I’m stuck in bed with post-viral fatigue but had to rouse myself long enough to say this. The disastrous consequences of private sector #outsourcing for Britain’s #trackandtrace are widely recognised. But focusing on govt cronyism & incompetence obscures the deeper roots. 1/10

Public sector outsourcing was first introduced from the late 1980s & systematically expanded by the 1997-2010 Labour government. Gosling (2011) and Wilks (2013) document the creation of powerful lobbying organisations, with close links to government and media. 2/10

This produced results: by 2014-15, a third of government expenditure went to external suppliers, totaling £242bn, including around £100bn for outsourced services, compared to the total wage bill for public sector employees of £194bn (Sturgess, 2017). 3/10

State contracts nurtured service multinationals like G4S & Serco, operating all over the world & returning profits to Britain. By 2018 the Business Services Association reported its 65 member companies employed a combined workforce of 2 million people, with turnover of £80bn 4/10

..62% of which was generated overseas. Outsourcing provides investment opportunities for British capital, suffering from acute overaccumulation and falling profitability. International outsourcing contributed to a £89bn surplus on the import/export of services in 2014.. 5/10

..which helped offset a £124bn deficit on the import/export of goods. Outsourcing is therefore an expression of the decay and parasitism of British capitalism, propping up the profits of British capitalists and subsidising living standards with cheap imported goods. 6/10

Outsourcing has negatively affected wages, working conditions, accountability and service quality – in some cases leading to outright abuse and deaths – and has led to an in-sourcing of the endemic instability of capital within the operations of the state 7/10

(see for examples the many disasters under G4S & Serco contracts & the outright collapse of Connaught & Carillion). Outsourcing is particularly attractive to capitalists because there is no risk; the state acts as guarantor. 8/10

There have been notable victories against outsourcing by precarious workers – for example by @UVWunion at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. But in general, the juggernaut rolls on. Stopping it will require a wholesale challenge to capital. 9/10

Full references and a more detailed discussion of these issues can be found in my book, Borders, Migration & Class in an Age of Crisis, published by @BrisUniPress. DM me if you’d like a discounted copy. Img from https://libcom.org/news/st-barts-hospital-strike-continues-17072017 End/