Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party
There has been a massive rise in alcohol-related deaths since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The latest figure for England is a grim new record of 8,274 people killed directly by alcohol in 2023. That is 42% higher than in 2019, and makes alcohol one of the biggest killers of working-age adults.
These are only the deaths purely caused by drinking; many more are likely to be killed by multiple factors. Between 2015 and 2020, the government consistently estimated around 600,000 people were dependent on alcohol.
It should be no surprise alcohol abuse and related death is so widespread. Many turn to drink to cope with stress, anxiety, depression and misery in their lives. Tory austerity has slashed jobs and services, while bosses have increasingly attacked workers’ pay and conditions. Poverty has risen along with inequality.
In addition, many addiction and other support services that directly helped reduce alcohol abuse lost their council funding because of the very austerity driving their need! In the immediate short term, alcohol deaths and alcoholism can be partly combated by reversing these cuts and rebuilding these services.
The main proposal to counter alcohol abuse reported in the capitalist media is a minimum price per unit. But a higher price on booze will not solve the problem. Bluntly it would be a sticking plaster over a massive wound in society. People will find ways to drown their sorrows or satisfy their addictions. If anything, for the many who drink because they are in the midst of poverty, alcohol becoming expensive will only make the personal crises even worse. In fact, 15 years of austerity and the more recent sharp rise in inflation has already made alcohol less affordable for millions, but deaths from alcohol have risen regardless.
At its core, the damage of drowning sorrows with drugs can only be ended by ending sorrow. Ending poverty, ending workplace strife, ending oppression. That can only come with replacing the rotten capitalist system that drives human misery with a democratic socialist society. A society that uses the wealth created by workers to improve our lives, eradicating poverty and desperation, would shatter the causes of alcohol abuse.
