Highland: Covid second wave highlights the need for socialism

Sean Robertson reports

While the Highlands and Islands were relatively less affected than other areas by the health effects of the first wave of Covid-19, with notable exceptions such as the Home Farm care home in Skye, the second wave is now reaping a terrible toll. 

There have been hundreds of extra cases and multiple deaths in care homes across the region, especially in Ross-shire towns Invergordon where ten old folk have so far died at HC-One owned Castle Gardens and six at Kintyre House operated by Sanctuary Care. Over sixty residents have contracted the virus between the two homes. There have been similar outbreaks in Dingwall and Inverness.

There is a worryingly high number of care workers who have also been affected. For example in Meallmore care home in Inverness over half of positive cases were staff members. This highlights the need for staff to be given correct PPE, regular testing and better pay and terms and conditions, so that poverty doesn’t drive them to work when they are ill.

Cases in the Western Isles have also been increasing. An outbreak in Barra affected more than 50 people and NHS Western Isles have seen a spike in cases.

The virus has taken a heavy toll on the economies of the Highlands, Islands and Moray. The tourist and leisure Industries upon which much of the region relies have been shut down, making thousands redundant or at risk of redundancy. 

In a survey of the region carried out by the Federation of Small Businesses, almost half of respondents said that they feared their business would not re-open, risking further jobs. Retail jobs for household names such as Go-outdoors have also gone. 

Several big name stores are to close in the Eastgate shopping centre and Inverness Retail Park, such as Debenhams and Arcadia group owned stores like Topshop, Topman and Burton.

Other industries are using the pandemic as an excuse to attack jobs and terms and conditions of workers. Lifescan, the Highlands’ biggest private employer, have made around 10% of their workforce redundant. 

Global Energy Group, owners of the Nigg fabrication yard among other facilities, have attacked workers’ conditions by ending permanent contracts and rehiring staff through agencies, despite garnering several multi million pound contracts for the oil and renewable sectors in recent months.

The Arnish yard on Lewis has closed as a result of the collapse of BiFab after the unnecessary removal of promised support by the Scottish Government.

None of the mainstream political parties have the answers to the challenges faced by workers in the North of Scotland, either from the pandemic and the social havoc it is wreaking, or to the economic disaster which will follow in coming years. 

The priorities of the capitalist parties are, first and foremost, for big business. This has been shown by the handing out of multi-million pound contracts to their cronies and donors for PPE contracts for example. 

An example is the issue of ‘freeports’ for which Invergordon has been earmarked. While the SNP claim that freeport status would be good for the local economy and create much needed well paid jobs, many have well founded criticisms that they are also notorious for criminal activity because of the lack of checking paperwork and, more importantly, for low wages, lack of workers’ rights and exploitation of foreign workers. 

socialist recovery

Socialist Party Scotland envisage a different future for the region based on a socialist recovery for the working class. That’s why we will be standing as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the upcoming Holyrood elections. 

In addition to the fight for an independent socialist Scotland, in the Highlands we will campaign for our region to be the centre of the fight against climate change, given the wealth of renewable resources in the region. 

This fight would include taking into public ownership vital facilities such as the Nigg and Arnish fabrication yards under democratic workers’ control and management, to guarantee well paid, sustainable jobs and training for local workers and young people. 

We will campaign for failing companies in the retail, and leisure sector to be nationalised to protect jobs, and for large tourism businesses like Britannia hotels to be brought into democratic public ownership, with surpluses produced in future to be used to protect jobs throughout the sector and aid the post-Covid recovery.

The care home deaths scandal has brought into focus the need to provide good quality, free-at-the-point-of-need care for elderly and vulnerable people. This care should be based on the needs of the community and not the bottom line of profiteering companies like HC-One. We would create a high quality publicly owned National Care Service so that the scandals we have seen over the last year are never repeated.

Decades of austerity cuts have hit services provided by local authorities in the region hard. Councils should defy cuts imposed by Westminster and Holyrood and instead implement budgets which meet the needs of the community.

TUSC Highlands and Islands will call for historic public works loans debt (PWLB) to be scrapped. In the Highlands alone, where the current PWLB debt stands at £700 million, this policy would free up tens of millions of pounds per annum to allow the council to reverse cuts, reduce rates, build more council homes and improve creaking infrastructure.

If you would like to be involved in building it, get involved with Scottish TUSC. email scottishtusc@gmail.com