Campaign Option: Public Service Not Profit
Essential Info
Privatisation of public services is the most disempowering expression of the dominance of profit before people and the planet.
Until 1979, public transport and other public services were publicly owned. They have since been sold off to private companies. Before, the money the government had to invest in public transport varied. Now, the profit of private corporations comes before the needs of users, and we have all witnessed soaring prices combined with poor services, robbing the public and the environment of an essential service.
On 2 January 2009, above-inflation rail fare increases of more than 6% were met with widespread criticism. These were possible because there is nothing regulating the behaviour of the private corporations.
In 2007, the National Transport survey found that only 17% of the British public use local bus services more than three times a week; 84% use express buses or coaches less than once a year or never; 3% use surface rail more than three times a week, and 7% use domestic air services once or twice a year
Control of bus and rail services is broken up between different private corporations across the UK, so that services will differ from place to place; but the overall need for improved services is a national issue. This makes Public Service Not for Profit ideal for a locally flexible, publicly co-ordinated campaign.
Aim & Objectives
To campaign for improvements to public transport (bus, coach, rail and tram services) in accordance with needs of local users and transport workers
Convey these demands to the operators
Should the existing operators fail, to remove public transport provision from the hands of private corporations and put them into common ownership, to be run by transport workers and users directly
Targets & Strategies
Street survey to identify ways in which services need to be improved
Approaching existing operators with demands gathered from the survey
Using street theatre and other awareness-raising tactics to promote alternative models to privatisation
Either calling for common ownership or corporate accountability, depending on their response.
MPs and the Department for Transport would need to be brought on board. Ultimately, public transport would be transformed, either through stricter regulation of private companies, or through transference directly into the hands of the people. There would also be huge scope for co-ordination with other groups.
Actions
Individual groups could be creative. Any of a wide range of actions would be possible, from petitions to street theatre to public open meetings to demonstrations to - you get the idea! The aim would be to draw attention to the problems with corporate power through the focus of public transport, and put pressure on corporations to change or give up their monopoly.
Pros & Cons
Whilst at first glance this might seem like quite a broad campaign, with targets varying from group to group, this is one of the strengths of the campaign, because it promotes national co-ordination of a truly grassroots local campaign.
Students are a big lobby when it comes to public transport, but will also have the opportunity to hook up with other campaigning groups. There are groups campaigning for nationalisation of public services all over the world, and we would be acting in solidarity with them, and could learn from existing campaigns in this country, and bring them the national attention they deserve.
The campaign would offer huge scope for creative campaigning, and not just get a specific company to make a show of cleaning up its act, or change something on campuses, but really challenge the fundamental premises of corporate power, and promote an alternative. It would benefit both people AND the planet: poorly run, over-priced public transport is robbing both people and the environment of a vital service!
