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Our Health, our Care, our Say? You must be Joking

You must be Joking: reports and comment from the health and social care frontline

Putting Profits First

In the last couple of years, the Government has announced far-reaching plans to radically transform the way in which social care is delivered to vulnerable members of our community. With the Our Health, Our Care, Our Say White Paper and “Putting People First”, plans to massively extend the use of individualised budgets and self-directed support schemes have been outlined.

So what does this mean in practice? And what are the implications for both service users and their carers?

Credit Crunches and Capitalist Calamities

Just when you think the credit crunch may be past the worse, along comes another bank, or two, or three, going bust and the financial system is thrown yet again into crisis. And as each crisis hits, governments rush in with our billions, to keep the whole financial sector from collapse.

So much for all that crap preached for years about the need for market discipline under which uneconomic companies are allowed to go to the wall. It would seem that the iron laws of the free market only apply to coal mines. The banks are allowed to play by another set of free market rules, in which the well connected are allowed to make billions from corrupt deals, then when it all starts to fall apart, we pay the price with rising unemployment, falling living standards and repossessions. In the words of the old song, it’s the rich who get the pleasure and the poor who get the blame.

Have your say: Union Busters

Dear DA,

There’s a new threat to workers organisation stalking the British labour relations scene. Employers are increasingly turning to U.S. style management consultants that “specialise in union avoidance and preventative industrial labour relations”. At least, that’s how the Burke Group describes itself. The Omega Division, an arm of Burke, was last year called in by Lion Capital, owner of Kettle Foods, in its attempt to prevent the T&G/ Unite from organising workers at its Norwich plant. The Burke Group has also been consulted by T-mobile and Virgin Atlantic.

Financial Crisis: What Happened? What Next?

Dear DA,

Even without really understanding the current “financial 9/11”, one can pick up a sense of fear, panic and uncertainty.

Blame for the crisis is attributed to “greed and fear”…or insufficient regulation…or too high bonuses paid to financial whizz kids…or irresponsible lenders pushing cheap loans…or irresponsible individuals accepting them…and so on.

But the crisis also needs a deeper structural analysis of how financial markets have changed over the past 2-3 decades – because it is these changes that lie behind the current financial meltdown, particularly those changes associated with “new financial instruments” and “vehicles” such as derivatives and private equity.

Have your say: The Shape of Things to Come

Dear DA,

The EU is currently developing a new 5 year strategy for justice and home affairs and security policy for 2009-2014. The proposals set out by the shadowy “Future Group” set up by the Council of the European Union include a range of highly controversial measures including new technologies of surveillance, enhanced cooperation with the United States and harnessing the “digital tsunami”. In the words of the EU Council presidency:

Every object the individual uses, every transaction they make and almost everywhere they go will create a detailed digital record. This will generate a wealth of information for public security organisations, and create huge opportunities for more effective and productive public security efforts.

Have your say: The Shock Doctrine

Dear DA,

I just wanted to thank your reviewer in DA43 for turning me on to Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. I couldn’t agree more with the comment that “the sheer scale of abuses detailed…is simply jaw-dropping”. For one who felt hardened to the ways of the capitalist world, this account of sheer cynicism, corruption, double standards and outright lies was still something of an eye opener.

Privatising Profits, Socialising Losses

Free market theory argues that hedge funds,…currency speculation, private equity firms and the other obscene money making machines are somehow vital to…the economy…. [This] is a joke. They contribute nothing…and are merely a means by which the super-rich get even richer. Real economic wealth is created by the working class who…create the goods and services that are vital to society…

(from Hedging their Bets, DA39 summer 2007)

Almost totally lacking in regulation – that is, until the recent “stable door bolting” emergency restrictions against “short selling” and betting on declines in financial markets – hedge funds and their ilk have constantly moved trillions of dollars around the globe searching for ever higher returns and leaving economic chaos in their wake. And so it has proven yet again.

Catalyst #25 is out !

The new Catalyst is out. In this issue:

Actions speaks louder: Did the trashing of Tory HQ at Millbank in November mark the start of a militant anti-cuts movment?
Direct Action: Centrefold poster to pull-out and keep - or decorate your local occupation with!
Housing benefit cuts spark poverty fears: We interview a claimant.
'All joined up': An interview with a French teacher who participated in the general strike and economic blockades there.
Pensions under threat: Divide and rule game looks set to undermine both public and private sector workers' pensions.
Know Your Rights: A brief guide to the law around Redundancy

Direct Action

"Direct Action is a notion of such clarity, of such self-evident transparency, that merely to speak the words defines and explains them. It means that the working class, in constant rebellion against the existing state of affairs, expects nothing from outside people, powers or forces, but rather creates its own conditions of struggle and looks to itself for its means of action." - Emile Pouget

What is it?

Comment & Opinion: Time to act

Class matters in Britain today. It always has, but for a long time the media and politicians have pretended that the real divisions in this country are among those who work or are on benefits. I disagree and instead hold that the real differences are between those who own and control the economy and those of us who don’t. Put it like this: the country is run in the interests of that tiny elite. The public face of that elite are often politicians, whose parties claim to be different but actually share more than they differ. We had thirteen years of Labour government, acting in the interests of that elite, despite their rhetoric. Who did well? Bankers and financiers, property developers, management consultants, PFI owners. Who didn’t? Almost everyone else, particularly if they didn’t benefit from rising house prices.

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