CommonWeal are starting a ReBuild initiative to address how we move forward post-coronavirus.
Here Mary McCabe tells us her thoughts on the subject:
There are two schools of thought about the world post Covid-19.
One: Plans to overhaul the system or to reform the constitution are navel-gazing. We must get back to where we were before considering radical change. If we ever do…
The Other: The place we were before, with the UK Government sacrificing Health and Social Care in England on the altar of profit, prioritising jingoistic wars over the war on poverty and ignoring the suggestions of the Scottish Government to take a different route was how we got in this mess.
We must find a new way.
As the UK Government keeps telling us, our last upheaval of such magnitude was the Second World War. People cheered Churchill for winning the war, but saw the need for fundamental change. They grabbed the first chance to vote the Tories out.
The remnants of the innovations brought in by the 1945 Government, though watered down by subsequent Tory and Labour Governments, are what we rely on to save us today. Post coronavirus we must take the chance for fundamental change, for the chance will not come again.
The lockdown makes it hard to get publicity for new ideas. We can’t do demonstrations or give out leaflets or run stalls. The mainstream media censor out the radical stuff.
Social media is the only way left.
The Commonweal think tank held an online meeting recently. They suggested that on Monday 11th May, 4pm – 7pmeveryone should post on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram a picture of ‘everything must change’ homemade posters with the words:
EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE
You could also make a video, or put the poster in your window and take a picture.
The idea is to flood social media with a positive and determined message and build a people’s force for change.
For further info check out Commonweal Rebuild. And send us a photo of you and your poster!