Lean on Me:  All that is really worth doing is what we do for others 

Lynne Segal introduces some of the ideas in her new book, published today

NOVEMBER 14, 2023LABOUR HUB EDITORS

“I am nothing without you,” are thoughts we rarely put into words except in moments of romantic passion. In these days of unbridled individualism, so many remain unaware that we ground our sense of self only in and through our continuing ties to others – family, friends, strangers, even enemies – products of their own social belongings. From first breath to last gasp, we rely upon those around us to stay human, just as we all, whatever our age or physical condition, rely upon our infrastructures of care to sustain our daily activities and continuing survival. I illustrate this throughout Lean on Me: A Politics of Radical Care (Verso, 2023), while also cataloguing the devastating consequences of our failures of care, now evident at all levels – from the personal to the global.

It begins with the long-standing devaluation of care itself – ‘women’s work’ – mixed with the refusal to recognize our lifelong dependency on others and our basic public infrastructures. Added to the denial of human interdependency, we have a recent, more lethal ingredient: the marketisation of the public sector, which has also increased the racialised nature of devalued care work, while ensuring huge profits for some and near collapse of adequate care for many.

It could hardly be sadder for those like me, who has worked for a radical redistributive, more caring world for over half a century. Hence, in my book, I step back, to take measure of all that has changed in my lifetime – for better and, more recently, for worse. However, in the beginning, the emergence of women’s liberation at the close of the Sixties, eagerly seeking change on all fronts, had many victories. My book opens reflecting on motherhood, which provides most people’s blueprint for caring.

In one key struggle, Women’s Liberation was busy fighting to overturn the isolation and marginalization of most women’s post-war experiences of motherhood, something we knew from our own mothers’ troubled lives. There were victories: in securing reproductive rights, confronting doctors’ arrogance or the feeling of helplessness in maternity wards, in fighting for and winning more funding for nurseries, as well as having some success in increasing women’s financial independence, while demanding men’s greater involvement in domestic work.

What is now so shocking is how quickly such victories could be snatched away, post-Thatcher and the later arrival of austerity regimes – slashing welfare and impoverishing so many. It’s hard to ignore the distress of mothers today. Routinely pressed for time, money and resources, we read that hardly any mothers feel they are doing an adequate job of parenting. Even affluent stay-at-home mums mention constant anxieties raising children in our ultra-competitive world, while displaying that sense of isolation and exclusion that mothers in the 1950s once expressed. Scholars such as Jacqueline Rose and Eliane Glaser have recently distilled the effects of a chilling heartlessness towards mothers. Half of all British mothers suffer mental health problems before or after giving birth, 50 percent cent of new mothers report chronic loneliness, and suicide is the leading cause of death for mothers during their baby’s first year.

Similar patterns emerge everywhere. In education, my workplace for 50 years, we’ve seen rising inequality within schools, along with attacks on the very notion of education for its own sake. The assault on the Humanities is yet another attempt to marketize education and deny people the tools to understand the world better or assist us in exploring better ways to create a fairer, more caring world.

In my book I address the significance of disability struggles in opening out the complexities of ‘vulnerability’, and showing why autonomy and dependence are two sides of the same coin. Disability activists, at first, won many struggles promoting a social model of disability. They rejected the notion of themselves as intrinsically vulnerable, which had routinely been a pretext for their exclusion from public life. In the forefront here was disability activist Jenny Morris, whom I knew before her shift from able-bodied feminist activist to a disability champion after she fell, at 35, trying to rescue a neighbouring child from a fall. She suddenly experienced extreme social exclusion, a feeling most disability activists describe, while reporting the suspicious, dismissive attitude greeting them much of the time.

Winning many battles for greater access to the social infrastructures others could rely upon, disability activists called for the ‘Independent Living Strategy’, approved by the Labour Party in 2008, promising increased money for inclusion and self-reliance. This was valuable, but there were downsides. The language of ‘self-reliance’ could be distorted to tune in with the damaging contempt for ‘dependency’ – always shadowing welfare provision.

As the psychoanalyst Tim Dartington notes in Managing Vulnerability, not only did the emphasis on ‘independence’ align with the denigration of dependency, but it could devalue the importance of relationships in favour of a more individualistic approach to human relations overall – side-lining actual caring. Far worse, under new Tory led austerity regimes, post-2010, though apparently reflecting ‘autonomy’ talk, there was the creation of the pernicious Work Capability Assessments (WCA). Repeatedly testing individuals’ fitness for work, whatever their condition, led to untold misery, even suicide, for many disabled people wrongly assessed – with much class and race bias.

Similar stories arise when we look at ageing, given the now million older people whose needs are not being met – and were lethally neglected in the early Covid years. This ties in with the financialization of care homes and outsourcing of public care provision – continuing today.

Lean on Me addresses the harms of our prison system, neglect and abuse of asylum seekers, along with the refusal to confront and fight climate change. Here I stress resistance from Indigenous voices, as well as the toll they’ve faced – systematically murdered with impunity. Indeed, despite our polluted rivers and climate disasters, our government seemingly responds only to its largest backers: damaging fossil fuel producers.

How can we turn this around? As we argued in our influential Care Manifesto (2020), we must work again for social transformation at all levels, premised on a universal ethics of care. It means rebuilding all our weakened social infrastructures across the board, not just the NHS, and detaching them from finance capital. It also involves rebuilding our local communities, knowing that adequate care for all is the only basis for a truly democratic society.

We need to celebrate our Mutual Aid practices, while arguing that we’re all collectively responsible for providing for or supporting each other, helping to maintain our communities, while preserving public space generally. That becomes possible once we fight for and win shorter working hours, and a basic income for all, which some unions are currently highlighting.

Let me conclude by suggesting that some sense of public engagement is necessary both for sustaining our confidence individually as well as preserving any sense of our shared humanity. Let’s fight for mutual care, not just self-care, helping us to combat isolation and sometimes experience more joy, together. In the end, all we have is each other.

Lynne Segal is the author of several books. Her latest, Lean on Me: A Politics of Radical Care, is published by Verso today.

How France’s colonial mindset is preparing the ground for a far right presidency

NOVEMBER 18, 2023LABOUR HUB EDITORS

Mike Phipps reviews Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic, by Nabila Ramdani, published by Hurst

Nabila Ramdani’s North African background “often excludes me from France’s national story”.  She grew up in the sprawling housing estates southeast of Paris, but had to go abroad to further her life chances. She was a Lecturer at the University of Michigan and later taught at Oxford University, but “While the US and UK media offered me paid assignments and contracts, French companies did not allow me a look in, not even as an unpaid intern.”

“France’s revolutionary tradition involves frequent outbursts of violence by the discontented,” notes Ramdani – although one of the reasons for this is that “the French police seldom, if ever, attempt de-escalation.” However, there is now a significant distinction between types of dissenters: “While anti-government protesters such as students and rural workers might be viewed as legitimate political agitators, ethnic minority members rebelling against discrimination and underfunding on the estates are regularly described as savages (sauvages) and scum (racaille).”

But such is France’s belief in its equal treatment of all its citizens, it does not even monitor, and therefore cannot remedy discrimination targeting specific communities: “The collection of data pertaining to ethnicity, race, or religion is not allowed in any kind of official context.” This absence allows racism and discrimination to flourish, especially from the police, as Ramdani documents.

The imperial legacy

Ramdani takes us through the more important French institutions, starting with the monarchical executive presidency. It’s worth underlining the profligacy of this office, as when Nicolas Sarkozy had two €75,000 bread ovens installed on the presidential Airbus. His successor, the near-bald Hollande spent almost €10,000 a month on a personal barber and Macron paid a makeup artist €26,000.to powder his face during his first three months of office.

Ramdani spends some time on the venality of France’s leading politicians, reminding us how, in 2016, Christine Lagarde was appointed unopposed to her second five-year term as head of the International Monetary Fund, despite the fact that she was due to face trial in Paris for “financial negligence” and was potentially facing up to a year in prison. Former Presidents Chirac and Sarkozy were both convicted of financial offences.

France has some of the highest levels of political mistrust in Europe. Nearly two-thirds of people think that their elected representatives and leaders of political parties are “mostly corrupt.” Prime ministers and ministers need not be elected and the President can rule by decrees, as in March 2023, when Macron pushed through a rise in the retirement age in the teeth of popular opposition.

The decision to reduce the French President’s term from seven years to five in 2002 had the side-effect of moving parliamentary elections from the midterm, when they acted as a check on the head of state, to a couple of weeks after the presidential election. This pretty much guarantees a repeat of that election result and, with it, a pro-President Parliament – although in 2022 Macron’s waning popularity led to the first hung parliament since 1988.

An immense level of power, and a corresponding scope for its abuse, is embodied in the French executive presidency. This institution originated in the midst of the 1958 Algerian crisis, with French military units poised to rebel if General De Gaulle was not given a free hand to take over the country and impose a new constitution. Three years later, Parisian police were given the green light to massacre up to 300 demonstrators supporting Algerian independence, a crime the French state has never fully acknowledged or apologised for.

“My father told me about compatriots his age who were hanged from trees by police in the thick Vincennes woods, on the eastern edge of Paris,” writes Ramdani. “No judicial inquiry ever took place, with many French still blaming Algerian infighting and terrorist attacks for the deaths.”

These massacres were particularly shocking because they took place in Paris. But they reflected a deep-rooted and ruthless colonial mindset, which had developed over the decades of Empire and continues today. After the end of World War Two, colonial troops who had fought alongside the French were stripped of their uniforms and shipped back to their countries of origin. Ramdani writes:

“When repatriated Senegalese prisoners of war protested about pay in November 1944, up to three hundred were gunned down at the Thiaroye military camp, near Dakar, French Senegal. Details of the December 1, 1944, Thiaroye massacre are not taught in France today. Camp de Thiaroye, a film about the scandal, was banned in France for a decade when it came out in 1988.”

But even this was at the lower end of post-war French colonial brutality. In May 1945, French forces slaughtered up to 45,000 men, women, and children in and around the towns of Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata in northeastern Algeria, supposed retaliation for the participation of some in pro-independence protests. Again, the state’s inability to come to terms with its colonial legacy meant that it was not until 2005 that France’s Ambassador to Algeria finally described the bloodbath as an “inexcusable tragedy.”

The author reminds us of more recent deaths of individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds at the hands of the police in France, although the book was written before this year’s notorious shooting dead at point blank range of a teenager of Algerian background at a police traffic stop, which sparked widespread unrest across the country.

A tainted conservatism

France’s refusal to confront its colonial history or its current treatment of ethnic minorities helps explain the consistently high vote for the Rassemblement National, formerly Front National, an organisation with clear Nazi roots. The backbone of this party was originally the one million or so pieds-noirs, the French settler class in Algeria, many of whom fought, using the most brutal methods, against the independence movement: Algerians put their death toll during the war alone at 1.5 million.

 In 1995, a Moroccan immigrant drowned after being attacked and pushed into River Seine by members of a FN  procession, in an incident that evoked the treatment of North Africans at the hands of the police in the 1960s. More recently, one of the party’s MPs shouted “Go back to Africa!” at a Black MP during a National Assembly debate.

Mainstream conservatives used to clearly demarcate themselves from such extremists, but no longer. Éric Zemmour, who shares many of the same ideas, made regular TV appearances and wrote columns for the ostensibly respectable Le Figaro newspaper before launching a presidential bid in November 2021, notwithstanding two convictions for religious and racial hatred. But it was the RN’s Marine Le Pen who won 41% of the vote in the second presidential round of voting six months later.

“What can be done about this?” asks Ramdani. “A good start would be removing the constitutional possibility of a populist figurehead becoming head of state without a parliamentary majority.”

Inconvenient truths

Ramdani has an eye for inconvenient truths. She points out that in the months leading up to the notorious ISIS bombings of November 13th 2015  one of the country’s industrial giants, cement producer Lafarge, had been directly financing the terrorist organisation. The company had paid millions to the group to keep its  operation in Syria open: “Lafarge’s Director of Security at the time was not only a self-confessed terrorist collaborator but a fervent supporter of Marine Le Pen and indeed a candidate for her far-right party.”

Prior to this, the deadliest terrorist attack in modern French history – unless one includes state terrorism – was by the Secret Army Organization, a far right paramilitary group opposed to Algerian independence. In 1961 it bombed the Number 12 express train from Strasbourg to Paris, killing 28 civilians and wounding more than a hundred. The cause of the crash was kept secret at the time by the French state.

The state of emergency which followed the 2015 attacks allowed investigators to raid homes and take suspects into custody without judicial approval. The vast majority of those pulled in for questioning were innocent. President Macron’s fulminated about “small girls aged three or four wearing a full veil… raised in hatred of France’s values” surrounded by “hundreds of radicalised individuals, who we fear may, at any moment, take a knife and kill people.” The author comments: “Prosecutors and Interior Ministry sources I spoke to were all baffled by Macron’s sensational and reckless fantasies, which would have instantly made front-page news if they were true.”

France’s demonization of Muslims doesn’t stop there, as Labour Hub has reported previously. It “excludes female citizens from public spaces because of their clothes, using fines and the threat of prison to enforce its diktats,” Ramdani reminds us. The latest volley in this relentless campaign came this August when the French Education Minister, Gabriel Attal, said that the abaya, the long dress worn by some Muslim women, would no longer be allowed in state schools.

Leaders of the La France Insoumise — whose candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon got seven million votes in the 2022 presidential elections — are loudly denouncing the latest measures, which shows some political courage, since polls show 71% of the population support the ban.

Ramdani is especially caustic about misplaced feminist support for such restrictions, highlighting Women’s Rights Minister Laurence Rossignol’s response to the manufacture of burkinis, whole-body swimsuits. Rossignol compared Muslim women who shopped in the “Islamic garment market” to “negroes who supported slavery.”

Foreign policy continues to shape the colonial mindset. “France continued to interfere in the affairs of former colonies long after their independence, as it propped up corrupt and compliant despotic allies,” the author reminds us. In 2017, Le Monde published leaked papers that showed how serving Presidents regularly green-light extrajudicial death sentences against foreign nationals.

The most enduring legacy of French colonialism in Africa is the African Financial Community (CFA) franc—a unit of currency that was pegged to the French franc, and then to the euro. The principle behind it is simple: to give France economic control over African states, which it exercises by use of currency devaluation, which can have a disastrous effect on local economies. Macron is an enthusiastic supporter of this arrangement.

Although this book was written before the recent coup in Niger, this economic subordination was one of it drivers. France also keeps troops in a number of former colonies – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger – ostensibly to fight terrorism, but equally “to protect French economic interests, such as the exploitation of Nigerien uranium and Malian gold.”

Niger is the world’s seventh largest producer of uranium, vital for nuclear energy on which France is heavily reliant. Niger’s uranium industry is owned and operated by a so-called joint venture between Niger and France, in which the Niger government has only a 15% stake. With 42% of the population living in “extreme poverty”, one analyst observed, “The people of Niger have watched their wealth slip through their fingers for decades.”

Less convincing

The author’s insights into France’s failings are penetrating, but some of her remedies are rather fuzzy, for example more community policing, or “France needs to boost the status of its minority communities.”

I was also baffled, if not disconcerted, by her assessment of the events of May 1968: “Vague demands of the young centered on an end to the Vietnam War and to the excesses of capitalism. They also wanted more freedom to sleep with one another in campus dormitories… Serious politics took second place to a feel-good celebration of sensual pleasure.”

Her point seems to be that these over-revered events did nothing for France’s marginalised communities. In truth such a counter-position is artificial. May 1968 redefined the whole meaning of politics, and not just in France. In doing so, it was part of a process that re-introduced the global anti-imperialist struggle – and much else – into western mainstream politics on a permanent basis.

Equally her chapter on France’s economic problems lacks depth. The country has 9 million children living in poverty, which Macron’s tax-cutting agenda has done little to help. But her coverage of the last serious attempt at socioeconomic measures that could have helped the less well off – Mitterrand’s first term reforms in the early 1980s – are disposed of briskly: “Growth stalled, there was a recession, and the franc had to be devalued.” This does not really convey the level of resistance and economic sabotage mounted by France’s elite at the time. Rather, suggesting “that the amount of money being spent on welfare and the bloated public service was unsustainable” appears to buy into that elite’s questionable narrative.

It’s well worth reading Fixing France, however, for its sharp observations about how France’s enduring commitment to republican values provides a licence for many to pursue a divisive and neocolonial agenda behind the rhetoric of constitutional equality.

Recent polls show that if last year’s presidential election were re-run, Marine Le Pen would beat Emmanuel Macron. This book explains the background to such a once unthinkable possibility.

Mike Phipps’ book Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2022) can be ordered here.

UK Public Services Embrace AI to Streamline Administrative Tasks

By María Alejandra Trujillo
• 15 hours ago
BNNBLOOMBERG


Public services across the United Kingdom are poised for a revolution. A new initiative, employing artificial intelligence (AI), is set to streamline administrative tasks across various sectors, including law enforcement, education, and healthcare. The aim: to reduce the burden of routine paperwork and data entry, enabling professionals to focus more effectively on their primary duties.

Reducing Administrative Load

A government review underscored the inefficiency within the educational sector. It revealed that teachers spend approximately one day per week on administrative activities such as data input and preparing daily reports. By diminishing this administrative load, the initiative could significantly enhance public service delivery. It allows police officers to dedicate more time to crime prevention and resolution, instead of paperwork.

AI: The Modernizing Force

The integration of AI into these sectors represents a significant step towards modernizing public service operations and improving the allocation of human resources. The Chancellor has laid out a case for reform across public services, emphasizing the need to unlock productivity by cutting admin, preventing problems before they emerge, and safely introducing new technology like AI. The potential productivity benefits from applying AI to routine tasks across the public sector are estimated to be worth billions.

Crafting Responsible and Trustworthy AI

The ‘Report on the Core Principles and Opportunities for Responsible and Trustworthy AI’ provides an actionable framework that indicates core principles, key innovation priorities, new commercial opportunities, and policy and standards development relating to responsible and trustworthy AI (RTAI). The UK Government has instructed its data, competition, healthcare, media, and financial regulators to monitor AI within their jurisdictions. The UK has a clear opportunity to craft a robust market for AI assurance, offering tools and services for assessing, auditing, and certifying RTAI systems. These steps are integral to maintaining ethical AI practices, ensuring that the integration of technology into public services remains beneficial for all.

UK Embraces AI to Enhance Public Services and Diminish Workload

by Jerzy Lewandowski
in !!!, Artificial intelligence, Healthcare
on 18 November 2023


In an ambitious move by the UK government, artificial intelligence (AI) is being harnessed to revolutionize the public sector, aiming to alleviate the burdensome administrative tasks that currently consume substantial time for law enforcement, educational, and healthcare professionals. This strategic initiative is predicated on a government study that indicates such professionals like teachers are mired weekly in extensive administrative duties, which truncate valuable time that could be channeled into their primary roles.

Scheduled to be an integral part of the upcoming Autumn Statement, this bold blueprint aspires to exploit the “huge opportunities” that AI presents in transforming routine work processes. This innovative technology is forecasted to accelerate patient care in hospitals and bolster the quality and efficiency of teaching and policing.

Envisioning a reformed public service landscape, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, portrays the currenct status quo where talented personnel are bogged down by administrative drag as not just disadvantageous to the employees themselves but also to the nation’s taxpayers. He vehemently advocates for the need to elevate the work-life by curtailing admin and seamlessly integrating cutting-edge technologies like AI.

As governments worldwide grapple with the dual pressures of rising costs and aging demographics, the UK is positioning itself to cut through the increasing demands by enabling its workforce with AI. Echoing this sentiment, Hunt illustrates the practical benefits already reaped in the healthcare industry, where AI facilitates accelerated treatment for stroke patients, and in the educational sector where it aids in crafting superior lesson plans.

The prospect of AI-run public services is gaining momentum, with predictions of monumental time savings in the coming years, benefiting both teachers and police officers. However, such technological advancements usher in mixed reactions from the workforce, illustrated by a recent report revealing a split in public opinion on AI’s impact on employment, with some employees apprehensive about their job security and others optimistic about the ease it could introduce to their professional roles.

FAQ Section

1. What is the UK government’s latest initiative involving AI?
The UK government is using artificial intelligence to transform the public sector by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks in law enforcement, education, and healthcare.



2. Why is AI being introduced into the public sector?


AI is being introduced to help professionals like teachers, healthcare workers, and law enforcement officers focus more on their primary roles by handling routine administrative tasks, thereby improving efficiency and quality of services.



3. When will AI become a part of public sector reforms?
AI’s integration into the public sector is expected to be detailed in the upcoming Autumn Statement as part of a strategic initiative.

4. How does the Chancellor of the Exchequer view the current situation?
Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, views the current situation as disadvantageous, where talented personnel are hindered by administrative tasks. He sees the use of AI as a means to improve work-life and efficiency in the public sector.

5. What benefits have already been observed from using AI in public services?
In healthcare, AI has been noted to accelerate treatment for stroke patients, and in education, it aids in creating better lesson plans.

6. What are the public opinions on integrating AI into public services?
Public opinions are mixed, with some employees concerned about job security, while others are optimistic about the potential ease AI could bring to their roles.

Definitions

– Artificial Intelligence (AI): A branch of computer science dedicated to creating machines that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence.
– Autumn Statement: An annual report given by the UK government providing updates on economic plans and financial forecasts.
– Chancellor of the Exchequer: A senior position in the UK government responsible for economic and financial matters, roughly equivalent to the role of a finance minister in other countries.
– Administrative Drag: The time and effort consumed by administrative tasks that can slow down the efficiency and productivity of professionals.

Suggested Related Links

– For information on the UK government initiatives and services: UK Government

UK
Truss-supporting economists call for minimum wage to be frozen, then cut

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

Yesterday

'Is it too much of a stretch to recognise that poverty is the CAUSE of poor growth.'
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The minimum wage should be frozen and then cut in order to increase competitiveness within the labour market, according to a group of economists backed by Liz Truss.

As it set out plans to boost growth ahead of next week’s Autumn Statement, the Growth Commission, an independent group of international economists, argue that an increase to the minimum wage would be a “significant drag on the economy.”

At an event in Westminster this week, the group announced details of its 101-page report entitled: The Growth Budget 2023. At the presentation, Douglas McWilliams, who co-chairs the organisation, said the current level of the minimum wage was “destroying jobs.”

“The minimum wage at its current level is actually destroying jobs because employers can’t afford to take people on,” he said.

The Growth Commission was formed by Liz Truss, following her resignation as prime minister after her chaotic 49 days in government. Truss was in the audience at the Commission’s event, alongside Jacob Rees-Mogg and former Brexit negotiator, Lord David Frost.

Minimum wage rates increased in April. The level is currently set at £10.42 an hour for those aged 23 and over. 21-22-year-olds must be paid a minimum of £10.18 an hour, 18 to 20-year-olds receive £7.49 and under 18s and apprentices have to be paid no lower than an hourly rate of £5.28.

Growth Commission co-chairman, Shanker Singham, said the group was “concerned about how high” Britain’s minimum wage is compared with other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

“There is nothing wrong with the minimum wage. What matters in terms of competition is where it is set,” said Singham.

“What we are intending to do in the UK is move it to 66 percent of median wage, which is far higher than any other OECD country by next year and will be a significant drag on the economy.

“So we are suggesting freezing it and targeting it down to 61 percent.

“Even that small reduction or that small change in minimum wage has a very big impact on GDP per capita, according to our calculations,” he added.

The call for the minimum wage to be cut attracted criticism. Some shared their disproval online.

“This is a demonstration of an inability to address the facts on the ground. The country has the lowest growth and the highest poverty in living memory. Is it too much of a stretch to recognise that poverty is the CAUSE of poor growth,” someone posted on X.

The Growth Commission’s calls to reduce the minimum wage come as the rising cost of living continues to drive more and more people in Britain into poverty. New research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows 3.8 million people experienced the most extreme form of poverty – destitution – in 2022. That marked a 61 percent increase since 2019. More than 1 million of those affected were children.

As more and more households are struggling to afford the basics to live, there is an increasing reliance on food banks to survive, which are reportedly at ‘breaking point.’

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

UK

Anti-privatisation campaigners urge new health secretary to reinstate NHS as fully public service

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead Today

'Our NHS cares about the health of our nation, private companies care to make as much profit as possible.'

Victoria Atkins, who was appointed as the new health secretary in Sunak’s reshuffle, has promised to get around the table with unions to end the NHS strikes – as she failed to attend a key healthcare conference, just two days into her new role. Atkins is the fifth health secretary in just two years.

We Own It, campaigners for public ownership, haven’t wasted any time in calling on the new health secretary to fix the NHS crisis by reinstating the health service as a ‘fully public service and ending NHS privatisation.

In a letter to the new health secretary, the campaigners note how the affects of 13 years of underfunding, outsourcing and privatisation under five successive Conservative prime minister are clear to see. The letter lists the consequences, including 7.7 million people waiting for NHS care, 272,000 people paying for surgeries last year, and the ‘rapid growth of ‘Buy now, pay later’ loans for healthcare, which are, according to the authors, “pushing people in our communities into indebtedness.”

The letter alludes to a study by Oxford University, which linked the outsourcing of NHS services to treatable deaths. The campaigners also inform the new health secretary of recent Survation/We Own It polling, which shows that 78 percent of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, want the NHS fully publicly owned and delivered.

The campaigners write: “Private solutions to this crisis will necessarily fail because the NHS has a fundamentally different interest to private companies. If all illnesses suddenly disappeared from Britain, our NHS would greatly benefit, whereas the private healthcare companies would suffer loss. Our NHS cares about the health of our nation, private companies care to make as much profit as possible.

“Our NHS was ranked the best in the developed world until Conservative governments started cutting and privatising it. You can break this cycle of destruction. What our NHS needs is for politicians to put NHS patients before the profits of private companies. It is time to restore our NHS to a service we can once again be proud of,” they continue.

More than 10,000 people have added their signature to the letter to reinstate the NHS as a fully public service.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

UK

Schools concrete crisis: 'Sheer luck' prevented 'absolute catastrophe', says scathing report

A Commons watchdog says it is "extremely concerning" Education Secretary Gillian Keegan's department did not have a good enough understanding of the risks across buildings to "keep children and staff safe", amid warnings an "absolute catastrophe" had been "averted through sheer luck".


Sunday 19 November 2023


A failure by the government to be able to provide basic details on the crumbling concrete crisis in schools has been branded "shocking and disappointing" by MPs, as they warned about the "alarming" state of classroom buildings.

The head of the influential Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said an "absolute catastrophe" had been "averted through sheer luck".

Politics live: Chancellor facing questions ahead of autumn statement

The watchdog said it was "extremely concerning" Education Secretary Gillian Keegan's department did not have a good enough understanding of the risks across school buildings to "keep children and staff safe".

The cross-party group also warned "unacceptable numbers of pupils are learning in poorly maintained or potentially unsafe buildings" and this was harming their education.

The criticism was levelled by the committee in its The Condition Of School Buildings report, which focused on the serious problems caused by unsafe reinforced autoclaved concrete (RAAC).

Just days before the return from the summer holidays, more than 100 schools, nurseries, and colleges in England were told by the UK government to close classrooms and other buildings that contained the collapse-prone material.

Schools in 'dire need of help'

The committee said the Department for Education (DfE) was unable to tell its inquiry how many surveys to identify RAAC were outstanding, how many temporary classrooms had been provided to schools affected by the crisis, or say when the issues with the concrete type would be addressed.

Its report recommended the department urgently complete its programme of specialist surveys where RAAC is suspected to establish the full extent of the issue and be clearer on the funding it will provide to schools for temporary mitigation measures.

Committee chair Dame Meg Hillier said it was "beyond unacceptable" that "a significant proportion of children" are learning in "dilapidated or unsafe buildings".

She added: "The images of classroom ceilings collapsed onto empty school desks released in recent months are not just searing indictments of a deteriorating school estate.

"They are chilling reminders of absolute catastrophe averted through sheer luck."

Damage inside Parks Primary School in Leicester

Government rejects report's findings

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: "The RAAC crisis exposes the folly of letting so much of the school estate fall into disrepair."

But a DfE spokesperson said: "We do not accept the committee's assessment - the government has taken swift action, responding to new evidence, to identify and support all schools with RAAC to ensure the safety of pupils and teachers.

"We have now gathered questionnaire responses from all education settings in the affected areas. The vast majority have no RAAC and of those that do, most are providing face-to-face education with only a small handful providing a form of remote education for a short period.

"We have been clear that we will do whatever it takes to remove RAAC from the school and college estate.

"We are working closely with schools with RAAC to ensure remediation work is carried out and disruption to learning is minimised.

"Our school rebuilding programme is continuing to rebuild and refurbish school buildings in the poorest condition, with the first 400 projects selected ahead of schedule."

The question is no longer ‘Are Western forces participating in fighting the Palestinians?’ but ‘What is the size and type of their operations?’

November 16, 2023 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) hold a joint press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 12, 2023. 

[GPO – Anadolu Agency]

by Hussein Majdoubi

Under the guise of helping to search for hostages and preparing to evacuate their citizens, Western countries, led by the US and France, sent special military forces, considered among their elite, to Israel. There is a debate about whether these forces are participating in some of the Occupation army’s operations or not. Previous experiences, including in Libya during the Arab Spring, confirmed that these forces worked secretly at that time and contributed to the pursuit of Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

The Pentagon has announced, on many occasions, the deployment of various military forces, starting with warships, including aircraft carriers and destroyers, as well as anti-missile systems, especially the advanced THAAD system, in addition to thousands of soldiers. Among the units are teams from the Delta Forces that specialise in hostage rescue and Marine forces, especially the elite ones, namely the Marine elite forces known as Raiders.

Hints provided by the military website, Galaxia Militar, when collecting various data on this subject from media outlets such as The New York Times and other military websites indicate the presence in Israel of commando teams from various major and mid-sized Western countries.

READ: Israel’s war on truth in occupied Palestine

It is not unlikely that they are present in the Gaza Strip and are fighting alongside the Israeli forces or, at least, providing logistical support and participating in the search for tunnels and the locations of the hostages. Reading the military situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip and Israel indicates a significant Western military presence. The most prominent data includes:

First, Western countries have expressed absolute political support for Israel, including opposition to any ceasefire, and this support cannot be unaccompanied by direct military support, especially since some countries, such as the US, have established an air bridge to transport military equipment, while British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, arrived with military equipment to Israel.

Second, Western countries have provided Israel with significant military equipment, most notably anti-missile systems, some of which the Israeli army does not have much experience in operating. That is why the Pentagon sent experts to operate the THAAD systems, and the French, Germans and Italians sent experts for the Eurosam system.


US complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza – Cartoon

 [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]

 Third, while the Pentagon has admitted to sending thousands of elite soldiers, there are admissions by Western countries, especially European countries, that they have “reinforced their security and military staff” in their embassies in Tel Aviv in anticipation of the evacuation of their citizens and the search for hostages.

Fourth, experience reveals that when it comes to an issue that concerns the entire West, such as preserving Israel from collapse, the West engages in a military operation. It became clear, years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, how units and even an entire platoon of French, German and British elite forces contributed to striking the military units that were around Gaddafi, and they were tracking him to facilitate his assassination by the protesters.

While American units step up security of Israeli nuclear facilities, especially the THAAD system, and the field guarding against Hezbollah commando infiltration, European units participate in operating other systems to intercept the missiles of the Palestinians, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iraqi groups. There are also military units that participate in a discreet manner and are ready to intervene if the situation worsens and the war spreads.

Therefore, it is no longer a matter of “Are Western forces participating in fighting the Palestinians?”, but rather, “What is the size and the type of their contribution?”

READ: The humanitarian paradigm and the normalisation of forced transfer

Translated from Al Quds Al Arabi, 14 November 2023

UK

Go North East bus strike 'feels like Covid lockdown again'

19th November 2023
By Pamela Bilalova and Mark Denten

BBC News

People have described the impact of the continuing Go North East bus strike as "worse than the pandemic".

Some passengers have told the BBC they have felt isolated since the strikes began in October, and have likened being cut off to another lockdown.

However, a Tyneside MP has said she believed most people support the bus drivers, despite the disruption.

The Unite union has previously said its members did not want to strike but had been "forced" into it amid a pay row.

Further talks to try to end the dispute on Thursday failed to reach a resolution.

Go North East started a skeleton service on some routes last week, with Unite describing the company as "grasping at straws".

The continuous walkout started on 28 October after workers rejected a 10.3% pay rise offer, arguing that drivers in the North West are paid more than them. It followed two separate weeks of action earlier in the month.

In its announcement of the skeleton service, Go North East said it was "committed" to reaching a solution that will bring industrial action to a halt.
'Cut off from my family'

Linda Storey, 71, from Dunston, Gateshead, has told the BBC her mental health has been impacted because she has not been able to attend a bereavement support group since the strike began.

She has urged bus drivers to "get back to work asap".

"I'm an out-and-about person. I don't like being on my own," said Mrs Storey, who lost her husband four years ago.

"I feel depressed again. I'm very down. I cry a lot.

"This is worse for me than the pandemic was," she added.
Donna Thomas says people have struggled to reach the community centre in Houghton-le-Spring

The Old Rectory Community Centre in Houghton-le-Spring provides a warm space and a range of support for the local community.

But the usually busy room has been left empty as people struggle to make their way to the centre. Go North East is the only bus operator serving the town, near Sunderland, and there are no Metro links.

"We've been told it's down to the strike," said Donna Thomas, who works at the centre.

"The first week or so we had people walking from Easington Lane, we had people walking from East Rainton, to meet up with friends and us.

"But nobody could continue to walk an hour here and an hour back to access what we offer."

Ms Thomas said she worries about those in the community who are dealing with isolation or a lack of food and support and the possible impact on mental health.

"I'm being told it is worse than Covid," she said, of the strikes' impact.

"People feel as though this is another lockdown."
Sarah Robson says her partner was unable to get to two job interviews because of the strike

Sarah Robson has faced a two-hour round trip on foot to get her shopping done.

"My partner had two job interviews in this strike and he couldn't even get to them," the mum added.

"I'm usually at my mum's nearly every weekend and now I can't.

"It's just horrible, feels like Covid all over again, but worse."
'A good deal'

Speaking to BBC's Politics North, South Shields Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck said it was "not fair" that drivers in the North West are being paid more than drivers in the North East.

"Obviously people are frustrated; people can't get to work, can't get to school," she said.

"But I think most people, when you drill down and chat to them, they'll say well of course, on a principle of fairness, the drivers on our buses here in the North East deserve the same pay as they do in the North West."

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham at a Go North East rally in Dunston, Gateshead

Conservative Northumberland councillor Wayne Daley said he believed the offer "to most people would sound like really good deal."

"There is a really good opportunity here for people to sit round the table and actually look at the future public transport," he added.

"The government, by scrapping HS2, are putting more money locally into public transport and quite rightly too."

Unite's regional officer Mark Sanderson has previously apologised to passengers "sincerely and genuinely" for the disruption caused by continuing industrial action, which the union has said could go on indefinitely.

"Our members don't want to do this. They love what they're doing, they want to get back to work, but unfortunately they have been forced into this," he added.

BBC Politics North (North East and Cumbria) is broadcast at 10:00 GMT on Sunday on BBC One, and available afterwards on the BBC iPlayer.

Cornwall shaken by 2.7 magnitude earthquake

19th November 2023, 

Jonathan Morris

BBC News Online

British Geological SurveyThe earthquake was recorded by the British Geological Survey at 00:50 GMTThe earthquake was recorded by the British Geological Survey at 00:50 GMT on Sunday

The epicentre was in the Mounts bay area, but the tremor was felt from St Just to Redruth
People described hearing a rumbling sound like thunder and feeling their houses and ornaments shake

An earthquake has shaken parts of Cornwall, with people saying it felt like an explosion or avalanche.

Seismologists at the British Geological Survey recorded the 2.7 magnitude quake at 00:50 GMT.

Its epicentre was in the Mounts Bay area in south Cornwall, with people woken up by a loud bang from St Just in north Cornwall to Redruth.

Experts said the tremor was within what is expected for the area and is among hundreds in the UK every year.

Mousehole was among the towns affected

Linda Dwan, from Mousehole in south Cornwall, said: "There was a rumbling, like thunder and the house shook for about two or three seconds.

"It felt like an explosion or an avalanche.

"My glass ornaments were shaking in the window."

Dr David Hawthorn, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said: "We have 2-300 quakes a year, but about 30 are felt and this was at the lower end of those quakes.

"This was quite small by global standards.

"In the UK we have a phenomenally complicated geology and that's particularly true in Cornwall and sooner or later that stress weakens and we get an earthquake."

He appealed for anyone affected to get in touch.

"We are still getting data in, so please give us a description because we want to know how much it shakes the ground in any given location," he said.

Follow BBC News South West on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.

UK
Tories set to overturn ban on use of agency workers during strikes despite “humiliating” High Court defeat

Ministers will try again to overturn the ban on the use of agency workers during strikes, as the government launches a consultation on the law change.

Agency workers: strike-breakers?

In June the government was defeated in the High Court after it rushed through new laws that allowed agencies to supply employers with workers to fill in for those on strike. The presiding judge criticised ministers for acting in a way that was “unfair, unlawful and irrational” and reinstated the ban on agency staff being used to break strikes.

But despite this rebuke – and strong opposition from unions and employers – ministers are resurrecting the agency workers plans with a new consultation.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which represents suppliers of agency workers, called the announcement of the consultation:
a disappointment, given the scale of opposition from employers and workers to the previous proposal.

The body also warned the change could see inflamed tensions and longer disputes.
Poison relations and prolong strikes

The government’s own impact assessment says the law change will poison industrial relations and prolong strikes.

The new impact assessment, which was published on Thursday 16 November, says the change will result in “worsening in the relationship between employers and workers – which could lead to more prolonged strike action in the short-term”. The impact assessment also suggests it could hit workers’ pay and conditions.

The proposed change comes as the government seeks to impose new rules forcing some workers to work during strikes. In September the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reported the government to the International Labour Organization (ILO) – the UN workers’ rights watchdog – over the Strikes Act.

Commenting on the announcement on agency workers, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:

The Conservatives’ humiliating High Court defeat should have spelled the end of this cynical law. But now they are resurrecting the same irrational plans.

Allowing unscrupulous employers to bring in agency staff to deliver important services risks endangering public safety and escalating disputes.

Agency recruitment bodies have repeatedly made clear they don’t want their staff to be put in the position where they have to cover strikes. But ministers are not listening.

The government’s own impact assessment is clear – this change will poison industrial relations and drag out disputes.

This is the act of a desperate government looking to distract from its appalling record.