No more private profits from public money!
Anger is growing across the country as the New Labour government indulges in an orgy of privatisation at the expense of public services.
Hospital schemes to be funded under the Tory-inspired Private Finance Initiative will run up bills for 60 years into the next millennium, while slashing the numbers of beds available, often "centralising" services on remote greenfield sites, and stripping the NHS of some prime property assets.
Schools, too, face asset-stripping and costly PFI schemes which hand control of new school buildings to private firms.
Housing estates are being handed over by Labour and other councils to private, profit-hungry firms, which threaten to jack up rents, evict hard-pressed tenants, and sack council workers.
Road schemes are being turned into money-making ventures for city fat cats, whose profits are guaranteed. Privatised rail companies cream off billions in subsidies for the franchise holders, while working people face rising costs of travel and dwindling public transport services. However the fightback has been gathering pace as the numbers of schemes proliferate. UNISON has consistently campaigned against PFI, and TUC policy, too, is now opposed to Labour's approach.
There are signs of growing resistance at local level. This is a fight we must win if growing amounts of public money are not to be funnelled directly into the pockets of Tony Blair's unsavoury business friends.