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Month: December 2021

Antifascist Music Alliance

Loose group of people who are fighting fascism, far right activity and white supremacy in music


09/12/2021

Logo of Antifascist Music Alliance. A black circle which is white on the edges. 'Antifascist Music' is written at the top part in white letters. And at the bottom 'Alliance' is written, also in white. In the middle there are drawings of a music note, headphones and microphone all in red and black on a white backdrop

Information recently surfaced showing that Dominick Fernow aka Vatican Shadow, Prurient, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement and his label Hospital Productions are affiliated with white supremacists. After this information came to light, little acknowledgment was made by the publications that covered his work over the years or by the agencies and labels that have released his music. We contacted Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, and his booking agency Ostgut in August 2021 directly with our asks (below). Ostgut has quietly removed Vatican Shadow from their booking agency listings, but no other actions have been taken by any of the organizations.

What’s the deal?

Fernow was pictured in a Pitchfork interview by Brandon Stosuy with Mikko Aspa, his frequent collaborator. Aspa makes National Socialist music and spreads neo-fascist music and literature through his record store in Finland. In the same interview, Fernow mentions other Nazis like the band Absurd, whose singer Hendrik Möbus sieg heiled at a concert, posed with Nazi flags at Auschwitz, and “publicly mocked” the 15-year-old that he and his bandmates strangled to death in 1993. Fernow’s label Hospital has released music by Montreal National Socialist Black Metal band Akitsa. With Fernow’s black metal projects, his lyrics have also been sexually violent. This is just a short list of his ties and actions. Dominick Fernow has been very open and proud about his ties to white supremacists. The journalists, platforms, and agencies that have supported him and those who have collaborated with him must have been aware of these ties.

In 2018, Resident Advisor published a long, positive profile about Fernow written by Andrew Ryce. Resident Advisor also published many reviews and news pieces, for his work and for his label. Many of Fernow’s events have been listed on Resident Advisor’s ticketing platform, thus financing his activities. His booking agency Ostgut, is of course also responsible for backing him financially and reputationally.

These entities support Fernow as an artist, but have remained silent on his actions. This is very serious. Propagating and normalizing National Socialist ideology is dangerous for non-white people, Jewish people, Roma/Sinti people, queer people, leftists, and others. Because Resident Advisor, Ostgut Booking and Pitchfork’s support was public-facing, public-facing actions should be taken.

What can we do?

We can join together as promoters, artists, labels, clubs, music journalists and, of course, fans and listeners to demand that Pitchfork, Ostgut Booking and Resident Advisor take public-facing actions against fascism in electronic music. 

Call to action

  • Sign our open letter in the form here
  • Encourage any organizations or individuals in your network to sign
  • Post about the open letter on your own channels: hashtag to use #AntifaMusicAlliance
We post regular updates on Twitter
The list of signatures is visible here

Degrowth: End the Growth Mania! But How?

The so-called Post-Growth theory contains serious contradictions, but also overlaps with left-wing ideas


Green Growth – the belief that humanity can consume more products and services every year without more pollution of the ecosystem – is an illusion. Behind the unremitting expansion of economic output lies a development model which further exhausts the natural biosphere and mercilessly devours finite resources. This steady growth is part of the capitalist economic system.

From the discussions in the 1970s about the“Limits of growth” study by the Club of Rome, many ecological scientists and activists have endorsed Degrowth, where global economic output tends to contract, and an emphasis is placed on regional cycles and sustainable use. For example, the economist Nico Paech has called for a “drastically reduced industrial system, and an expansion of a regional and a subsistence economy”.

The tiny beginnings of this tendency started with scientists like Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Jacques Grinevald and Herman Daly. Today, hundreds if not thousands of students, academics and activists in environmental movements make a pilgrimage to the annual Degrowth Conferences in different European cities, such as Barcelona in 2010, Leipzig in 2014 and Amsterdam in 2021.

The Contradictions of Post-Growth Theory

The number of publications of scientists supporting a Post-Growth society has also steadily grown. Publications like “Ecological Economics”, “Journal of Political Ecology” or “Journal of Cleaner Production” offer an ongoing discussion within the scientific Degrowth community. There are also many other academic publications and pull-out sections in the quality media in which Post-Growth is discussed.

The central idea of this discussion is that we cannot negotiate with nature and that limits of ecosystems and natural resources must be respected. This is a decisive improvement on the superficial sustainable labels or even greenwashing by many NGOs and pro-capitalist Green parties.

The Post-Growth movement is already very idealistic and organised according to post-autonomous principles. It also contains serious contradictions. These have theoretical roots, but have very concrete political effects and emphasize divisions

Capitalism Requires Surplus

Capitalism is a purposeless system in which different capitals look for possible investments which can bring a profit. In times of boom and stability, this can lead to growth, but at other times the same mechanism causes profound depressions. Governments are simply not able to set growth quotas for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which would reduce the potential returns for capital.

It is much more the case that states are dependent on investment, tax revenues and employment of capital. For this reason they are, above all, forced to compete with other states to offer an attractive investment climate. This ensures that their own GDP grows as much as possible. This means that a Post-Growth economy as a political demand stands in direct opposition to the interests of capital and the state.

Even if GDP growth could be regulated and limited by the state, even if production could be controlled and made sustainable, a shrinking capitalist economy would still not be social. Quite the opposite – under capitalism, GDP growth is a necessary precondition for rising wages, social spending and government spending.

And growing GDP requires lavish yields from invested capital. That is to say that investments of each period must yield surplus. If the surplus doesn’t grow, cuts must be made from workers, or the company will eventually go bust.

The Problem of Accumulation

States lose tax revenue during recessions, at the same time as requirements for social spending are increasing. The consequence of an economic system which is based on capitalist accumulation without economic growth would be a permanent recession leading to social upheavals.

Supporters of a Post-Growth economy must at the very least supplement their expectations with extensive demands for redistribution and massive public investment, in order to counteract the destructive effects of the shrinking of GDP.

If we think it through, a permanent Post-Growth economy is at odds with the accumulation of capital. Back in 1972, the Degrowth economist Herman Daly remarked: “if the surplus is not to lead to growth, then it must be consumed … Accumulation in excess of depreciation, and the privileges attached thereto, would not exist.”

The Degrowth advocates face the challenge of achieving a Post-Growth economy through general surplus instead of capital. Unfortunately, this has not led the Post-Growth economy theoreticians to find room in their analysis for a Marxist model of development and crises, which, in contrast to both neo-classical end ecological economics, looks at the dynamic of accumulation.

Putting The Blame on Capitalism

Opinions in the Post-Growth scene differ on the subject of capitalism. Nevertheless there has been a clear development towards a deeper criticism of capitalism. It says a lot that an influential ecologist like Tim Jackson gave his latest book the title “Post Growth – Life after Capitalism”. This clearly is in the spirit of the new stronger ecological movements, and of action networks like Ende Gelände and Extinction Rebellion.

Nina Treu, who organised the 2014 Degrowth conference in Leipzig and last year’s digital conference “Zukunft für alle” (a future for all) said in an Interview with the taz newspaper “we don’t want a violent revolution, but we do want to overcome the capitalist system and to redistribute”.

In 2017, she joined die LINKE, and this year she stood for parliament in the Leipzig-Nord constituency. As a candidate she clearly criticized the system: “people know that capitalism no longer gives them what it promises, and that we are currently burning up the climate. They know that we must all look for alternatives.”

What Sort of Green New Deal?

Running through the Degrowth networks are different and far-reaching ideas for social redistribution and plans for a “Green New Deal” with programmes for public employment, increased quality of life through shorter working hours and less consumption. The call for a Universal Basic Income is highly popular.

People who are organised in activism sense that Post-Growth ideas and ecological sustainability inevitably stand in contradiction to the interests of capital, even if few of them have fully worked through the theoretical implications of this. Their ideas are mainly loose and disjointed suggestions, which remain without political focus, without political form, and therefore without social organisational power.

Nonetheless there are also Post-Growth advocates who clearly do not consider ideas of post-capitalism. For example, Nico Paech in an interview with taz in April 2020 explains the effects of his Post-Growth strategy with particular clarity:

“Smaller supply chains [can] sink the productivity of labour. So prices will rise while choice and production volume sink, wages will also tend to sink … then people will no longer be able to afford as much. They will not obtain a better world at no cost. But that brings crisis stabilization and new jobs.”

Capital Must Pay for The Transformation

Paech does also demand that everyone should pay, for example through a wealth tax. But he leaves open the question of whether this is sufficient to compensate for the devastating effects of a permanent recession.

Paech concentrates on so-called “sufficiency”, on regionalisation, and recycling instead of a disposable society, and on a modest lifestyle. These proposals seem to be detached from the crisis-ridden dynamic of capitalism. Ultimately, Paech demands that the working class must pay a considerable part of the bill for the ecological transformation of the economy. What remains is preaching for consumption to be cut.

Such Post-Growth concepts are not able to unite industrial workers and trade unionists with ecological movements through joint demands and actions. Such a theory is much more likely to lead to alienating climate activists from organised industrial workers.

Paech believes that coal mining, continuous mass production of cars and clearances of the rainforest to profit massive palm oil plantations must be stopped. This means that the demands of trade unions like IG Metall and IG BCE appear to be a problem, as these also lead to more consumption, and through this to further GDP growth.

But what Paech, and many left-wing Post-Growth advocates misses is this: growth in itself is not the problem which should stand centre stage. A compulsion towards growth is not a cause in itself, but an expression of capital accumulation, which is created and driven forward by the capitalist mode of production.

Instead, it makes sense to look at qualitative development and use values. An investment programme for a social-ecological transformation, would raise the GDP just as much as building motorways would. But in the first case, the groundwork would be made for reducing resources and energy consumption. In the second case, the overexploitation of nature would carry on as before.

It’s not about the growth of economic activity, but at the type of this development, and ultimately about reconstructing the metabolism between people and nature

Ecology is Only Possible on a Global Level

If you are seriously interested in getting a grip on this metabolism, you need a vision for new social and economic relations, a new way of living together, and dealing with the environment and resources. In this respect, the Post-Growth scene can offer useful ideas and praxis. Important issues include regional autarchy, the imagination of a better quality of life through more free time and thoughtful consumption.

The Transition Town Groups, which were initiated in Great Britain now exist in dozens of countries and hundreds of communes, as do initiatives for CO2 neutrality, for ecological and regional farming, for energy sufficient communal life and much more.

But although many local initiatives are also connected, the existing networks have a certain anti-political attitude. This spirit is seen in the title of the handbook by founder Robert Hopkins: “From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want” (German title “ EINFACH. JETZT. MACHEN!: Wie wir unsere Zukunft selbst in die Hand nehmen”).

In Catalonia, local alternatives play a similar role, with local projects working with the Autonomous University of Barcelona, which itself is a pioneer in Post-Growth economy. They also have some resonance inside left-wing parties. At the Degrowth conference in Barcelona in 2020, one of the speakers was a representative of the local government.

In France, alongside many local projects there is a monthly newspaper La Decroissance and the small party “Parti pour la Decroissance”, which have found a social niche.

Building a society based on need, not profit

None of this is sufficient for a serious strategy to change the metabolism between people and nature. Local flagship projects can be inspirational and show that a better world is possible. But the task is to convert capitalist conditions, current industrial production, global transport and distribution chains and to thoughtfully deploy them for human needs instead of maximizing profits.

This brings us directly to the question of ownership and, connected with this, to political power. Here is where Marxism as a political project which highlights the contradiction between capital and labour, can make a contribution. Put another way: a society which respects ecological limits on a long-term basis is only possible when the overwhelming majority of people – workers – organise themselves to overthrow capitalism.

Most critics of growth are a long way from this perspective. Nonetheless, the widespread clarity about the depth of the current ecological crisis makes this theoretical approach attractive to many young people in action platforms like Ende Gelände or in mass movements like Fridays for Future.

The ideas of Post-Growth may be contradictory, and in the worst case open to right-wing explanations which see international population growth as a fundamental problem. But they are very compatible with left wing ideas. We must offer visions of a “Green New Communism” while seriously integrating this with a Left based on class struggle which connects movements and politically engages with the large majority of people who have to work for a living.

This article first appeared in German in marx21 magazine. Translation: Phil Butland. Reproduced with permission

News from Berlin and Germany, 10th December 2021

Weekly news roundup from Berlin and Germany


NEWS FROM BERLIN

Remembering Amadeu Antonio – murdered by skinheads

Amadeu Antonio was 27 years old when he arrived in Eberswalde in 1987 together with 100 contract workers from Angola. On 25 November 1990, on his way home, he was surrounded by skinheads and kicked into a coma. The 6th of December marks the 31st anniversary of his death. In an interview with Augusto Jone Munjunga, who came to the GDR as a contract worker and currently runs the Palanca cultural association, talks about how stressful the situation then was, considering racism. He also talks about walking alone in Berlin, or how much Eberswalde has changed. Source: taz

Residents of H48 fight to save their homes

H48, a complex of three buildings at Hermannstraße 48 (Neukölln), stands in front of a grandiose old factory building. Today 140 people live and work there. A community has grown there together – so much that they decided to buy the property and run it collectively. One person disagreed – and this was the landlord. At the beginning of this year, residents received a letter saying that the building was being sold to a Hermannshof 48 Grundbesitzgesellschaft mbH. Speculators are not interested in renting, but it could be worth a fortune as luxury lofts or office space – such as with Yorck59, 15 years ago. Source: exBerliner

 

NEWS FROM GERMANY

AfD win chair of the Interior Committee

The traffic light coallition could have prevented the AfD from chairing the Interior Committee. The committee chairs are distributed in several rounds according to faction strength. However, because the Greens promised Anton Hofreiter a committee chairmanship as a substitute for the denied post of Minister of Agriculture, they surprisingly chose the less radiant Europe Committee instead of Home Affairs. Hofreiter is to chair this committee in future. The AfD laughed up their sleeves and then gladly took the interior committee. In later allocation rounds, the AfD still secured the chair for health and development cooperation. Source: taz

Nuclear phase-out is still not guaranteed

In an interview with Matthias Eickhoff, political scientist, and activist against atomic power, he affirms basically the nuclear phase-out is not yet secured, and uranium enrichment in Germany should be terminated. He points out there are many issues are still open. Among them, “(…) huge gaps in the nuclear phase-out law, which was passed after the reactor catastrophe in Fukushima.” Regarding the “traffic light coalition”, he remembers the crucial ministries will be run by the Greens. “As environment minister, Steffi Lemke must quickly draw up a decommissioning roadmap. And Robert Habeck, as the responsible Minister of Economics, must enforce an export ban on enriched uranium, fuel elements and uranium waste.” Source: taz

Apparent assassination plans against Saxon Prime Minister

After threats against Saxony’s head of government Michael Kretschmer in a Telegram chat group, the police and public prosecutor’s office in Dresden are investigating the case. According to the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) of Saxony, the group “Dresden Offlinevernetzung” and its members are suspected of a criminal offence. The Central Office for Extremism in Saxony of the General Public Prosecutor’s Office in Dresden is currently investigating which criminal charges come into question. The 103 members of the group were united by their opposition to vaccinations, the state, and the current Corona policy. Source: dw

Turning the Julian Assange Sandclock…

How a statue near Kotbusser Tor honours Edward Snowden and Julian Assange


06/12/2021

As the judgment from the extradition appeal hearing of Julian Assange at the Old Bailey, in London, is imminent, another glut of articles about WikiLeaks is permeating a broad range of media platforms. As this case has been dragging on for over ten years the central issues have been expounded many times already.

This article tells a different narrative and will focus on a Berlin street-art intervention initiated in 2016. It  still operates as a locus that draws attention to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.

A sculpture forms a small roundabout at the junction between Kohlfurterstraße and Admiralstraße in Kreuzberg Berlin, just a few hundred yards from Kottbusser Tor U-bahn station.

Ludmila Seefried-Matějková was commissioned by the West Berlin authorities to create the sculpture in 1985 when the city was still divided. She titled the work, “Doppelganger Admiral”

This screen shot of the sculpture in July 2008 shows one of the most notable features at this point in time is the amount of graffiti all over the sculpture… Graffiti or “tagging?” That is a defining issue in “Street art”… Is it art? Is it vandalism? For now we skip over this graffiti debate.

Ludmila Seefried-Matějková is a Czech sculptor who was commissioned to make a series of sculptures for the city of Berlin. She is 83 years old but is still actively sculpting. She opened an exhibition of new work a few months ago.

Seefried-Matějková’s sculpture commemorates the time Admiralstraße underwent a radical change in the early 1980’s. Old buildings were demolished and new ones created. Seefried-Matějková responded to that by creating an hourglass – an ancient mechanical instrument symbolising the passage of time.

The massive concrete hourglass in the middle of the road is what most people first noticed. But there is more to the sculpture. Embedded in the surrounding metal work is a still working old fashioned type of digital clock, although when installed it would have been a futuristic state of the art time-piece.

On top of the hourglass are two semi-fused, back-to-back, larger-than-life admirals looking through their telescopes. Is one looking to the future and the other looking to the past, whilst in the “now” of the hourglass? Do they represent the divided city as they look both East and West? It is a sculpture that raises questions, not providing standard establishment certainties.

Whilst cleaning the sculpture we realised how easily the admirals spin. We think there was a time when they were constantly revolving. It would be great to have that story confirmed from someone who can remember seeing them spin. It would be interesting to know how slowly or quickly they moved.

Another significant element to the sculpture are two bronze figures sitting at the base of the hourglass. One is a man playing a harmonica and the other is a punk woman. These figures are slightly larger than life and are informally placed encouraging people to engage directly with them.

They fit in Seefried-Matějková’s broader body of sculptural work.

This sculpture is of interest in relation to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks because the WikiLeaks logo is an hourglass – and it is located in what was then the parliamentary constituency of Hans-Christian Ströbele.

Ströbele was one of the first people to travel to Moscow to meet Edward Snowden.

When Herr Ströbele MP and Frau Seefried-Matějková were informed about the idea to paint the hourglass sculpture with the WikiLeaks logo, they both responded positively.

Ströbele got permission from the City for the hourglass to be painted , after Seefried-Matějková gave consent to her work being re-appropriated with a three dimensional version of the WikiLeaks logo.

After the hourglass was painted it was publicly unveiled on the United Nations World Press Freedom Day – May 3rd 2016. Unfortunately Seefried-Matějková was unable to attend. However Ströbele spoke at this unveiling event with Sarah Harrison.

Sarah Harrison had worked for WikiLeaks and moved to Berlin after escorting Edward Snowden to Moscow. They had been trapped in Hong Kong airport for a number of weeks until Russia granted him asylum.

The sculpture became a focus, as exampled in the “Vigil for Julian Assange” held there on the 20th November 2019, organised by “Candels 4 Assange”.

The ongoing imprisonment of Julian Assange and the hourglass sculpture on Admiralstraße are given added potency by another of Seefried-Matějková’s Berlin sculptures. This one is above the main prison gates in Moabit depicting the “hand of justice” raising and lowering a cage around a prisoner.

Julian Assange’s  case has greater significance beyond his personal situation. Because  it reflects upon the public’s right to know about what wrongdoing their governments are doing in secret.

The newly painted sculpture was named – “Dopplewelt” (double world). It refers to the images on the hourglass of two globes to symbolise an old corrupt world leaking and creating a new world.

This image offers both the vision and crux of what is at stake in this trial. The world as presented to us by the compliant mass media is only a partial and very biased reflection of the geopolitical reality. Clearly a free independent investigative press is essential for a healthy democracy.

“Misconduct in Public Office”

The People’s Covid Inquiry reports on the handling of the pandemic by the government in England


05/12/2021

On Wednesday 1 December 2021, the People’s Covid Inquiry (PCI) organised by Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) presented its finished report. In the absence of a formal official public inquiry into the pandemic, the PCI began in February 2021 and concluded hearings in June. It covered all aspects of the government’s handling of the pandemic and heard testimony from a wide range of people and organisations. These included previous government advisors and key academics, as well as frontline workers and bereaved family members.

The Inquiry was chaired by renowned human rights barrister Michael Mansfield QC. In the report, a panel of experts delivered the findings and recommendations on all main aspects of the pandemic to date.

Key findings

These include:

1. The depleted state of the National Health Service and other public services prior to the pandemic was a determining factor in poor outcomes and led to avoidable deaths.

2. The government was poorly prepared for the pandemic and moved too slowly, which led to avoidable death.

3. The government adopted the wrong strategy leading to loss of life and growing mistrust in its advice.

4. The government’s poor record on inequalities put the most vulnerable at risk from illness and death from Covid-19.

5. There is a case to be made for a criminal charge of misconduct in public office.

The Inquiry chair sums up

The PCI chair Michael Mansfield QC, said:

“This People’s Covid Inquiry report is unequivocal – dismal failure in the face of manifestly obvious risks… This Inquiry performed a much-needed and urgent public service when the nation was hit by a catastrophic pandemic coincident with an unprecedented period of democratic deficiency. It afforded an opportunity for the beleaguered citizen to be heard; for the victims to be addressed; for the frontline workers to be recognised; and for independent experts to be respected. When it mattered most and when lives could have been saved, the various postures adopted by government could not sustain scrutiny.

It was plain to Keep Our NHS Public (the organisers of the People’s Covid Inquiry) that Government words were bloated hot air, hoping to delay and obfuscate. Within this narrative lies a theme of behaviour amounting to gross negligence by the Government, whether examined singularly or collectively. There were lives lost and lives devastated, which was foreseeable and preventable. From lack of preparation and coherent policy, unconscionable delay, through to preferred and wasteful procurement, to ministers themselves breaking the rules, the misconduct is earth-shattering.”

Filling the silence

Dr Tony O’Sullivan, Co-Chair of KONP, stated that the Inquiry had filled a deafening silence from government and had set out to learn the lessons that could save lives in this and future pandemics. The avoidable loss of tens of thousands of lives through the neglect of pandemic planning, the run down of the NHS, and the intense inequality in the United Kingdom – was shocking. The Inquiry had heard of the pride in their work of NHS, care and other frontline staff and about their pain, exhaustion and moral injury.

The level of government cronyism and resultant profiteering had been blatant and in plain sight. The overall conclusion was that a strong case could be made that there had been misconduct in public office. This needed to be addressed, since if ignored, the country would not be able to learn the lessons from today to face the challenges of tomorrow.

The overall conclusion was that a strong case could be made that there had been misconduct in public office. This needed to be addressed, since if ignored, the country would not be able to learn the lessons from today to face the challenges of tomorrow.

The pandemic is not over, and infection rates and death tolls are rising once again. As winter approaches and the omicron variant takes hold, the government needs to act decisively to prevent further avoidable deaths. With political will and public support, there is no reason that the UK can’t still emerge from the pandemic with an NHS that is not on the brink of collapse as it is now. The UK having learnt lessons, gained experience, and given proper investment in publicly provided health-and-care services, should be able to keep the nation safe, as and when another crisis like this occurs.

Michael Mansfield expanded on the charge of ‘Misconduct in Public Office’

The phenomenon of a ‘pandemic’ is hardly novel with a long history of plagues of one sort or another including recent examples such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS – 2003) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS – 2012; spread from camels). Anyone in government responsible for health and safety must have been aware of the risk of a pandemic recurrence.

This responsibility is well recognised by the tenets of international and domestic law. Internationally it is embraced by a number of different instruments – the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948 Article 25); the Charter of the UN (Article 1 1945); the Constitutional provisions of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Health Assembly (1946/1948 – creatures of the UN and engaging over 190 states) both committed to countering cross border health threats and giving rise to the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005).

Of especial interest is the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Articles 12 (1) and (2) read:

‘The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest standard of physical and mental health.

The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right SHALL include those necessary for . . .

(c) The prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases.‘

The United Kingdom ratified this treaty in 1976.

Legal obligations

UK domestic law reflects these obligations via the Human Rights Act 1996 (HRA) s6, by which the government must act in a manner compatible with the European Convention Articles (ECHR). For example Art 2, the Right to Life. Even more specific is the National Health Service Act 2006 s2A which imposes a duty to protect the public from diseases and other dangers to public health, and indicates appropriate steps which may be taken.

Public Health England (PHE) as the executive arm of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) together with the Minister – Matt Hancock – bore ultimate responsibility. Both have gone, as Mr. Hancock resigned and PHE was replaced by the UK Health Security Agency in the summer of 2020.

According to the government website this agency will be responsible for planning the prevention and response to external health threats and providing intellectual scientific and operational leadership at national local and global levels. It will ensure the nation can respond quickly and at greater scale to deal with pandemics and future threats.

Abolishing PHE during the pandemic was likened to taking the wings off a malfunctioning plane in flight in order to achieve a safe landing. This abolition might in itself be taken as an admission of failed pandemic response.

Recent specific warnings in relation to pandemic had been either ignored, or was set aside. In 2006 the Government Office for Science predicted a global pandemic within the next 30 years due to a virus mutating from a wild animal to humans (zoonotic disease).

Ten years later, in 2016, there were two exercises, the full details of which have not been made public until recently – Cygnus and Alice. The details of Cygnus were eventually leaked after threats of legal action. In June 2020, the Health Minister in the House of Lords at the time (Lord Bethell), asserted that such simulations should remain secret ‘so that the unthinkable can be thought‘.

Lord Bethell has since been mired in controversies surrounding lack of transparency over the awarding of lucrative government covid related contracts to associates of Conservative party members of parliament.

Loss of trust revealed by secrecy

A government that had lost the trust and confidence of the people did not want the public to know that the Cygnus report came to the conclusion that:

“The UK’s preparedness and response in terms of plans, policies and capability, is currently not sufficient to cope with the extreme demands of a severe pandemic that will have a nationwide impact across all sectors.”

Health Secretary Mr. Hancock failed to reveal that on top of Cygnus, in the same year, there had been ten pandemic exercises modeling different scenarios. Some were for Ebola, some for flu but one was prompted by a MERS outbreak, and therefore was for CORONAVIRUS. This too was kept secret despite PHE and the DHSC both being centrally involved. The government should, therefore, have been well prepared for the eventuality that presented itself at the end of 2019.

The NHS and social care infrastructure should not have been neglected and run down; effective in date Personal Protective Equipment should have been readily stored and accessible; track and trace provision should have been anticipated as vital to basic public health measures; extra NHS hospital space should have been carefully planned; with an adequate NHS trained staffing complement at the ready; quarantine conditions and support sorted; and strict border controls and isolation facilities programmed in advance.

None of this is hindsight, as the PCI report makes clear – the report is unequivocal. This pandemic response has been a dismal failure in the face of manifestly obvious risks.

Where is the official government judicial inquiry?

The Prime Minister initially rejected the idea of an independent public judicial inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic. Pressed by the bereaved and others, he eventually conceded in the summer of 2020 that there would be one – but not until later. Months went by and nothing more was said until earlier this year when the bereaved repeated their request. Again rebuffed, ‘the time was not right’ and it would interfere with government work.

Eventually he appeared to relent and announced that there would be one ‘launched’ in the Spring of 2022. However, despite continued requests there is no definition of ‘launch’, no date, no judge, no terms of reference, no infrastructure. Nothing in fact up to the time of publication of the PCI report at the end of November.

The public deserves the truth, recognition and admissions

For behaviour to be categorised in criminal law as misconduct in public office, it must be serious enough to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder and:

‘must amount to an affront to the standing of the public office held. The threshold is a high one requiring conduct so far below acceptable standards as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder.‘

The test for a jury has been said to be whether the conduct is worthy of condemnation and punishment, in other words: ‘Does it harm the public interest?’

The possibility of legal proceeding against government ministers should now be explored. If and when a judicial inquiry is held, the PCI will happily make all its evidence available – an important contemporary record made during the pandemic itself and not years afterwards.

Relevant links