Privatisation Follow

PORTERS AND domestic staff at North Manchester General Hospital are balloting for strike action over pay. They are employed by multinational ISS Mediclean, which is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the creeping privatisation of the NHS.

PRIVATISATION, LOW pay and job cuts are provoking resistance across Europe. The last week has seen a rash of strikes and protest.

"Stop privatisation". "No war in South Asia". "Dalit untouchable rights". "Debt domination is human rights violation". "Power to the people". "Another world is possible". "Free Palestine". "A socialist world is possible".

THERE IS a message of hope for all those who want an end to war, privatisation and racism in the new year.

A MAJOR attempt to privatise oil in Uruguay has been defeated in a national referendum. On 7 December some 62 percent of electors, 1.2 million people, voted against the privatisation of the state oil company.

"All over the world this year, we are seeing the same phenomenon of electorates waiting, bewildered or furious for their own leaders to catch up with them, and trying to understand the mystery of their refusal."

ABOUT 1,600 council tenants in TOLLINGTON, north Islington, have voted against the privatisation of their homes.

TUBE WORKERS were set to strike a blow for safety and against privatisation with a two-day go-slow next week.

THE TORY candidate for London mayor, Steven Norris, is taking over as chairman of Jarvis, one of the top firms to benefit from privatisation. Jarvis faces an investigation into its maintenance of the rails at Potters Bar, scene of a fatal crash last year.

A DETERMINED campaign and the threat of industrial action has defeated an attempted partial privatisation of services at Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. Unison branch chair Tony Wilson told Socialist Worker that the important campaign had lasted two and a half years.

TUBE WORKERS across all grades are to begin taking industrial action in a battle to restore safety standards following the imposition of the PPP privatisation scheme. The RMT union last week announced that 81 percent of its members had voted for industrial action and 55 percent for strikes over safety.

AROUND A third of the undergraduates at King's College, Cambridge University, are expected to withhold their rent. This is despite the scare tactics used by the head of the college (who stood as a Tory in the 1997 parliamentary elections) and the college bursar (who was a key figure in the privatisation of the railways).