PRAXIS

Diplomas set to replace A-Levels in UK

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:30:37 GMT

I saw some commentary on the news the other day about diplomas replacing A-levels in the UK over the next decade, with incentives from Ed Ballls the education minister. These diplomas would apparently contain more vocational and less academic content. This is all rather typical of the New Labour agenda, reflecting their ambition to vocationalise statutory education in the state sector. There is a great debate about the value of academic qualifications and the rich cultural, intellectual and deep subject-based expertise these foster in young people. We can see a time when vocational-focused diplomas are the only route for young working class people, heralding a rich-poor divide between the poor who are born to be educated in a purely training fashion and the rich who still have the option of attending traditional private education. Is it any wonder the private school sector (under the Academy Tust) is in league with the government to transform the state sector into specialist schools, thus removing working class competition to university places, the job market and the professions? We have already seen instances of 'specialist' academies which replaced state comprehensives dropping some modern languages and other academic subjects (see: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/secondary/specialistschools.html).
If we value education in its true sense, and would give all young people the chances we ourselves had, we should oppose the 'vocationalisation' of education and in particular the transformation of state schools to academies or 'specialist schools' - this process represents the abolition of LEA (Local Education Authority) controlled schools and return to the 19th C. model of state schools run by private business, charities, religious groups and other agenda-based parties.
This is yet another disgrace for social justice and equality of which the New Labour government is guilty - having turned its back on the general population and become an organ of the business elite, whose sole 'neoliberal' aim is to displace social mobility and entrench the class system, thus maintaining a vast pool of low-skilled, vocationalised labour to service the capitalist economy.

Information for Social Change e-journal (Issue 25)

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:07:38 GMT

Information for Social Change Number 25
Summer 2007
Special Issue on:
Libraries and Information in Conflict Situations
Special Issue Editors: Martyn Lowe and Toni Samek

This summer 2007 issue of the Information for Social Change (ISC) journal takes a look at the provision of information and various related aspects of library and information work within conflict situations. In our definition of conflict situations, we include not just wars or civil wars, but also societies in which there is major social strife. We have tried not just to include articles which address the provision of libraries within conflict situations, but also to place such work within its wider social and political contexts.

See: http://www.libr.org/isc/

EU set to privatise power industries

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 08:11:55 GMT

Further to my last message below, it looks like the EU is set to legislate to move national power industries to private hands through opening up the industry to competition.

Another example how core national services are being transformed from tax-funded, publicly accountable national facilities into business-managed, profit-making systems. This is in contrast to so-called developing countries like Bolivia and Venezuela which have recently nationalised their commodities industries in defiance of multinational corporations, to ensure national resources are used on a non-profit basis for their people. See the petition below to protest against the liberalisation of energy in the EU:

http://www.petitionpublicservice.eu/?utm_source=en&utm_medium=email

The UK Health Service under threat - UK Government approves 14 firms to 'help' the NHS

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:56:56 GMT

This week, the UK government approved the use of 14 private firms to work within the NHS, these include BUPA, AXA and other US health care companies (announced by the Labour health minister Ivan Lewis). This represents a further step towards privatisation of the UK health services and transformation from a public service to a non-tax funded and profit-based system.
We in the UK should all be worried by such a move, because we are moving closer to a US model for health care, paid for as an 'extra' by private individuals through insurance.
Privatisation of health care raises many worrying issues, one recently highlighted being the plight of minors who can't pay their own health fees (a boy in the US recently died from a tooth abcess as there was no dentist cover for him).
Also, we have the question of what exactly is being done with UK taxes if public services are dependent on profit. We can imagine the future of the UK like the US, being heavily taxed but with revenues diverted to war and sundry projects instead of funding basic domestic services like health.
Of course, the privatisation of public services is central to Neo-conservativism, as practiced by the Bush/Blair/Brown administrations, their aim is to abolish (or delegate to 3rd parties) services like health, education etc. puting the onus for public services on market forces whilst channeling the nation's taxes into a cocktail of military supremacy, war, spread of global capitalism (under the label of 'democracy'), space technology and other prestige projects.
The deconstruction of public services and social equity across society is also part of the Neo-liberal agenda. The political-business elites are moving to abolish state support systems (like university funding/ grants) thereby limiting social mobility - this is to maintain the traditional poor-rich class structure and a pool of (low-aspiring) workers to service the capitalist economy.
Public services are also under scrutiny by governments as potential new markets for business (in the wake of industrial decline in the West). Business and government are increasingly examining models to derive surplus profit through industries like health insurance and indirectly through business contracts to run hospitals, schools etc.
We should be wary and not complacent of the adverse effects resulting from profit-based public services, not to mention the loss in ethical and social accountability resulting from the transfer of these services to the boardroom.
The wider privatisation agenda is commented on by Ruth and Glenn Rikowski (see Ruth Rikowski's commentary on the 'Global Agreement of Trades in Services' and Glenn's commentary on the commodification of education).

Welcome to my Blog

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:48:16 GMT

Firstly, welcome to my new Blog, where I hope to comment on issues of social justice as they arise. In the current UK climate, we must maintain a vigil on developments of domestic and foreign government policy which are shaped by the Neo-Conservative politic - characterised by the agressive spread of global capitalism (as 'democracy') and the invasive transformation of society into a myriad of profit-based experiences. I am not a traditional socialist, but I hope that others reading this blog will wake up to the sheer injustices caused by the commodification agenda - transforming traditional tax-funded services like schools and hospitals into complex profit-based systems - leading to less accessible, less accountable, less affordable systems and ultimately the degeneration of society back to the dark ages of inequality, ignorance and servility.
Paul.