By Stewart Player and Colin Leys, Merlin Press,
2008.

This book is written in the classic muck-raking style. But
then, there’s a great deal of muck to be raked. It deals with the introduction
of Independent Sector Treatment Centres into the NHS. ISTCs are capitalist
firms operating for profit. It was a New Labour brainwave for them to be given
NHS surgical procedures to perform. The argument was that harnessing the
private sector would help do away with the horribly long hospital waiting lists
left after 18 years of Tory penny pinching.

The
strike was as good as any I have previously been involved in, with better media
coverage. The photos on the UNISON
website (www.unison.org.uk)
show some of the pickets and demonstrations around the country. Support in the South West stood out to me –
given we are always told it is just the North and London where things are
effective – a demo of 1,000 in Exeter, and on the beach in Torquay.

Contrary to the earlier expectations of most activists
in Wales, the strike was a huge success. Wales as a region had the most
successful turnout and the action had a larger effect. Whilst we did lose
hundreds of members, we actually gained more, and those were members who joined
IN ORDER TO strike. Many GMB members refused to cross picket lines and a good
few joined UNISON as a result of their union’s position. 

A rally and march called
by Cambridge Trades Union Council in support of the UNISON two-day strike
action took place in Cambridge last week. According to UNISON
500,000 workers supported the strike nationally in protest against the offer of
a 2.45% pay increase. Although the media reported that the strike was quite
successful nationally with closures of public services including schools,
libraries, sports centres, refuse collections and other services, in Cambridge
the rally and march was not well attended with a turnout of about sixty
workers.

What is the most effective way of combating racism? Fred Weston, of the marxist.com editorial board, spoke at the Marxist Day School held recently in London on the effects of positive discrimination and the lessons for the labour movement, touching on  the origins of racism, the Black question in the USA, South Africa and the struggle against apartheid and Brazil where today the Black Socialist movement is opposing racial legislation.

What is going on at the Health and Safety Executive? Over the past 5 years the number of inspectors has fallen from 916 to 680. They manage to inspect premises only once every 14½  years. Meanwhile ‘policy officers’ at the HSE have increased from 38 to 87. Oh, and 77 building workers were killed at work last year, up from 60 in 2006.