THE MARXIST VOICE of LABOUR and YOUTH Socialist.Net 2 What We Stand for Issue 338
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Issue 338 � 19 November 2020 � Price: £1 / £2 THE MARXIST VOICE OF LABOUR AND YOUTH socialist.net 2 What We Stand For Issue 338 WHO ARE WE? and WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? old measures are required to deal reopen should be in ■ Instead of building up the national with the coronavirus crisis. Only a the hands of workplace committees debt through government borrow- Bclear socialist programme can offer and the trade unions. And it must ing, the money needed should be a way forward. be based on the implementation obtained entirely from expropriating of health and safety measures and the accumulated profits of big busi- We must have no faith in the Tories or a safe working environment. The ness. their hangers on, whose worship of costs for this must be paid by the the market has brought the country to ■ If the bosses say they can’t afford bosses. its knees. to pay for workers’ wages, we say: ■ For safe work or full pay. Any open up the books! Let the working ■ No trust or confidence in the Tories lockdown or restrictions must be ac- class and the labour movement see and their big business backers! companied by measures to provide the accounts! If firms plead bank- ■ Instead of attacking the left, Labour for workers affected by closures. ruptcy, they should not be bailed must provide genuine opposition to This means 100% wage support for out, but nationalised under workers’ this shambolic Tory government. those furloughed, as well as full sick control. Support workers in the fight to put pay to those required to isolate. ■ No to austerity! The working class lives before profits! ■ To fight job cuts and the threat of must not pay for this crisis! The bosses and their craven political mass unemployment following the It is clear that the market has failed representatives have shown that they lockdown, work should be shared and capitalism is in a deep crisis. The will always prioritise profits over out without any loss of pay, in order anarchy of capitalism prevents the lives. We demand socialist measures to lower the hours of the working planning of society’s resources, in to protect workers, and put health day. Britain and internationally. before wealth. ■ Scrap tuition fees and rents, and ■ We therefore stand for the nation- ■ For a fully publicly-owned and free replace these with free education alisation of the 100 biggest monop- health service, under workers’ and full maintenance grants for all. olies, banks, utilities, landlords and control and management. Reverse Move university courses online. And so on – under workers’ control and all privatisation and outsourcing. put staff in control in schools and management – and without com- All private health services must be universities. pensation. On this basis, the econ- nationalised without compensation, ■ Ban evictions and cancel housing omy can be democratically planned and integrated into the NHS. debts. Give local authorities the in the interests of the majority, and ■ For a properly funded test and trace power to cap rents at affordable lev- not for the super profits of a few. system, fully under public control. els. Requisition rooms at hotels and ■ A Socialist Federation of Britain Boot out parasitic outsourcing com- hostels for those sleeping on the should be linked to a Socialist Unit- panies like SERCO, and give power streets. And bring empty properties ed States of Europe and a World to healthcare workers, councils, and the assets of the big landlords Socialist Federation, in order to plan and local communities in order to and management companies under resources internationally for the provide mass testing. public control. benefit of all. This would put an end ■ Nationalise the pharmaceutical ■ Many small businesses are faced to barbarism of capitalism and allow companies – without compensation with bankruptcy, with banks resist- humanity to begin solving the urgent – in order to ensure that vaccines ing any extensions of credit. Many issues of climate change, disease, are developed rapidly and made are squeezed not only by the banks, and poverty that face society and available to all for free. but by the big monopolies. By na- our planet. tionalising the banks we can supply ■ Reverse the austerity inflicted upon these small businesses with the public services. Launch a fully-fund- lifeline of guaranteed low-interest Like what you read? ed training programme for doctors, credit and loans. nurses, paramedics, medical JOIN US TODAY! staff, with decent pay and hours, ■ The financial resources required to to increase staffing levels across fight the crisis must not come from the board. New hospitals must be increased taxes or more austerity, [email protected] urgently built. but through the nationalisation of the banks and finance houses. Rather socialist-appeal ■ Non-essential workplaces should than a ‘wealth tax’, we call for the be shut down until it is genuinely expropriation of the monopolies. socialist.net safe to reopen. The decision to SOCIALIST APPEAL Editor: Rob Sewell Content/Layout: Left Publications LTD [email protected] Callum Douglas and Khaled Malachi [email protected] Next issue date: Queries: Issue 338, November 2020 3rd December 2020 [email protected] CONTENTS Britain 4 The COVID vaccine breakthrough 5 Tory cronyism and corruption 6 EHRC: Attack dog of the establishment 7 Croydon council bankruptcy 8 Boris calls devolution a ‘disaster’ 9 Stormont stabs workers in the back 10 Manchester students fight back! 11 Student mental health crisis 12 - 13 Editorial: Nightmare on Downing Street Labour 14 - 15 What’s next in Labour’s civil war? 15 NEC election results show strength of the left Theory and History 16 - 19 Engels at 200 International 20 - 22 Biden win: No victory for the working class 23 - 25 Europe’s COVID-19 second wave 25 Pakistan: Release comrade Amar Fayaz Letters, Reviews and History 26 Review: The trial of the Chicago 7 27 The Chartist Revolution 28 Letters Trade Unions 29 Paul Holmes campaign enters final stage 30 Spycops inquiry: exposing the machinations of the state 31 Higher education pay Join us today! socialist.net 4 COVID-19 Vaccine Issue 338 The covid vaccine breakthrough: workers foot the bill for big pharma’s profit Dora Dimitrova & Joe Attard illions of people around the world are jubilant that a COVID-19 Mvaccine might soon be available. Capitalist governments, prioritising capi- talist profits over human lives, have utterly failed to contain this pandemic. The mass- es have no faith in their governments, and are pinning their hopes on a cure. But there is no cure for the sickness of the capitalist system, which will seek to profit from this breakthrough, to humanity’s detriment. The ruling class is eager for a work- ing vaccine: not because it cares about people suffering, but because it wants to return to ‘normal’ economic activity. Thus, huge sums of public money have Moderna has stated that it could manufac- lion’s share of doses of the leading can- been invested in a variety of candidate ture anywhere between 500 million and 1 didate drugs, and there is little prospect of drugs. Two of these (manufactured by billion doses in 2021, which could gener- Big Pharma making its products available Boston-based Moderna, and the US phar- ate anywhere between $14bn (£10.5bn) at manageable prices in poor countries. maceutical giant Pfizer in collaboration and $29bn (£22 bn) in profits. As Oxfam points out, regardless of prom- with the German firm BioNTech) have Despite the private sector making a ising clinical trial results, the vaccine will produced interim results suggesting they killing, all the vaccines undergoing stage be “zero percent effective” for millions of are between 90 and 95 percent effective. three testing are reliant on public sector people who will be priced out of its use. research and / or funding. Moderna was Another, neglected aspect of these Bonanza bankrolled by the Trump administration’s vaccine announcements is the question The optimism of the bosses was immedi- ‘Operation Warp Speed Initiative’. Despite of their storage and administration once ately reflected by a bounce on the stock Pfizer claiming it has “never taken any manufactured. The early months of the market, with the FTSE 100 surging nearly money” from the state, the product it has pandemic revealed just how few hospital 5 percent. These desperately needed created with BioNTech is based on tech- beds and doctors per capita were avail- vaccines represent a bonanza for the nology developed by the US and German able in the advanced countries whose pharmaceutical capitalists and their governments. healthcare systems have been ravaged shareholders, including British Chancellor Far from driving innovation, the private by austerity for decades, but especially in of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, whose medical sector merely leeches off the less-developed countries. former hedge fund Theleme Partners has state, then pockets the rewards. In effect, How can we expect a country like invested heavily in Moderna. they expect ordinary people to pay for Nigeria, for example – with only 5 hospital Meanwhile, the race for a vaccine these vaccines twice. beds per 10,000 inhabitants – to procure has been cynically exploited as part of a the necessary specialised freezers for the geopolitical tug-of-war between capitalist Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which needs to governments. They are all vying for their Priced out The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be be stored at -75°C? All this only serves capitalists to cross the line first, secure available in the US for $39 for a two-shot as a reminder that production under cap- patents, and outcompete their rivals on course, while Moderna’s will be $50. italism is only carried out on the basis of the world stage.