Public Protection, Not Private Profit

Napo’s nationwide 24-hour strike, which ended today at 12 noon, was initiated in order to oppose the Government’s insane plans to outsource 70% of the Probation Service’s work to private companies such as G4S, SERCO and Sodexo. This was a necessary form of industrial action that was widely supported by the public. Therefore to expand upon the dangers to public safety posed by these vulture companies this article will now briefly introduce these three companies’ dirty and unconscionable backgrounds in profiteering at the public expense.

To begin with, one excellent reason why G4S should not be trusted to manage any project concerning the public good owes to 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.”

Next it is worth observing that during the summer, after receiving a whopping bonus for his stellar commitment to corruption, Nick Buckles, the outgoing CEO of G4S was replaced by Ashley Almanza.  Sadly if anyone is able to help G4S avoid paying any political cost for their ongoing profiteering it is greasy operator Mr Almanza, who recently served as the chairman of the Hundred Group — which according to their web site “represents the views of the finance directors of FTSE 100 and several large UK private companies.” Indeed, the Hundred Group’s “member companies represent almost 90% of the market capitalisation of the FTSE 100, collectively employing over 7% of the UK workforce…”

It is also important to point out that Nick Buckles, who served as the chief executive of G4S from 2005 until June 2013 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.

But it is not just big corporations that seek to undermine the smooth running of Probation Services in Britain, as charities are in on the act too. A good example here being SOVA (the Society of Voluntary Associates) which was formed in 1975 by a group of volunteers working within the Inner London Probation Service. Apparently they currently work “in the heart of communities in England and Wales to help people steer clear of crime” — that is at least according to their mission statement.

Yet this is not all SOVA do, and David Cameron’s talk of the need for a “Big Society” has apparently had an effect on SOVA, as last year they stepped up to the Tories’ mark by forming a highly profitable side-project named SOVA Recycling Ltd. In February 2012, the newly minted SOVA Recycling thus became the subcontractor to manage five Household Waste Recycling Centres in Sheffield. Allowing the city’s primary waste services contractor, the multinational Veolia, to profit handsomely by sub-contracting their council sub-contract out to SOVA Recycling: which was part of a costly privatisation scheme that was first brought in by a Liberal Democrat council and is now strongly supported by a Labour council. Double-dealing that has been challenged by determined strike action by the workers at SOVA Recycling, whose pay and conditions were attacked despite the fact that they were already on minimum wage.

To add to the ridicule and contempt that should be rightly heaped upon the capitalists who (mis) manage SOVA, it is sickening to read that in Sheffield one of SOVA’s many ways to aid “long term unemployed people” is through their SOVA Work Programme. A programme which is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, via fellow service providers, which include both G4S and SERCO.

Both SERCO and Sodexo have also achieved international infamy for their upright dedication to exploiting their workers and their individuals with whom care they are all too often charged with. SERCO of course standing out as one of the world’s leading prison profiteers, who, by way of a local example, run HM Prison Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire. For anyone with a brain in their head, the maximisation of corporate profits — which all corporations are mandated to do under capitalism — is   totally incompatible with running a fair and just prison system; or a probation system for that matter, hence Napo’s slogan “Public Protection, Not Private Profit.” For more on this disturbing trend, see Michelle Alexander’s important book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010).

Incidentally SERCO (“the biggest company you’ve never head of”) happens to work closely with Sodexo benefiting at the public expense from handsome military contracts all over the world; with Sodexo themselves, like all too many behemoth corporations, reaping immense profits from their vile anti-union practices. An all-too common commitment to exploitation that has recently been successfully challenged by students at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle (see “UW students throw union-buster Sodexo off campus with ILWU solidarity”).

This latter ray of hope in Seattle should provide much inspiration to workers all over the world, as should Napo’s excellent strike action in Leicester city centre. Moreover as escalating levels of industrial action is making all too clear, capitalism is only able to meet the needs of the few at the expense of the rest of us. This is intolerable, therefore this brutal political and economic system urgently needs to be replaced with a humane and democratic alternative.

So returning to Seattle for a final burst of inspiration, one might observe that Socialist Alternative political candidate Kshama Sawant is presently a hairbreadth away from becoming Seattle’s first ever socialist Councillor. So why not consider joining her sister organisation here in the UK, the Socialist Party, and join us in the struggle to create a better future for whole world, not just for the super-rich!

Here in Leicester we meet in the Richard III pub every Wednesday night at 7.15pm.