Era of ‘spivs, speculators and free marketeers’ is over; time to recognise NHS heroes: Unite

Liam Gallagher, regional organiser with Unite, said the trade union movement would not allow the ‘spivs, speculators and free marketeers’, whom he blamed for exploiting previous crises in capitalism, to do so again.

“This year more than any other May Day and the celebration of International Workers’ Day will have a poignancy because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The undervaluing and exploitation of labour has never been more evident than it is for those on the front line today who are working in hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, care homes, ambulance and police service, transport, the food supply chain and supermarkets.

“Many of these workers are on the lowest pay and have had to endure years of austerity while billionaires continue to accumulate vast wealth on the back of their labour,” he said.

Mr. Gallagher observed how out of the destruction of the world wars of the last century there emerged such institutions as the British National Health Service.

He said he believed there would be a demand for a strong recommitment to the health service and the workers who staff it once the current crisis is finally over.

“After the carnage of the first and second world wars people believed then that everything would change and we would build a fair and decent society.

“The NHS and education systems emerged from that wreckage.

“However, in the last 35 years of neoliberalism we have allowed the spivs, speculators and the free marketeer merchants to asset-strip the public sector in what became a race to the bottom where we witnessed the near collapse of the health service just before the pandemic broke,” said Mr. Gallagher.

The local trade union organiser said the coronavirus crisis had inspired a renewed appreciation for the health service and the front line workers who staff it among the general public in Derry, Ireland, Britain and around the world.

“On May Day we proudly remember all of those who bravely gave their lives and those who are caring and providing nursing for COVID-19 victims.

“We will emerge from this pandemic and let us commit as a labour movement on this May Day to strengthen unions and resistance to fight the economic consequences of what will emerge from this world pandemic.

“We must ensure that those who did the most to fight this world pandemic are not once again sacrificed on the altar of capitalist greed by the billionaires of this world,” he said.