| Friday, June 08, 2001 |
GATS - investment in public services is all well and good but beware the poisoned chalice of privatisation
And so Bristolians. The election’s over and the party that many reluctantly voted for, wins again. Talk of investment in public services might bring a soft, melty feeling to warm even the thorniest of roses but read the small print and be afraid. Be very afraid.
Talk of reinventing public services with massive investment is tempered with the need, the BIG IDEA, to privatise everything because, of course, the private sector is more efficient, whatever that means.
But this is very sinister. What does the private sector want in return for its involvement? The simple answer, as ever, is cash and influence. Already in some London schools, children are being given resources with the logo of a large multi-national on it – Look! See how wonderful we are. We provide you with bags and books so our product must be worth consuming. Consume more, more, more – catch ‘em while they’re young and you have customer for life.
This is only the beginning. In order for big business to get involved, concessions have to be made. To make schools more efficient staff are cut, pension funds raided, policy and curriculum dictated (schools run by the private sector don’t have to deliver the national curriculum).
PFI (Private Finance Initiative) read die, die, die. Why do you think the private sector’s involved with running hospitals? Once the trust deeds wear out and the hospitals become wholly owned, no doubt people will be charged to stay there and for treatment, just like some glorified hotel. In fact, just like private health care now. Shareholders want to see profits so services will (are) suffer (ing) as financiers and not doctors and nurses make decisions.
If you think you’ve got a choice. Forget it. The driver behind this policy is not the Government, though they see nothing wrong with the idea. It’s a policy promoted by the World Trade Organisation (yes that one, of Seattle fame) that we, although we have had no say in the matter, have signed up to.
This body sets the rules for world trade. Their latest wheeze is GATS, - the General Agreement on Trade and Services. They want to open up all public sector services, wherever they are in the world, to competition, so that they can, in the logic of big business, be run more efficiently, unfettered by health and safety rules and without having to meet the needs of the neediest or protect the environment. If you think we’re stuffed, trying being in some piss-poor third world country where you are at least able to have free water and cheap health care. With GATS, despite being on life’s edge you’re now gonna have to pay for this.
Forget headline-grabbing protests like Seattle, important though they are in raising the issues. The policy is being discussed already, ongoing, behind closed doors. But we can stop it. The i’s haven’t been dotted and the t’s not crossed. We can still get the government to abandon this. Lobby your local councillor, TU, MP, MEP. Attend meetings, get the information. This is not a rehearsal. It’s real and it’s happening. It must be stopped. You, citizens of Bristol, can, must, stop it.
www.wdm.org.uk
www.digitalbristol.org – follow the link to politics then local MP’s
The Council – switchboard, 922 2000, to find out your local councillor and how to contact them
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