privatisation
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PostNord shows us why we must fight for the concept of public services
PostNord’s decision to stop delivering letters after 400 years will be seen as the inevitable consequence of technological change. Instead we should see it as the withdrawal of a public service, an example of what may be down the line for other countries, including ours. Continue reading
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Thames Water ‘rewarded for years of mismanagement’ with £3bn emergency loan
THAMES WATER’S £3 billion bailout was approved by the High Court today, triggering outrage as campaigners warned of higher bills from sky-high interest payments. Continue reading
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Ukraine: War Within the War: The Fight Over Land and Genetically Engineered Agriculture
Ten months before Russian troops poured into Ukraine, that country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a bill into law authorizing the private sale of farmland, reversing a moratorium that had been in place since 2001. Continue reading
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Help stop the great British public space sell-off
TREASURED PUBLIC SPACES ACROSS THE UK ARE BEING SOLD OFF AND LOST TO PRIVATE INTERESTS AT AN ALARMING RATE. Now one community in Shropshire is going all the way to the Supreme Court to fight this – and to defend all of our public interest in our beloved green spaces. Continue reading
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Resisting Water Privatization in Europe: Key Reasons for Success
In the wake of the global financial crisis, water services have come under renewed neoliberal assault across Europe. At the same time, the struggle against water privatization has continued to pick up pace; from the re-municipalization of water in Grenoble in 2000, to the United Nations declaration of water as a human right in 2010. Continue reading
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IMF and debt: a new consensus?
There is much talk among ‘progressive’ economists that the IMF and the World Bank have turned over a new leaf. Gone are the days of supporting fiscal austerity, demanding that national governments get public debt levels down and insisting on conditions for countries borrowing IMF-WB funds that their governments privatise their state assets, deregulate markets… Continue reading
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COVID-19: Greed Drove Big Pharma Companies to Privatize Vaccines
29 March, 2021 — Consortium News – Common Dreams The AstraZeneca jab was actually developed by scientists from a publicly-funded institution, writes Nick Dearden in a retort to comments by Boris Johnson. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shows proof of getting Oxford–AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine on March 19. (Andrew Parsons, No 10 Downing Street, Flickr) By Nick Dearden Common Continue reading
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Modi’s Farm Produce Act Was Authored Thirty Years Ago, in Washington D.C.
The kisan agitation at the gates of Fortress Delhi has forced even the corporate media to take note of the corporate drive to capture control of the remaining non-corporate sectors of the country’s economy, including its agriculture; the phrase “Ambani-Adani” is now a popular term for this process. Continue reading
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Britain’s government – entangled in its own corruption
TruePublica: Thatcherism, as it is known, was made of up of principles comprising economic, social and political ideals that described the Conservative Party that undoubtedly shaped Britain for nearly fifty years. The economic policies that came with Thatcherism really amounted to little more than deregulation. It was and still is a total rejection of the… Continue reading
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Italy and UK rely on help from Cuba, China, Venezuela to fight coronavirus – as US steps up brutal sanctions
Italy requested doctors from China, Cuba, and Venezuela to contain the coronavirus, while Cuba rescued a ship of British citizens. Meanwhile, US sanctions worsen the toll of the Covid-19 crisis in Iran and Venezuela. Continue reading
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Gangster Capitalism
By Robert Woodward – TruePublica: There are some standout failures of the privatisation model in Britain that was sold to the public as some sort panacea to all the failings of state-owned assets. Since 2010, more state-owned assets have been sold since the 1930s – where £1trillion of national wealth has been handed over to… Continue reading
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Revealed: The thousands of public spaces sold by cash-strapped councils
In a major collaboration involving dozens of reporters around the country and a week of stories with Huff Post UK, the Bureau revealed the true scale of the local government funding crisis. It has become so dire that councils are being forced to sell thousands of public spaces, such as libraries, community centres and playgrounds -… Continue reading
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Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan plans to demolish 8,000 council homes By Charles Hixson
Residents in working class housing estates are organising in opposition to the Labour Party mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s proposed social cleansing “regeneration” schemes. Continue reading
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Macron impeachment mooted as more French ministers resign By Francis Dubois
Two months after the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT) called an end to strikes against French President Emmanuel Macron’s rail privatization plan, ministers are deserting the government. The cabinet and Macron’s party, The Republic on the March (LRM), are disintegrating and powerful sections of the bourgeoisie are openly debating mechanisms to remove Macron and… Continue reading
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Industrializing Class War By William Bowles
Have you noticed that it’s no longer PC Dixon of Dock Green who mediates the relationship between the state and its citizens as he goes about his beat in your neighbourhood? Instead, it’s a Kevlar-armoured, video-monitored, taser-equipped, drone-surveilled, spit-masked supplied soldier, straight out of Star Wars, who now staggers along under the weight of an… Continue reading
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Video: Haringey Council Vote Through £2BN Public Asset Deal with Lendlease
London’s Haringey Council voted to approve a £2 billion sell-off of public assets to the notorious private developer Lendlease despite overwhelming opposition from the community Continue reading
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Last Chance to Stop the Privatisation of the National Discrimination Helpline
The government wants to privatise a national discrimination helpline – and hand it over to G4S. Anti-discrimination groups have launched a legal challenge to stop them. A judge decides tomorrow on whether that challenge can go ahead. Continue reading
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This Guardian Piece Touting Bill Gates' Education Investment Brought to You by… Bill Gates
What the piece failed to note—other than the fact that Rhee’s tenure left DC’s schools “worse by almost every conceivable measure” (Truthout, 10/23/13)—is that multi-billionaire Bill Gates is both the major investor of the company administering the Liberian education overhaul and the principal of the Gates Foundation, sponsor of the Guardian’s Global Development vertical, where… Continue reading
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Reversing The Tide: Cities And Countries Are Rebelling Against Water Privatization, And Winning By Tom Lawson
Problems with water privatization often begin to occur soon after the initial wave of enthusiasm – from lack of infrastructure investment to environmental neglect. A 2005 study by the World Bank said that overall evidence suggests “there is no statistically significant difference between the efficiency performance of public and private operators in this sector.” The… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 