Editorial of the Socailist issue 1289
Seven years on from the Grenfell fire tragedy which killed 72 people, and its memory provokes many emotions, including those of indignation and anger, which are amplified further by the disgusting details exposed by the latest report.
The profit vultures named are washing their hands of responsibility. An article in the Financial Times warns that increased scrutiny of safety regulations “puts the new Labour government in a political bind between its promises to victims and people living in dangerous homes, and its ambitions to deliver a building boom.” Writing from the point of view of capitalist investors, it is a warning that profit margins could be squeezed by the requirement to make buildings safe.
The Grenfell report exposes the murky underworld of the multi-billion pound property development industry. The nasty tendrils of profit and greed penetrate every layer; including councils and the privatised building regulators. The same types of grubby deals, ‘nods’, ‘winks’ and ‘blind-eyes’, go on every day in all corners of the capitalist establishment and industry.
The levels of corruption exposed underline why the profiteering bosses can’t be trusted to make buildings safe. Instead, public remedial works should be started without delay and under the democratic control of the working class and trade unions, drawing on the expertise of firefighters and those in the construction industry.
These works should be paid for entirely by the big building companies. Protests of unaffordability, or threats of withholding investment and rising prices, should be met with the demand to open the books to inspection by the trade unions and working class, and ultimately by nationalisation.
- More about Grenfell Tower below 🡫
Tata Steel
At the time of writing, the Labour government is set to make a statement on its talks with Tata Steel aiming to prevent mass redundancies in Port Talbot. Thousands of workers are expected to still face redundancy, thousands more jobs are under threat at British Steel in Scunthorpe too. Royal Mail has also announced further reduction of its services as a billionaire takeover progresses. Both happen under the watch of a Labour government supposedly offering a ‘new deal for workers’.
Unfortunately trade union leaders, who met and at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) 8-11 September, did not use the opportunity to demand renationalisation from the new Labour government.
Can’t avoid nationalisation
But nationalisation is on the agenda. Thames Water is on the brink of collapse. Creditors giving it ‘junk’ status in August put it in breach of its license to operate – profiting from our rising bills and polluting our rivers. It also increased the cost of borrowing for other water companies also drowning in debt. ‘Special administration’, in effect nationalisation by default, is an inevitability.
The alternative – collapse – would mean no water services for London and the south east. The capitalist class accepts nationalisation when it deems the alternative more unpalatable. Likewise, the last Labour government nationalised the banks to prevent total meltdown.
The threat of class struggle features in the capitalists decision making, and in reality is behind all their strategic calculations. It’s the reason Labour is calibrating it’s public sector pay deals to be the minimum by which it hopes it can avoid strikes, for example. Preparation for struggle and the trade unions mobilising behind demands for nationalisation could force the government to act.
The Labour government could renationalise Tata Steel to save jobs, or the whole water and energy industries, or for that matter passenger rail passenger transport immediately, along with the rest of rail too. There should be no compensation for the fat cat bosses, with compensation only on the basis of proven need.
Nationalisation in whose interests?
When in 2008 the Labour government nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), taking a 50% share for £42 billion, it was effectively nationalisation for the rich – taking over the most indebted sections of the banking industry, leaving the rest in the capitalists’ hands. As recently as 2021, the government still held a majority of shares. It has been selling them at a loss since. During that whole period, its bosses were raking in monster salaries and bonuses.
The kind of nationalisation that the workers’ movement should be demanding is entirely different. Not putting capitalist bosses back in place, but instead running things under the democratic control and management of the working class.
State of the economy
The Labour government faces an economy with record low investment, capitalists refusing to invest their vast sums of wealth, unable to see a stable profitable outlet. One group of capitalists have told the government that Britain needs £100 billion of investment a year for the next ten years to achieve a modest 3% economic growth.
Those numbers put into perspective how limited Labour’s sums of planned public investment are. Great British Energy is a government owned company being created with £8.3 billion to be a ‘catalyst’ for private investment. Similarly, the National Wealth Fund hopes to attract private cash to go with around £7.3 billion of public funds. Both bodies will be led by bosses wedded to big business.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham typically goes further than most trade union leaders in correctly criticising Labour’s plans for further austerity, writing in the Guardian before TUC that “the money is there for all of us to have decent living standards.”
However, she falls short of demanding nationalisation. “Unite’s research shows we need investment of £6.6 billion in the next five years to build a domestic wind manufacturing industry and create new jobs for North Sea communities. The oil companies are not providing this investment. So the government must take the lead.”
But energy companies, for fossil fuels and renewables, have received £140 billion of government subsidies since 2015. Billions is pledged to the privatised steel industry too, while bosses send workers to the scrapheap. Investment to protect working-class communities, jobs and the environment needs democratic planning, and that can only be achieved with nationalisation.
The trade unions should be fighting for every inch of trade union influence over bodies such as GB Energy and the National Wealth Fund, demanding that, for example, the National Wealth Fund is used to invest in saving steel jobs in Port Talbot, or that GB Energy investments maintain trade union jobs, pay terms and conditions, of all those employed in the energy sector. And that should go hand in hand with demands put publicly on the Labour government to nationalise, and a strategy to mobilise members to fight for it.
Grenfell was a horrific symbol of the consequences of capitalism, a system that puts profit before all else. The nasty tendrils of profit continue to penetrate every aspect of housing, public services, infrastructure and industry – with deadly consequences and more misery for working class communities. The workers’ movement must be demanding it’s rooted out, and that all the major levers of the economy are put into workers’ hands, so that things can be planned democratically to meet the needs of all and the environment. Part of that means building a new mass workers’ party that fights for socialist change.
Grenfell report: corporations, establishment, and capitalism guilty
Over seven years after the fire in Grenfell tower which killed 72 people, the report from the inquiry is damning. Placing blame on corporations putting unsafe cladding on buildings to maximise profits, and the politicians which cut regulations and made us all less safe.
Paul Kershaw, chair of Unite housing workers’ branch, reports on the damning evidence that shows the whole capitalist system is guilty.
“The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable” and the failings around Grenfell were down to “incompetence”, “dishonesty”, and “greed”, according to Sir Martin Moore-Bick in the official report on the Grenfell fire.
Seven years after the fire, no one has been prosecuted and thousands continue to live in homes with Grenfell-style fire risks.
Government had been warned of the dangers for at least 25 years. Corporations such as Arconic, the cladding manufacturer, displayed “systematic dishonesty.” The BRE (Building Research Establishment), which acted as regulator and advisor to government was privatised and became exposed to “unscrupulous product manufacturers.”
During the refit of the tower there was a failure to establish who was responsible for safety standards – resulting in an “unedifying ‘merry-go-round of buck-passing’”. Even after the report was published, Arconic claimed its product was safe and the buck-passing continues.
When the time came for parliament to hear prime minister Keir Starmer and opposition leader Rishi Sunak express regret on behalf of the British state, MPs on both sides of the house rushed for the exit. In response, Karim Mussilhy, vice chair of Grenfell United – the survivors and bereaved family’s group, asked: “How are we supposed to get justice when they just don’t care?”
Blair
New Labour former prime minister Tony Blair couldn’t even be bothered with even ritual apologies. Damel Carayol, whose cousin and her daughter were killed in the fire, invited Blair to explain his words. “Of course you apologise. It’s a simple thing to do. You admit what you’ve done wrong … for what his government were involved in that contributed to Grenfell happening, of course you apologise. We’re not talking about mistakes happening. We’re talking about the neglect and ignoring what needed to be done, ignoring the implementation of recommendations. It’s cause and effect.”
Other survivors and bereaved relatives expressed similar views. Stephen Mackenzie, a fire security consultant, said: “It’s incredibly arrogant from an experienced statesman and politician. The problems with the legislation and guidance stem from his government. Much of the cladding was installed during his government’s tenure and Gordon Brown’s.”
Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack spoke for millions when he responded that: “Tony Blair’s despicable comments are the remarks of a multi-millionaire who has lost touch with the reality of people’s lives. It is no wonder that the public are losing faith in politicians when politicians like Tony Blair make it clear that they have no regard for ordinary people.”
David Cameron, the prime minister who championed deregulation with a ‘one in, one out’ rule where new regulations could only come into force if another was scrapped, later becoming one in, two out and three out, went even further than Blair claiming to be exonerated by the report!
Ed Daffarn, a Grenfell tower resident who raised numerous concerns about fire safety before the fire, said he was “angry but not surprised”, and Cameron was “failing to take responsibility”.
Tory arrogance
Lord Pickles, former Tory housing secretary, told the inquiry he could not remember the number of deaths and arrogantly demanded that the inquiry was quick in order not to delay his lunch appointment. The report found that his comments “served only to reveal the limits of his understanding”.
The report is quite clear that “the government’s deregulatory agenda, enthusiastically supported by some junior ministers and [Pickles], dominated the department [for community, housing and local government]’s thinking to such an extent that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded.”
It also points out that the government “determinedly resisted calls from across the fire sector to regulate fire risk assessors and to amend the Fire Safety Order to make it clear that it applied to the exterior walls of buildings containing more than one set of domestic premises”.
Ed Daffern is right that Cameron is failing to take responsibility. The details in the report are shocking but no surprise to anyone following the inquiry. Nor is it shocking that the capitalist establishment continues to duck responsibility.
Former Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove has let slip significant details of the government’s failure to pursue the corporations involved and called for prosecutions of cladding firms. Writing in The Times, he has claimed that the Treasury and international diplomacy scotched his efforts to impose consequences on Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex. If it was serious, the government could use primary legislation to block building control approval for any project containing anything made by these three corporations until they put their hands in their pockets to pay for the damage caused.
Of course, the new Labour government can and should revisit this. To guarantee safety and decent homes for all, the construction industry should be nationalised – but who would hold their breath for the government to follow up even just Gove’s more limited ideas?
Grenfell residents’ groups have welcomed the details in the report which expose establishment buck-passing, but there are real gaps. The report does highlight cases of racial discrimination, but residents’ groups point out that a majority of those who lost their lives were from a Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic background; neither race or class is fully explored.
Residents’ warnings ignored
Residents gave explicit safety warnings and were ignored. This is covered in the report, but it ducks recommendations on residents’ voice, citing current legislative changes. What is needed is democratic mechanisms of accountability and support for resident organisation. Groups such as SHAC (Social Housing Action Campaign) – the housing association resident and tenant network – report that residents’ views continue to be treated with contempt, with landlords even using legal threats to attempt to silence them. Trade unions have given support to such groups, and this must continue.
Currently, the police are indicating that possible convictions cannot be expected for another three years, many expect it to take longer. This isn’t acceptable; prosecutions must be treated with the urgency they deserve.
The story leading up to Grenfell shows the callous contempt of the capitalist establishment. The failure to act since underlines the nature of the establishment and the response to the report is no better.
Any prosecutions of individuals just scratch the surface of a system across the world that puts profit over human lives. We need to put capitalism in the dock too!
Individual politicians such as the former local Labour MP Emma Dent Coad have expressed some of the anger in the community. She stood in the last election as an independent – kicked out of the Labour Party as Starmer shifted it rightwards. We urgently need a party that expresses the anger of millions at the injustices of Grenfell and calls for a socialist way forward. Unions that have voiced the feelings of millions should take steps to form such a party.
Grenfell: Put the capitalist system in the dock!
Fight for Socialist Change
by Linda Taaffe, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
In the words of the chair of the Grenfell inquiry into the west London tower block fire that killed 72 in 2017, tenants were ‘failed’ by governments of both kinds, by building companies of all kinds and by other authorities connected with the refurbishment of the tower block, including the local council.
Those tenants are our brothers and sisters. They are workers doing all kinds of jobs, and from different backgrounds, but all struggling to make ends meet, aspiring to make a better life, and many having tried bravely to get their voices heard in the run-up to that terrible fire.
The chair added that those to emerge from this tragedy with the greatest credit were indeed members of the local community, to their great honour. Those with reputations in tatters make up a list of private companies, like cladding manufacturer Arconic, which arrogantly refused to even attend the inquiry.
‘Justice now!’
“Now is the time for justice”, demands Grenfell United – a group made up of families of victims and survivors. Not in three, five, or even ten years, as is being trailed by a former chief prosecutor. After the recent riots and far-right attacks, Keir Starmer made sure those involved were arrested and charged swiftly. Courts were cleared to get convicts in jail double quick.
Will this be the attitude adopted for the Grenfell companies? Three of the big companies – Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex – have already denied any wrongdoing. Property companies exert tremendous pressure on governments and landlordism is widespread. When Boris Johnson’s Tory government promised it would get rid of Section 21 ‘no-fault’ eviction notices, it was inundated with landlord lobbies, threatening that if this became law, they would clog up the courts even more with injunctions and lawsuits. Unsurprisingly, the proposed legislation was kicked into the long grass.
There needs to be a massive, loud and determined campaign organised to ramp up the pressure for justice for Grenfell. The heroic campaigning by survivors must be backed up by trade unions, with their membership of millions, and all campaigning workers and organisations.
There have been too many scandals. The private profit-driven system is rotten to the core. The alternative is to build for need not profit, and to invest in public services. We need to bring into existence a real independent mass socialist workers’ party, to shine as a beacon for all oppressed workers and to carry out real socialist change.
The evidence for Grenfell prosecutions is all there in the 1,700-page report. Already 58 people and 19 companies and organisations have been interviewed by police. Corporate manslaughter has been raised. Michael Mansfield KC, who represented residents, has explained that the police investigation should have come first!
The setting up of the inquiry by Theresa May was a known tactic of delaying justice and softening guilt, allowing the perpetrators to fade away out of sight. In other words, letting the guilty bosses off the hook.
Whilst individuals responsible must be punished, the whole emphasis has been on complete systemic failure. The capitalist system should be put in the dock, questioned about it’s right to continue and to pose socialist change.
Since the 1990s especially, the rich and their representatives in parliament have been shrinking the state through all kinds of austerity measures; and boosting greed and individual private profit.
Tony Blair’s Labour chose the Private Finance Initiative for buildings for hospitals and schools as the only show in town. The Conservative-Lib Dem coalition encouraged a ‘bonfire of red tape’ to allow juggernaut companies to exploit the market for greed. Local authority services like building control were hollowed out through decades of underfunding and redundancies.
Grenfell was a perfect storm – refurbished ‘cheap and cheerful’ so as not to be out of place with its posh Kensington neighbours – where 72 tragically had their lives taken.
It’s time for justice, but above all it’s time for socialist change. It’s time for working-class people ourselves to join in building an organisation to fight for it. It’s time for working-class people to take the lead in making plans for need not profit, in housing and in all services.
Grenfell United referred to the companies involved as “no better than crooks and killers”. Let’s clear them all out and set about building a socialist world.