FROM PANDEMIC TO POWER

A new way forward together for the people of Scotland

Introduction

Here is a new story. It’s a story about how we can beat the coronavirus pandemic in the context of
governments which have mishandled virtually every response to it. And it’s a story about how we
can return to the way of life we want for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren. A way of life
very different from the way we were living before the pandemic. You might feel that these are two
different stories, but we ’ll see that they aren’t.

So, once upon a time …

Coronavirus

The Covid-19 virus is a bad virus. It’s not only very infectious, but it has evolved another highly
effective strategy for its survival. It can produce a wide range of symptoms in different groups of
people, from lethal in some groups to insignificant, even not noticeable, in others. This is very
unusual as viruses go – or at least among the ones we know about so far – and it’s why getting rid of
it requires a lot of cooperation and careful organisation across the whole world. We went into this
pandemic in a world which is based on competition and not very cooperative. That’s one of the
many reasons why we can’t go back to things as they were. There will be other new viruses until we
stop the competition of capitalists to exploit everything and every person. Stopping the
deforestation and factory farming which are the part of this which has liberated the Covid-19 virus
will take time. In the meantime each of us needs to take collective responsibility for keeping each
other as safe in our neighbourhoods and workplaces, not wait for governments or unions to do it for
us. Now that most governments have missed the opportunity to eliminate the virus, it’s likely that
Covid-19 will become endemic – an infection with us all the time, like colds and flu which we’ve had
to find ways to live with. This may be easier at times for some parts of the world, and for some parts
of cities. But we’re unlikely to get rid of this virus altogether. It likes this world too much.

The UK Government

We have learned the hard way that this UK Government is not to be trusted. The UK Government
never had a virus elimination strategy and never took advantage of Britain being a group of islands
to control the spread of the virus from other countries. By prioritising its business interests over our
safety, it has been directly responsible for over 50,000 deaths – that’s 50,000 people whose lives
have been cut short before their time. There are two things about the Government’s handling of the
epidemic which now stare us in the face – it’s been deeply unfair, and it hasn’t worked.

Science

Hidden behind what we are confidently told is ‘The Science’ is the truth that there’s a lot which is
currently not known. This is equally the case whether we’re speaking of the science about the Covid-
19 pandemic, or the science about global warming, or the science about all the medicines we’re told
to take. We tend to swallow too readily what we’re dished out in the name of science - not only the
tablets. We’ve been persuaded by increasingly authoritarian regimes that we aren’t competent to
think for ourselves. This has helped those regimes get away with the stealthy privatisation of health
services, care services, and universities and colleges, as well as the not-so-stealthy private sector
production of medicines, which, fatally, was never put into public ownership. Science, along with all
knowledge, has become commodified for profit. To be beneficial to human society and the planet,
science has to be based on common sense and learning to think rationally. All of us, whatever
training we’ve had or not had, are capable of making informed and critical use of scientific
knowledge, coming together to make sense of the way the world works and to find solutions to
problems collectively. We can call on the opinions of experts as we need to. We can’t leave our
Covid safety to the epidemiologists and virologists, or global warming to the climate scientists, or
our health to the doctors

Poverty

Capitalist competition has created extreme poverty for millions of people across the world. Much of
this poverty is now concentrated in specific parts of big cities, where many though not all of the
people who live there have come to think that their poverty is inevitable – it’s just part of living
where they do, institutionalised. The Covid-19 virus has had a great time in these places, taking
advantage of overcrowded, poorly ventilated housing, high-rise flats where families can’t easily
spend time outside, poor general health, poor nutrition and often though not always health services
which are poorer than in better off areas. The day-to-day struggle for people in these places to
survive and cope with all the fall-outs of being poor – from not enough cash to both get food on the
table and keep the house warm, to violence and addiction, leaves them little hope or energy to stay
safe from Covid infection. For many families in east Glasgow, keeping safe from the virus isn’t a
priority. It’s not surprising that there’s clear evidence from the first wave of the epidemic that these
are the places where cases, hospitalisations and deaths were concentrated. To end the ravages of
this pandemic, not even better governments and effective vaccines will be enough. We’ll need to
alleviate poverty.

Jobs, Training, Education

• No redundancies in public services

• Better conditions for all public service workers
• New carbon-saving/carbon neutral jobs with good conditions, wide choice
• State Climate Service
• Training suitable for the range of new jobs delivered by universities and colleges
• Public ownership of Higher Education
• School education which encourages curiosity, critical thinking and cooperation
• Smaller class size
• More freedom for teachers to start where each child is, rather than be tied down by
centralised dictats and monitoring

Education which encourages curiosity and critical thinking, and cooperation, and giving teachers
more freedom to start with where the child is rather than according to centralised dictates and
monitoring.

Energy / Just transition

• North sea oil and gas workers

• Aviation workers
• Military weapons production workers
• Many with transferrable and essential skills
• Or can be offered a choice of new training
 • Many of them ready to move into jobs which will benefit well-being of the people of
Scotland
• Public ownership in different forms

Climate

All the key things we need to do to address both virus epidemics and global warming are largely the
same. And their technical solutions are the same. Pumped air recirculation in buildings reduces virus
cross-infection and improves energy efficiency. New bus design, rolled out in quantity production,
can incorporate low-carbon motility and virus infection safety in one design, especially if the buses
are in the context of no fares (protecting drivers, and passengers too because of reduced queuing
and shorter journey times). Workplaces for the construction and maintenance of renewables can be
much safer in relation to the spread of virus infection than oil and gas rigs. More people working in
non-intensive local food production, whether commercially or in voluntary organisations, will mean
more people working outside. There are some things, like deforestation and factory farming, with
their linked impacts on global warming and the displacement of viruses, which we have little chance
of influencing until we’ve stopped competitive capitalists from exploiting everything and every
person for their profit. But these things related to housing, transport, energy production and local
food production are achievable now. And if we don’t achieve them now there will be untold
additional human suffering.

Nature

It’s the same with nature. The key things we need to do are the same, globally and locally. We need
to stop deforestation and factory farming not just to prevent virus pandemics, not just because it
would result in a huge reduction in global carbon emissions, but because we don’t want to go on
wiping out ever-increasing numbers of wild animals, insects, fish, frogs, trees, plants, and all the
small living things invisible to the human eye. Locally we want more green spaces, to enjoy them; to
meet and walk in with family and friends even during virus epidemics; and to produce more local
food in allotments, school gardens, community gardens, market gardens and small farms. But we
also want these spaces and places out of respect for nature, as part of a programme to rewild our
neighbourhoods and regions.

Democracy

• The sham of our current representative ‘demockery’

• Unprofessional Punch and Judy Show in UK parliament
• Corruption of politicains
• Inadequate power of recall
• A new, local, participatory democracy

Power

• Organising at the grass roots

• Safe and effective protest
• Black Lives Matter
• Workers, communities, unions, single-issue campaigns, activists joining together to fight for
change
• An unknowable, iterative process
Vision

This is the story we need to get us through the Covid-19 pandemic. A story based on fairness, trust,
knowledge, alleviation of poverty, better and new public services, worthwhile jobs, the right training
and education, reducing carbon emissions, safe green places to meet in, participative democracy,
and organising together to build and win power

But isn’t this the same story we need to describe the world we want to live in, and we want to
provide for our children? A world where we’ve reduced inequality to the minimum possible,
abolished poverty and racism, have slowed down global warming to a level which will still be difficult
but not catastrophic, respect and learn about nature. A world where families have more choice
about how many jobs they want between them, and about what jobs they want, rather than being
forced to take jobs with bad conditions and which don’t interest them. A world where we trust each
other, trust our elected representatives, have our say and know that our say will count.

This is a short version of the new story – a trailer. The longer version we hope will be written
collectively, each individual contribution filling out one of the sections in the trailer into short
‘chapters’ of less than 1,000 words. Two of these chapters have already been written. If you’d like to
have a go at writing one of these chapters yourself, please contact us at
mandrdownham@phonecoop.coop You might also want to suggest other chapters we should add,
even if you don’t want to write one yourself.