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Racism and Nationalism in Sport

It’s Great That England’s Footballers Are Taking a Stand against Racism, but I Still Won’t Be Cheering Them on the Pitch


10/06/2021

The 2020 football European Championship is finally upon us, and sport is moving to the digital equivalent of the front page. It is timely, then, that two new stories have emerged which show the effect of racism on English sport.

Cricketer Suspended for Racist Tweets

First, there’s the cricket. England bowler Ollie Robinson was suspended after old tweets of his were found, including those which said: “My new Muslim friend is the bomb;”, “I wonder if Asian People put smileys like this ¦) #racist;” and “The guy next to me on the train definitely has Ebola.”

The establishment rushed to Robinson’s defence. Oliver Dowden MP, Secretary of State for Sport, called for the suspension to be lifted, saying “Ollie Robinson’s tweets were offensive and wrong. They are also a decade old and written by a teenager. The teenager is now a man and has rightly apologised. The ECB has gone over the top by suspending him and should think again.” Dowden was supported by prime Minister Boris Johnson

In contrast, my old friend, the Liberation Theologist Dr. Anthony Reddie, commented:

“Maybe I have missed something here about the Ollie Robinson situation. 1st, he was 18, not 10 or 5. 2nd, he made racist and sexist remarks; remarks that were as repugnant then as they are now, as they were when I was aged 18, a long time ago. It’s not as if he was living in an epoch that had different values and perspectives (the excuse White historians make for racist actions and statements made during the age of empire and colonialism). I find it irritating, therefore, that we are STILL talking about education for White people about racism. 9 years ago was 2012, not 1812 or even 1912…

So we continue to make excuses for White people holding views that no one has any excuse to hold at this juncture in history. We’ve had a Race Relations act in 1965, an updated act in 1968, another Race Relations act in 1976, an amended act in 2000 and an Equality Act in 2010. When are we going to stop making excuses for White people making racist statements?”

England Football Team Continues to Take the Knee

Meanwhile in football, England manager Gareth Southgate is insisting that his footballers take the knee at the beginning of games. This is despite Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith comparing the act to the England squad giving the Nazi salute at a 1938 game in Berlin. The main establishment paper, The Times also called taking the knee a gesture which “has become meaningless and divisive”.

Some racist fans have responded by booing England footballers when they take the knee. Black Nottingham Forest player Lyle Taylor joined the abuse, saying that he has stopped taking the knee because it means supporting the “Marxist group” Black Lives Matter. Taylor’s understanding of Marxism seems a little confused, as later in the interview his main criticism of BLM seems to be that it’s supported by “massive, massive corporations”.

Boris Johnson has refused to commit himself. His spokesman issued an ambiguous statement saying “the prime minister fully respects the right of those who choose to peacefully protest and make their feelings known … On taking the knee, specifically, the prime minister is more focused on action rather than gestures”.

One of Johnson’s MPs, Lee Anderson took a much clearer position, promising to boycott England games. He posted on Facebook: “For the first time in my life I will not be watching my beloved England team whilst they are supporting a political movement whose core principles aim to undermine our very way of life.”

Taking the Knee – Part of a Proud Tradition

Southgate is right. Taking the knee is part of a proud tradition of people in sport taking a stand against oppression from Muhammad Ali refusing to fight in Vietnam to John Carlos and Tommie Smith making the black power salute at the 1968 Olympics.

Taking the knee in sport is most identified with (American Football player) Colin Kaepernick. At a pre-season game in August 2016, Kaepernick refused to stand for the US national anthem as a protest against police racism. He justified his action by saying “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.”. Less than a week later, he also started taking the knee.

Kaepernick’s stance was taken up by other prominent athletes like LeBron James, Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe. More importantly, perhaps, it crystallized a growing mood of anger against violent police racism, and when George Floyd was murdered in May 2020, sports stars taking the knee became almost ubiquitous, One could argue that this has helped normalise the righteous anger, but the visible participation of beloved sports stars has contributed to a climate in which Defund the Police has suddenly become a mainstream demand.

Besides, this was not just a gesture on the part of Kaepernick, who has been forced to pay for his actions. Then-president Donald Trump called for National Football League owners to fire any player who takes the knee. This is effectively what has happened to Kaepernick. Despite being one of the most gifted quarterbacks of his generation, he has been frozen out of the game and has not played in well over 4 years.

Sport is Political

For those calling for politics to stay out of sport, I’m afraid that that ship has already sailed. Sport is part of the superstructure of society. This means that in a neoliberal society, the rich oligarchs and corrupt regimes who own clubs will try to make fans pay as much as possible. And in a society which is imbued with racism and nationalism, this racism and nationalism will also be found in sport.

Black England player John Barnes noted that after he scored a wonder goal in England’s 2-0 defeat of Brazil, a section of English fans around the National Front “kept saying ‘England only won 1-0 because a nigger’s goal doesn’t count’”. In 1995, a friendly between Ireland and England was abandoned after a riot by racist English fans. Although the racism and fascism that used to accompany England games is not as visible as it used to be, we still often endure the nasty odour of nationalism.

When England play Germany, England fans regularly sing “Two World Wars and One World Cup” – which Wikipedia quaintly explains as being “part of the England-Germany football rivalry.” And yet this harking back to England’s imperial past, when “we” were capable of winning both wars and football matches, smacks of a pathetic nostalgia for the days when inhabitants of other countries (and Black Britons) knew their place.

Nationalism in German Sport

Every 2 years there’s an international football competition, be this the European Championship or World Cup. Around this time, every other house or car in England seems to be festooned with the St George’s Flag, which is otherwise mainly seen at the head of a Nazi demonstrations. If this feels intimidating to me, I shudder to think how it would affect the victims of everyday racism.

When I first moved to Germany in 1995, the atmosphere was quite different. In Euro 96 — maybe the high point of laddish English nationalism — there was nary a German flag to be seen. The memory of Nazi rule made many Germans somewhat reticent to openly display too much national pride.

Then 2006 happened. Germany hosted the World Cup, fan miles were erected and suddenly flags were everywhere. Most of this was “harmless fun”, and yet there was a definite change of mood. Suddenly Germans felt able to do what the Brits had done for centuries and celebrate their nation.

In 2007, the “citizen’s movement” pro-NRW was formed as a dubious collection of Nazis and “concerned citizens”. Many of the members of pro-NRW found their way into Pegida and the AfD. Three years later, former Berlin finance minister Thilo Sarrazin (SPD) published the best-selling book Deutschland schafft sich ab, in which he raged against immigrants, Jews and Islam.

Now of course there is no causal relationship between flags at football tournaments, social democratic racism and the worrying growth of far right parties, but the removing of taboos about talking about national pride helped contribute towards a climate in which Sarrazin was lauded and openly racist parties could grow.

Nationalism after Brexit

The European Championship is England’s first tournament post-Brexit, where both sides of the main media discussion showed an unhealthy obsession with the place people happened to be born. One side championed “Great” Britain (usually used as shorthand for England), while the other cheered for Europe – the same Europe that is sending troops into Mali and treating refugees with racism and imprisonment.

This debate has been accompanied by equivalently bland political slogans. As the wealth of the ultra rich rose astronomically, David Cameron insisted “we’re all in it together”. Meanwhile, following the removal of Jeremy Corbyn, new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has wrapped himself in the Union Flag in an attempt to push a political vision in which nation trumps class.

Supporting “our boys” in the football isn’t the worst possible sin, but it’s part of the same process of saying that I’m essentially the same as my boss, or my landlord, or my prime minister, because we’re all “English” in a way that people from ‘less civilized’ countries are not.

This is not, by the way, the same as supporting your local team – especially in an England whose history is so tied up to imperialism. I support Bradford City, the team from the industrial multi-racial city in which I grew up. The last (and only) time they won any significant trophy was the 1911 FA cup.

For a couple of years (literally two) at the turn of the Millennium, City were in the Premier League. In the first season, when they finished 17th, one place above relegation, the local paper produced a supplement called “Heaven Seventeenth”. Since then, after the Chairman ran off with most of the money, the team has spent most of its time in the third and fourth divisions.

No sane City fan would call the team the best in the world. Compare and contrast with the way in which the England team is treated. Despite not having won any serious trophy in over 50 years, every tournament is preceded with hype that this is “our” year, followed by accusations of dirty foreigners and cheating referees when the team inevitably crashes out.

Such hubris is not unconnected to the way in which history is taught in British schools. “We” owned a third of the world, “we” single-handedly won two world wars, “we” ruled over an Empire in which racism and slavery were just unfortunate mistakes – or more likely, are not mentioned at all. Is it any wonder, that the English always seem convinced that “their” team is superior to all others?

“But This Time it’s Different”, isn’t it?

But is this England side different? Never one to stop flogging a dead horse, Billy Bragg claims that Southgate’s behaviour reminds us of ‘what it means to be a progressive patriot’. Recently, Bragg reposted an “evocative” statement from Southgate on Facebook.

Addressing potentially racist England fans, Southgate wrote “Regardless of your upbringing and politics, what is clear is that we are an incredible nation — relative to our size and population — that has contributed so much to the arts, science and sport. We do have a special identity and that remains a powerful motivator.”

On one level, this is so much more than the bland statements that we have come to expect from football managers. Yet it still contains many of the same flaws that show up in Bragg’s notion of “progressive patriotism”. As I have argued elsewhere, ‘why should “standing up for the traditional value of fairness’ be seen as a specifically British quality? Are Britons really more fair than Iranians or Iroquois?”

Bragg assumes that Southgate’s act of solidarity – like that of the US-American Kaepernick can somehow be attributed to his nationality, as, presumably can the Maoism of former German player Paul Breitner or the socialism of ex-Brazil captain Socrates. Yet it is just not the case that all Englishmen – or US-Americans, Germans or Brazilians – would behave in the same way. I’ve already given enough examples of Tory MPs to show that this is simply not the case.

Having said this, we do live in interesting times. Former footballers like Stan Collymore and Neville Southall and current players like Marcus Rashford have done more to challenge Boris Johnson’s neoliberal politics than the “leader” of Britain’s Labour “opposition”.

For this reason, I want Rashford to score a hat trick in every game. There is one condition, though, and this is that England lose each of these games 4-3.

Police violence isn’t a tragic outcome – it’s a tool

Violence is a way to divide demonstrators from each other, and from the wider population


07/06/2021

The police expected violence, and they wanted the demonstrators to know they were ready to retaliate. Leaving the train at Hermannplatz on May 1st was already difficult at 17:00, due to the masses on their way to the demo. Although this station is one of the busiest in Berlin and built to accommodate hordes of people moving through it, a walk up the stairs revealed the problem: police in riot gear were blocking the exit. Some demonstrators were let through while others were pulled aside, ostensibly to confiscate the glass bottles they were carrying. Confusion was the main feeling as people tried to get out of the station – I had to push past a riot cop who served me with a death glare as I tried to squeeze between her and her colleague.

This was before the protest started. It was even before most people had started walking over to the multicolored flags and banners waving next to the organizers’ rental truck. The gruff, combative attitude of the police officers was a stark contrast to the people milling around Hermannplatz, who were drinking beer or hanging out in the sun. The positive, young atmosphere of the demo, however, had serious undertones: how coronavirus has hit already marginalized groups much harder, how anger needs to be directed not at each other, but at a repressive capitalist system focused on profit over people, how the marginalized are stronger against oppression together.

Demonstrators wanted to be seen and heard, and hoped to make a strong, unified impression on the people that they passed. But peaceful, unified demonstrators with their sights set on exposing the evils of a racist and/or capitalist system are one of the most dangerous groups in the eyes of the state. And that’s any state, not just Germany.

When do the police care?

It’s something that’s not immediately obvious to most people who have heard their entire lives that the police are around to maintain order, and peace. Examples of police violence here and there can seem random and unrelated. A friend who attended an illegal rave with around 1,000 people in Hasenheide during lockdown commented to me: “It’s so weird. The police just showed up but didn’t do anything. People were allowed to leave slowly, and some even kept on dancing.” To which another replied, “Yeah, I guess gay men are way less threatening than people protesting the closure of Syndikat.”

There was some confusion as to why the police would brutally arrest people protesting the eviction of a neighborhood staple that, among other things, sheltered local unhoused people, but wouldn’t break up an illegal party in clear violation of lockdown rules that endangered people through the spread of coronavirus. The conversation ended in shrugs.

But that friend, without completely realizing it, spoke a universal truth of the state: the threat to business-as-usual, to the capitalist order of the few with everything and the masses as wage laborers, to a people divided along race and class lines – is more salient and dangerous than any virus or act of terrorism, no matter how brutal, or heinous a crime. But how do you create a situation in which violent repression of justified dissent is generally accepted by the citizens of a country and the media? Enter, police violence.

Violence as a tool

At football games and Black Lives Matter protests and everything in between, the police are always responding to violence perpetrated by protestors. Reports will state that arrests were made after protestors clashed with police in riot gear, or that the situation turned violent after protestors threw bottles or erected barricades, etc. But is a glass bottle landing on the head of a riot cop encased in armor justification for brutally beating unarmed protestors with batons? How many people erect barricades to attack others?

Of course, there are people at protests who are looking for violence ­– there are people everywhere who are looking for violence, all the time. But how often do brutal brawls erupt at music festivals? The police need demonstrations to turn violent, so that people will write them off. So that those people who are watching from their windows will in the end say, “Oh those people who were demonstrating, they’re nothing like me. Look how violent they are!”

People, united, are dangerous to the state. And police violence provides an easy way to separate the “good” types of protest from the “bad”. Right-wing protestors don’t threaten the state (clearly there are exceptions to this!!), and neither do gay men partying to techno. But a multiracial, multi-generational, peaceful, anti-capitalist protest? We don’t even have enough police in Berlin for all the violence that will need to ensue!

Karl Marx famously said, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” The police are the enforcement arm of the landed class, the capitalist class, and the slave owners. Throughout history and all over the world, they have acted in the interests of these classes, and continue to do so. Police violence at protests that threaten business-as-usual is a tactic to invalidate the demonstrators and their message – to make it so that the people watching can’t relate to the cause. As I can’t say it better, I’ll end with the words of the organizers of the May 1 demo this year (translated from German):

“The actions of the police show that they never intended to allow the demonstration go all the way to Kreuzberg. They deliberately forced an escalation in Neukölln in order to discredit us before the eyes of the population and the press and to divide us. Because there is nothing the rulers fear more than our unity and our solidarity. Therefore, they want to specifically prevent us from uniting in struggle, within the left and with the population. They will not succeed. Now more than ever: Yallah class struggle!”

Food and political discussion for all

Why the Berlin LINKE Internationals are starting a monthly Küfa event


03/06/2021

Interview with Hanna Grzeskiewicz

 

Hi Hanna. Before we start, could you briefly introduce yourself? Who are you, and where are you politically active?

I’ve been active in various political contexts in Berlin, but I have two main political homes: I am one of the two speakers of Berlin LINKE Internationals, and I’m also part of a Polish queer-feminist collective, CoLiberation.

Earlier this year, you were elected joint speaker of the Berlin LINKE Internationals. Why did you join the group, and how has it changed since you became a member?

I joined the group probably for a reason that’s similar to many people – at some point there came a point in my life where I thought I need to do something. I couldn’t sit back and watch the world burn without trying to change it, at least in a small way, for the better.

Since I joined, the group has definitely grown and been through some significant transformations. The website theleftberlin.com has grown into its own entity, our community has been steadily growing too, and we are – at least I’d like to think so – becoming a good first stop for people (mostly migrants) to come to if they are interested in getting involved politically in the city.

Of course, we want people to stay active with us too, but we are always ready to make connections, to create a platform for groups to talk about their struggles, and to facilitate discussions.

This Friday, you’re organising an event which is advertised as being the “first monthly Küfa for activists”. For those who haven’t come across the concept, what on earth is a Küfa?

A KüFA is basically a free dinner! This is only slightly a joke, a KüFA is a ‘Küche für Alle’, i.e. a kitchen for all. It means everyone is welcome to come and have a meal for free.

What has been the reaction to Friday’s event so far?

So far it’s been very positive! The idea for the KüFA came out of our Summer Camp last year. After some difficult months in lockdown, it was really wonderful to be together for two days, to talk and eat in a relaxed setting, and I wanted to bring that back as a more regular event.

We are all missing a sense of community, and what the Summer Camp does is bring a lot of different people together to exchange and make connections. But if it’s just once a year, it’s sometimes hard to maintain these. So why not try to do something more regularly where people can get together?

The Küfa is free. But there will be a collection for Palästina Spricht. Of all the international groups which are active in Berlin, why is Palästina Spricht so important?

I imagine most people living in Berlin will know how difficult conversations about Palestine are in this country. Palästina Spricht has organised a lot of events in recent weeks, and sometimes people don’t realise that demonstrations and actions cost money to organise. So we thought we would use this chance to support them.

At least 22% of people in Berlin don’t have German passports. Many have political experience and are members of exile organisations, from Unidos Podemos to Brazilian tenants groups. How can the German Left learn from their experience?

I think they can learn a lot! We can all learn from each other, and it’s important to keep in touch and have each other on our radars. When we constantly repeat the same formats, we become stagnant, and it’s important to keep learning and questioning how we do things to make sure we are doing it the best way we can.

What is the specific role of the Berlin LINKE Internationals in international networking?

Since we are affiliated and, through our history, tightly linked with the Left Berlin – the boundaries are sometimes blurred since they came out of initially one group – we tend to be the first port of call for many people looking for leftist news and events in the city.

We also publish (predominantly) in English, and all of us are international in some sense. We see our role as people who inform, facilitate connection, community and discussion – and through the LAG (the group which is directly linked with DIE LINKE), also to facilitate links with the party and its various institutions.

For example, we have been instrumental in connecting groups like Berlin for India and Sudan Uprising with MPs and the rosa luxemburg stiftung so that their issues are raised and discussed inside German politics.

We also try to represent the views and realities of migrants in Berlin within party processes, as we believe that if we are to have policies that support migrants in the city, then migrants need to be part of the discussion.

What comes next? What can we expect from future Küfas?

If the first one goes well, we plan to theme the subsequent ones to allow people to get together when they are interested in a particular topic, and to simultaneously support groups who are active in those particular areas. We haven’t decided what they will be yet, and we are open for suggestions – and for new cooks!

Is the LINKE Internationals Summer Camp still on this year? What will that be like?

The Summer Camp is a great space to get to know different people and groups involved in the Berlin scene. As people are starting to get vaccinated, it looks like this year’s Camp will be taking place on 4th-5th September as planned.

Over the last two years we have fine-tuned our format: we run several parallel workshop sessions that cover local and internationalist struggles, as well as inviting some keynote speakers. We also cook and eat together, there is also some entertainment (a film, a reading, a bonfire) and generally time to chat and think and meet new people.

You can register for Summer Camp here.

The first monthly Küfa for activists will be taking place this Friday, 4th June from 6pm. As long as the weather is good, it will be on Oranienplatz. In bad weather, you can find us at Bilgisaray, Oranienstraße 45

Questions from Phil Butland

Why Should Expropriation Be a Utopian Dream?

Speech at the Right2TheCity Rally, Tempelhofer Feld, 29 May 2021


31/05/2021

It somehow feels like a utopian vision when you wish for everyone in this city to have a roof over their head. But why should it be?

So many speakers today have already talked about how housing is a fundamental human right. How migrants are disproportionately affected by rising rents and are consequently pushed out of their communities, out of their homes, out of the housing market completely. And how the capitalists use every opportunity they get to make more and more money, lining their pockets with an ever higher proportion of our wages.

We, as DIE LINKE Berlin’s international working group stand behind the demands of the Right to the City For All group, many of us are also part of it, and we support the entire DWE campaign to make this city a better place for everyone to live in.

Because how absurd is it that something that’s a necessity has been turned into a commodity? And how absurd is it that we, as a society, have not only turned being a landlord into a job but also one that’s immensely profitable?

How absurd is it that it is a daily concern for many of us that someone who owns the flat or building we live in might one day decide that they want us to leave, and once they do, we know they will do everything in their power to kick us out?

And we can only be thankful that we are not living under occupation, like those across Palestine, who are being forcibly dragged out of their homes by the police and the army, or whose homes were destroyed in the last attack on Gaza. With us this is not as direct, or obvious, or genocidal. Although it’s part of the same capitalist system that oppresses us all across the world.

I’ve experienced many frankly ridiculous situations related to the Wohnungsmarkt while living in this city. Among other things which show that you, as a newcomer, as a migrant, are always on the back foot, always having to compromise on something, accept conditions which are not ideal and never feel a sense of stability.

I’m far from being the only one, or even one that can claim to be especially marginalised. This is just reality. And what I know is that this shouldn’t be something that I am constantly thinking about — no one should. And it shouldn’t be something that pushes me to act selfishly, individualistically, against my politics, because I’m scared that otherwise I’ll end up moving from place to place again every few months. It’s exhausting.

This campaign has given me hope that we can live and be with solidarity with one another again when it comes to the housing market. I have been inspired by the cross section of people involved in collecting signatures and being actively in the many possible ways.

We, DIE LINKE Berlin’s international working group are a group active within a party for which most of us cannot vote in elections. Therefore we stand strongly behind the demand for full voting rights for all those living in this city, and many of us have been involved with the group. Because how can we expect migrant-friendly policies to be made if migrants are not allowed to have their say?

We believe that all those who live in the city should have a say in what happens in it. Should have an equal right to be here, and equal access to what the city has to offer. The fact that this isn’t the case even in a city where almost a quarter of its population doesn’t have citizenship is laughable. And this is on top of those with citizenship who get discriminated against for other reasons when it comes to housing.

So we believe in the right to the city for all, and fully stand behind the group’s demands. But first — enteignen!

Pictures from the Right2TheCity Rally, 29 May 2021 by Noemi Argerich, Phil Butland, Jaime Martinez Porro and Jorge A. Trujillo

End ‘vaccine apartheid’ – no one Is safe until everyone is safe

Keep our NHS Public supports the call for a ‘People’s Vaccine’

by Dr John Puntis from the UK ‘People’s Covid Inquiry’, on the international inequity in COVID vaccine distribution


30/05/2021

Carried away by the ‘vaccine bounce’ (undoubtedly a major factor in their recent electoral success) the government is myopically preoccupied with focusing on the pandemic only within our borders. This means the international dimension is being neglected with potentially disastrous consequences for us all. This is not just to do with a failure to secure our borders. It is also a failure to grasp the even more pressing need to advance the rollout of vaccination on an international scale.

We are beginning to take great sighs of relief thanks to our ability to secure a significant proportion of the globally available vaccine. But in other parts of our ‘one world’, including countries that vaccines will not reach for a year or more, the virus is still raging. Uppermost in our minds just now is the developing catastrophe in India – paradoxically the largest manufacturer of vaccines in the world. As highlighted in the British Medical Journal recently: ‘India’s crisis is everyone’s crisis’.

Charitable initiatives are not enough

Worldwide over the last three months the number of coronavirus cases has been steadily rising to its highest ever level. International organisations have been set up to try and ensure vaccine gets to those most in need. But these efforts rely on the largesse of rich nations and seem doomed to failure. The Vaccine Alliance, Gavi, for example, is:

“ . . . bringing together public and private sectors with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries .

. . . Gavi is co-leading COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. This involves coordinating the COVAX Facility, a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccine”’

The Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator was launched by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to facilitate the development of tests, treatments, and vaccines and to ensure their equitable distribution. Covax is supported by the WHO as well as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Reliant on funds from charities and wealthier countries and struggling to obtain supplies, its aim is to vaccinate health workers and high risk people in all countries by the end of 2021 – about 20% of the world’s population. This is a laudable but unambitious aspiration. The failure in equity of global distribution and adequate ramping up of vaccine manufacturing capacity will only ensure this pandemic will run and run, with risks of new variants emerging and driving further waves of infection. National leaders must recognise not only their own national but also wider global responsibilities in responding to the pandemic. Their tragic failure on this international front is illustrated in the graph that shows the miniscule amount of vaccine that Covax has in fact been able to secure. (A clue: Look at the *bottom of the graph*.)

The difficulty arising from the constraints on the WHO in having to work within the limits of international consensus was captured in a ‘Hardtalk’ interview with David Nabarro in April 2020. Stephen Sackur introduced his guest with the daunting assertion:

“There has never been a greater need for an internationally co-ordinated response; that is where the WHO should come in…but right now the WHO itself is at the centre of a political storm; Trump has withdrawn the [major] American funding accusing the WHO of being China-centric”.

Nabarro preceded his robust and forensic defence of the WHO’s handling of the evolving pandemic with a stark warning – that as lockdowns are released if they are not fully defended, the outbreaks will build up again – poor countries being particularly at risk:

“The pandemic will be a threat to every country and every population in the world; the only way we will get on top of it and ahead of it is if every society everywhere is knowing about it and is able to interrupt transmission for themselves … the capacity to defend against it and learn how to live with the constant threat of the virus is going to be the key for the future of humanity”’.

At the recent Global Health Summit on the 21st May 2021, leaders from the G20 nations reaffirmed their support for the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. However, a year on – and as the global death toll from the virus surpasses three million – there is still a funding gap of $18.5bn (£13.1bn; €15.1bn) for the accelerator. Covax still has precious little stocks of vaccines. The policy lead for the People’s Vaccine Alliance commented:

“ . . while world leaders spoke eloquently about the ‘gross inequalities of global vaccination’ their solutions were still the same tired ones that have failed billions of people who remain unvaccinated and vulnerable to infection. Nine people are dying every minute [of covid-19] while the vaccine stores of Covax—a multilateral initiative to get vaccines to developing countries—lie empty”

also remarking that G20 leaders had:

“ . . once again ceded control of this pandemic to a handful of pharmaceutical corporations which have had more than a year to voluntarily share their intellectual property and know-how but have instead put profits before people at every turn.”

An end to vaccine hoarding is urgently needed

We now have a situation where only 0.3% of total vaccine doses have gone to Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), a state of affairs some characterise as ‘vaccine apartheid’. Only 1% of the 1.3 billion vaccines injected around the world have been administered in Africa, and only enough vaccine delivered to protect 2% of the population. Meanwhile, rich nations are currently vaccinating their low risk citizens, ahead of health workers and high risk people in LMICs. Wealthy countries have even bought more vaccine supplies than they can use and are sitting on them. Canada has enough to vaccinate everyone ten times and the UK eight times over (see graph). An ending to vaccine hoarding by rich countries is urgently needed.

Those advocating a ‘people’s vaccine’ say the charitable model of Covax is wholly inadequate to meet need and that what is required is for a way LMICs can manufacturer their own vaccines. There is also the Indian paradox of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer experiencing one of the world’s worst outcomes from the pandemic. That is the tip of an alarming global iceberg. Problems of disease suppression are compounded by leaders who: are not fit to lead; who have knowingly run-down public health services over decades; who fly in the face of scientific evidence, are unwilling to learn from their mistakes; and who will do anything to hide their failures from those they are there to serve.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance – a new way forward

The People’s Vaccine Alliance is a global coalition of organisations and activists including UNAIDS, Amnesty International, Medact and Global Justice Now, leading the call for a people’s vaccine. It argues that pharmaceutical corporations must allow the covid-19 vaccines to be produced as widely as possible by sharing their knowledge, free from patents. The first requirement is for a waiver of intellectual property protections on covid-19 vaccines including on their raw materials and components. This call has now been supported by President Biden in the US, and by the Gates Foundation. The next two conditions are transfer of technical knowledge from vaccine makers in the global north to regional hubs or direct to manufacturers in the global south, together with subsidies for manufacturing in LMICs.

The UK – precariously balanced in a global pandemic

Our ‘People’s Covid Inquiry’ has highlighted together with many other voices the decades of running down of our public services including public health and the NHS. That compounded the delay in taking the pandemic seriously; delay in implementing lockdown; using the pandemic as an opportunity for cronyism; outsourcing ‘test and trace’ resulting in a hugely expensive failure; failing to protect those in society who are most vulnerable. All of these have contributed to a staggering 150,000 deaths.

We now have seen our UK overseas aid budget cut by £4bn even though the Conservative’s manifesto pledge promised it would be maintained, just at a time when aid has become even more important to help LMICs survive the pandemic. In March this year, when asked about donating vaccines to poorer countries, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden claimed the UK did not have a surplus. The Prime Minister stated lamely that:

“ . . all our international goals rest upon keeping our people safe at home”

If diplomatic sensitivity effectively silences the WHO in calling out individual government’s response to the pandemic, that role must then fall to citizens, as in our People’s Covid Inquiry. ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’ cannot be allowed to be a mere slogan.

It is a sentiment that must dictate what we do as a nation, a nation that recognises and embraces the reality that we all share one world and that nationalism plays no part in fighting a pandemic. Clearly there is much more to be done on an international scale to protect us from both the present and the next pandemic, but little sign that the current government will be the one to deliver the vision and change we urgently need.