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Resistance to Privatization Across the Country Stop the Privatization Fraud! Stop the Corruption!
Stop
paying the rich! Increase investments in social programs, Workers and their allies across the country are demanding a reversal to privatization of social programs and public services. Working people are fed up with the global oligarchs pilfering the public treasury and damaging society, the economy and the lives of public sector workers. Slogans have arisen to stop private interests from interfering and profiting from public work.[1]
No excuse exists at all to contract out public work but if the ruling elite force it through then this must not mean or result in workers being contracted out. If the public treasury pays for the work then workers working for the public enterprise and institutions must remain public sector workers with the automatic right to retain membership in their public union with wages, benefits, pensions and working conditions acceptable to themselves, to which Canadian governments and state institutions remain committed in collective agreements. If any portion of funds to mobilize workers for work comes from the public treasury, government or state institution, such as a public-private partnership, then the workers involved must be deemed to be public workers and guaranteed to receive similar Canadian-standard wages, benefits, pensions and security of employment as public workers across the board. When the public pays for the work, even a portion of the work, then workers must be deemed to be working for the public, full stop; not for a contracted company or private enterprise, such as a private school subsidized with public funds, no matter what position of authority the government has given to the private entity. Stop the Privatization Fraud!
Privatization diverts public funds away from the intended purpose of public services and social programs to serve the public good. Privatization reduces the scope of the necessary social programs, public services and infrastructure, and encourages a section of the people to seek private solutions, in education and health care for example. Privatization fragments the working class and inhibits its ability to maintain or gain Canadian standard wages, benefits, pensions, security of employment and working conditions agreeable to themselves and ratified by their collectives. Privatization puts more power and wealth into the hands of the global oligarchy directly reducing the reproduced-value going to the Canadian working class and reduces any influence the people may have for nation-building in opposition to imperialist globalization and the U.S. war economy. Privatization expands the numbers of the privileged oligarchs by providing them increased positions of ownership, control and power within the economy. With this increased power and wealth, the imperialist class finances its own think tanks, media and political representatives to push the neo-liberal agenda and damage public opinion for the New and block the movement to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programs, public services and public enterprise. Those in control and ownership of the privatized sectors and enterprises of the economy are deep-pocketed bombastic supporters of imperialism and neo-liberalism, and opponents of the working class, nation-building and the necessity for a new pro-social direction for the economy to solve the many economic, political and social problems confronting society. Privatization blocks the working people from having a say over those matters that are important in their lives, such as education, health care, public services, infrastructure and the search for and discussion and implementation of solutions to social and natural problems and a new direction for the economy and politics.
Privatization fragments the economy into competing sectors, parts and enterprises. This saps and blocks the modern productive forces and working class from mobilizing their inherent strength and capacity to meet the challenges of the pandemic. The modern economy and working class need cooperation and a pro-social aim to work in harmony for the mutual benefit and development of all and to solve problems.[2] Each major private enterprise is on the prowl to use the difficulties of others to destroy them or seize and take them over rather than work together for the good of all. This competition introduces weakness into the social programs, public services and infrastructure and inhibits any possibility to mobilize the productive forces and human factor/social consciousness to defend the people and society. Privatization must be stopped and reversed for the good of all, the economy and society! Stop the privatization fraud! Stop the corruption! Join the struggle against privatization, to stop paying the rich and to increase investments in social programs, public services and public enterprise. Notes1. See Workers' Forum for reports on the growing resistance in Alberta, Quebec and throughout the country to privatization and on the burgeoning movement to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programs. 2. The disastrous response to the pandemic in the United States has exposed the weakness of the extensive private nature of the U.S. health care system. Many believe that the miserable failure of the U.S. elite in the face of the pandemic is partly the result of the privatized health care system. Private health insurance further fragments the private ownership and control of almost all hospitals, clinics and other parts of the system. The staggering personal cost of even minor treatment leaves millions unable or unwilling to seek medical help. Many Canadians watching U.S. television during the election wondered about the number of ads for private health care insurance. The "open season" to renew private health care insurance is November 1 to December 15 and companies spend millions pushing their respective plans. This fight for customers reflects the competition among all parts of the health care system, which greatly weakens its collective strength. Annual family premiums for U.S. employer-sponsored health insurance -- the amount it costs each year for insurance, often divided into 12 monthly payments -- rose four per cent to average $21,342 this year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. On average for workplace coverage during the last year, workers paid $5,588 toward the cost of their coverage, while employers picked up the rest. Those without workplace coverage must pay the full amount or go without. Also of note, most plans carry a deductible, the amount a person pays for health care before insurance begins to pay the health care bill. The deductible has been constantly rising in recent years. In 2020, the average annual single deductible amount a person is required to pay for any doctor's visit or hospital treatment before insurance coverage begins has been $1,644, nearly twice what it was a decade ago. More than
243,857 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States and some
10,319,131 have been infected. (Photos: TML, AUPE, OHC.)
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The fraud of
contracting out education, health care, public
services and all manner of public work to the global oligarchs,
leaving programs weakened and workers twisting in the wind,
must cease! 
Privatization of
public services and social programs sucks the
lifeblood out of public investments, the economy, society and
the working class. The obsession of the imperialist class to
expropriate private profit from every cell of the economy
regardless of the damage this causes must be restricted. The
working people are coming to realize that privatization is a
pay-the-rich conspiracy against the people and society.
The damage caused
by privatization and decreased investments
in social programs and public services has become patently
obvious during the pandemic. Seniors have died in their hundreds
in starved-for-funds long-term care facilities, and governments
at all levels have been stymied in meeting the challenges of the
health emergency. Necessary infrastructure and means of
production, such as the airlines, have been incapable of dealing
with the emergency because their narrow private interests negate
the public interest, as their aim for maximum private profit puts
their narrow interests before the needs of the people and economy
as a whole.