As the government unveils its plans for NHS patients to be treated privately in a bid to cut the waiting list backlog, former Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn says this administration is repeating the mistakes of the last
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During the general election, I stood on a platform that pledged to defend a fully public, fully funded healthcare system. We knew Labour’s decision to drop its previously held manifesto promise that “the NHS is not for sale” was no accident. We said the future of our NHS was on the line – and we were right.
This week, the government announced that private operators will receive an extra £2.5bn a year in government funding. Under their plans, the role of the private sector in providing outpatient appointments will rise by 20 per cent. Meanwhile, the secretary of state for health, Wes Streeting, refuses to rule out the involvement of the private sector in a reformed care service – a refusal he will no doubt maintain for the next four years until elderly and disabled people are finally allowed to hear his plans.
To the prime minister and health secretary, welcoming privatisation is proof of their commitment to pragmatism. “We will not let ideology… stand in the way.” To anyone who knows the reality of privatisation, their dogmatic refusal to look at the evidence is the very definition of ideology itself.
A privatised health service leads to worse quality care, higher mortality rates and a reduction in staffing. Privatisation has even been linked to higher rates of patient infections, in part because cleaning staff are typically the first to be cut in the name of efficiency. There is only one beneficiary of privatisation: investors and shareholders making money out of people’s ill health.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrive at the National Assembly for his swearing-in ceremony for a third term in Caracas, Venezuela, January 10, 2025
VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a third term of office today.
The occasion was marked by the US government saying that it had increased the reward for information leading to Mr Maduro’s arrest, with $25 million (around £20.4m) now being offered.
During the swearing-in ceremony in the capital Caracas, the president highlighted his loyalty to the legacy of his legendary predecessor Hugo Chavez.
“If anything characterises the 500-year history of the people of this land called Venezuela, it is the history of heroic, wonderful resistance against all forms of domination, against all forms of colonialism and against all imperialisms,” Mr Maduro said.
RISING RIGHT: Activists wearing masks of far-right politicians (L-R) Marine Le Pen, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Vox leader Santiago Abascal, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni protest before the EU elections, Madrid, May 19 2024
Driven on by novel forms of hard-right populism like Modi and Trump, European neofascists are skillfully rebranding themselves and taking power by copying the left’s language — just as they did in the last century, writes JOHN GREEN
AROUND the world, we have been witnessing the rise of new right-wing and neofascist political forces at the same time as we have experienced the demise or marginalisation of strong left-wing forces.
We face a new and more virulent Donald Trump presidency in the US, we have seen the success of Giorgio Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party in Italy, Modi’s fundamentalist Hinduism in India, Javier Milei’s neoliberal extremism in Argentina, Victor Orban’s authoritarian regime in Hungary and the jack-in-the-box rise of Nigel Farage, who sees himself as a prime minister in waiting, here in Britain.
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The right loves using the German fascists’ full name, National Socialist German Workers Party, rather than the shortened term Nazi in order to deliberately conflate fascism with socialism and communism in the public’s mind.
As we know, Hitler only belatedly incorporated the term socialist into his party’s name in order to sow confusion and win over working-class voters, which he managed to do very successfully. The National Socialists were soon demasked as firm upholders of rampant capitalism, not socialism.
Of course, drawing comparisons between 1930s Germany and our world today can be dangerous, but there are undoubted parallels from which we can learn. Once again, world capitalism is in a deep crisis, and fascism is seen in some quarters, once again, as offering an apparent way out.
Just as the Nazis did, the neofascists today, recognising the widespread anger among large sections of the population at the way the super-wealthy are destroying our societies with impunity, are pretending to attack the unaccountable oligarchs and super-wealthy tech CEOs, big pharma and authoritarian government.
This is, however, mere rhetoric in order to win over the disaffected working classes; they have no intention of doing anything about the super-rich and tech monopolies who are or will be funding them.
Over half a million Cubans filled the Malecón on Friday December 20 in a massive march against the US blockade. Photo: Presidencia Cuba
Hundreds of thousands of Cuban people participated in the mass demonstration against the six-decade US blockade of Cuba and the inclusion of Cuba on the US state sponsors of terrorism list.
“President Biden, take Cuba off the infamous list!” exclaimed the over half a million Cubans who marched on Havana’s malecón to the US Embassy. The mass march was called for by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel earlier this week to demonstrate the absolute and total rejection of the Cuban people to the six-decade US-imposed blockade on the island as well as the inclusion of Cuba to the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list (SSoT) which together have wreaked havoc on the island’s economy.
The march was led by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and General Raúl Castro who were flanked by over half a million Cubans from all sectors of life including students, doctors, construction workers, artists, and more. Cuban youth and students who participated in the massive mobilization carried banners reading “the youth will not fail!” and “this is the revolution!”
“The youth will not fail!” Photo: UJC
The mass mobilization began at the Anti-Imperialist Tribunal José Martí on the malecón, which is located directly in front of the US Embassy. There, the Cuban president delivered an address wherein he condemned the inaction of Joe Biden in reversing the policies of his predecessor Donald Trump which have tightened the economic and financial stranglehold on Cuba. Biden, he said, “has done nothing to move away from the line of reinforced blockade and economic asphyxiation of Cuba left as a legacy by the Republican administration that returns to the Oval Office in January.”
He also highlighted that people from across the US and the world have in the recent period called attention to the inhumane US policy that goes against international law, “In recent weeks and days there have been numerous pronouncements from US leaders and from other parts of the world demanding that Biden make use of his authority to at least remove the name of a nation that should never have been on this spurious list.”
He emphasized that, “When our international trade is persecuted and financial transactions are impeded, the people of Cuba are being denied food, medicine, fuel, goods, supplies and merchandise essential for their survival.”
In addition to condemning the illegal blockade, Díaz-Canel also alerted the Cuban people that there are currently paramilitary groups training in the south of Florida with the intention of carrying out terrorist attacks against Cuba. “They are based in South Florida and do not hide to train. They do it publicly, in plain sight and with the protection of local authorities, even violating their own laws and international treaties.”
The president’s announcement was both a warning and an attempt to expose the deep hypocrisy of calling Cuba a sponsor of terrorism, whilst in plain view of US authorities, these groups, “organize, promote and finance terrorist actions against social and economic structures in Cuba.” This phenomenon is not new and he reminded the people of how the US sheltered “self-confessed terrorists” and CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch who were the architects of numerous criminal attacks against the Cuban people, the worst one being the 1976 bombing of a Cuban aircraft which resulted in the death of 73 people. “Knowing such antecedents,” Díaz-Canel stated, “no US ruler can classify Cuba as a terrorist state.”
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and General Raúl Castro marching on the malecón. Photo: Presidencia Cuba
The demand to end the over 60-year US blockade on Cuba and remove the country from the SSoT list has become even more urgent in light of the energy crisis on the island. In recent months, Cuba has suffered a series of blackouts due to its major challenge in accessing fuel to keep its power plants operating.
The election of far-right leader Donald Trump as president has also awoken fears that he may intensify existing unilateral coercive measures against Cuba.
However, as manifested in the mass mobilization, the Cuban people have vowed to remain firm in the face of any threat lodged at them by the US government and maintain that they are open to dialogue with any US administration based on mutual respect and equality.
In concluding his address, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared, “If the United States persists in its determination to undermine our sovereignty, our independence, our socialism, it will only find rebellion and intransigence! Every administration that has tried has been outlived by the Cuban Revolution, and it will continue to be so. This is a march, yes, a very anti-imperialist march! Against US imperialism and its pretension to impose itself in Cuba by force or seduction, we will march now and always!”
