Coronavirus, Class and Mutual Aid in the United Kingdom

This book considers how the UK government’s response to the recent COVID-19 pandemic disadvantages the working class, and how mutual aid, based on anarchist principles, can be used as a force for social change.

The authors draw on Marxist and anarchist thought in class theory and social movement analysis to demonstrate that the virus and its material and discursive consequences are an active part of continuing class struggle and class interpolation. Preston and Firth examine how plans for quarantine and social isolation systematically work against the needs of the working class, and rely on classed assumptions about how markets and altruism operate.

In the face of neoliberal methods of dealing with a pandemic, ranging from marketization, disaster capitalism, to a strengthening of the State, Coronavirus, Class and Mutual Aid in the United Kingdom explains how radical alternatives such as social movements and mutual aid can be implemented to better cope with current and future crises.

• class struggle
• Marxism
• anarchism
• Repressive State Apparatus
• COVID-19
• social movements
• Disaster capitalism

“This is an amazing and important book: a devastatingly hard-hitting, ripping open, of capitalism and coronavirus, an incredibly well researched indictment of the `viracene’ stage/ aspect of disaster capitalism. This is a major contribution to political theory and analysis, and a guide to action and resistance.” — Dave Hill, Emeritus Professor at Anglia Ruskin University, UK, Visiting Professor at the Kapodistrian and National University of Athens, Greece; Chief Editor, Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies

 “Couldn't be timelier. A path-breaking book that provides a compelling new take on Covid and politics framed by a skilful synthesis of Marxism and anarchism, one that will be relevant long after this pandemic. The book is a tour de force!” —Alpesh Maisuria, Associate Professor, University of the West England, UK

"A crucial and timely intervention as state and capital intervene in the Covid-19 pandemic to consolidate their grasp. Preston and Firth show how Marxist and anarchist frameworks can and must be complimentary in our analyses and resistance to power." — Erica Lagalisse, Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics, UK

• Department of Sociology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

  John Preston, Rhiannon Firth