The Tories ensure “market forces” are adjusted and fixed to benefit the wealthy and penalise the poor. Social security came about precisely because we evolved to recognise a need for a social safety net to protect vulnerable citizens, because we learned last century that we are all potentially vulnerable, and that it isn’t anything to do with a person’s characteristics, they are not to blame for socio-economic circumstances, or becoming ill and disabled. Unemployment, accident and illness can happen to anyone. It’s worth noting that the Universal Declaration on Human Rights recognises socio-economic human rights, such as the right to education, right to housing, right to adequate standard of living, right to health and the right to science and culture. Economic, social and cultural rights are recognised and protected in several international and regional human rights instruments. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is the primary international legal source of economic, social and cultural rights. All member states have a legal obligation to respect, protect and fulfil economic, social and cultural rights of the public and are expected to take “progressive action” towards their fulfilment. The current government have made it clear that they disdain such rights, and in terms of socio-economic policy they are driven by retrogressive rather than progressive ideology. But Welfare isn’t simply a matter of societal rights but also a matter of life and death. People are dying, and are being made homeless, we are seeing a massive increase in food poverty, malnutrition and people are committing suicide because they are so desperate. Yet the Tories continue to present the victim-blame script. It’s a script that is used almost always to reinforce white supremacist and patriarchal power structures. And it’s a script that plays off a weakness of our Western worldview, our inclination to assign negative moral value to those who suffer – what psychologists call the “just world fallacy .” There are strong links between the right wing idea of laissez faire, competitive individualism, Social Darwinism, eugenics, nationalism and fascism/authoritarianism. It is often said that you can judge a society on how it treats its weakest members, and in that respect the current government have blood on their hands. What kind of society is it that allows over a million young people to struggle on the dole, squandering their potential and their creativity, instead of spending the money on putting them into meaningful work – and then blames them for the increase in the benefits budget? What kind of society allows sick and disabled people to be harassed – where they are called in for crude, tick-box tests to prove that they are “really” ill or disabled, one where that “assessment” is designed purposefully to remove their lifeline benefits, one where most are found “fit for work” only to die a few weeks or months later? This is happening here in the UK, with Tory policies like the welfare “reforms”, which are extremely punitive towards the very vulnerable – such as sick and disabled citizens, all too often denying them the means to meet basic survival needs. We urgently need to overturn this by forcefully challenging the Tory myths that poison any attempts at progressive change. Human suffering, loss of dignity and death may have many facets, but all of them are equally unforgiving, and when imposed by humans on fellow humans, all are equally unforgivable.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 19:36:15 +0000