The tragedy of the private: The potential of the public

Hilary Wainwright

11/08/2014

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 - A stark indictment of market-led politics

Chapter 2 - Building blocks for the future

Chapter 3 - When the architects of the welfare state try to demolish it

Chapter 4 - New foundations for an economics of public benefit

Chapter 5 - Building coalitions

Conclusion: Unfinished business

Preface

It is my pleasure to present this booklet to all union activists. Our collaboration with author Hilary Wainwright has allowed her to take an insider look into some of the most powerful campaigns that public sector unions have been a part of in the past few decades.

This booklet should be used by all activists who are responsible for developing union strategy, mobilising members, and building new power structures, both in the workplace and in the community. The examples that Hilary cites are but a few of the growing number of dynamic, innovative and powerful campaigns in which our unions participate.

From my own experience in Italy, I can attest to the power of alliances between trade unions and community actors. I also believe, from the perspective of a trade union leader, that we require new ways of thinking, new ways of talking, and new ways of organising and mobilising.

Trade unions are legally obligated to negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the employer and to defend against any violations. This is the bedrock of trade union work. However, as this booklet shows, public services unions which build alliances in their communities are better able to defend the rights and interests of their members. It is only when labour rights are understood to be part of the vital spectrum of human rights that we can begin to understand the imperative of joining forces.

As the leader of the global trade union federation Public Services International, representing 20 million public service workers around the world, I am committed to working with our unions to share their insights and experiences, build their strength in their workplaces and communities, and project the power of people united into the decision-making arenas.

We understand that in this era of globalisation, we must work together across our communities to develop our societies based on the principles of justice and equity, and on the foundation of quality public services.

In solidarity,

Rosa Pavanelli

General Secretary, Public Services International

March 2014

Introduction

This booklet is about how public service workers, with their fellow community members, are not only defending public services but also struggling to make them democratic and responsive to people’s needs and desires. It is also about how these alliances are working at different levels – local, national and international.

We are publishing this booklet at a time when the privatisation of public services and utilities has been tried and failed. There is widespread criticism of privatisation. It is now leading to an increasing number of decisions, mainly at a local level, to bring services back under public control.

The failure of privatisation has led to notorious scandals. Since the days of Margaret Thatcher, Britain has been a laboratory for privatisation and has witnessed some of the worst cases. Most recently there was the case of multinational corporation G4S promising thousands of staff for the London 2012 Olympics who simply failed to show up. Before that there was Serco, a company that has built itself on the back of privatisation, being caught leaving National Health Service out-of-hours emergency cover dangerously understaffed, and then admitting falsifying data to hide the failure. An IT contractor, Atos, provides tick-box tests that are used to declare disabled people ‘fit for work’ and take away their benefits – and continues to do so even though some have subsequently died.

These and many, many more everyday calamities lie behind our reference in the title to the ‘tragedy of the private’. We use this phrase to highlight the fundamentally inappropriate application of the logic of private business, based on maximising profits, to the management of shared resources, natural and social, and the meeting of social needs. The phrase turns on its head ‘the tragedy of the commons’, which was an attack on the idea that people can effectively manage common resources together for shared benefit, if they have suitable conditions. The tragedy of the anti-commons, and in particular of the private, arises from the presumption that people act only in their immediate self-interest (rather than taking account of mutual benefit and interdependence) and do not communicate, let alone collaborate, over shared problems.

‘The potential of the public’, by contrast, starts from exactly that awareness of mutual dependence, and an ethics of stewardship, mutual care and collaboration that arises from it. All of these are evident in the struggles to defend public services reported in this booklet, indeed they are often being re-introduced in the process of struggle.

The problem remains of how – through what forms of organisation – we can achieve this potential. The instinct behind producing this booklet is that the answer lies in experimentation and learning from practical attempts to create solutions.

* Complete document in PDF

Published by Public Services International and the Transnational Institute

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/102394