privatisation
Privatising the post: too much, too late
Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt details the turbulent history of government attempts to sell off the postal service and how consultants conspired to present public sector looting as sheer imperative.
While the government may have shelved plans to privatise the Royal Mail, the self-affirming logic of neoliberalism that informed the plans persists. Published in mid-July 2009, this article provides useful background to the 2009 postal strikes.
State Capitalism in Britain
Despite the State being the main investor in the UK's national economy, the official rhetoric of private sector productivity is alive and well. James Heartfield takes a look at New Labour's failed strategy of privatising public services and the rise of ‘corporate welfare'
Two very contradictory stories about British capitalism are told today. The first is that the State is eating up more and more of the private sector. The sudden increase of public shares in the major banks and the falling of the railways into receivership is evidence of a return to the nationalisations of the 1970s.
Peiraeus dockworkers resume strikes
Peiraeus dockworkers have resumed striking against the sell out of the largest pier of Greece's main harbour to COSCO after negotiations collapse.
The Peiraeus dockworkers of Pier II of Greece's main commercial harbour have called a 48h strike starting Tuesday 3 November, thus resuming the industrial action that had seen sea commerce freeze for more than two weeks in early October.
Sticky fingers: KPMG and the accountancy oligopoly
Following their involvement in the bankruptcy of car parts manufacturer Visteon, John Barker examines KPMG and the murky world of the "big four" accountancy firms.
Peiraeus dockworkers strike strong despite political and international pressure
The strike of 1.500 dockworkers holds strong in Peiraeus despite rising political pressure from the Socialist government and the Chinese Embassy.
The dockworkers' strike in Peiraeus, Greece's largest harbour, is on its 15th day and has been extended until Sunday 18 October, bringing the newly sworn Socialist government of Greece to the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Military and federal police bust Mexican electrical workers' union
Late on Saturday night, around 6,000 Mexican police occupied the various sites of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, central Mexico's state-run electricity company. Immediately following the occupation, President Felipe Calderón issued notice of the company's liquidation, with the termination of some 44,000 jobs.
In the middle of the night last Saturday, President Felipe Calderon sent six thousand soldiers and militarized Federal Police to take over state power company Luz y Fuerza installations in Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Puebla, Morelos, and Hidalgo. Immediately following the takeover, Calderon issued an executive order closing Luz y Fuerza.
Peiraeus blocked as dockworkers strike against privatisation enters 12th day
Peiraeus, the central commercial harbour of Greece remains blocked as dockworkers decided to continue their strike against privatisation by another 48h. More than 215.000 tons of merchandise is stocking up in the harbour while 12.000 containers remain in boats waiting to be unloaded.
The dockworkers of Peiraeus, the largest harbour of Greece, adjacent to Athens, have decided to continue their strike which has caused all sea-related commercial activities to freeze. The strike began on the first of October when the lease of the harbour, which is state-owned, to the Chinize giant COSCO, was officially activated.
Homicide as a weapon of the weak in postsocialist China: some recent incidents
Report on the struggle of Guixi Co-op workers in Chengdu against the cooperative equivalent to a management buyout. Reflections on the use of homicide - or the threat of homicide - as a weapon of the weak over the past few years in China.
After writing this a few days ago I learned about a more recent incident where the implicit threat of homicide was effectively used by workers to win a battle against retrenchment: Yesterday (August 16), the provincial government of Henan stepped in to block the sale of state-owned Linzhou Iron & Steel to a private company after workers captured a government negotiator and held him hostage for
On the US row over private versus "socialised" healthcare
The Anarchist Federation analyses the ongoing debate in the United States over controversial plans for health care reform.
The noisy, controversial and increasingly confrontational ‘debate’ in the USA over the Obama administration’s proposed healthcare reforms has received a good deal of attention in the UK, especially after a series of speeches, articles, email circulars and TV ads began making outlandish claims about both the contents of the proposals and the UK NHS, which is supposedly about to be emulated in the
Chinese workers beat capitalist to death
Workers afraid of privatization beat investor to death.
Thousands of angry steel workers clashed with police during demonstrations against the takeover of their company.
