comment and analysis
From state provision to charity sector - the friendly face of privatisation
From the Bulgarian education system to the Bolivian water supply, capitalists love nothing more than turning an area of life previously financed by universal taxation into a source of profit.
The announcement that the government’s new get-tough-on-disabled-people regime will not be implemented by a government department is an indicator of a much wider process - the wholesale privatisation of public services in Britain. The ‘assessment’ of disabled people, care homes, employment and training services, the justice system; all are up for grabs.
The Bolkestein Directive: Social dumping and international challenges
The labour movement has found internationally, it seems, an issue around which to mobilize: the Directive on Services in the Internal Market, otherwise known as the Bolkestein Directive.
The directive, which would remove barriers to the provision of services between member states, is most often criticized for its “country of origin principle”.
'The crisis in working class representation' conference report
A report by libcom.org on the recent conference called by the RMT on the 'Crisis in Working Class Representation'.
This event was called at the last RMT conference to discuss the ‘crisis in working class representation’. This is definitely a real issue and problem, however the main problem was that for most who would be attracted to such an event, ‘working class representation’ means a 'workers party'.
Russian gas crisis boost for the nuclear lobby
The gas-dispute between Russia and Ukraine earlier this month has been a gift to the British nuclear industry, and could not have come at a better time for the pro-nuclear forces that are working over-time to secure a new generation of nuclear reactors across Britain.
In early January, Russia restricted the supply of gas to its neighbour Ukraine. The Russian state gas company, Gazprom, suddenly increased the price of gas Ukraine was paying from the heavily subsidized rate of $50 per 1,000 cubic metres to the market rate of some $230 per 1,000 cubic metres . Not surprisingly, Ukraine refused to pay.
Social change not climate change
The disastrous effects of global warming are being felt world-wide...
Rising sea levels are leading to floods and landslides, increasing storm activity is causing widespread death, homelessness, and destruction, and long and sustained droughts are severely damaging food production. Ultimately, millions will die, and there will be massive ecological destruction, if we do not act.
P-P-Privatising the underground, and 'opposition'
As London Underground (LU) workers strike once again, Daniel O’Rourke looks at Labour’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scheme which is largely behind the recent problems
New year's eve strike account here:
http://libcom.org/news/article.php/underground-new-year-strike-04012006
Racism, free speech and the college campus
As has been the case every year for as long as I can recall, an American college campus is once again embroiled in controversy over the expression of racism in its hallowed halls, and what it may seek to do in response.
This time the place is Bellarmine University, a Catholic college in Louisville, Kentucky, where, for the past several months, freshman Andrei Chira has been sporting an armband for "Blood and Honour"--a British-based neo-Nazi and skinhead-affiliated musical movement, that calls for "white pride" and white power.
Irish travellers scapegoated
Its power for the course for the mainstream media, politicians and their lackeys to make a career out of criminalisation and scapegoating of minorities.
In Ireland if a scapegoat is needed all too often Travellers are made to fit the bill.
New Labour goes nuclear
Just when you thought it could get no worse, New Labour goes nuclear.
The whispering campaign around the push for nuclear power has been gaining momentum since last year. Until then Britain’s nuclear programme seemed to have been largely written off as the costly and dangerous failure it was. Nobody even knows how to safely decommission the power stations already built or store the radioactive waste already produced.
Hong Kong Phooey - WTO conference ends with the usual promises
After its Hong Kong summit, at which thousands of people demonstrated and fought with riot police SchNEWS examines the differences between the WTO’s words and its practices.
“The rhetoric of the WTO [World Trade Organisation] may be free trade, but its key agreements promote corporate monopoly.” - Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South
