
The Socialist 16 September 2020
Our lives and livelihoods at stake

Our lives and livelihoods at stake
Sketch: The rule of six - some guidance from your government
Johnson's brinkmanship over EU deal deepens capitalist splits
Blame politicians, not workers and young people
Capitalist profit and the race to develop a vaccine
'Covid marshalls' must be accountable to communities
Angry health workers demand 15% now!
NHS workers: "We deserve a fair wage" - 15% now!
National Shop Stewards Network lobbying for a lead from the TUC
PCS members in DWP reject unsafe extension of hours
Ireland: Debenham's occupier speaks out
London bus drivers begin strike ballot over remote sign-on dispute
Tate workers on indefinite strike hold march and rally
Dispatches from the front: schools need Covid tests!
Covid and the third sector: for public planning, not charity stopgaps
Non-fiction: Left Out - the inside story of Labour under Corbyn
Egypt: Support for al-Sisi dwindles as his regime increases repression
Nigerian police repress peaceful anti-government protest
Two weeks to donate: we need your help
Coventry: scrap 'profit before people' hospital parking charges
Covid generation says 'fund our future'
Why I joined the Socialist Party: Tories and Blairites only care about corporate greed
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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1101/31336
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Under the microscope
Bosses' pandemic profit bonanza
32 of the world's biggest corporations are in line to make an extra $109 billion profit under 2020's pandemic conditions, says Oxfam. The 'S&P 500' US stock market index hit an all-time high of 3,581 points on 2 September, while recession and unemployment punish millions of workers.
The 25 most profitable global firms could pay over $378 billion in dividends this year - equivalent to 124% of profits. Chemicals giant BASF took £1 billion in emergency loans from the British government - and plans to pay shareholders over €3 billion!
Meanwhile, Oxfam reports the pandemic fallout could push half a billion people into poverty. 400 million jobs have gone already, and the ILO reckons 430 million small enterprises are under threat. One 63-year-old manager made redundant by his restaurant even resorted to handing out CVs at Leeds railway station.
Privatised testing and treatment fiasco
The government is looking to hand £10 billion to private hospitals to fill in for overwhelmed NHS services over the next four years. Why not cut out the middleman and just fund the NHS? And how will Tory plans to axe Public Health England help the problem?
Aside from the wasteful drain of profit extraction, how can we even trust the private sector? Healthcare regulators in England and Scotland declined to publish care home death tolls because this would "likely prejudice the commercial interests of care providers"!
Johnson's welcome (but belated and secret) mass testing proposal, 'Operation Moonshot', would cost £100 billion. No doubt the Tories will try to hand this to private bosses too.
Meanwhile, swab tests can miss 30 to 50% of infections, finds Cambridge University. And even the paltry number of tests administered so far was subject to "an adjustment" last month - the government had overstated the figures by, oh, 1,308,071.
In this issue
Socialist Party news and analysis
Our lives and livelihoods at stake
Sketch: The rule of six - some guidance from your government
Johnson's brinkmanship over EU deal deepens capitalist splits
Blame politicians, not workers and young people
Capitalist profit and the race to develop a vaccine
'Covid marshalls' must be accountable to communities
NHS
Angry health workers demand 15% now!
NHS workers: "We deserve a fair wage" - 15% now!
Workplace news and analysis
National Shop Stewards Network lobbying for a lead from the TUC
PCS members in DWP reject unsafe extension of hours
Ireland: Debenham's occupier speaks out
London bus drivers begin strike ballot over remote sign-on dispute
Tate workers on indefinite strike hold march and rally
Schools
Dispatches from the front: schools need Covid tests!
Public services
Covid and the third sector: for public planning, not charity stopgaps
Labour Party
Non-fiction: Left Out - the inside story of Labour under Corbyn
International socialist news and analysis
Egypt: Support for al-Sisi dwindles as his regime increases repression
Nigerian police repress peaceful anti-government protest
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Two weeks to donate: we need your help
Coventry: scrap 'profit before people' hospital parking charges
Covid generation says 'fund our future'
Why I joined the Socialist Party: Tories and Blairites only care about corporate greed
Home | The Socialist 16 September 2020 | Join the Socialist Party
Related links:
Covid: Bosses chase profit and put workers in danger
Bosses profit out of 'starvation' food parcels
Technology and AI response: Capitalists only invest for profit
Stop the Tories putting profit before health
System failing thousands of children in care
The Tory blame game: scapegoating the working class - 100% pay for all now
Mass testing - we need trade union oversight and full pay for all
Covid vaccines only first step - fight job losses, austerity and 'virus' of capitalism
We need union action, not platitudes!
Police use Covid laws to intimidate BLM protesters
Vaccine confidence - a worker's response
NHS Emergency - Fight for a fully funded, publicly owned, socialist NHS
Fully resource the vaccination programme now
World capitalism's terrified strategists abandon austerity - for now