It’s Our Community – Sheffield Festival Of Debate event, 16 February 2021

Sheffield Hallam Labour member and candidate for Crookes and Crosspool ward, Ruth Milsom, was an invited speaker at a quick-fire conference organised by the Centre for Welfare Reform and Yorkshire branch of the Socialist Health Association.

Ruth’s contribution was to summarise key points and common threads from a variety of speakers throughout the event, and to set out a vision for what social care in its very broadest sense could look like in Sheffield.

She commented, “Social care – in fact, society itself – struggles to flourish under Conservatism. So many people are overworked and exploited in their jobs; ordinarily there is little energy left for contributing to societal structures and peer support. But the Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on what is robbed from us by the exploitative culture of work imposed by neo-liberal capitalism.

“The huge and sudden surge of mutual aid – ‘neighbourliness’ – that emerged in the first lockdown period showed what is possible in terms of the capacity of humans to care for each other quite spontaneously, outside of governmental systems.

“It is my ambition to bring the living, breathing, creative notions of mutual aid and citizen-led care into the everyday practices of local government. One of my main motivations for seeking election to the council is to use my political voice to influence policies and outcomes that enable and empower people in every neighbourhood.”