beneath those official blue uniforms? NETWORK RAIL has effectively renationalised all its maintenance and repair work. This is a major setback for Tony Blair's neoliberal privatisation strategy. Piers Mostyn considers what lies behind this development and the implications for battles in other sectors.
t started in Autumn 2003 when the
rail infrastructure (running the track
and stations) was brought into public hands following the failure of the privatised Railtrack. But repair and maintenance were still to be contracted out -driven by New Labour's ideological commitment to the market place.
Then in October contractor Jarvis announced it couldn't do the job, and had its 3,500 workforce brought back into the public sector. Whether it jumped rather than be pushed is academic.
As Jarvis itself said, the work was no longer profitable and exposed them to "reputational risk". In other words, its appalling record in maintaining Britain's rail network was threatening its profits elsefour year multi-million pound criminal and disciplinary investigation into top officer All Dizael.
The capitulation only came after the Black Police Association made unprecedented threats to boycott recruitment drives and organise a demonstration.
And there is growing controversy over the long history of inaction on black deaths in police custody. The latest examples, Roger Sylvester and Chistopher Alder, were declared unlawfully killed by inquest juries but the officers responsible are still on the job
The real story is Labour's postMacPherson Inquiry betrayal of its own stated commitment to root out racism. where.
To the last motivated by greed, Jarvis tried to sell off the business, but Network Rail took its operation in-house. Anything else would have triggered a massive backlash, given Jarvis's responsibility for the fatal Potters Bar crash and a catalogue of other faults.
But this left 60 percent of rail B
maintenance still in private hands. This was clearly untenable. Rail union RMT pursued its long-held demand for the renationalisation of the whole lot. Ten days later Network Rail brought the other 60 percent in-house, too.
Passenger groups are rightly outraged that Jarvis are still involved in track renewal, amid claims of rank incompetence and fraudulent record-keeping in that field.
Labour originally opposed the Conservative government's privatisation of the rail industry, but then failed to renationalise when in government. It has taken six years of fatal crashes, incompetence, public inquiries and campaigns led by passengers and unions to drag the government screaming and kicking to this point. No amount of spin can dress this reality up as a positive policy decision, rather than a straightforward defeat.
The spotlight now turns to London Underground - recently tied into 30-year private maintenance and repair contracts
The Lawrence family had argued at the Inquiry that a conspiracy of racist and corrupt officers were the cause of the failure to prosecute Stephen's killers. Macpherson rejected this, stating that the inquiry "had not heard evidence of overt racism or dis crimination" in the police. This position is now made untenable by the BBC film.
Macpherson branded the police as "Instutionally racist". This was a step forward, but a compromise position - pointing to a structural failing that was discriminatory in outcome rather than explicit racism. It let Individual coppers off the hook and did not challenge the rampantly racist canteen culture or the establishment's connivance with it. against overwhelming hostility among Londoners, who elected Mayor Ken Livingstone specifically to fight this.
Despite Jarvis's national rail failure, it is still the central player in Tubelines - the consortium responsible for the Northern Line, where one of two serious derailments occurred in October.
It is difficult to see how New Labour's policy on the tube can now be sustained, especially with the party trailing fourth in the Mayoral polls at a mere 13 per cent. LU rail unions hope to pile on the pressure by balloting for strike action.
Il three main parties back the idea A
of public services being run for profit. But none can explain how Britain's top construction and engineering firms, with public sector contracts worth billions in health, education and rail, should have been incapable of fulfilling basic maintenance contracts.
By definition these companies need to make a profit. If this is not a quick return, it must be big, and it must guaranteed. They are vulnerable if anything threatens this.like decent wages, health and safety, quality service or even market volatility.
So they pay their workers less, cut corners and work around short-term and flexible contracts. This leads to declining standards, a demoralised, less experienced, deskilled workforce with a high turnover,
In January this year Blunkett quietly dumped the idea of tackling even "institutional racism", despite mounting statistical evidence that the problem was worsening.
Things have come full circle now. The Commission for Racial Equality has announced a new investigation into police racism, four years after the last one prompted Tony Blair to declare his determination to root it out.
None of this comes as any surprise. Government policy - clamping down on civil liberties, scapegoating immigrants and witch-hunting the muslim commun. y - has actively encouraged a reactionary culture that is long entrenched. Only 3 out of
Met officers have been sack no strategic planning and no democratic accountability.
Private sector backers claim that rail maintenance problems are unique. But the private train and bus companies operate in a completely fake "market". Like the private road haulage industry they are entirely dependent on massive hidden state subsidies in the form of free or dirt cheap infrastructure, maintainenance, information services and the like. They would run a mile if they had to pay the true price.
Despite these backhanders, the parlia mentary select committee on transport has scathingly reported that overcrowding on trains, buses and tubes has reached chronic proportions. Thousands of passengers face a "daily trauma" with some commuter trains routinely overfilled by more than 200%. So much for "efficiency" and "greater investment".
And the rail maintenance debacle is reflected elsewhere. Privatised education is in trouble. WS Atkins was scandalously paid to pull out of its contract to run Southwark education halfway through a 5-year €100m, contract.
Hackney education had to be H
taken away from the failing Nord Anglia (a top player in the field) And a government appointed task force has been moved into Bradford's privatised education authority (the biggest in racism since the Macpherson Inquiry in 1999
If there are eight officers like this on one training course, how many hundreds a year go through? How many thousands or even tens of thousands are serving officers?
More inquiries won t resolve this. Blunkett must go The racist officers must be kicked out.
And the police should be made democratically accountable to and controlled by the community. the country because of the failure of *Serco, despite targets being lowered to protect its cash bonuses.
Electricity provision is also in a state of crisis. National Grid Transco has warned of the tightest electricity squeeze for 13 years this winter, with spare capacity reduced to just 15 per cent.
Experts fear this could be worse than recent blackouts affecting
I hundreds of thousands in London and Birmingham, with Britain heading for the total paralysis seen in Italy and parts of the USA. Privatisation and deregulation have left the system in the hands of companies whose over-riding concern is minimising costs and maximizing profits.
PFI scandals also abound in the health sector, but that is another story - regularly covered in this paper. (see P8)
There is a pattern to this. Running public services for profit has not worked. Public disillusion is coming to a head in the wake of disasters, falling standards, squandered cash and the waning of New Labour's star.
Renationalisation is now on the agenda, focusing first on the train operating compa nies and the tube.
Tony Blair claims to have no reverse gear. But that's OK. Recent events have shown he can be shunted backwards by the unions and the left, under the slogan "People before profit".