- A STATEMENT FROM LEFT-WING POLITICIANS, TRADE UNIONISTS, INDEPENDENCE CAMPAIGNERS, HEALTH WORKERS AND OTHERS IN WALES ON THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS BEEN LAUNCHED
- THIS IS THE FULL TEXT OF THE STATEMENT, SIGNED BY ASSEMBLY MEMBERS LEANNE WOOD & MICK ANTONIW, WHICH CALLS FOR HUGE STATE INVESTMENT NOW TO PROTECT WORKERS, THE VULNERABLE & THE NHS
- UNLIKE THE UK GOVERNMENT, DENMARK, NORWAY AND FRANCE HAVE ANNOUNCED BIG FINANCIAL PACKAGES TO PROTECT WORKERS IN THE SHUTDOWN.
As the Covid-19 pandemic wreaks havoc in Europe and threatens the biggest social and economic crisis since WW2, a broad coalition of political leaders, trade unionists, Welsh independence campaigners and health workers have urged the UK and Welsh Government to take bold and rapid action to battle the pandemic and protect those affected.
They say the Government’s ‘herd-immunisation’ strategy – of allowing the majority of the population to be infected – is a ‘catastrophic mistake’ which will cause unnecessary death. Instead, they call for a programme of mass testing and contact tracing, citing the World Health Organisation’s recommendations.
Signed by two AMs, doctors, nurses, councillors, former steelworkers and artists, the statement also calls for huge state intervention into the economy to help the NHS but also protect workers and the most vulnerable, who face economic destitution if nothing is done. “As the 5th richest country in the world, the UK has the ability to take bold action,” they say. “But where powers are devolved, and if necessary, Welsh Government must be prepared to step in.”
Here is the full text of the statement: A copy of this statement in Welsh can be found here: Covid-19 – datganiad
“The Covid-19 outbreak poses a real and significant threat to the people of Wales, a country with a large elderly population and the highest poverty rate in the UK,
We are opposed to the strategy put forward by the UK government on Thursday of allowing the virus to spread to between 60% – 80% of the population, as the UK’s Chief Medical adviser has said. In this scenario, with just a 1% death rate, the virus could kill 25,000 people in Wales and almost half a million in the UK. But with the current death rate in Italy over 7%, we cannot know with any certainty how many would die here.
The ‘herd immunity’ approach – with no widespread testing or detection – is an historic mistake with potentially catastrophic consequences and one we must step back from immediately. We note the letter signed by 229 scientists from UK universities on Saturday which said the government’s approach will put the NHS under huge stress and “risk many more lives than necessary.”
If this approach by the Conservative administration in London continues, the Welsh Government should not support it.
Instead, our approach must be one that prioritises saving lives and protecting the vulnerable above the needs of the market and the financial sector.
This must first and foremost involve effective measures to stop the virus spreading as well as a programme of aggressive testing and contact tracing, as called for by the head of the World Health Organisation.
Immediate funds must be released by the UK government to build emergency health care facilities and provisions. Private hospital & hotel beds should be requisitioned to meet soaring need and thousands of extra care & health workers hired. Childcare arrangements must be made for front-line workers. As the 5th richest country in the world, the UK has the ability to take bold action. But where powers are devolved, and if necessary, Welsh Government must be prepared to step in.
Among other measures, we call for: full universal redundancy & sick pay, including workers on zero hours contracts; support for workers taking action to self-isolate; trade union engagement; a ban on tenant evictions and utility ‘cut offs.’; rent & mortgage freezes; opposition to any racist scapegoating of Chinese, Asian, Italian or minority communities; emergency grants for those in poverty; the expansion of meals on wheels to feed the hungry; price controls on essential goods and other measures to help those most vulnerable. No one should profit from illness or death.
There must also be no unwarranted clampdowns on civil liberties. We support community action to help those affected and firmly believe that ordinary people are the solution to the crisis.
The economy was fundamentally re-organised in the Second World War and we must do the same again now to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. To fund such a programme, sweeping measures such as a 20% windfall tax on the top 1% of earners, and a diversion away from military spending on arms, should be adopted to release billions in order to deal with the crisis. The health service, not banks, should be bailed out.
Finally, we cannot tolerate a situation where the financial and health cost of Coronavirus is pushed onto the shoulders of ordinary people, who have already paid the price for the financial crisis of 2008. Enormous sums of money are being hoarded by the super rich in offshore bank accounts. Keeping this money locked away at this time is unconscionable , and it is from these vast reserves of global wealth that we must tackle the pandemic.
All signed in a personal capacity:
Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru AM for The Rhondda
Mick Antoniw, Labour AM for Pontypridd
Darren Williams, Labour National Executive Committe and WEC
Abyd Quinn Aziz, Plaid Cymru BME Section
Emma Garson Branch Secretary, Cardiff County UNISON
Seb Viola – NHS Doctor
Chris John NHS General Practitioner (GP)
Miranda Thomas – NHS General Practitioner (GP)
Helen Erasmus, Registered Midwife
Rob Thomas – Senior Lecturer, Cardiff School of Bio-Sciences & UCU
Pat Penketh, Ultrasonographer
Dr Davina Darmanin, Specialty Doctor Community Child Health
Julie Slater. Supply Teacher (zero hours contract)
Hillary Brown, Civil Rights Lawyer
Carrie Harper, Plaid Cymru Councillor, Wrecsam
Marianne Owen, Chair PCS Wales
Cerith Griffiths, Exec Council, Fire Brigades Union
Renata Medeiros-Mirra, Cardiff University College Union (UCU) Strike Committee
Rowan Hope Campbell, Cardiff UCU Strike Committee
Aran Jones, CEO, SaySomethinginWelsh
Andy Williams, Cardiff UCU
Lisa French, Social Worker
Dan Evans – Desolation Radio
Kieron Smith, Desolation Radio
Sahar Al-Faifi, Anti-Islamophobia Campaigner
Siôn Trewyn, Secretary of Plaid Ifanc, Plaid Cymru’s youth wing
Sheila Jones, WASPI Women Campaign
Pete Davies Chair Cardiff County UNISON
Dr Cathy Wood, Clinical Psychologist.
Dawn Maxwell, UCU
Luzian Dominguez, Lecturer, Cardiff School of Modern Languages & UCU Executive
Katy Beddoe, UNISON Rep
Greg Cullen – Playwright and Artistic Director of Shock n Awe Performance Company
Julie Shackso, Social Worker,
Elin T Jones Town councillor Plaid Cymru
Adam Johannes, Cardiff People’s Assembly
Maggie Smith Labour
Sandra Holiday, Labour
Phil Holiday, Labour
Cody O’Cailleagh-Wheeler, community activist.
Gwenno Dafydd
Majella Kavanagh
Chiara Poletti, PHD Student, Cardiff University
Harriet PD – Wales.Pol
Colwyn Ewers, Labour
Jill Gough, Ceredigion
TJ Williams, Comedian
Roselyn Walters
Glenn Page, Undod
Natasha Mackie, Support worker
Jonathan Paul Jones, Research Student, Cardiff University
Laurence Totelin, Reader in Ancient History, Cardiff University, member of Cardiff UCU executive committee
Paul Seligman, Cardiff
Rebecca Jones-Westcott, HCSW, University Hospital of Wales, UNISON member
Nick Wysoczanskyj
Raffaele Grande – Party of the European Left
Tracey Davies, Housing Officer
Ruth Treen, Labour and Unite Member
Kate Chesson, Newport
Madhu Khanna-Davies, Labour
Deborah de Lloyd
Ann Smith
Michael Harries
Delyth Fôn Thomas, Acute Dementia Nurse
Jane Thomas . Pensioner
Xavier Boucherat, Journalist & member of the Hotel de Marl arts collective
Ken Picton, Retired Steelworker
Deborah Miles, MSc Global Governance masters student at USW Treforest Pontypridd
Peter Short, Monmouth
Adam Samuels Clwyd South Labour/WLG/Unite/Momentum
David Bullock
Jamie Evans (Crohn’s patient on immunosuppressant medication)
Jordan Forster, resident RCT
Gavin Williams, Concerned son and parent
Allison Hulmes, National Director, BASW Cymru
Bethan Ruth, Cymdeithas yr Iaith
Elin Hywel, Cwmni Cymunedol Bro Ffestiniog
Robat Idris, SAIL: Grŵp Datblygu Cymunedol Gwynedd a Môn
Rob Johnston, Cardiff
Joyce Drummond ( retired RGN)
Jim Scott, Convener – Pembrokeshire People’s Assembly
Joanne Davies – Artist & writer
Steve Ryan
Liz Gardiner, Treasurer of the Lower Wye Branch of Monmouth Constituency Labour Party
Heather Falconer, retired social worker
Nesta Wyer
Anna Morelle-Grey – Self-employed counsellor & psychotherapist, Cardiff
Christine Linley . Pensioner, grandmother Socialist
Siân Gale – Undebwraig / trade unionist
Councillor Gwenfair Jones, (Plaid Cymru) Gwersyllt West Ward, Wrecsam County Borough Council
Ron Marchant, human being, retired CEO of UK Intellectual Property Office
Michael Davies
Phil Rees, Plaid Cymru County Councillor, Gwersyllt North ward, Wrexham County Borough
Andromeda Davies, Disability Officer, Labour Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire
Organisations that have signed:
Plaid Ifanc
Undod
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