Privatisation Follow

Southampton council workers, threatened with the privatisation of their jobs, are to ballot for strike action.

Hillingdon Hospital's Accident & Emergency department is being privatised without the knowledge of local people.

Two thumping victories for council tenants underline the continuing political backlash against housing privatisation.

Over 280,000 members of the PCS civil service workers’ union are gearing up for a major battle in the new year over job cuts, pay restraint and privatisation.

For more than a generation workers have faced an onslaught on their jobs, wages, conditions and trade union rights. Privatisation and deregulation have been implemented by both Conservative and New Labour governments. The early 21st century has seen a rebirth of radicalism on a global scale. Now is the time for trade unionists to rebuild their organisations and recommit themselves to defend working peoples’ livelihoods and rights.

The central aim of Tony Blair’s education policy is the abolition of the state comprehensive system.Education privatisation was not a New Labour invention. Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government set in motion processes to create a new world of competition between schools.

Greek primary school teachers protested in Athens last week and began their sixth week on strike this Monday. They are fighting for better pay and for a decent education service. The strike is piling pressure on the Tory government, and linking up with other struggles against its plans for education. Secondary school teachers are striking for three days a week, other unions have taken action so their members could join teachers’ protests, and several universities have been occupied against privatisation plans. A mass rally was set for Athens this week after unions rejected government concessions.

In a victory against the government’s attempt to force through privatisation, tenants in Stirling have voted to stay with the council - with 68 percent voting against transferring their homes.

Letters

Campaigners against the privatisation of council housing in Swansea, South Wales, met last week to discuss their plans for activities when a transfer ballot begins later this year.

For a brief moment there was a whiff of the 1980s about the conference last week. There was a real sense of left against right as a motion against NHS privatisation passed with a big majority against furious opposition from the party’s leaders. 

John McDonnell spoke strongly at conference fringe meetings promoting policies against war and privatisation, and for workers’ rights.  He was not called to speak from the conference floor.