Unity needed to tackle privatisation

by Democrat reporter

BRITAIN’S EXPERIENCE underlines the urgent need for the world’s trade union and progressive movements to stem the tide of privatisation, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said at the recent European Social Forum in London.

“Workers of the world unite – that simple phrase remains as relevant today as the day it was coined by Marx and Engels more than 150 years ago,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said at a seminar on resisting rail privatisation.

“You’d have thought that the fate of Britain’s railways would provide ample warning to keep railway services firmly in public hands

“But the privateers aren’t interested in services – they are interested in profits, and the European Union is hell-bent on forcing Europe’s railways open to competition on the same disastrous model.

“Privatisation has brought chaos, delay, communications breakdown, an industrial-relations nightmare and a dangerous downgrading of safety, but it has brought profits in abundance for the privateers – £10 billion worth so far.

“Britain’s public wants its railways in public hands, but Europe’s bosses don’t – they want to open up our railways to feed their hunger for profits, and they want railway workers to compete against each other for jobs.

“That means an attack on the jobs, pay and wages and conditions of railway workers, the axing of essential services deemed uneconomic, the theft of public subsidy and the erosion of safety standards.

“It’s no use looking to the proposed European constitution for salvation – it is part of the problem because it is designed to institutionalise the very privatisation we need to stop. And we aren’t going to win it by asking the bosses to be nice to us.

“We are going to win it by working together to fight back against the hard-faced capitalists who are out to bleed our public services dry.

“Globalisation of capital demands globalisation of trade unionism,” Bob Crow said.