A-Infos (en) UK, anarchist communist group ACG: How many deaths does it take?

From the No Safety, No Work website ---- "How many deaths does it take till we 
know that too many people have died?" ---- The rapid rise in both new cases and 
deaths is not a surprise to most. Yet it seems that the government didn't think 
it would happen, or preferred not to accept it because it went against their own 
agenda. Despite the various tiers, it has largely been life as normal for many - 
schools and colleges open, people still going into work and some carrying on with 
extensive social mixing indoors. Nothing was done, and though Christmas was 
scaled down, different households still got together and many people travelled 
domestically and internationally. ---- The government and media blame it on a new 
variant. But according to Independent Sage, this variant has been around since 
September. It was able to take hold in the population because the strategy has 
been to contain rather than supress the virus.

"Failure to implement a circuit breaker, recommended by SAGE and Independent SAGE 
at the end of September, resulted in a delayed a lockdown until November. As a 
result, a new variant of Covid-19 (B117), since shown to be more transmissible, 
was given the opportunity to spread widely, particularly in the East, South East 
and South Wales. It also meant that England entered December with a high number 
of cases, despite lockdown, and a high number of people in hospital." (See 
Independent Sage emergency statement, Dec 2020)

The government has been fiddling about with gestures, closing down certain areas 
like the hospitality sector and having a system of tiers. But it has not tackled 
the main sources of the problem, as we have argued on this website for many 
months: the workplace, which includes schools, colleges and universities. This is 
of course because its priority is to keep the economy going. It only acts once 
the situation, already a crisis, deteriorates into disaster. The NHS is now 
completely overwhelmed and there is no end in sight to the rise in cases and deaths.

The education setting as a key spreader

As we argued in our December 22nd post on the No Safety No Work website, the 
education sector is one of the main places that the virus is spreading. This is 
supported by the infections statistics. First it was university age young people, 
then secondary-age, and now primary-age. Though this age is not likely to get as 
ill and often doesn't show any symptoms, they can still spread it. And testimony 
after testimony from educational staff shows that the safety measures in place 
are not sufficient. So people are mixing with hundreds of people in the course of 
the day. Again, this is not just an analysis of working class revolutionaries, 
these points have been made by scientists for months (see Independent Sage safer 
schools report featured in the Independent) but ignored by the government.

Role of unions

What is worrying, though, is that the mainstream trade unions have been slow to 
take serious action. Local universities, colleges and schools may have been doing 
things, but when researching the December 22nd article, there was little call for 
action from the NEU in England and even the actions that were taken, eg at 
Havering Sixth Form College in East London, were not reported on by even the 
local Havering website. It is only recently that the NEU is calling for action 
but as of yet no moves to a ballot for united industrial action. Instead they are 
"advising" their primary school members to not return to work on January 4th - 
leaving the decision to individual teachers. Though some teachers claim that 
their schools are safe, most likely smaller schools where overcrowding is not a 
problem, most would argue that universities, colleges and schools have never been 
safe and that the context of education - with large classes, difficulties to 
control students of all ages mixing with each other - makes it impossible to have 
safe schools without introducing more online learning and much smaller classes. 
This is all supported by extensive research by Independent Sage (see above link). 
So why weren't unions taking action back in September?

The main teaching union in Scotland seems to be doing more to publicise what is 
going on and has launched a social media campaign (see: EIS website). However, 
that is nowhere near as powerful as calling for an indefinite strike. 
Nevertheless, the Scottish government seems to be taking some notice and has just 
announced that schools will be shut until at least the beginning of February.

Local action and co-ordination

If educational staff cannot rely on their union to co-ordinate action, it is up 
to people on the ground to start organising their own response, something that is 
already happening in a number of areas. Havering Sixth Form College continues to 
fight the unsafe demands of management (see East London Advertiser article). They 
have already had one strike and plan more. There may be many more schools and 
colleges taking action. It is important that these actions are publicised so that 
other schools and colleges can be inspired and contribute to a powerful national 
campaign.

No Safety, No Work would welcome the opportunity to publicise any actions that 
are going on. Please contact us at safereturn@riseup.net

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2021/01/04/how-many-deaths-does-it-take/
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