Privatisation

Defending Labor Rights in Haiti

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By Ben Terrall - HaitiAnalysis.com

New legislation in Washington D.C., under the acronym H.O.P.E. – short for “ the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act,” has the goal of promoting the garment industry in Haiti. But the legislation falls noticeably short in protecting labor rights or promoting long-term sustainable economic development that will benefit the poor as well as the rich.

QANTAS and the spivs

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Bryan Sketchley
A consortium of investors (APA) wanted 100% Qantas so they could take it private. If they manage to acquire 90% of shares, they can compulsorily acquire the rest of the shares. If the buy out is successful then the assets directly secure the lenders money and they can do their asset stripping away from public scrutiny.

Joining The Dots of a Confused Picture

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I found reading the latest edition of Solidarity a bit confusing, like one of those Dot to Dot puzzles, where the picture only emerges if you connect the dots in the right order.

On Page 2 there is an article about the strike at NHS, Logistics, on Page 3/4 a lengthy article on “Can the Labour Party be Reclaimed?”, on Page 5 an article on the Left at Labour’s Conference, and another on Unions (and actually CLP’s) voting down Blair at Conference, on Page 8 an article attacking Brown’s hypocrisy, on Page 12 an article on the Cuban Revolution, on Page 14 a strange article entitled “Democracy and the Workers Movement”, on Page 18 an article attacking Socialist Action for their failure to attack Livingstone’s privatisation proposals, and finally on the back page a call for support for John McDonnell. All of these constituted the dots, but instead of looking at them and seeing a clear picture what came across to me was confusion and in some cases contradiction.

NHS Logistics workers: strike against privatisation

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By AWL health workers

In a magnificent show of defiance over the last two weeks, hundreds of NHS workers in the supply service NHS Logistics have taken the first national strike action in the NHS for 18 years. The one-day strikes mark an end to the “phony war” between the unions and the Government over NHS privatisation, and could spark a national fightback against the selling off of the NHS.

Pensioner Wins GP Privatisation Battle at Court of Appeal

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The press release below contains good news indeed - a spoke firmly in the wheel of the government's ridiculous and dangerous plans to allow profiteering private companies to run GP surgeries.

I generally try not to be the annoying person who rains on every parade, but it would be irresponsible not to sound a note of caution about relying too much on the courts. This victory means that the Trust has to start the tendering process again - but I can think of no legal obstacle to it simply doing that, paying a bit more attention to doing it by the book, running a consultation but ignoring the responses and going ahead with the privatisation anyway.