A-Infos (en) UK, ACG: Business As Usual for the Labour government- Part I. II.. (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

It was immediately apparent that the new Labour government is prepared 
to carry on administrating capitalism in the same way as its Tory 
predecessors. ---- The NHS is certainly not safe with Wes Streeting, as 
Minister of Health, repeating his promises to use the private sector to 
cut the backlog. Any criticism of this is labelled as coming from 
"middle-class lefties" in Streeting's own words. In an interview with 
the Guardian newspaper, he went on record to say that his hands were 
tied by the lack of capacity in the NHS and that there should always be 
a door open to working with the private life sciences and medical tech 
sectors.

Back in 2022 he made clear how he was going to proceed, in an interview 
in the Tory paper the Daily Telegraph. He said then that he would fight 
"hostile" unions in the health service. He singled out the British 
Medical Association (BMA) the doctors' organisation for particular 
attention.

He then went on to spell out that further privatisation of the NHS would 
be implemented by Labour, and that the NHS must either "reform or die." 
In an article in the Guardian newspaper in the same year he stressed 
that "We would also be using spare capacity in the private sector to 
bring down waiting lists. Private providers have capacity for 130% of 
the procedures they were doing for the NHS before the pandemic, but the 
government hasn't utilised it".

Streeting is looking back to the Blair government and its increased use 
of private companies within the NHS during the 1990s and early 2000s. He 
further backed up his determination to bring more privatisation to the 
NHS in an interview with Nick Robinson of the BBC where he said that 
using private companies was "effective" under Blair and then Gordon 
Brown and that it was "popular with patients"(!). He went on to say in 
that interview that "No doubt the next Labour government may have to use 
private sector capacity to bring down NHS waiting lists, and I won't 
shirk that for a minute to get people better health outcomes."

In the Telegraph interview Streeting said that the wage demands of both 
nurses and ambulance workers were "obviously unaffordable." Later his 
boss Keir Starmer commented on a radio phone-in that nurses' demands 
were "more than can be afforded."

Streeting is a career politician who rose to the heights of the Labour 
Party via the traditional route of many other careerists, the National 
Union of Students. He was twice President of the NUS and supported his 
predecessor Gemma Tumelty's reforms of the NUS governance structures, 
seen by many as an attack on any democracy within it. Streeting 
supported the introduction of university tuition fees as President.

Like Starmer, Streeting is a strong supporter of NATO saying that 
Labour's "unshakeable support" for NATO proved that it could be trusted 
with national security. He commented that "I think there are no longer 
any doubts that Labour - which has a long tradition of standing up for 
our armed forces - is a party that will back our military, will stand up 
for peace and security in Europe and also recognises the role Britain 
plays on the international stage to protect democracy and freedom from 
tyrants like Putin."

Streeting's register of interests shows that he accepted donations 
totalling around £175,000 from two donors with links to private 
healthcare firms. On February 6th, Streeting took £48,000 from OPD Group 
Ltd, which is listed as a company "controlled by" Peter Hearn. He had 
previously received £12,000 from OPD on December 6th, 2023, and another 
of £35,475 from a second firm controlled by Hearn between February 28 
and September 8, 2023. Hearn 's firms is a recruitment executive whose 
firms work with "senior NHS executive recruitment and helps private 
healthcare providers recruit healthcare professionals," according to 
EveryDoctor, which campaigns for a better NHS.

In addition, on four occasions in November and December2023, Streeting 
accepted a total of £65,000 from John Armitage, a hedge fund manager 
with more than $500 million invested in UnitedHealth, the largest 
private health insurer in the world by revenue. Armitage had previously 
given Streeting £15,000 on April 12th , 2023.

It is clear that Streeting will come into conflict with both NHS workers 
and users of the health service. It is vital that maximum unity is 
forged between health workers, be they junior doctors, nurses, midwives, 
ambulance staff, or so-called ancillary workers. Petty differences need 
to be overcome as well as the artificial divisions caused by membership 
of a host of different unions. In addition, NHS workers need to look 
towards creating solidarity from NHS users' groups. Streeting wants to 
continue with the policy of degrading the NHS, in line with the policies 
of previous Labour and Tory governments. He must be resisted.

Business As Usual for the Labour government-Part Two.

Keir Starmer has made very clear that his priority is extra spending  on 
the military, and that this overrides any legislation to help the poor 
and needy. In a keynote speech on June 3rd, he promised to make the 
British military "fit to fight" and that  "No policy commitment in 
pursuit of Labour's missions matters unless we uphold the first duty of 
any government: to keep the country safe. Peace and security are hard 
earned. They require constant vigilance."

He went on further to endorse Britain's nuclear deterrent. After all, it 
was the Labour government led by Clement Attlee in 1945 that first 
decided to develop nuclear weapons.  Labour supported the supported the 
1949 North Atlantic Treaty and the creation of NATO. The Labour 'left' 
Nye Bevan enthusiastically supported both the nuclear weapons programme 
and NATO., saying that the call for unilateral nuclear disarmament was 
"an emotional spasm" that would send a Labour foreign secretary "naked 
into the conference chamber."

Starmer said: "Our commitment to the UK's nuclear deterrent is absolute. 
It is a vital safeguard for the UK and our NATO allies. As the party 
that founded NATO, we maintain our unshakeable commitment to the 
alliance, and we will apply a NATO test to major defence programmes to 
ensure we meet our obligations in full."

He sketched out how much he would commit to military spending, saying 
"Labour will conduct a Strategic Defence Review within our first year in 
government, and we will set out the path to spending 2.5 percent of GDP 
on defence."

The commitment of the new Labour government  could cost up to £209 
billion. Labour is quite prepared to carry this through, whilst failing 
to fund the NHS and social spending.

Starmer endorsed Britain's booming arms trade, which exports not just 
bombs, arms, and ammunition to vicious regimes worldwide, but implements 
to control and repress rebellious and unruly populations. Starmer said 
that: "We will prioritise UK businesses for defence investment and will 
reform procurement to reduce waste. Labour will support industry to 
benefit from export opportunities, in line with a robust arms export 
regime committed to upholding international law."

Starmer re-emphasised this commitment to the military at the recent NATO 
conference, affirming "enduring and unwavering commitment to the NATO 
alliance", with Britain playing "a full role" in it,  underlining 
Britain as a junior partner to the USA , stressing once again that 2.5% 
of GDP on defence was "essential" not just for Britain, but for all NATO 
members.  and Britain will play "a full role" in the alliance, and that 
Britain "belongs on the world stage."

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2024/07/15/business-as-usual-for-the-labour-government-part-one/
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