are being asked to work in dangerous environments. They don’t have enough staff and its bloody criminal that we ask retired NHS staff to cover when we have known for years we have between 30,000 and 100,000 vacancies in the NHS. NHS staff have been undervalued and under paid for years by successive governments of all colours. The financial crisis was brought about by the financial  sector yet public sector workers and the poorest in society were made to pay for it.

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Published: 26 April 2020

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7 Million living in poverty

According to a new study millions of people including 4 Million of children in deep poverty.

The main points in this studding are:

• More than 4 million people in the UK are trapped in deep poverty, meaning their income is at least 50% below the official breadline.
• The Social Metrics Commission also said 7 million people, including 2.3 million children, were affected by what it termed persistent poverty.
• “By cutting £40bn a year from our work and pensions budget through cuts and freezes to tax credits and benefits, the government has put progress into reverse,” said Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group.
• It found that of 14.3 million in the UK in poverty, 4.5 million were in deep poverty – a third of all those on the breadline, and 7% of the population.
• A single parent with one child would be on less than £101.50 a week.
• There has been a dramatic rise in child poverty in families with three or more children, up 9% points since 2013-14.
• It also confirms that work is no longer a guarantee of protection against poverty. At the millennium 54% of children in poverty lived in a family where an adult worked. That rose to 73% in 2o17-18. Even in families where all adults work full time, one in six children are in poverty.
• Children of lone parents, and pensioners – have had hardship levels rise since 2013 as a result of austerity measures such as the benefit freeze, reversing earlier downward trends, the commission said.

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Published: 29 July 2019

We must support StART and this is how

The route to a political solution is to answer the question, “what would we like to happen?” and use the answer to that question as the guide to making it happen. 

In terms of housing in Haringey if you asked most people they would state that they would want the provision of truly affordable homes for all residents of the Borough. Who provides the homes is much less of a concern. Most people would probably say that as long as they were truly affordable now and forever they really don’t care who provides them.  Given a choice between homes held in Trust by the community itself, the Council or private developers there would most likely be consensus around the first two.

People are tiring of multinationals and their bulldozers and all their unaffordable houses. 

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Published: 10 January 2019

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White Helmets Statement on Grenfell

To the London Fire Brigade from the Syrian Civil Defence [White Helmets] in Daraa, Southern Syria:

We were saddened to hear about the loss of souls in the Grenfell Tower fire, including Mohammad al-Haj Ali, a Syrian from our home of Daraa who had fled to London seeking safety from death and destruction.  

We appreciate your efforts to search for bodies for days in a row and we feel your pain because this horror is our daily reality. In Daraa, we’re under the heaviest attacks we’ve ever seen in this deadly war. Hundreds of airstrikes have destroyed entire neighbourhoods and fires are everywhere. Just like you, our teams are rushing towards the blazes and we do all we can to rescue the injured.  

The past 16 days have seen 88 people killed and nearly 35,000 civilians displaced from their homes.

A civil defence centre was targeted and destroyed, and 5 volunteers were injured in the bombing -- as you know it’s a terrible thing to see your teammates suffer.

You have been so generous to us, donating equipment to our teams when you met with our teammates in London. We’ve received trainings from British experts in search-and-rescue and firefighting. Who knows, we might have been trained by the same people. And who knows we might also be saving the lives of the friends of Mohammad al-Haj Ali here in Daraa.

We feel we have so much in common. We all risk our own lives to save as many lives as possible as fast as possible. Our hearts are with you and we wish we could help you in your search for victims.  

We send you strength for your mission and we hope to meet you one day.

The Syria Civil Defence [White Helmets] of Daraa 

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Published: 02 July 2017

Grenfell Tower Residents - You Are Not Alone

“When society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual."

"These words were written by Friedrich Engels in 1845. Over 170 years later, Britain remains a country that murders its poor. When four separate government ministers are warned that Grenfell and other high rises are a serious fire risk, then an inferno isn’t unfortunate. It is inevitable. What happened wasn’t a "terrible tragedy" or some other studio-sofa platitude: it was social murder."

The above statement is from the Grenfell Action Group's (GAG) website from 22nd June 2017, and one we wholeheartedly support.

Also from their website, as we can’t say it any better "the many who lost their lives in this catastrophe were our friends and neighbours. We tried to speak for them in life and we will continue to speak for them now. We share the sense of anger and injustice that has troubled this community for years."

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Published: 26 June 2017

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Rough Sleeping Is Not A Crime