SÓKNARHUGUR Á ÞINGI PSI

Íslensku fulltrúunum á þingi PSI –Public Services Union – heimssamtökum starfsfólks í almannaþjónustu bar saman um hve  fróðlegt og áhugavekjandi var að sækja þingið sem stóð alla undangengna viku.
Fróðleg erindi voru flutt á þinginu og í tengslum við það störfuðu einnig vinnuhópar þar sem einstök málefni voru brotin til mergjar.  Hvarvetna í heiminum sækja markaðsöflin að almannaþjónustunni og hafa þau á sínum snærum stjórnmálamenn sem tala ákaft máli þeirra og greiða götu fjármagnsins í hvívetna.  Á þinginu var hvatt til samstöðu bæði til varnar og sóknar. Fram kom vilji til að efla rannsóknir á afleiðingum markaðsvæðingar og jafnframt eindreginn ásetningur um að efla alamnnaþjónustuna að styrk og gæðum.
Annað sem vakti athygli er sú vaxandi áhersla sem aðildarfélög PSI sýna fjárfestingum lífeyrissjóðanna. Verkalýðshreyfingin er að vakna til vitundar um hve mikið fjárfestingarfjármagn er á sveimi  í heiminum sem komið er beint úr vasa launafólks. Vilja menn að þessu fjármagni verði varið til samfélagslega ábyrgra og uppbyggilegra verkefna en jafnframt var varað við óábyrgum fjárfestingum, ekki síst svokallaðra private equity- sjóða en það eru óskráðir sjóðir og lúta þar af leiðandi ekki sama eftirliti kauphalla og skráð félög gera. Út á þessa braut hafa íslenskir lífeyrissjóðir verið að fikra sig með fjárfestingar sínar og er mikilvægt að fara gætilega í þeim efnum.

Á þingum af þessu tagi er maður minntur á hve vel við búum í okkar heimshluta þrátt fyrir allt miðað við það sem verst gerist hvað lífskjör og mannréttindi  varðar. Víða er beinlínias lífshættulegt að starfa fyrir verkalýðsfélög og er Kolombía efst á þeim svarta lista. Á heimasíðu BSRB voru fluttar fréttir af þinginu og er þar jafnframt að finna vefslóð PSI. Sjá fréttir á vefsíðu BSRB hér  hér og hér.Eftirfarandi er ræða sem ég flutti á þinginu þar sem ég hvatti til þess að PSI beitti sér fyrir auknum rannsóknum á afleiðingum markaðsvæðingar:

I originally asked for the floor to express support on behalf of the Iclenadic delegation and the Nordic constituency  for a resolution put forward by Force Ouvrier on privatization and the future of public services. It is in line with the goals PSI has been striving for and fighting for - and what is more for what PSI should stand for in future years.
The streangth of our movement - the streangth of PSI - our streangth is to know what we stand for: Solidarity and freedom based on equality and equal rights. This is the fundament of our vision.

Our opponents also have a vision and also they know what they stand for. Like us, they claim they stand for freedom. But their freedom is the freedom of money, freedom of capital.When they refer to fairness and justice they mean fairness and freedom in the market and of the market. To ensure freedom of the market all hindrances in the way of capital interests must be removed. When Margareth Thatcher came to power in the United Kingdom in the late1970s, she said she would start her work by removing the greatest hindrance of all, namely organized labour. She did not use those words, she said that the labour movement constituted a monopoly in the market and as everybody must realize monopolies are bad- and must be removed.

As we know the likes of Thatcher, the neo-liberals, have been successful - all too successful - in implementing their policy of furthering the intersts of market forces.
But there is a weakness - there is a serious flaw in our opponents´ argumentation. It is the same weakness that sometimes characterized our fight in the 20th century, namely the refusal to recognize the importance of empirical evidence - refusal to listen to the voice of experience.
Radical forces in society often said, while defending their ideology - our ideology: "We are creating a new world - it takes time - don´t judge us too harsly -don't judge us  until that world  has been created." This was an ideological position often confronted by critics who were seen to be pragmatic and whose arguments all too often sounded as common sense.

But what has happened? In a way the world has been turned upside down. We of course still have our ideolygy - our vision of a new world - but now we also have the voice of experience on our side. Our ideology is backed by empirical evidence - unlike our opponents´ who are motivated by the same old ideology of narrow greedy class intersts. But now it is they who say: " - wait - don't judge us harshly - we are creating a new world; the world of a perfect market economy. And this world", they say, "will work perfectly! Give it a chance"

But we have already seen how perfect it is:

It may be perfect for capital owners but it is not perfect for working people and for society at large, it is a disaster.

We know the effects of water privatization.

We know how privatization of health care and other parts of the welfare system - has created inequalities - and it has lead to an inefficient and a more costly system.

Here I come to the point I want to emphasize: Our task is to point this out, print it into the mind of the world and then follow with action because words without action tend to fall dead. This is indeed what PSI has been doing - PSI has argumented and acted -  and I pay tribute to PSI, to Hans Engelberts, Mike Waghorne for their tremendous effort over the years and indeed to all the secretariat ... and I call attention to the work of our researchers, David Hall and his team at the PSRI reseach unit, Brendan Martin of Public World and all the others. For the future we should put increased recourses into research of this kind. Even Margareth Thatcher knows in her heart that when she gets old and frail and helpless, it is after all better to have at her bedside a good and devoted public service nurse, than even the two of them, father and son, Milton and David Freedman.

Everything - all the facts, experince, common sense, fairness, justice - everything is in our favour - but it is only in our favour if we make it known and then follow our conviction with action. It is our task to tell the world that our solutions, our goals and our vision will lead to a better world for all!