2020 Reflections: Are we doomed?
By: Eve Mckeown
Tags: Mutual Aid, 2020, Change, Capitalism, Community

The year of isolation for some; self-improvement for others, and for far too many, the year of grievance. Surely one to go down as notorious in the history books, what can we learn from this tumultuous year?

This year alone, over 75,000 people in the UK passed away due to failures of the government. The government continuously showed their lack of understanding and compassion for people either out of work or in low-paid employment, and were reluctant to provide food for children in need. The Summer saw widespread international protests against police brutality and institutional racism and the Conservative government propose brutal plans to prevent people seeking safety in the UK. To top it all off, a recent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation concluded that destitution is on the rise, and an increasing number of people cannot afford at least two of six essential items. If capitalism is bad most years, this year, it took out a huge multi-coloured pen and highlighted all of its inhumanity.

If the atrocities of the state are one half of the year, then the actions and reactions of the public must be the other half. Though marred by a sizeable minority of anti-maskers, I would argue that most people have followed the regulations and aimed to keep others safe. At the beginning of the first national lockdown, thousands of people signed up to volunteer in a national plan to feed the old folk, and thousands upon thousands of copies of anti-racist educational books were bought in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. Though literally drops of hope in the sea of exploitation and tragedy that is capitalism and white supremacy, focusing on these actions does highlight the intentions of many people: to do good and to be better people.

Many will say that it is hopeless to count on the good will of others, and nothing will change without systemic change, and I agree! Without systemic change, the fate of the majority of the 7 billion of us will remain the same; capitalist exploitation and alienation. Yet, in highlighting the positive actions which people do independently of instructions from their governing bodies, it becomes clear how much we can achieve through collective action. The now rusty statue of Edward Colston can be taken as an example of how to pave the way for change: if we take liberal democratic methods for change, we will never see it come; if we come together and fight for the actions we deem just, they might just happen. This year has been horrible for many, like many other years spent under oppressive economic systems. Yet, if we focus entirely on the lethal failures of the government and ever-perpetuating forces of discrimination, we will never comprehend how to make change.

Leftist activists like myself are often too fond of highlighting tragedies and dismissing calls for ‘good news media’: volunteering and philanthropy rarely invoke change, and making a white woman an international best-seller in response to anti-racist protests does little for changing systemic white supremacy. But what this year has taught me is that I’ve been looking in the wrong places. Petition after petition I have signed this year has meant that my inbox is full with half-hearted write ups from civil servants informing me that the Conservative Party is aware of (insert issue here) and will look into it. But this is not where real change will come from. This year has demonstrated that millions of people are aware of their need to help out: whether delivering food to an elderly person in April, wearing a mask to the shops, or buying some extra tins to donate to a food bank. During the past nine months, when every single soul has struggled there is still a tiny bit of altruism among all of us, a want to help out through collective action. Even the infuriating actions of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers highlight a rising distrust in centralised government, demonstrating that this is not the place to look to for change.

So, what can we learn from 2020? Capitalism is awful, white supremacy is still an extremely powerful structure, and the government doesn’t give a toss about us. Simultaneously, thousands of us are trying to help, thousands of us joined protests, signed petitions and bought books in an effort to change the system. We have the energy to change the world, we just don’t know where to put it.

For 2021, I propose we continue to focus on taking down big corporations and state governments oppressive plans. Yet, we should focus more than ever on community, collective action, on mutual aid. Small-scale community-based actions will help to save communities from gentrification and desertification and all the terrors which the post-corona recession will bring. As someone with white privilege, I am in no place to tell people of colour how to campaign for anti-racism. Yet from a socialist perspective, the way I believe we will see change come for class-based struggle is not going to be through the campaigning actions we take against national government. The centralization and the bureaucratization of government systems which is planned for upcoming years in the UK will do harm to the political agency of local activists, so we need to make sure that we remain stronger than ever, using mutual aid networks to protect and maintain communities.

Though we have spent a year in isolation, the fact that we were all placed in a similar situation back in March means we are no longer as individualized as we once were. Like our ancestors hunting and gathering, we have strength when we come together. Communities will be the backbone of support for the next few years, not national government. The continual stream of government failures and tragedies, injustices and inequality which we have seen this year demonstrate the inability for a centralized capitalist state to care for all of its citizens. But, the actions of volunteers, protesters, donators, care workers, supermarket staff, all demonstrate the threads of love and compassion which still exist. In a time of trauma and deeply isolated periods, the altruistic nature of humans still stood true. This is what we need to fight for.