Too ghastly to fully contemplate. My weekly column in the daily Plymouth Herald (10.9.24) arguing against the general media commentary, most powerfully articulated by “left-wing” barrister and human rights campaigner, Michael Mansfield, that society no longer cares. I would observe, with triangulated evidence, that ordinary working class people do care – a lot. It is the Rich and those driven to be rich, who do not.

The unexpurgated version below:

The Word has a power. The moment the Word is printed here, a proportion of potential readers of this column will read no further. Some will drop it because of sheer prejudice. The Word conjures-up racial tensions, the Word makes those who are comfortably-off uncomfortable, the Word reminds us of the unfathomable span and depth of wealth distribution and social class status.

The Word exposes the very nature of the Capitalist system we live within. The Word is Grenfell. By this point many have logged-off, not needing to know more nor wanting to accept some truths that go to the very heart of their own situation. But the Grenfell fire must not become last week’s news and forgotten. Yet already, the mention of the word Grenfell is losing newsworthiness.

The burnt-out tower stands as the international icon of societal failure. The names of the 72 dead identify the poverty of the vast majority of Black and Asian people in Britain, condemned to living in the poorest housing conditions, unheard. The total and unchallengeable power of private corporations proves the absence of any concern for social justice in Britain, or any readiness of politicians to intervene.

A survivor, Natasha Elcock from the Grenfell United survivors’ group said the Inquiry report speaks to a lack of competence, understanding and fundamental failure to perform the most basic duties of care…“We paid the price of systematic dishonesty, institutional indifference and neglect.”

The Inquiry concluded that every single loss of life as Grenfell Tower burnt on the night of 14th June 2017 was avoidable. People did not die in an accident, they were killed. Human life was never a priority, and still isn’t. The Dagenham highrise fire two weeks ago was a copycat cladding incident, lives saved by getting them out quick, but proved that the risk remains. There will be more.

For trade unionists, workers collectively organised for our own protection, the conclusions come as no surprise. But we do balk at the assertion that no-one cares anymore. Millions of us do.

We have fought, campaigned and challenged the dangerous hazards at work and in our communities, championing calls for Health & Safety against a growing cacophony of right-wing put-downs of “nanny-Statism” and “wokism”. Sponsored by the private corporations and neoliberal think-tanks, successive governments have been lobbied and bribed to cut back on safety regulations and cut-corners at work in order to maximise shareholders dividends. 

Most workers want to end their week feeling they we’ve done a good job. But the culture of fast and big profits and shareholders dividends minimise quality and care in the pursuit of cost-cutting and maximising productivity. The greed of the already wealthy has overwhelmed all industries to the point of mass demoralisation and constant danger.

It has been said that we are no longer a caring society – people don’t care anymore. That’s not true. Ordinary working class people care a great deal for people around us. Those at the top don’t care a jot, and those who want to climb that ladder learn fast that they must show they don’t care and are prepared to break the rules on behalf of the business. 

There has been a growth in micro-management and quasi-military supervision across all industries, telling workers “you are not here to think, just do what you’re told.” Compassion and empathy are frowned upon. We are instructed at work not to care, not to listen, and disciplined or sacked when we question or whistleblow. The culture of carelessness has been forced from the top, promoting a lack of concern for working class communities and the pain of poverty.

The cuts to public funding of social infrastructure and welfare since the mid-1970’s has ensured that vital emergency services are threadbare in all aspects, from training through to staffing levels. Those in positions of responsibility have outsourced the risks to ensue they cannot be blamed for the consequences of their cuts.

The privatisation and deregulation of housing has ensured landlords can charge extortionate rents for squalid rooms and evict at will anyone who complains. Governments have purposefully cut the jobs that used to monitor safety and enforce the law in the name of profit and “wealth-creation”. 

Grenfell is the proof: cladding companies lied and operated illegally, residents and trade unions repeatedly rang the alarm, elected councillors refused to act. 

Governments ignored warnings about dangerous cladding as early as 1991 and have ever since. As with so many other disasters we can expect little or no serious resolution to this. This Inquiry is a condemnation of our political system, and the COVID Inquiry is likely to evidence an even deeper proof of corruption. 

Grenfell highlights that all our public services are at a point of collapse. And we cannot rely on Starmer to deliver justice and change after Grenfell, when three of the top five landlords in Parliament are Labour MPs. Theirs is a party courting big business and private developers, desperate to show it’s a responsible manager of the corporate profit system.

And that’s the point. This was one of an endless list of tragedies caused by the system of Capitalism that always places profit as a far higher priority than the needs of the People. We should confiscate the assets of the businesses who profited from flammable cladding, and jail their owners for corporate manslaughter if not murder. All those responsible should pay for the removal of the cladding and the safe renovation all buildings affected. And as a wider project, to end these tragedies we have to organise for redistribution of wealth and system change.