Illness As A Money Making Machine.

      The NHS as a corporate experiment, a chance to see how best to turn it into a money making corporate giant. That's what this government is doing, of course it is under the dictate of the financial Mafia. Though it is driven by the international Financial Mafia, we can still put a spoke in their wheel by making it impossible for the government to go ahead with this money from suffering experiment.

This from Sum Of Us:

    We knew privatising the NHS wouldn’t work -- and lots of other people said so too. But the government and the big health corporations wouldn’t listen. Now we’re the ones paying the consequences.
    Circle Holdings, the first private healthcare operator to take over an NHS hospital trust, has announced it’s pulling out of its ten-year contract. It says its franchise is ‘no longer viable under current terms’. We know what that means: it’s no longer making money.     It’s bad enough that a dearly needed hospital’s future is in jeopardy because of a misguided privatisation gamble. But the truth is much more grisly: the bosses installed by the private operator bullied staff and created a ‘blame culture.’ Circle pitted doctors against doctors and was allegedly willing to ensure local GPs incurred financial losses as long as it meant the corporation continued to make a profit. It’s time to stand up for our hospitals.

Tell our government to stop breaking up our health service and protect the NHS.
    This is a glimpse into our future: private corporations managing hospitals based on what will be most profitable, rather than what will deliver the best care to patients. And, when the arrangement inevitably collapses, it’s the British people that will be left to pick up the pieces -- and pay the bill.      The only way to save the NHS is to fund it properly -- that’s what doctors want, it’s what patients want, and it’s what everyone wants. The only ones who don’t want it are free-market ideologues who think that privatisation is a magic bullet that can save hospitals that are underfunded and understaffed.

Well, now we know that’s simply not true.
Defend the our health service and tell David Cameron to stop privatising the NHS.
Thanks for all that you do,
Martin, Katherine, and the rest of the SumOfUs team

More information:

Hinchingbrooke Hospital: Circle to withdraw from contract, BBC, January 9, 2015 
Battle with GPs led to Circle’s retreat from Hinchingbrooke hospital, The Guardian, January 9, 2015
Hinchingbrooke staff in CQC 'abuse' concerns 'fear bosses', BBC, September 29, 2014 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A SIGNIFICANT STRIKE!!

        

       The following post is taken from Landsbury's Lido, and it goes some way to show the extent of anger and disgust that is smoldering among the ordinary people of this country. We have students protesting in most of the cities of this country, we have bank occupations happening with ever increasing regularity across the country, there are universities being occupied. The present millionaires' cabal that is intent on pursuing their ideological slash and burn policies are expecting unrest and no doubt are prepared for these events. What we have to do is raise the bar,  students and  small groups of "Citizens United" will not win this fight on their own. It is up to all of us across the social spectrum, working, unemployed, pensioners, students to get their heads together and work on a united front. Pockets of protest can be contained, mass protests of all those in this society that will be hurt by these policies, cannot be. If we hope to win this fight, and we must, then organised solidarity is the way, not on single issues, the issues are all conected, this is a fight to destroy the corporate/financial take over of all aspects of our lives. We want a society that sees to the needs of those in that society, not one that sees to the desires of a bunch of parasitical millionaire shareholders.

The Post:  

        "When I was working for the MOD my union was the Institute of Professional Civil Servants or IPCS for short. Despite the name it was a proper union, affiliated to the TUC and all that. Hardly a bolshy union though, and in my time I think we had one strike call, which was voted against.

       This union has now developed into the union called Prospect which is now overseeing the first ever walkout from the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at their Aldermaston, Burghfield and associated sites.

        Of course the running of the AWE is now in the hands of private contractors, as is the fate of virtually all of the UKs defence work. It seems that the employees are a bit peeved at being offered a sub 2% wage increase. And not surprising since there has at the same time been increased payments to the AWE board and also to the level of dividends being paid to its controlling companies. There's more cash for the top management and also for the shareholders, but the workers who generate that wealth? Sod all. Of course this just highlights the hypocrisy of the siren voices claiming that 'wereallinthistogether'.

      The government would do well to heed this latest outbreak of industrial dispute. When strikes are called in these establishments then it doesn't bode well for industrial relations in the wider country."

     

       A moderate voice that can sense the underlying anger, frustration and disgust that will eventually explode in the faces of our millionaire overlords at the Westminster House of Hypocrisy and Corruption.

ann arky's home.

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!!!!

       

      The following is a letter written to Indymedia Scotland and the reason I have posted it here is that I fully agree with the writer's sentiments. The student movement should not fight in isolation hoping to sort out something on education cuts. To quote the millionaire twins, "we are all in this together", the fight is a matter of self defence for the whole of society, excluding the millionaire parasites who at this moment in time are calling the shots. The ideology that is being forced onto the ordinary people of this country affects everybody, workers, students, unemployed, claimants, pensioners, the sick, those with mental health problems, housewives, single parents, couples and children. These groups should not be left alone to fight their own battles, like the letter says, the state is powerful, has limitless resources at its disposal and will pick the groups off one at a time. It is only through linking up and working in co-operation across the full spectrum of society with true solidarity can we win this fight. It is a defining battle, if the ordinary people lose there will be a totally corporate society, a society with no social welfare, everything provided by the private sector, at a price, and if you can't afford the price then it will be an appeal to a charity. We will have become a society of profit providers for the corporate world with no say in the shape our society takes. On the other hand, if we win, we can start to create a society that will see to the needs of all our people, a society built on the simple principles of mutual aid, voluntary co-operation and free association based on sustainability. We can create a society that frees all its members from the fear of deprivation. However, it will take courage, co-operation and organised solidarity. We can draw on lessons from some of our victorious battles of the past, to mention two, the 1915 Clydeside rent strike and the 1980's poll tax struggle. Solidarity and direct action was the key in both these victories. 

More on Glasgow working class history, HERE.

Dear Student Anti-Cuts Protesters,

       Thank you. You are an inspiration. You have lit the blue touch paper. But now is not the time to stand back. I was proud to be part of the tremendously successful Edinburgh University-led protest and occupation yesterday. There was a huge turn-out for an Edinburgh protest, and the sudden occupation of the university took everyone by surprise. I am not a student: I'm currently a benefits claimant, and was marching with the Edinburgh Campaign Against Poverty. One of the reasons I am most proud of the Edinburgh protest is that it made an active effort to work in solidarity with workers, benefits claimants, and all others affected by the cuts. As in London, we were all also delighted and impressed by the number of school students who came too. This is an aspect a number of the University anti-cuts campaigns are missing, and that's what I'm writing to you about now.

         Your struggle is not isolated. You are not alone. All those affected by the cuts – workers, claimants, families, everyone – should be proud of you and impressed by you, because you have with rage and love and energy led the charge against these repressive and unnecessary cuts. Workers are being betrayed by the TUC just as students are being betrayed by the NUS: currently so many in Britain are waiting and hoping for organisations to work for cross-class struggle against the cuts. You can contribute to that.

        This government, for all its flimsy rhetoric, is incredibly powerful. States are powerful. You do not win a fight against a state, with all its apparatus of power – from police who beat us up to teachers who punish schoolchildren for their brave protest “truancy” – unless you work across social groups, across classes, in solidarity with the huge diversity of people who are struggling with this government.

       University student protesters, you are privileged. Many, if not most you, have far more financial freedom and time than many affected by the cuts (though certainly you will suffer terribly from them); many of you are white, or male, or have other markers of privilege. It is easier for you to protest and occupy than it is for many, because you will face less repression and have more freedom, and so you have a responsibility to use that power for others.

       So do not let your struggle against fees be compartmentalised. Do not let the anti-cuts fight be divided. Go out and meet with trade unions, with workers and their councils, with disability and LGBTQ rights groups, with women's groups, with those fighting for their benefits, with everyone who is affected by the cuts. None of us will win alone. Together, we can. Do not be parochial. Do not let your struggle be the only reported struggle, and do not waste the power you have.

       This is not to say that you must come and rescue the struggling poor or oppressed minorities. That would perpetuate structures of privilege and oppression. What I am saying is that you are organised, and that you are starting to be heard, and that all the other organised groups who have to struggle harder to be heard need you to work for them.

      Be strong. Use your privilege. Extend your fight. Make it stronger. Show solidarity – but also be active in your solidarity. I say this without pretension or apology for sincerity: your country needs you.

     This letter has been written quickly and not gracefully. It is propaganda. It is flawed. I am currently too busy working and fighting to spend much time writing the philosophical arguments and journalistic analyses. But you can find those elsewhere and I will link to as many as I can find as soon as I can; there are people struggling and writing on all fronts. I am not the only voice telling you this. I am not the only voice asking for your help.

We are already together. We are already strong. Onwards!

ann arky's home.