NHS! (again)

NHS demo yesterday was a success with a good number of people from the Greens there. Well done to all those who helped with the Green Party placards: they were out in force on the day! Wish I could have helped with them too!

The following motion in support of the demonstration and against private involvement in the NHS was passed at the Green Left meeting on Saturday last week. I am not sure if it has been publicised since (having been somewhat out of the loop with e-mails, aside from during procrastination time, due to a heavy week on the wards trying to finish off my A&E module! – also the reason I haven’t blogged for a while):

“Green Left notes the attempts at increasing private involvement in the national health service. Recognizing that healthcare commissioning is to be tendered to private companies (including some with a bad reputation in the USA) and that implementation of the Darzi plan for polyclinics will probably involve some private sector companies, we affirm that this is against the public service ethos central to an ecosocialist future.

We strongly encourage involvement and support of the Keep Our NHS Public demonstration on Saturday November 3rd 2007.”

Anyway, best get back to work… Have a dissertation to write and wouldn’t mind getting a bit further on the new edition of Joel Kovel’s book.

DSEi

Two police officers at every platform of the DLR today. Lots of military figures from far away places (e.g., Canada) and lots of salespeople for weapons of mass (or minor) destruction. If only the police would spend as much effort looking after me and my family and friends. If only they would spend the time and effort looking after the people in the local area (Tower Hamlets, the borough has some of the highest crime rates in London). Perhaps they could spend the money on helping victims of domestic violence: Tower Hamlets has the second highest rate of domestic violence in London. The could even spend the time policing our roads to prevent car accidents.

Instead, as an insult to Londoners, Canary Wharf is aided by the police to host an ‘arms fair’ (what a euphemism). This island of wealth in one of the country’s poorest areas is a disgrace in itself: the land it is on is privately owned rather than looked after by the state: the owners can ask you to leave for no reason. Minutes away are 1960’s council estates and under-funded schools as well as roads which a council seems unable to keep clean. To fete military ‘top brass’ here so that they can buy more weapons for illegal wars in the middle east is truly wrong.

I am proud that the Mayor and our two London Green Party assembly members have spoken out against this travesty. Sometimes to Green Party feels like a small voice of sanity in a sea of (at worst)psychopathy and (at best) apathy.

A quick trip around the blogs today. Derek Wall and Sian Berry (the Green Party’s co-principal speakers) make a statement highlighting the social problems surrounding Microsoft’s replacement for Windows XP: Vista. Derek, I should add, is a supporter of open-source – an excellent way of breaking big business monopolies on production by working co-operatively and providing the products of work for the public to use and adapt for free.

Derek also makes some important comments stressing the Green Party’s support for the PCS union’s strike to save 100,000 jobs and preserve our public services.

Jim at The Daily (Maybe) comments about Brian Haw and the merits (or lack thereof) of making him a figurehead for the anti-war movement. I fully agree with his comments here, very well put!

=====================================

NHS Together is an alliance of trade unions working together (even the BMA is involved in this one!) to campaign for a better health service. They are arranging a national day of action on the 3rd March: look out for events in your area – new events are going up all the time.

It is about time we all took a stand, together, to put a stop to the government’s ride to greater and greater private involvement in the NHS. In terms anyone can understand: private companies have a responsibility to make money. This is their prime responsibility, not the well being of patients. Corporations don’t give a rats arse about patients- they are money making enterprises. Do we really want that kind of system running our NHS? Health care cannot be reduced to a simple monetary exchange: it is about something much more valuable than that!

Problems with your water?

The Guardian reports today (here) about how farms growing flowers to be sold in the EU are using water from rivers in Kenya that are already drastically depleted.  Well worth a read – another example of big transnationals damaging local, vital industries. I thought the article was well worth a read (perhaps alongside a viewing of The Corporation!).

Tiredness Kills

I am amazingly tired. All this running around the hospitals does take its toll! I’m quite excited about the hustings for male principal speaker of the Green Party being held tomorrow evening. It should be fun to see some fellow Greens and to hear the thoughts of prominent figures in the party. Unfortunately, so far, I havn’t really been involved with the party on any real level (aside from going to a couple of local party meetings back home).  I really wanted to go to conference this year, but alas the anti-war demonstration in Manchester was a higher priority for me personally – shame about the timing. Hopefully this year, I will get a chance to get a bit more involved (conference ‘07 might see me attend my first party conference…).

On the train home tonight, I was thinking about how hard it can be to reconcile wanting to be active on an immediate level and also wanting to press for a wholesale change in the current global system —> I write to my MP, I sign petitions, I try to buy a bit more ‘ethically’ (even if I do succumb sometimes and shop at… the shop that shall not be named(!)). At the same time, however, I believe that only real, structural change in the way we conduct our society will solve the problems that we face. A just, equitable, sustainable society is only possible if capital is not its driving force.

One could argue that by helping make capitalism more cuddly, one reduces the public awareness of its ills… One could argue, that by campaigning for change, one increases awareness of all the short-comings in society and helps make people more politically aware. Which is more true, what is the right thing to do??? Are the changes that we could achieve really beneficial if they fall short of a wholesale change in society? I sure hope so, even if they aren’t as good! Answers on a postcard please!

Next time, I will write something about my thoughts on so called ‘Green Taxes’.

Best Wishes,

studentmedic

Mandelson’s Corporate Agenda

Plagiarism again… this time from greenman:

Mandelson drops development guise and launches final attack on European Social Model

4 October 2006

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson will today announce a damaging new corporate-driven trade strategy, warn European activist groups and civil society organisations united in the Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B).

The EU’s external trade policy will undermine the European social model.
The EU’s insistence upon the “least trade-restrictive” regulations has
the potential to wipe out a wide range of policies, from food safety
standards to job security. Meanwhile, European and foreign corporations
are being given an ever greater say in Europe’s policy decision-making
process, through a system of prior consultations.

The European Commission’s aggressive new “competitiveness” drive also
threatens to cause mass unemployment and poverty in developing
countries, pitting their poor farmers and infant industries against some
of the world’s most powerful transnational corporations. Mandelson is
also attempting to re-introduce issues such as government procurement
and investment, repeatedly rejected by developing countries in world
trade talks.

The Seattle to Brussels (S2B) network, representing more than 70
activist groups, civil society organisations and networks from all over
Europe, condemns Mandelson’s initiative. If the European Union accepts
this vision, millions of poor farmers and workers both in Europe and in
the global South will lose their livelihoods, says Susan George, board
director of the Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute. By repackaging
issues that poor countries have already rejected, the EU is denying
developing countries the right to local business development.

S2B also firmly denounces the EU’s drive for internal restructuring in
the interest of trade facilitation. Marc Maes of 11.11.11 (Belgium)
said: By imposing least trade restrictive criteria, the EU is putting
the breakdown of regulation at the core of its external competitiveness
strategy. This will lead to increased hard-nosed competition,
flexibilisation and deregulation. It will also place severe limits upon
the capacity of governments to set their own social and environmental
protection policies.

Note to the editor:

The Seattle to Brussels (S2B) Network is a pan-European network
campaigning to challenge the corporate-driven agenda of the European
Union and other European governments for continued global trade and
investment liberalisation. The S2B Network is part of the global
coalition Our World is Not for Sale.

http://www.ourworldisnotforsale.org
http://www.s2bnetwork.org