My following story appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Soon after Sydney’s Marrickville council announced in December to embrace boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to force the Jewish state to abide by international law”‰—”‰… Greens and Labor councillors supported the move”‰—”‰federal Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese entered the debate. In a news story in…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
Next move in Australia; Serco guards carrying deadly weapons?
This is the state of human rights against faceless asylum seekers in Australia. Justified frustration, after months and years of waiting for decisions, is met with violence. And under-staffed Serco are the battering rams of the failed policy? From yesterday’s ABC’s The World Today: BRENDAN TREMBATH: Refugee advocates and the Greens say they’re horrified that…
Who says BDS isn’t working against Israel?
Example one: The Israeli security firm Hashmira, which is owned by the Danish concern G4S, announced last weekend it will stop providing equipment to security installations over the Green Line. The move comes in the wake of public pressure in Denmark following a report from the Coalition of Women for Peace, which runs the “Who…
What I’m hearing about Christmas Island chaos
This last weekend saw a large break-out at Australia’s Christmas Island detention facilities. The federal government acknowledges tear gas was used to quell the protests. Thousands of asylum seekers languish for months and often longer with no indication when their cases may be resolved. It’s a prison camp designed to punish those seeking asylum. My…
Warning, NSW: companies like Serco aren’t your real friends
My following story appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The New South Wales election is weeks away and privatisation is a key issue of concern for voters. Liberal opposition leader Barry O’Farrell, the likely next premier, leads a team that openly talks about restructuring the ways in which public assets could be sold. It’s possible…
Neo-liberalism only helps the corporations, nobody else
As Britain’s conservative government embarks on a massive program of privatisation, Britain’s Channel 4 Dispatches discovers that many major multinationals, including Serco and G4S, are doing very nicely, thank you, out of the public cuts: Channel 4’s Ben Laurance writes in the Daily Mail: It has been a week in which public sector workers have…
Serco will keep failing because the system is broken in Australia
As more asylum seekers are crying for help on Australia’s Christmas Island – locked up for months on a remote island – all the federal government talks about is fining Serco: The federal government will take action against detention centre service provider Serco if it has breached any part of its contract following two breakouts…
Shock Doctrine alive and well
Naomi Klein on how her thesis is morphing into something even deadlier (via Democracy Now!): AMY GOODMAN: We only have 30 seconds. You published Shock Doctrine in 2007. So much of what you’ve predicted has come to pass. Final words? NAOMI KLEIN: Look, my fear is that climate change is the crisis, the biggest crisis…
CACI is perfect representation of modern era
Private contractor CACI has done very well in the post 9/11 world (including providing the guards who tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib in Iraq). Writer Andrew Cockburn highlights a company that represents the modern world of creating something out of nothing (unless you include maintaining and protecting the bogus “war on terror” as important): The…
Serco puts out the begging bowl
What is a poor, little multinational like Serco to do when Britain has less money to give? Look outward: Serco, the FTSE 100 support services group that runs the Docklands Light Railway, is to target growth in international markets as the UK economy comes under pressure from public spending cuts. Christopher Hyman, chief executive, said…