April 2003
Issue No. 355
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The Great Privatization Grab
Like modern-day pirates, marauding corporations are hijacking our public services – while governments turn a blind eye. Wayne Ellwood debunks the privatization myth.

I shop, therefore I am
Has the narcissism of the market destroyed our sense of collective identity? Psychiatrist Trevor Turner argues that a preoccupation with self has spawned a new syndrome: malignant self-actualization.

The 'B' word
So if privatization doesn’t work, what then? David Hall takes a stab at redesigning the public sector.

Privatization - the facts

Bad Medicine
Britain’s vaunted National Health Service is reeling, hammered by lack of funding and government bumbling. But privatizing the system is not the answer, argues Allyson Pollock. GATS Attacks!

Gats Attacks
Evil invaders from another planet blast our precious public services. Illustration by Polyp.

The new apartheid
South Africa’s trade unions loudly oppose the Government’s sell-off of basic services. But the ANC isn’t listening, warns Patrick Bond.

Power splurge
Cronyism is alive and well and living in the Philippines. Maitet Diokno-Pascual looks at how privatized electricity has taken consumers for a ride.

Crime Pays
Well, it does if you run the prison. Amanda George describes the opposition to profitable punishment in Australia.

No pain, all gain
Mark Engler sheds some light on the murky world of export credit agencies.

Bankbusters
The boycott of World Bank bonds is spreading, writes Mihail Dafydd Evans.

Norse crossroads
A nationwide movement to defend the welfare state is taking off in Norway, reports Asbjørn Wahl.

News, views, and & voices

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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR

I DON'T want to hear any more of that dreary, self-serving litany from the business press and from our political masters. 'Sorry, there's no more money. We simply can't afford to fund the education / healthcare / social- welfare system / whatever-public-service-you-want-to-name. We've got the deficit to worry about. And the debt. We're going to have to cut back, allow the private sector to work its magic.'

Uh, uh... and while we're waiting for the market to do its thing? Teachers and nurses are stressed; schools are squeezed; hospitals are forced to their knees; public libraries have to fundraise; parks are festooned with litter; public transport is ignored; public housing shelved; government regulatory agencies are gutted. All this amidst tax cuts for the rich, corporate corruption and obscene salaries for business executives.

The iconoclastic economist John Kenneth Galbraith got it just about right in the 1960s when he documented a postwar world increasingly riven by 'private wealth and public squalor'. Galbraith was no raving Marxist (he was a Kennedy-era liberal) but he understood that in a society where wealth accumulates in the hands of the few the notion of equality before the market is a joke.

Defame it, defund it, privatize it. That's been the formula around the world. Create a new market and sell those services back to who can afford them - and disenfranchise the rest.

It's highway robbery. Time to say loudly and clearly: bullshit.

Wayne Ellwood
for the New Internationalist Co-operative
waynee@newint.org

Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe

The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.

Raised Voices video:

Atossa Soltani from Brazil on the Climate Change

Desmond Desai from South Africa on Corporate Power

Iranian women speak out

3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.

Raised Voices audio:

Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power

Vinayan from India on agriculture