Books

Reclaiming Public Services: How cities and citizens are turning back privatisation

Author:

Satoko Kishimoto et Olivier Petitjean

Year:

2017

Publisher:

TNI, Multinationals Observatory, AK, EPSU, ISF Cataluña, PSI, PSIRU, We Own It, Fagforbundet, MSP and CUPE

Number of pages:

237

Available languages:

EN l ES

ISBN:

978-90-70563-58-5

Available Formats:

PDF (EN)

PDF (ES)

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Abstract

Reclaiming Public Services is vital reading for anyone interested in the future of local, democratic services like energy, water, and health care. This is an in-depth world tour of new initiatives in public ownership and the variety of approaches to deprivatisation.

835 cities have brought essential services back under public control.

This newly released book, Reclaiming Public Services: How cities and citizens are turning back privatisation shows the wave of cities worldwide rejecting privatization is far bigger and more successful than anyone thought. This is an in-depth world tour of new initiatives in public ownership and a variety of approaches to de-privatization led at local and city levels. The research was conducted by eleven citizen organizations, researchers and trade unions who collected (re)municipalisation cases in a large number of countries over a period of eighteen months.

Privatization has been given ample chance to succeed and has come up short. The narrative that public services are by nature more expensive, inefficient and outdated is a myth. The book highlights examples which demonstrate that citizens and users do not have to resign to paying ever higher tariffs for services where standards are lower and service workers have fewer and fewer choices but to work in degraded conditions. For years, private companies have played a growing role in the provision of public services. But the remunicipalization movement, thoroughly documents in this new book, how cities and citizens are stepping up to protect and reinvent public services.

Available in English and Spanish.