Defend Our NHS - 4th March National Demonstration

Saturday 4th March 2017

12pm Tavistock Square, London.

Our NHS is under threat from Tory cuts and privatisation. This year the Red Cross have warned of humanitarian disaster in the NHS. Investment is needed for this vital institution but instead the government are cutting drastically. £22bn is being cut from the NHS in England under the secretive STP cuts. We don't yet know exactly where the £300m+ cuts in the Bristol area will hit but other areas have already announced hospital closures. The Tory government is pushing the NHS toward privatisation so their rich mates can grab a slice of the profits to be made from illness. There is already a creeping privatisation in the health service, with private companies operating at a profit to provide services behind the NHS logo. Recently Richard Branson's Virgin health company took over NHS contracts worth £700m in the Bath area. 

This national demonstration is vital, we must send the message loud and clear:

Save our NHS! No cuts, no closures, no privatisation!

Coach tickets from Bristol can either be booked via Unison or UNITE Trade Unions (non-members welcome) or The People's Assembly:

Unison Area Health Branch:

Tel: 07813142832

UNITE Bristol Area Health Branch:

Tel: 07983233908

(UNITE and Unison both free for members with a £5 returnable deposit or £10 charge for non-members)

The People's Assembly at a cost of £6-£10 at:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bristol-coaches-its-our-nhs-…

Further information about the demo can be found at:

http://www.healthcampaignstogether.com/

Below an NHS nurse and Socialist Party member explains why they are going on the march:

We're seeing almost daily headlines announcing the NHS is in crisis. From overstretched A&Es, to patients left on trolleys, to staff morale being at an all-time low - our NHS is at breaking point.

The Tories' empty promises in 2010 that the NHS was 'safe in their hands' have been broken time and time again. A real time pay cut of 25% since 2010 has left some NHS staff relying on food banks. Our commitment to caring for our patients is continuously exploited. The jokes about nurses going whole shifts without time for a toilet break are becoming an increasing reality.

We're seeing mass privatisation of services - including those on the frontline. Proposed closures of hospitals, specialist services and A&Es are provoking thousands to go onto the streets in disgust.

The future is one of either fight or be trampled. The mood is gathering among health workers to come down firmly on the side of fighting back. The inspirational struggle of the junior doctors has given confidence to others in the NHS.

The campaign against the pay freeze is now to be debated in parliament after an online petition hit over 100,000 signatures. Despite the attacks from the right-wing media aiming to undermine faith in the NHS, working class people still see it as the jewel in the crown. And despite massive cuts, staff still deliver an overwhelmingly good quality of care.

The national demonstration on 4 March is vital. It's a chance to bring together the hundreds of local campaigns across the country into the national spotlight. It's a chance to show the government that we will fight for our health service.

I'll be marching to defend the NHS for the working class today and for future generations. I'll be marching because NHS workers deserve more than a continuous pay freeze and because the patients I and other NHS workers care for deserve better.

Bristol TUSC on Protect Our NHS demo

Fight Royal Mail sell-off: Strike against privatisation

By a Postal Worker

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/17425/18-09-2013/fight-royal-mail-sell-off

It is no surprise that the Con-Dems are rushing the privatisation of Royal Mail through as quickly as they can. They face overwhelming opposition. 70% of people don't want to see the postal service in private hands. Price hikes to line the pockets of the super-rich - that's been the bitter lesson from the sell-off of rail, energy and water.

Privatisation would only mean job losses and a worsening of working conditions for postal workers. The 125,000 postal workers in the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are expected to vote strongly in favour of strikeaction over pay and pensions in the ballot, whose result is due early in October.

Not everyone's opposed though. Big bankers, lawyers, accountants and PR firms will collect up to £20 million in fees from advising on the sale. But the public will pay higher prices and eventually lose services. Royal Mail will be at the beck and call of institutional investors wanting a return for their investment.

The £200 million Royal Mail said it could have paid out in dividends if it had been listed for a whole year, would be better spent on providing jobs and improving services.

Our union, the CWU will be supporting the NHS demo at the Tories' conference on 29 September in Manchester - this is very welcome. But the union leaders should also announce a national demo against Royal Mailprivatisation. This would give postal workers, other trade unionists and members of the public an opportunity to channel their deep anger over cuts and privatisation.

The CWU could link up with other unions considering action, such as PCS, NUT, FBU and the RMT to take strike action on the same day. The TUC must name the day for a 24-hour general strike. The collective strength of workers withholding their labour could bring this weak coalition to its knees.

CWU general secretary Billy Hayes recently said: "We want Labour to commit the next Labour government to renationalise Royal Mail if it is privatised." That would scotch the sell-off plans. But this was wishful thinking - when in government Labour failed to renationalise the rail network or repeal the anti-union laws. In fact they tried to flog off Royal Mail. This is just further evidence of the need for a new mass party of the working class.

Royal Mail workers are confident we can win this battle. We need to fight to convince every CWU member of the strike's importance and involve them in the strike.

Regular mass meetings at local, regional and national level should make the decisions about the campaign.

Victory to the Royal Mail workers!

The Socialist calls for:

• No privatisation of Royal Mail
• If CWU members vote to strike, this must have the support of the entire trade union movement
• No to the use of the anti-trade union laws; scrap them!
• Defend all jobs and no to increased workloads
• Defend the union, defend the reps
• For a fully nationalised and democratically run communications industry
• Build a new mass workers' party to provide a fighting, political alternative to the pro-big business parties
• For a 24-hour general strike to oppose all privatisation and austerity measures

BADACA: Save Bristol's care service!

Bristol City Council has passed plans to close most of the city's council run Care Homes and Day Care Centres. This affects the elderly residents of these omes and some of the most vulnerable people in the city. 200 residents face being made homeless by these plans and over 100 care staff could lose their jobs. These are services we could all need in the future so we must do what we can to save them.

Please sign the online petition against the closures and circulate it:
http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/epetition_core/community/petition/1988

The Bristol and District Anti-Cuts Alliance has also organised events to collect more signatures around the city over the next few weekends. More details of these and of the campaign can be found on their website: www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

There is also a lobby of the next council meeting on Tues 18th Sept, starting from 5pm at the Council House. Please come down and invite as many people as you can, we need to show the council that the people of Bristol will not stand for this.

Paralympics, Atos scandal, Remploy closures... Con-Dems win gold for hypocrisy!

By Les Woodward, national convenor, Remploy trade union consortium

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/15093/29-08-2012/paralympics-atos-scandal-remploy-closures-con-dems-win-gold-for-hypocrisy 
The ethos that despite being disabled, a person should be able to fulfil their own potential, through holding down a job and being a productive member of society, was also the ethos that eventually led to the setting up of the first Remploy factory in 1946.Millions are watching the 2012 Paralympics. The Games aim to inspire young disabled people to take up sport, compete at the highest level and illustrate to the world that having a disability doesn't mean that a full, active and challenging life cannot be lived.

The forerunner of the Paralympics started in 1948 in Stoke Mandeville Hospital as a way of using sporting competition as a form of healing and therapy for disabled ex-service personnel, many of whom were recovering from injuries suffered in World War Two.

2012 will be a memorable year for disabled people who will be part of the Paralympics, either as spectators or participants. It will also be a memorable year for the disabled workers of Remploy, but the memories will be poles apart.

The disabled athletes, their families and fans, will have joy and excitement. They will look back on 2012 as the year they came to the Games, and left with souvenirs and full photograph albums to record every joyous second.

The disabled Remploy workers and their able-bodied comrades, however, will have bad memories. Their factories, which have provided good quality employment for the best part of 70 years, will shut their gates for the last time. They will head, not for gold but for the dole and a life of poverty and deprivation as they get dumped on the scrapheap.

This will be then vastly exacerbated by the Con-Dems' cold cruelty: with benefits slashed and denied financial and other support to live independently, disabled people are also being demonised as "scroungers", and abuse towards them is rocketing.

In the Con-Dems' arrogance, brought about by the 'Born to Rule' attitude that they have all grown up with, they have ignored the big questions that will be on every working class disabled person's lips, especially if they are ex-Remploy workers or victims of Atos, sickeningly one of the prime sponsors of the Olympics and Paralympics.

Why is it that disabled people are encouraged to compete on the field of sport, partake as competitors in activities from which able bodied athletes are segregated, while being employed in a workplace alongside other disabled people in a supported environment is not acceptable? The government, some charities and, to their shame, some trade unions seem to find having fun together acceptable, but not working together.

Why should disabled people have to suffer the stress of the 'work capability' assessment administered by Atos? The sole aim of this cruel process seems to be to push as many people as possible off sickness benefits, as part of the £18 billion welfare cuts.

No Remploy closures. The factories should be run for disabled people, by disabled people, where people with all forms of disability can fulfil their employment potential in the short, medium and long term.

Fight all welfare cuts. Kick Atos out of the system. End the work capability assessment. A living wage and fulfilling work opportunities for all without compulsion.

BADACA: SAVE THE NHS Demo & Rally Saturday 5th May

Bristol & District Anti-Cuts Alliance 

SAVE THE NHS 

Demonstration & Rally 

Saturday 5th May 

Assemble 11am College Green 

The government's Health & Social Care Bill has been passed. This doesn't mean that the fight to save the NHS is over – it's just starting. People up and down the country will resist these changes. 

The new act will fragment the NHS. Private companies will take over services and make a profit from them. The result will be a system like the USA where many people have no health care and private health companies make vast profits.

The changes are costing billions of pounds at a time when the government is also cutting the NHS budget. We will end up with a worse service and have to pay to use it. Only the private health companies will benefit.

The NHS is should be about co-operation not competition and privatisation. NHS workers and users of the service all recognise the threat these changes make. Together we can prevent them being implemented.

This demonstration is one of several events in the city marking May Day – international workers' day.

For more information contact admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

Website www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

Facebook www.facebook.com/BristolAntiCuts

Remploy - Not for sale!

Unite the Union campaign against closure of Remploy sites 

Since 1946 Remploy has supported thousands of disabled people return to work, from ex-service personnel to people born with complex disabilities.

On 7 March 2012 the coalition government announced plans to close 36 of the 54 remaining Remploy sites with compulsory redundancies for 1,752 people. This decision comes just a few days after the government passed the welfare bill, which is to help people in to work. Instead of a commitment to help the most vulnerable people in society, the government is making life worse for them.

Remploy provides real jobs for many hundreds of disabled workers, giving them the confidence and dignity to be active and contributing citizens. Closing the factories will cause real hardship and push many to the back of the dole queue.

The government wants to sell off its Remploy factories. Join Unite in saying save our Remploy.

Sign our petition now to save Remploy factories

National Demonstration – Friday 20 April 2012

Lobby the DWP in Sheffield - The campaign to save Remploy factories continues
Assemble 12.30 for a 1pm start outside the Department of Work and Pensions office in Sheffield (Steel City House) at the junction of West Street, Church Street and Tripit Lane.

Rally and March to the Town Hall

Speakers to be announced

All Welcome bring your banners

Local victory in the fight to save the NHS - but mass action will be needed

Local campaigners have stalled the decision to hand out the management of NHS Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust to a private contractor - see report on the BBC here and get the latest updates from Stroud Against Cuts.

However this will not be enough to stop the 'hand grenade' of privatisation in Stroud, in Gloucestershire or anywhere else. There is a now huge mood for action to save the NHS but unfortunately so far this has not been provided with a leadership. The trade union leaders have not called a mass demonstration in defence of the health service which, if it was properly built for around clear slogans and an on-going programme of struggle, could get a phenomenal response, given the mood of rage on the issue. An indoor evening lobby in March is not sufficient. The Socialist Party calls for a massive Saturday demo as a start of a determined united campaign to save and rebuild our NHS, with trade union strike action at its heart. Local campaigns should also link up and support this action.

All of this will deal a huge blow to ConDem plans to disamantle our health service, but will not address the issue that all the main political parties are basically in agreement on this issue. We need a a mass workers' party whose representatives would stand to defend the NHS and oppose all privatisation. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is an important step towards this and should be supported by all who wish to save our NHS.

Read this weeks' editorial from the Socialist on this issue here: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/13694/08-02-2012/save-the-nhs

Southmead rally and day of action - Saturday 3rd September

Please visit: http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/

The campaign against Bristol City Council’s plan to privatise care homes and other social care services and cut funding to voluntary sector organisations is now supported by Britain’s three biggest unions, Unite, Unison & GMB.

More details about the campaign here…

http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/2011/07/28/unite-unison-gmb-throw-their-weight-behind-campaign-to-defend-social-care-services-in-bristol/

http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/2011/08/09/latest-news-about-our-campaign-to-save-social-care-services-in-bristol/

UNITE have published three leaflets which can be downloaded from the BADACA website Growing The Economy, Fair Wages & Tax Justice For All,Trade Union & Employment Rights. Also a statement ‘Cuts Are Not the Answer‘ from their National Executive.

The care homes under threat include Bowmead, Brentry, Broomhill, Hayleigh, Maesknoll and St Peter’s, plus Coombe, Rockwell, Wellhay and Greville. Also under threat are day-care services including Lanercost, Lawrence Link, St George, Shire Link, Dover Court, North Bristol Drop In, South Bristol Drop In and New Horizons, as well as other day care services for people with dementia. And of course all the voluntary sector organisations whose funding is threatened – full list of threatened organisations here.

BADACA leaflet about cuts & privatisation of Bristol social care services

“What can I do?”

Sign the e-petition on the council website set up by Steve Preddy of Unite…
http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/epetition_core/view/homecare

Saturday Stalls in August- if you can help out with a BADACA stall one Saturday in August, please email us at admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260971757247032

Day of Action – 3rd September – in the week of the Southmead By-election let’s send a message to the LibDem council!!
http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/2011/08/09/day-of-action-southmead-by-election-lets-send-the-libdems-a-message/

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197094060352043

Mass lobby of Bristol City Council, College Green – 5pm – Tuesday 6th September
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128214383935316

BRISTOL & DISTRICT ANTI-CUTS ALLIANCE BULLETIN - 29th July 2011

Join The Campaign To Defend Social Care In Bristol

The campaign against the cuts to social care in Bristol is developing rapidly. There is an increasing groundswell of opinion against the council's threats to provision of these services in the city. Cuts are being finalised to voluntary sector grants for services which provide a lifeline to many elderly and vulnerable people and their carers. These grants will be cut from November 1st. Many services provided by the council to the elderly in their homes are being privatised. 

In the next two months plans based on Councillor Jon Rogers' proposal to close and privatise council-run care homes and day centres will be published. At the same time the truth about the sub-standard services provided by private companies like Castlebeck is becoming known. Leading LibDem councillors say it is wrong to alarm people by making them aware of the council's plans. But if the alarm isn't raised now it will be too late - the council will  push their cuts through with little or no room for opposing views to be heard.

Local trades uions, Unite The Union, Unison & GMB are throwing their weight behind the campaign. They are sending letters to voluntary organisations and others across the city calling on them to join the campaign. This can be downloaded from here. If you are involved with any of the voluntary sector organisations threatened or know anyone who is please make sure they get to see this letter.

The full council meeting on Tuesday 6th September will be the focus of a major protest against these threatened cuts. Please make a note of the date in your diary now and tell all your friends, neighbours and work colleagues. Details are below

The BADACA meeting on Monday 1^st August will hear reports from representatives of service users and workers at the threatened services on activities so far. It will be an opportunity to plan the next stage of the campaign to protect social care services in the city from the council's cuts. Details are below – please try to come along and pass the information on to anyone you know who is effected by these threatened cuts.

We would like to hear from users of these services and their families so we can involve them in our campaign. If anyone has contact with any of them please get in touch at admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

If you want more information about anything below email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

More information on BADACA and events can be found at our website www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk and via the link to Facebook from there

If you have events you would like included in a future bulletin please email details to admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk . Our aim is to send out a bulletin every Friday. The deadline for inclusion of events is 5pm on Thursday.

BADACA Open Meeting - Monday 1st August

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: Friends Meeting House, Champion Square (River Street), Bristol BS2 9DB. A map can be found here.

A flyer for the meeting can be downloaded from here.

The venue is on the left of the new part of Bond Street as you travel towards Temple Meads, opposite Cabot Circus, behind the Future Inn. The street used to be called River Street (perhaps part of it still is). It is a very central venue, with level access and parking available on the forecourt outside or in the Cabot Circus car park. Plenty of buses stop nearby. If you want more advice on getting there please email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

Hear from workers and service users directly effected by the council's planned cuts. Discuss how to build the campaign against them. All welcome.

For further information email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

OTHER EVENTS

Tuesday 2nd August

BADACA Social Care, Claimants & Welfare Group, 7.30pm, Bristol County Sports Club, Colston St, BS1 5AE. Map: http://streetmap.co.uk/postcode/bs15ae

Lobby Of Bristol City Council - Tuesday September 6th

Meet at the Council House from 5pm. There will be plenty more publicity for this important event out early in August but put this date in your diary now.

For further information email admin@bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk

BADACA Open Meeting to Launch Campaign Against Social Care Cuts & Privatisation

From BADACA: http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/

Monday 18th July, 7:30pm at Broadmead Baptist Church

The main purpose of this meeting is to begin a city-wide campaign against the cuts in social care – both council provided services and the voluntary sector. We will be inviting users and workers of these services and other interested parties to join us. Please try to come along. If you know anyone effected by these cuts please pass on the information to them and encourage them to come along as well.

Further information…
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138494892897678

See also our list of services threatened…
http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/2011/07/07/bristol-city-council-launch-attack-on-voluntary-sector-services-for-the-elderly/

Flyer for BADACA open meeting to launch campaign against social care cuts & privatisation

Bristol Anti-Cuts events: NHS Emergency!

From BADACA: http://www.bristolanticutsalliance.org.uk/

Andrew “Greedy” Lansley’s crazed plans to break-up and privatise the NHS have already started, despite Cameron’s spin that the plans are on ‘pause’.

Join BADACA supporters on the following three protests over the next week to voice your feelings about moves to turn Bristol Community Health (which provides many of our local NHS services) into a ‘Social Enterprise’, ripping up NHS contracts with staff and leaving our local services one corporate takeover away from being run for profit by some huge American health insurance company!!!

Thursday 26th May, 12 noon – 2pm: 1st Picket of Bristol Community Health Consultation – Easton –http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105210582902542

Saturday 28th May, 12 noon – 2pm: Bristol UK Uncut – Emergency Operation – Broadmead – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146087172131177

Tuesday 31st May, 2pm – 4pm: 2nd Picket of Bristol Community Health Consultation – Southmead – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=148199058586377

Government admits that privatisation doesn't work - at least for wine...

Government wine cellars have been in the news recently, spun both ways with some sources saying the cellars have avoided the government axes, while others using the same story to say it represents proof that we really are "all in this together"!
Now we know that is too hard to swallow, but not as hard as the top Tory Henry Bellingham who is quoted by the BBC - "...this is a resource that's used by government for government hospitality, for business hospitality, for visiting heads of state. If we sold the cellar we'd have to go out there and buy wine and ultimately that would be much, much more costly." In other words, privatisation doesn't save money and doesn't work! Well the Socialist Party could have told the government that. So why not apply that logic to the NHS, prisons, schools, etc? And while they are at it, the railways, utilities and all the other services and industries that have been flogged off over the years. Privatisation is legalised theft!

RCN: No confidence in Tory Lansley

From the Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/13/nursing-vote-no-confidence-andrew-lansley

"The leader of the Royal College of Nurses has called on Andrew Lansley to "think again" after nurses overwhelmingly backed a motion of no confidence in the health secretary's handling of the NHS reforms.

Delegates at the RCN conference in Liverpool voted 99% in favour of the motion as the beleaguered health secretary struggles to persuade the public of the merits of his health reforms.

The almost unanimous dissent from an organisation traditionally seen as being more conservative in character than some of its sister unions is a major blow to Lansley's claim that most NHS staff support the proposed changes...."

See BADACA's excellent NHS booklet here

Benefit Cuts Hurt Protest - Wednesday April 14th

ConDems privatise prisons..expect and support POA strike action

Please read this interview for the Socialist: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/11586/31-03-2011/prison-officers-fight-prison-privatisation
Also see this from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12920843

POA fights privatisation of Birmingham prison -Interview with POA assistant secretary, Joe Simpson

The Con-Dems have sold Birmingham prison to private security firm G4S. This is the first existing public sector prison to be contracted out. The POA prison officers' union opposes privatisation and has warned that it will challenge the move.

Prison officers in prisons that are privatised could be forced out of the collective bargaining agreement with the government and face worse terms and conditions.

They could also suffer attacks on their pensions. According to the BBC, justice minister Ken Clarke told MPs that the "military are involved" in contingency plans should prison officers stage a strike.

The Socialist spoke to Joe Simpson, assistant secretary of the POA.

What is going on at the moment?

We are living at the moment with threats of injunctions against the union. It's been going on since the start of the week when we put out two circulars to our members reminding them of the policies of the union.
We immediately got a letter from the Ministry of Justice asking us to withdraw the circulars because they believed we were inducing prison officers to take industrial action which we weren't.
This resulted in another letter coming back saying that they were going to seek 'injunctive relief' against the POA, ie to get an injunction to stop us from doing anything.
If we try to do anything in the meantime they can just come in and seize the assets of the union. Phil Wheatley, who was director general of the prison service and is now on the board of directors of G4S, who've just won the bid for Birmingham, did say that if we ever went on strike he would 'own Cronin House', which is our HQ.
What are the policies of the union?
The policies of the union are that we would take industrial action up to and including strike action if a public prison went over to private. We are opposed to privatisation because we believe that the state has a fundamental obligation, that if it's going to sentence its citizens then it should also have the obligation of looking after them and rehabilitating them.
But what they're doing now is actually selling their obligation to the lowest bidder just to get out of that.
What will privatisation mean for members?
For members we are hitting a level of uncertainty here. This is unprecedented.
We've never ever had a prison go over to the private sector and now Birmingham has. The state of play now is that we are going to meet with the chief executive of the National Offending Management Service.
We've requested a meeting with the Prisons Minister, Crispin Blunt, who we are meeting on Monday 4 April 2011 at 5pm. And we're also going to be asking for a meeting with Brendan Barber of the TUC for support. We have received support from individual unions, RMT, PCS.
But the thing that disappointed us was that a Labour front bencher got up and actually supported everything that ken Clarke was saying, that was Sadiq Khan.
The opposition is in total agreement. This was a process that was started by a Labour government. They started this process in 2009.
Was it Labour who took away your right to strike?to strike?
Jack Straw brought back section 127. Actually it was 1994 when we lost our industrial rights through a Thatcherite government in which Ken Clarke was one of the more prominent MPs.
Then we signed up to the JIRPA [joint industrial relations procedural arrangement] which was a no-strike agreement because we thought we were getting a deal.
But then management started to veto what was a dispute, they were deciding what was a dispute and when we went to get agreement from court they agreed with the prison service so we withdrew from the arrangement.
When we withdrew Jack Straw tried to get another no-strike deal. When we refused he brought back 127 on the statute books. In fact the law that was brought in by Jack Straw is worse than what the Tories put in in 1994.
The only thing they could do in 2008 was to come out and start dismissing people which we believe they will try to do anyway. This is all about the union being bullied by an employer and by government.
How can readers of the Socialist support your members?members?
We will accept any support from anyone in our fight against this. We've got policies out there where we're asking our branches to organise meetings, which they will be doing over the next couple of days in the lunch hour.
We're even getting threatening letters about that from the employer, calling it industrial action! Having a meeting in our own time! We believe that government are trying to make law-abiding members of the public, ie the professional men and women who work in our prisons, slaves to the state. And to the private company now.