NI 512 - May, 2018

Public ownership rises again

A note from the editor

The common interest

Imagine if the air that we breathe were privatized. Companies would allocate it for payment and profit, and, one would hope, throw in a bit of quality control.

A completely crazy idea, of course, but it puts into perspective just how much of what we consider public goods or the commons has already been carved up. In many parts of the world, even water – the next of life’s essentials – is already in private hands. No-one grows or makes it, yet corporations are allowed to control it.

For over four decades the mantra of ‘private good, public bad’ repeated by global financial institutions and proponents of small (read ‘corporate’) government has fed the fiction that the private sector is better, more efficient at almost anything. The notion barely registers that private profits made from public goods and services deplete the commons even further.

Despite flop after expensive flop requiring public bailout and tales of corporate corruption that match anything levelled at state bureaucracies, the drive to privatize is still in full vroom. Except, now counter currents are also flowing. Often at the city and citizen level, there is an upsurge of public ownership, showing that it can be done and done better in the common interest. This edition’s Big Story celebrates this highly significant shift, while not glossing over the difficulties posed by the hostile climate in which it is occurring.

In our other features, we travel to the island of Bougainville for a classic tale of the resource curse. After a history of strife related to mining, followed by a hard-fought victory for eco-rebels, the possible exploitation of the island’s fabulous mineral wealth is stirring up old tensions.

Dinyar Godrej for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

Fighting for their livelihoods: Puerto Rican teachers come out against the government’s drive to privatize public education.

Photo: Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images

NI 512 - May, 2018

Public ownership rises again

A note from the editor

The common interest

The big story

After decades of denuding privatization policies, the green shoots of a public takeback are finally appearing. Dinyar Godrej on the promise and the threat.

Features

The British National Health Service is seen across the world as a beacon of medical provision. But, hollowed out by privatization by stealth, it needs a radical prescription to restore it, explains Youssef El-Gingihy.

Heard the tale about the private sector always doing things better? Nick Dowson wonders why it still has believers.

With the failures of privatization all too evident when it comes to public resources and services, there is a global upsurge of interest in running things differently.

A court victory has rewarded civil society efforts to end water privatization in the Indonesian capital but many questions remain unanswered. Febriana Firdaus reports.

Trying to take back failing privatized public services exposes governments to the risk of being sued for gargantuan amounts by foreign corporations. Lavinia Steinfort reports.

Progressive city governments in the Barcelona area have showed the world how turning back privatization is achievable at a local level. But there remain obstacles to be overcome, says Luke Stobart.

Nearly 30 years after eco-rebels sent mining company BCL fleeing from Bougainville for wholesale environmental carnage, it is planning its return to the mineral-rich island. But, as conflicts of interest and intrigues develop, locals are less than pleased. Ian Neubauer reports.

Pervez Hoodbhoy is one of South Asia’s leading nuclear physicists and an eminent Pakistani academic and intellectual. He talks to Andy Heintz about growing religious extremism and the troubled legacy of international actors in the region.

Opinion

Steve Parry considers the allure of conspiracy theories and flirts with going over to the dark side.

Mark Engler considers popular resistance to mass shootings and increasing healthcare costs in the US.

Agenda

The Hondurans who took to the streets following the election were met by a hailstorm of teargas and sometimes live gunfire, writes Richard Swift.

Residents from a coastal village in the Gambia are suing a Chinese-owned fishmeal plant accused of pollution, writes Nosmot Gbadamosi.

A community group is campaigning to turn the London borough of Haringey into a safer place for migrants. Charlotte England reports.

Whatever his shortcomings, Ramaphosa is probably the last chance for the older generation of ANC leadership to make good on long-promised equality and justice, Richard Swift writes.

The Kurdish freedom movement has called for a boycott of Turkish goods and services. Sarah Wood reports.

Report from West Cameroon by Natalia Riley.

When Rashid first arrived in Cambodia, he warned other Nauru detainees not to come.

Report from The Balkans by Alessio Perrone.

Report from The Americas by Alessio Perrone.

Turtles swim free; Rebel bank; Atlas of utopias.

Regulars

Praise, blame and all points in between? Your feedback published in the May 2018 magazine.

Violent weather presages human violence. Dan Baron Cohen writes from a community and country on high alert.

Hossien Rezaye from Afghanistan with 'Child Marriage'.

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone.

Civil war, ISIS invasions, mountains of rubbish. Never a dull day in Lebanon. The country’s constant turmoil is exhausting, says Reem Haddad, reporting from Beirut.

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

Cartoon by P J Polyp.

Cartoon by Marc Roberts.

With a career spanning six decades, Tobago’s Calypso Rose has written more than 800 songs focusing on gender discrimination and social injustice. The 78-year-old, who has survived cancer and two heart attacks, spoke to Sian Griffiths.

Film, Book & Music Reviews

The Beast, directed and written by Michael Pearce; The Wound (Inxeba), directed and co-written by John Trengove.

Visit Malphino by Malphino; Universalists by Yonatan Gat.

Two Sisters by Åsne Seierstad; A Moonless, Starless Sky by Alexis Okeowo; Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf, translated by Mara Faye Lethem.

My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame; What does consent really mean? by Pete Wallis and Thalia Wallis, illustrated by Joseph Wilkins.

Site map:

Find us:

Contact us: