Third Camp Marxism

The Plague (La Peste), written by the French-Algerian Albert Camus in 1947, has, unsurprisingly, undergone a surge in sales in recent months (up 1,000 per cent).

It was his best-selling novel, and is considered by some to be an allegory of the wartime occupation of France by the Nazis.

On 6 May Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome, who returned to her old care job after the Covid-19 crisis hit, was sacked for speaking publicly about PPE shortages in the industry.

She used the burst of publicity to argue not only for workers’ rights and unionisation, but also for “democratic public ownership” of care. Labour movement activists should take up that call.

Nadia wrote in the Guardian:

Picture from a strike at The Doctors Laboratory before Covid-19 crisis.

Medical couriers transporting Covid-19 samples on behalf of NHS pathology contractor The Doctors Laboratory (TDL) will vote on strike action, in response to the company’s decision to make redundancies during the pandemic, and its failure to address health and safety concerns.

The union has commenced discussions with the Cabinet Office on a return-to-work protocol for the entire civil service, but we’re having to fight the managements of individual departments who want to pre-empt that by unilaterally bringing in their own return-to-work plans, prior to a national agreement being in place, or simply pressuring people back to work.

In the week ending 9 May, railway industry bosses signalled intentions to go for a unilateral ramping up of services from 11 May, despite no national agreement with the unions being in place to facilitate that.

Unions had been negotiating towards an agreement, with a projected date of 18 May in mind for a possible increase in services. Bringing that forward a week could mean many of the safety measures implemented during the pandemic, such as temporary rosters to eliminate non-essential work, could end without new arrangements being put in their place.

Three Indian states with a combined population of over 300 million have used the Covid-19 crisis to radically weaken workers’ rights.

Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat have all legislated to allow a major lengthening of shifts with no increase in pay. Madhya Pradesh is allowing employers to hire and fire at will, has removed the need for contractors to have a licence to employ up to 49 people, changed factory licence renewals from annual to every ten years, and given employers the right to bar workplace inspections.

The streets are fairly clear at 0410 when I leave the house. I don’t meet anyone else until I get on my first of two night buses. I could get the staff taxis. They’ve changed it to only take one passenger at a time now. But I would be walking in the rain for 15 minutes to pick it up.

Government figures say 27% of workers went on the official furlough scheme in late March and early April.

The government is to cover 80% of their wages, and employer may or may not make up the other 20%.

The scheme is due to end on 30 June. The government says it will be “tapered off”, not ended suddenly.

The chief driver of Boris Johnson’s “back to work tomorrow” announcement on 10 May looks to have been the government’s wish to reduce its furlough bills, and avoid further bills for its (lavish) aid to big business and (now increased) aid to small business.

Labour right-winger Bridget Phillipson, installed by Keir Starmer as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, denounced the 2017 Labour manifesto as “all must have prizes” and “vote Labour and get not the microwave, but the whole kitchen”. Not the 2019 manifesto, even, but the 2017 one.

On 7 May, the Morning Star carried an article with the snazzy headline “Patriotism is good for you.” A better headline would have been “Stalinism turns you into a useless nationalist who can’t pick the right side in an industrial dispute”.

Before examining what this Comrade Blimp has to say about the fusion of nationalism and socialism, it’s worth saying something about the piece’s author.