ARGUMENTS FOR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
Peter Pinkney President RMT
Agnes Tolmie, past President STUC
Stephen Boyd, Research STUC
Harry Frew STUC President, UCATT
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: Winning the Policy Arguments
Neil Findlay MSP
Lynn Henderson, PCS Scottish Secretary
Chris Stephens, SNP Trade Union group
Dave Watson, Political Officer Unison Scotland
The Morning Star’s autumn conference will discuss how to oppose the current ConDem drive for further privatisation, of posts, banking, government services and nuclear fuel, and hear the arguments FOR public ownership. Private enterprise in Britain is plainly not working. Business investment has collapsed: lower than at any time since 1945. The mismanagement of the financial system – with banks geared to maximising speculative profits – has brought the worse economic crash since the 1930s. Privatised utilities have proved spectacular failures. Ofgen warns of power black-outs by 2015 as a result of lack of investment in the privatised energy sector. Privatised rail has the highest subsidies in Europe – while the publicly owned East Coast line has delivered almost £1billion in profit. A socially disastrous housing crisis has resulted from the inability of the private sector to provide affordable houses. Yet elsewhere in the world there is economic growth – and it is generally in those countries where there is a significant measure of public ownership and active public support for industry. The conference will examine the policy challenges involved in re-winning a mass consensus in favour of public ownership.
