May Day 2020 will be strange; none of the fraternity of the marches, rallies and music. None of that great sense of togetherness across the entire labour movement.

But electronic rallies may even attract more people and be a way of getting a message across to an audience that has never actually been to one of our events.

The theme of the events is inequality at all levels.

Covid-19 is serious and has taken many lives. 

The World Health Organisation, now under attack from President Trump, first identified it as a novel virus in early January in Wuhan and issued a global alert. This was upgraded to a pandemic alert.

In Britain the government seemed unaware of how important the message was, did very little and did not even see how prepared Britain was for this kind of emergency.

The years of austerity had left our NHS working at 94 percent capacity, our care homes, mostly privately run, virtually full and over one million people waiting for social care of some sort. Our local authorities, whose budgets have been slashed by the austerity doctrine, were expected to cope as the crucial local element in dealing with an emergency.

From testing, to supplies of personal protective equipment to support for companies to survive or workers to survive be they self-employed or employed by others – the government has been found wanting.

Failure to procure test equipment and ventilators at the time of the WHO warning has cost time, and lives.

This was not an accident, as in the initial stages the government was engulfed by the theory of “herd immunity.” In its crudest form this allows a number to succumb to the disease and the survivors then develop a form of immunity. 

An anathema to all of us who believe that the function of health and public policy is to keep people alive.

The government finally realised they had to take action in the middle of March, after many, including football authorities, had already taken responsible action.

Even then they seemed unaware of the effects on people’s lives of shutdown and that our economy has a huge gig element that requires recognition and support.

Our then shadow chancellor John McDonnell placed huge demands on the government and supported trade-union demands for ensuring that the lockdown did not cause a huge loss of jobs.

John made the correct demands. Some were granted but I could not help thinking how different it would have been if he had been the chancellor with the social values he has, rather than Rishi Sunak.

The inequalities in our society have been laid bare by this crisis. Being told to work at home if you have reasonable house and garden is one thing. Being told to try and work at home in a tiny flat with a large family is very different. 

Being told to stay at home when you are rough-sleeping homeless is obviously a nonsense.

Whilst many councils have achieved wonders in getting emergency housing, it must not end when the Covid-19 crisis ends. If we can support people in work in a crisis, then we can as a normality. 

Companies are being offered loans to survive. Strange times when the people who condemned the Labour policies as unaffordable and damaging to the economy are now demanding that the public bail them out. 

We need our economy to survive and restart after Covid-19 but the terms must change. 

Richard Branson, from a Caribbean tax haven, demanding public support for his company is full of irony. 

Zarah Sultana’s brilliant parliamentary question to Dominic Raab urging him to follow Denmark’s lead and refuse emergency state aid to companies based in tax havens was sidestepped. 

They know the moral case is strong and the public, closely observing during lockdown, are aware.

Inequality in Britain, poor air quality in working-class communities, the work of black and minority ethnic communities in our care and health services and the disproportionate death rate are all exposed by this crisis.

Those workers who are now being treated as expendable need union support, the self-employed need to be unionised and our movement must recognise the nature of the economy that austerity and neoliberal economics has brought us. 

Across Europe the adherence to the WHO request to test as widely as possible has shown just how inadequate our government’s response has been. 

Germany has fewer deaths, Spain and Italy with very strong lockdown have appeared to make better progress. Calls to reopen schools and to end the lockdown are premature. We have to see a real improvement in hospital infection and death rates and in care homes first.

The heroes in this whole period are not the ministers responsible for the slow and laggardly government response but all the NHS and care workers, delivery and postal workers and those that keep our communities clean and safe.

Let us never hear another Home Secretary describe migrant care workers and cleaners as unskilled: they are the ones who keep us alive, not hedge-fund managers.

Across the world the health inequalities have been exposed as millions in poor countries, and for that matter in the US, are without any access to healthcare.

The challenge for the future is stark.

The world has been taught a sharp lesson that inequality affects everyone, that a virus can go anywhere and that the future can never be the same.

Our demands are for no return to austerity, proper investment and support for jobs and a green revolution so that the clean air and city birdsong of the lockdown don’t just become a memory, but our normal life in future.

May Day is international workers’ day, but also a day of peace.

Let us heed the words of UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres in calling for a global ceasefire in conflicts. Pouring weapons into Saudi Arabia makes the humanitarian disaster of Yemen even worse.

This May Day, on our calls and in our virtual rallies the message of equality, peace and justice has never been more vital.

Happy May Day!

Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North and former leader of the Labour Party.