Fight for socialist change

Linda Taaffe, Waltham Forest Socialist Party

In the words of the chair of the Grenfell inquiry into the west London tower block fire that killed 72 in 2017, tenants were ‘failed’ by governments of both kinds, by building companies of all kinds and by other authorities connected with the refurbishment of the tower block, including the local council.

Those tenants are our brothers and sisters. They are workers doing all kinds of jobs, and from different backgrounds, but all struggling to make ends meet, aspiring to make a better life, and many having tried bravely to get their voices heard in the run-up to that terrible fire.

The chair added that those to emerge from this tragedy with the greatest credit were indeed members of the local community, to their great honour. Those with reputations in tatters make up a list of private companies, like cladding manufacturer Arconic, which arrogantly refused to even attend the inquiry.

‘Justice now!’

“Now is the time for justice”, demands Grenfell United – a group made up of families of victims and survivors. Not in three, five, or even ten years, as is being trailed by a former chief prosecutor. After the recent riots and far-right attacks, Keir Starmer made sure those involved were arrested and charged swiftly. Courts were cleared to get convicts in jail double quick.

Will this be the attitude adopted for the Grenfell companies? Three of the big companies – Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex – have already denied any wrongdoing. Property companies exert tremendous pressure on governments and landlordism is widespread. When Boris Johnson’s Tory government promised it would get rid of Section 21 ‘no-fault’ eviction notices, it was inundated with landlord lobbies, threatening that if this became law, they would clog up the courts even more with injunctions and lawsuits. Unsurprisingly, the proposed legislation was kicked into the long grass.

There needs to be a massive, loud and determined campaign organised to ramp up the pressure for justice for Grenfell. The heroic campaigning by survivors must be backed up by trade unions, with their membership of millions, and all campaigning workers and organisations.

There have been too many scandals. The private profit-driven system is rotten to the core. The alternative is to build for need not profit, and to invest in public services. We need  to bring into existence a real independent mass socialist workers’ party, to shine as a beacon for all oppressed workers and to carry out real socialist change.

The evidence for Grenfell prosecutions is all there in the 1,700-page report. Already 58 people and 19 companies and organisations have been interviewed by police. Corporate manslaughter has been raised. Michael Mansfield KC, who represented residents, has explained that the police investigation should have come first!

The setting up of the inquiry by Theresa May was a known tactic of delaying justice and softening guilt, allowing the perpetrators to fade away out of sight. In other words, letting the guilty bosses off the hook.

Whilst individuals responsible must be punished, the whole emphasis has been on complete systemic failure. The capitalist system should be put in the dock, questioned about it’s right to continue and to pose socialist change.

Since the 1990s especially, the rich and their representatives in parliament have been shrinking the state through all kinds of austerity measures; and boosting greed and individual private profit.

Tony Blair’s Labour chose the Private Finance Initiative for buildings for hospitals and schools as the only show in town. The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition encouraged a ‘bonfire of red tape’ to allow juggernaut companies to exploit the market for greed. Local authority services like building control were hollowed out through decades of underfunding and redundancies.

Grenfell was a perfect storm – refurbished ‘cheap and cheerful’ so as not to be out of place with its posh Kensington neighbours – where 72 tragically had their lives taken.

It’s time for justice, but above all it’s time for socialist change. It’s time for working-class people ourselves to join in building an organisation to fight for it. It’s time for working-class people to take the lead in making plans for need not profit, in housing and in all services.

Grenfell United referred to the companies involved as “no better than crooks and killers”. Let’s clear them all out and set about building a socialist world.