Catastroika Page #3

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powerful economies of the planet.

The biggest failures

concern infrastructure...

...such as railways, water

and electricity networks.

People say you can read the history

of the economic system...

...on the railways.

The steam that promoted

the industrial revolution...

...turned into a speculative bubble

for the american economy,

when dozens of private companies...

...spread kilometers of metal rails

across the USA.

At first, the railways symbolised...

...the state's central role in

the economy and infrastructures.

But after World War II,

economic liberalism replaced

by the car most mass transportation.

Four wheels and a steering wheel...

...lead the lower

middle-class dream...

...into the highways

of the new economy.

This trend reached Europe

with a delay of a few decades.

When the Turkish dictators tried

Pinochet's neoliberal experiment,

Turgut Ozal characterised the

railways a communist creation.

However, railways in Europe...

...remained mainly

under state control.

That is untill Great Britain

tried a disatrous experiment.

Like a movie without a happy end.

Even Margaret Thatcher

recognised that...

...trains do not function effectively

outside of the public sector.

But John Major proceeded

to their privatisation in 1993...

...and the british public reacted.

The trains, the rail network

and the maintance services...

...ended up in the hands

of different private companies.

So many of them, that

the maintenance alone...

...was undertook by 2,000 companies.

The loss is tragic.

The three most serious accidents

caused by privatisation...

...cost 42 lives

whereas 600 are injured.

The derailment of privatisation

did not just cost lives.

In a three year period,

the state payed to the companies

in the form of subsidies...

...what it had earned

by the sellout of the railways.

And the cost for the taxpayers

did not stop there.

Greece does not learn anything

from the british experience.

The greek governments put forth

the railways privatisation plan.

Their effort is supported

by the media.

The trains are slow, never

on time, usually dirty.

The annual losses of the OSE

and TRAINOSE group...

...reach 1.2 billion euros.

They present greek railways...

...as the biggest loss-making

public service in Europe.

But whom does this debt belong to?

The state forced the railways

to borrow money for its development.

There is no equivalent case

in Greece...

...as highways, ports and airports

were all funded by the state.

These loans are now presented

by the governments as OSE's debt.

This is untrue.

for infrastructure development.

The major TV stations, behind

which lie major contractors,

are bombarding us

with lies and slander.

The critique is focused...

...on the employees' salaries

and the operation cost.

This way major scandals

go unnoticed...

...which involve politicians,

greek and foreign companies.

Tens of millions of euros...

...are spent on railway lines

that never work.

Trains are rented in prices

in which they could be bought.

The state buys trains

from Siemens...

...without the appropriate

network to use them.

It also pays contractors for works

that are never delivered.

There is a certain deliberateness.

We degrade our national wealth

so as, after its degradation,

to slander it and convince

the greek public opinion...

...that maybe a private company...

....is a far better solution

for the greek railways.

In the name of rationalisation,

the government further

degrades the railways.

It cuts down the personnel

at the expense of quality,

increases prices over 60% and

closes a big part of the tracks.

Especially on the part

Argos-Tripoli-Kalamata...

...several millions of euros

were invested.

And today

there are no trains there.

When counting only profits

or losses,

the privatisation advocates

forget that...

...the railways are first of all

a service for the citizens.

A service paid by generations

of greek taxpayers.

There was a time when in Greece

private debts were nationalised...

...but today there is an effort

to privatise the profit...

...that the citizens could enjoy

through public services.

What did private companies

invest in this sector...

...in order to buy it at a price

much lower than its value?

If the railways are like a book

on economic history,

the water network teaches us

how to manage a monopoly.

At this sector, its Paris' turn

to pay the bill of privatisation.

Two multinational companies...

...of great financial and political

power, Veolia and Suez,

claim the administration of

the water network in Paris.

And Jacques Chirac

offers it to them.

In 1985, a political decision

was taken by Jacques Chirac,

mayor of Paris at the time,

to divide Paris based on the two

river banks of the Seine...

...and by dividing it this way...

...to confide to each major private

group and its subsidiaries...

...a bank for the distribution

and the billing of water.

There was no technical

or economic argument.

I think there was

an ideological stance...

...that said that the private

sector is more effective.

The citizens received more and

more expensive bills.

The prices kept rising

for 15 years.

As far as the prices are concerned,

the bills were multiplied by 260%.

It is true that we' ve had

an increase of the water price...

...without a technical

or economic explanation.

When the municipality changed

in 2001,

with a majority of the left,

the ecologists, the communists,

it was decided to take back

the water services.

The new municipal water company,

which was created in 2010,

decreased the bills by 8%...

...and invested all the profits

in network amelioration.

There is also a very important

question, a question of democracy.

If public administration is properly

implemented, it permits...

...greater political control

by the citizens of Paris.

Veolia and Suez reacted,

as they lost...

... a net income of 60 and 30 million

euros a year respectively.

They put pressure on the government,

the municipality and the unions...

...against Anne Le Strat

that started the process.

They kind of see me

as the devil incarnated.

The fight for Paris brought forth...

...the intertwining of interests of

multinationals and politicians.

Jerome Monod, the manager

of Lyonnaise des Eaux,

was a leading figure

in Jacques Chirac's party.

Regardless of their connections,

however,

the water multinationals seemed to

loose the battle against the citizens.

However, the EU turned its back

to the citizens' decisions.

The multinational companies are

the decision makers in Brussels

and Italy became

their next target.

Vote Yes

For public water services

With a secret letter that they sent

to the new italian prime minister,

Trichet and Draghi ,

of the European Central Bank,

demanded the same thing that was

rejected by the italian people.

We know that in the countries

where the IMF intervenes...

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