Ejecting G4S From Leicester Schools

In recent months the multi-national corporation G4S, formerly known as Group 4 Securicor, has become a household name because of it involvement in the Olympics security debacle, which has further increased public opposition to privatisation.

So moving back a few years to July 2009, we might recall that the Leicester Mercury observed that this infamous corporation had taken over caretaker duties in four city secondary schools; these being Fullhurst College, in Braunstone, Soar Valley School, in Rushey Mead, Judgemeadow College, in Evington, and Beaumont Leys School.

Unfortunately, no further articles were dedicated to this matter until three years later, when the Mercury reported that G4S were now also working in Rushey Mead School as part of their ongoing involvement in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. This time however their article hinted at a blossoming controversy. As while it had been anticipated that G4S would soon “assume responsibility for ‘facilities management’ at the rest of the council’s schools”; a council spokesperson cited in the Mercury piece announced that a performance review on these services was being undertaken.

City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby provided little further useful information, simply saying: “There have been concerns about them for a considerable period, both from the BSF team and the schools themselves. There have been some discussions about the future of our relationship with G4S, but it is too early to say what the outcome will be.”

No mention was made of the possible reasons why G4S is not fit to operate in British schools. A few good reasons being their ongoing role in “undermining of the Fourth Geneva Convention and human rights in Israel and Palestine, and for their poor record around the deaths of several people and the injury of hundreds others in their activities for the UK Border Agency.” An easy decision therefore rests with Sir Peter’s so-called performance review. As legally speaking G4S must be excluded from operating in our schools, as the Public Contract Regulations (2006), section (4) (e), clearly states says that a company can be excluded from public contracts if it has committed serious misconduct.

Of course the Labour Party — which has the unenviable record of recently suspending two of their councilors (in Southampton) for opposing the government’s brutal cuts — is unlikely to take action against G4S unless pressured by a mass campaign. Indeed, one need only note that John Reid, an early member of Labour Friends of Israel who recently served as Tony Blair’s Home Secretary and Secretaries of State for Health and Defence, actually joined G4S in 2009 as their Regional Management Director (UK & Ireland). [1]

It is also important to point out that Nick Buckles, who has served as the chief executive of G4S since 2005 recently retired as a director of Arriva plc, having served on their boardroom between 2005 and 2010 (when Arriva was then acquired by Deutsche Bahn). This is significant because Arriva are currently involved in the “disgusting” life-endangering privatisation of the East Midlands non-emergency ambulance service.

Thankfully in the last few weeks a “Stop G4S” campaign has been set up in Leicester initiated by the Leicester Civil Rights Movement, Amnesty International and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The Socialist Party is supporting this campaign, and the “Stop G4S Campaign” will be holding their next public meeting on Monday 8th October at 6.30pm at the Race Equality Centre.

All attacks on our public services must be resisted, and working in collaboration with the umbrella group Leicestershire Against the Cuts is but one way for those under attack to help overcome our profit-mad adversaries: Leicestershire Against the Cuts having been launched in late 2010 as a coalition of trade unions, community organisations, political activists and concerned individuals united against cuts in public services.

Notes

[1] John Reid, or Lord Reid of Cardowan, as he prefers to be known, joined G4S in 2009. According to Corporate Watch, the £50,000 a year G4S “is giving the New Labour hard man quickly paid off for G4S as it landed a multi-million pound, four-year contract to supply private security guards for around 200 Ministry of Defence and military sites across the UK just three months after it took him on. Since then he has been diligent in ensuring the hi-tech security used by his employers is a feature of parliamentary debates whenever possible.” Fittingly, one might note that early in his political career Reid served as a political adviser to working class turncoat Neil Kinnock (between 1983 and 1985). In December 2010 it was reported that when: “Asked about David Cameron’s performance, Dr Reid offered a positive verdict. The prime minister was ‘growing into the job’ and had been an ‘astute’ premier so far, he said.”