Hands Off Public Services: The Example of the British National Health Service (EN)

Friday, 10th of July - 14:00 - 17:00

Helen O’Conner

Language: English (translation provided)

This lesson analyzes the British National Health Service (NHS) as a crucial battleground between collective needs through a public service and capitalist profit logic. Privatization, marketization, and structural underfunding transform public services from a social right into a tradable commodity. In healthcare, this comes at the expense of both patients and healthcare workers. A lesson on resistance and the struggle to keep our public services under democratic and public control, away from the commercial logic of the market.

Helen O’Conner is a union representative for the British union GMB. She worked for 28 years as a nurse in the British NHS. She writes regularly for the left-wing daily Morning Star.