THE CHANGING FACE OF LIBRARY PROVISION!

'ENHANCING' YOUR 'LIBRARY EXPERIENCE', AND OUR BANK BALANCES!

As of today, 16th September 2006, Reading Central Library (now owned - along with all other UK libraries - by the G.R Eedy Corporation Ltd) will be undergoing a radical transformation. Heres whats happening;

THE BACKGROUND:

Last month, the UK Government announced the immediate privatisation of all previously public-funded libraries. To offset the not-so-sustainable debt Gordon Brown has got us into, the UK has recieved a generous loan of £10.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund in exchange for a commitment from the UK to follow the economic 'advice' set out in a Structural Adjustment Program designed to improve the UK's 'economic efficiency'. This usually requires the recipient state to immediately cut all public spending (no more public healthcare, education or other social services) by privatising these services i.e. giving ownership of them to the highest bidding multinational corporations to play around with - sorry, 'reform' - so they end up getting more money out of it than they put in. However, as the UK has either already privatised everything, or is at least letting private corporations begin their 'reforms' via a back-door called Private Finance Initiatives (such as in Healthcare and Education), there wasnt much still to ruin - sorry, 'privatise'. But the G.R Eedy corporation has years of experience at getting its grubby paws on what doesnt belong to us - sorry, 'exploring new markets' - and snapped at the chance to 'reform' library provision in the UK, and bring them into the age of corporate globalisation....

THE FUTURE:

Probably the first change you will notice as a 'customer' of the Reading Central Library is the annual membership charge of £30, followed by the new charges for each service, which bring the library in line with the market. Books will now be hireable at a charge of £5 per book, and charges for DVD hire will be brought in line with the next leading competitor - Blockbuster's - and charged at approx £4 per night. However, we are sure you will understand that this merely to allow us to cover the costs of 'enhancing' your experience with Reading Central Library. In terms of services, as a feature of supply and demand, we aim to reflect the needs of our customers (particularly those who have more to spend!) and those books which generate less revenue will be deemed Customer Responce Anti-Product (C.R.A.P) and will be removed from the shelves and burned. We will replace these with copies of titles which generate higher revenue such as Playboy and the TV Times. Over the next few years we anticipate the need to raise library charges, partly as a feature of inflation and desperate pursuit of profits, but also to pay for new 'security technology' such as bio-metric scanners, and fingerprint and iris-recognition facilities to come in line with the Governments plans for a National ID Register and identity cards. We regret that as a result of this, migrants, travellers, the homeless and others without suitable ID (and without suitable sized incomes) will no longer be welcome at Reading Central Library.

We thankyou kindly for your support and money, and look forward to taking more from you than we give in the future,

G.R Eedy Corporation Ltd.

P.S. Only kidding! Please turn over...
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CAPITALISM SUCKS!

THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT THE BANK' AND THE FUND'...

Okay, so we're joking about Reading Central Library being privatised but much worse than this is happening all across the world, hitting poorest countries hardest. As SchNEWS put it in 2002 " The (capitalist) empire has found that it doesn't allways need to pull out the guns to get control of countries and extract their goods, when economic 'persuasion' will do, and has institutionalised the process - with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. These institutions lend money on the pretext of helping the country 'compete in the modern world' - and have them paying the loan off - or at least servicing the interest - for evermore. Chances are anyway that the money went into weapons which are keeping that regime of choice in power, or infrastructure like roads which some multinational corporation needs to do its dirty work. Once you've got that country in debt you can really put the clappers on them: start dictating how far they have to tighten their belt to repay you by imposing wage restrictions and public spending cuts. Then enforce privatisation which lets you and your corporate mates come in and own and control vital services like water, education, healthcare etc, prizing a country from its people bit by bit and bumping up the prices while you're at it. And then get on with the reason you're actually there: to help yourself to that country's natural resources and cheap labour force. Cos these people owe you something and how else are they going to repay the loan?"

So what happens? Take Argentina, who did everything the IMF said. It sold off everything and let foreign firms take over the economy. It deregulated its markets, imposed 13% cuts in wages and pensions and tried to make the people work longer for less pay. It jumped through all the IMF hoops, chasing promises of wealth, yet in 2001 found itself with a $150-billion foreign debt. After crisis talks, the IMF agreed a $12.57 billion loan in September 2001 and congratulated the Argentine government. In December 2001, the economy crashed and Argentina defaulted on its debts, announcing effective national bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, the World Bank continues its project of reshaping the world for business. In addition to making loans to fund the IMF's structural adjustment programs, the Bank finances harmful projects around the globe such as roads, dams, powerplants, and oil pipelines. For example, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyan oil pipeline. Running through Azerbaijan, Turkey and Giorgia, this publicly-funded, 32% over-budget project is a nightmare. From local economic and environmental devastation and huge contributions to climate chaos to constuction malpractice and human rights abuses by police and security. This kind of thing is what the Bank is all about.

This weekend, Singapore will host the 2006 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. The Singapore authorities have banned all outdoor protests, put pressure on Indonesia to ban the 'International Peoples Forum VS The IMF & World Bank' (an anti-IMF/WB conference) and banned 20 campaign group members from entering the country - despite the fact they were all invited to attend by the IMF/WB! The UK based 'World Development Movement' - one of the blacklisted groups - have said "The pretext ... is “security”. However, in reality this is ... to exclude ... voices that would publicly criticise the IMF and World Bank”. Todays demonstration is in solidarity with all those resisting the effects of the IMF and World Bank - and all other mechanisms of capitalism - around the globe.

More info:

www.50years.org, www.wdm.org.uk, www.agp.org, www.indymedia.org, www.schnews.org.uk

More events:

Mon 18th Sept, 7.30pm:

Film Show: 'Crowd Bites Wolf'. What happened when the IMF & WB held their annual meeting in Prague in 2000. Want a clue? They ran away a day early... At RISC, 35 - 39 London St, Conference room

6 - 8th June 2007:

G8 Summit, Germany. Lets shut the whole bloody thing down!