I did all the right things. I worked hard to go to university from my rural state school. I did a PhD and worked on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland for eight years as a researcher. I was told this was the height of scientific research!
I was paid an average salary (less than the minimum wage working in Switzerland). I withstood pension attacks, reduced pay, and temporary contracts.
I switched fields to work in a team of twenty scientists during the pandemic with Public Health Scotland on vaccine safety and prioritisation. The then Health Secretary Humza Yousef told us that our work “saved the economy billions and tens of thousands of lives”.
Our boss got a knighthood in 2022 for the work our team did, with a few thank you emails to the team.
Now in October 2024, several years later, out of the blue, I received a ‘reward’ for this work – a £10 Argos gift voucher.
Working hard in scientific research does not reward you under capitalism. I keep thinking, why the hell did I spend 15 years doing that? I now hope my skills can be used in the coming years and decades in a socialist economy – this is now my career aspirations.
Calum MacDonald, Leith
Haves and have-knots
The Falmouth Packet, our local paper, has just reported that a Cornish boatbuilding firm has ‘secured’ £1.88 million from the ‘Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme’ – otherwise known as the ‘levelling up fund’.
So what worthwhile project is this firm involved in? “The project enables manufacture of its new Duchy 45 motor yacht”. The name refers to the boat’s length, 45 feet. It will sell at nearly £1 million a piece. Each one subsidised by the ‘levelling up fund’.
Cornwall needs more well-paid jobs, but these skilled workers could be building and modernising homes, not building million-pound toys for the super-rich.
The same issue of the paper reported how 25 cyclists raised £35,000 in a charity ride – to raise money for equipment, training, and research at Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust.
Hospitals rely on charity for new equipment, while the ‘levelling up fund’ subsidises boats for the rich.
Kevin Ramage, Falmouth
Locals protest landlordism
Earlier this month Café Blah, beloved hotspot for the arts in Withington, south Manchester, had its locks changed in the night by its landlord. This was after they rightly refused an eye-watering 68% rent increase!
Café Blah is now closed and the loss in the community is felt deeply. However, the numbers of ordinary youth who protested the rent hike is inspiring.
The loss of Café Blah in particular may have triggered the protest but there was general indignation with landlordism in general!
While increasing domestic rents, landlords are also compelled to demolish important community hubs like Café Blah making life even more dreary.
The average monthly rent in Withington has increased by 11.7 percent in one year! In Manchester, since 2020, rent rose by a pitchfork-worthy 29 percent.
This grinding pressure as shown by the protest is having an effect, clearly delineating the line between haves and have nots.
Whilst workers’ wages are squeezed, their rents are raised; however there is no objective reason that this should be so.
We – as a class – produce more than enough wealth to create affordable, green, dignified housing for all and flourishing communities.
Alex Palmer, Manchester
Are you sick of there being one rule for the rich and powerful, and another for the rest of us? Send your ‘Them and Us’ submission to The Communist today!
