The
Socialist 28 July |
Stop the Health Rip-Off
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THE GOVERNMENT unveiled their plans
to 'improve' the NHS this week. Central to their changes, they say, is the plan to bring
'patient power' into the health service. But this could be a very peculiar
version of patient power. |
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UNITY AGAINST
Prejudice (UAP) was organised after neo-Nazis caused the cancellation of Leicester's
'Mardi Gras' festival on 29 July. The Nazis also threatened UAP organisers. We won't be
intimidated by a small number of fascists. |
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STEEL PRODUCER Corus has confirmed redundancy
fears in Wales. This will have a massive impact on several communities who rely heavily on
the well-paid jobs of the steel industry. Alec
Thraves, Socialist Party Wales |
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LEADERS OF the
world’s seven richest nations feast on caviar, lobster and duck at a gala banquet
while 13 children in the world’s poorest 40 countries die every minute, as money is
diverted from social services to debt repayment, according to Jubilee 2000, the debt
relief protest group. Editorial: A
cynical summit THE G8 summit's vague declarations
about halving the numbers living in poverty, speeding-up debt write-offs and tackling Aids
were merely empty gestures to try and dissipate the anger and protests that are continuing
to build up against the exploitation and greed of the capitalist system. |
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LONDON MAYOR Ken Livingstone made the scandalous assertion last week, carried in some national papers and TV programmes that Tony Blair's inner circle was "like a mirror image of the old Militant Tendency". |
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TORY AND New
Labour housing policy has been catastrophic for social housing and for millions of
working-class households living in sub-standard or overcrowded accommodation. Since 1981
two million council homes have been lost and only half a million housing association homes
have replaced them. A massive
programme of house building, involving the regeneration of city centres is needed. New
Labour shows every sign of doing precisely the opposite says JARED WOOD. |
|
AFTER SEVEN years of on/off negotiations, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process remains bogged down. Whatever spin the various participants put on the outcome, US imperialism appears unable to resolve the mutually hostile positions of the Palestinian and Israeli ruling classes - represented at the Camp David summit by Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak respectively. |
Stop the Health Rip-Off
We Demand
o Bring the NHS back into the public sector, under democratic control
o Nationalise the phamaceutical and medical supplies industry
o A fully-funded NHS, free at the point of use
THE GOVERNMENT unveiled their plans to 'improve' the NHS this week. Central to their changes, they say, is the plan to bring 'patient power' into the health service.
But this could be a very peculiar version of patient power. To arrive at its conclusions the government asked Richard Branson's Virgin Group to tell it that hospitals were "not responsive to patients' needs" because of "shambolic management" and "stifling bureaucracy".
Why did the government pay £35,000 for this 'shattering' piece of information when thousands of patients had already complained about the appalling state of the NHS?
The government says it will guarantee that by 2005 no patient spends more than six months on a waiting list and that it will break down the old divisions. It described this latest blueprint as the biggest shake-up of the NHS since its inception.
It's clearly a shake-up but it won't bring patient power. Instead, the government wants to absolve itself of real responsibility for NHS treatment by handing out more functions to private contractors.
Rather than delivering quality change in the NHS the government is preparing to throw money hand over fist to private health care providers.
Hospitals are already being told to pay over the odds for private-sector critical illness beds next winter. The government's new initiatives also include an agreement with private hospitals to provide operations and beds to 'drive down' waiting lists.
Patients desperate for treatment will obviously accept treatment wherever it comes from. But all these new 'initiatives' will make the NHS even more of a private-sector conveyor belt. Hospitals will be like those in the USA, where turning the patients round quickly to reduce costs comes first, rather than quality of treatment.
Contracting out health provision to private companies has been a disaster. It means more public money going into the fat cats' pockets and less money for treatment.
This is not patient power, this is a private-sector parasites' paradise. A licence to print money out of our ill health.
We want proper patient power, where the NHS is brought fully back into the public sector and where the patients, staff and general public democratically make the decisions about how OUR health service is run.
Pride Not Bigotry
UNITY AGAINST Prejudice (UAP) was organised after neo-Nazis caused the cancellation of Leicester's 'Mardi Gras' festival on 29 July. The Nazis also threatened UAP organisers.
We won't be intimidated by a small number of fascists.
This is a 'Pride' event; a celebration of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) lifestyles, to unite all groups against prejudice.
Hate crimes have risen nationally, the London 'Nail bomber' being the most extreme. David Copeland, linked with far-right groups such as the British National Party, aimed his hatred at gay people and the Black and Asian community. If the fascist groups gain confidence from getting Mardi Gras cancelled, they would threaten other events.
This is not only an attack on gay people. The fascists threaten Black and Asian people, trades unionists, lone parents, women's organisations, socialists and anyone who stands up for their rights. Gay organisations, trade union branches and other organisations have supported us including Leicester LGB centre, Leicester Lesbian and Gay Action, and NUT, PCS and UNISON branches.
We got overwhelming support at the East Midlands Regional Committee of UNISON with the promise of money and stewards. However, regional officials have gone behind the backs of elected delegates and circulated branches disassociating themselves from the event.
So much for their commitment to oppose prejudice. UNISON members are outraged and will campaign for the implementation of democratic decisions.
We intend to answer government ministers and the media who promote prejudice and distract people from where the real blame lies. This applies both to the 'promotion of family values' and to propaganda against asylum seekers.
New Labour have undermined demands for the repeal of Section 28 by requiring that teachers and others promote traditional 'family values', emphasising marriage as being the most 'desirable form' of personal relationship. This attacks relationships such as single-parent families and same-sex couples.
Both New Labour and the Tories push the idea that 'bogus' asylum seekers are 'flooding the country'. It's not surprising then that some people mistakenly believe that poor housing, low pay, inadequate benefits are all the fault of asylum seekers.
We need to answer these prejudices, to build a united movement to oppose the system that creates the conditions in which they can breed: capitalism. Capitalism uses prejudice as a means of divide and rule. Replace it with a democratic socialist society that provides for all and is based on unity and tolerance.
Corus: Strike back at steel bosses’ threat
STEEL PRODUCER Corus has confirmed redundancy fears in Wales. This will have a massive impact on several communities who rely heavily on the well-paid jobs of the steel industry.
Alec Thraves, Socialist Party Wales
Corus, formed last October from the merger of Holland's Hoogovens and British Steel, is downgrading its UK plants and boosting production at its large steel plant in the Netherlands.
Corus argue that these job cuts are necessary due to the strength of the pound but a steelworker from Swansea said the workforce felt that jobs were being lost in the UK because continental redundancy payments were three to four times more expensive.
He complained that over the years, union leaders had allowed contractors to undermine pay and conditions and had done nothing to prevent thousands of jobs being slowly whittled away.
1,300 jobs will be cut from the Welsh labour force of 10,000 this year and next, including around 450 in Llanwern, 400 at Port Talbot and almost 300 at Ebbw Vale. The cuts were announced despite all the affected plants possessing full order books and working to full capacity.
Llanwern plant in Newport, which employs 2,500, has an uncertain future as Corus attempts to maximise its profits. Corus will decide in August whether to spend £35 million relining Llanwern’s No 3 furnace, which produces 40,000 tonnes of iron each week, two-thirds of the plant’s capacity.
If the company decides not to go ahead with that work then it would effectively mean the end of the steel industry in Wales.
The future of steel in Wales and throughout the UK can only be secured by the re-nationalisation of the industry under democratic workers’ control and management. This can allow the skilled workforce the opportunity of retaining their jobs and producing the steel needed for a modern manufacturing society.
The steel unions should organise a one-day strike as the first step in the campaign for renationalisation of this vital industry.
G8 Summit:
Debt Repayment kills millions
LEADERS OF the world’s seven richest nations feast on caviar, lobster and duck at a gala banquet while 13 children in the world’s poorest 40 countries die every minute, as money is diverted from social services to debt repayment, according to Jubilee 2000, the debt relief protest group.
Manny Thain
The Japanese government spent $750 million (£500 million) hosting the Okinawa summit of the G8 countries - the US, Canada, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Russia. This is more than Japan contributed to cancelling the debt of the world’s poorest countries since the grand gestures made at the Cologne summit last year.
It’s obscene. The neo-colonial world is being held to ransom by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, backed up by the governments of the industrialised capitalist countries.
Working-class and oppressed peoples the world over are outraged at the cynical measures adopted by the capitalist system. Tony Blair received 250,000 postcards from drop-the-debt supporters and 27,000 peace campaigners ringed the Okinawa talks centre, many protesting against the presence of US forces on the island – the biggest concentration of US troops outside the US.
James Wolfensohn, head of the World Bank, complained: “There are people camping out calling for debt relief, but it is simply unfair to be screaming that nothing is being done – there has been a lot of progress.”
But in reality, there has been little progress, if any. Millions still die because of capitalism’s profit-driven exploitation of the underdeveloped world.
Editorial:
A cynical summit
THE G8 summit's vague declarations about halving the numbers living in poverty, speeding-up debt write-offs and tackling Aids were merely empty gestures to try and dissipate the anger and protests that are continuing to build up against the exploitation and greed of the capitalist system.
Similar declarations were made after last year's Cologne summit, then heralded by US President, Bill Clinton, as "an historic step to help the world's poorest nations achieve sustained growth and independence."
At Cologne, $100 billion worth of debt cancellation was promised to 41 heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs). A year later, $12 billion of debt has been cancelled.
Only nine of the 25 countries scheduled to receive debt relief have done so. And not one of the countries has had all its debt written off.
The US promised $600 million but hasn't delivered a cent because Congress refused Clinton's request for the money, effectively holding up assistance to Honduras and Bolivia. The EU and Japan have used this to delay their own contributions.
The US is now offering $300 million in surplus farm crops to developing countries. Why should anyone believe them this time? Even the Economist said: "These deadlines and promises should all be taken with a pinch of salt."
The Christian Aid charity estimates that poor countries pay $21.9 billion a year to the rich nations - $60 million a day. At least three-quarters of this services debts that can never be repaid - an estimated $300 billion in total.
The bulk of this is not payable to governments but to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. They see debt relief as part of their overall plan to spread neo-liberal policies, which means increasing capitalist multinationals' profits while slashing the living conditions of working people around the world.
Harsh conditions are attached before countries can qualify for debt relief. The IMF slows down debt relief to force countries to implement unpopular aspects of 'reform' programmes, such as cuts in social services, health and education.
ESSENTIALLY, DEBT-relief programmes aim to bring debt down to a 'sustainable' level - enabling a country to pay its debts with export earnings. But a country may still be spending more on debt relief than on health and education.
Tanzania's debt interest payments are to be reduced by nearly 20% over the next three years. But it will still be paying around $146 million (£98 million) in 2001-03. The government spends $85 million a year on basic education - the budget for teaching materials is just $1 a year for each pupil. Already 2.2 million children do not go to school at all and Tanzania's illiteracy rate is rising. African governments spend 40% of their income on servicing $350 billion debt.
Anne Pettifor of Jubilee 2000 said: "The whole point is to free them from this form of slavery and neo-colonialism but instead the IMF is grasping the opportunity to reimpose its control over these economies."
The G8 also made a statement on plugging the 'digital gap'. Of an estimated 332 million internet users in the world - one in 20 - fewer than 1% live in Africa. 60% of Internet users live in the US.
The presence at the summit of representatives from Sony, Cisco Systems and other IT companies, show what a cynical attempt this was by the IT industry to penetrate the neo-colonial markets.
These world leaders do not represent the interests of ordinary working-class and oppressed peoples. The debt must be written off.
Protests expressing the anger of working-class and the oppressed can raise awareness and force limited change. But, ultimately, there has to be a struggle to break the power the multinational corporations wield over the neo-colonial world.
A struggle for a system based on human solidarity - socialism, internationally - can free the world from the bind of capitalism's weighty chains.
Livingstone’s humourless attack
LONDON MAYOR Ken Livingstone made the scandalous assertion last week, carried in some national papers and TV programmes that Tony Blair's inner circle was "like a mirror image of the old Militant Tendency". He added that "they have no life outside politics, they require total compliance with the line and they are devoid of humour."
This attack brought a forthright response to the press from Socialist Party General Secretary Peter Taaffe.
He said: "It's right that Ken Livingstone should criticise Tony Blair's inner circle of advisers who are responsible for promoting a right-wing anti-working-class agenda. But in doing so, he seems to have forgotten the reality of the past. Ken Livingstone spoke at many rallies organised by Militant (now called the Socialist Party) in the early 1980s, including a 3,000-strong anti-witch-hunt rally at Wembley, where Peter Taaffe, then editor of Militant, also shared the platform.
"Militant was one of the foremost forces in shifting the Labour Party to the left, which Ken Livingstone was one of the main beneficiaries of at the time. Then he rightly criticised Labour leaders for carrying out right-wing policies. Now, unfortunately, Ken Livingstone is in danger of carrying out similar measures to Blair by surrounding himself with Tory and Liberal advisers as Mayor of London.
"The only way he can 'distance' himself from the unpopular Blair is by launching snide attacks on his former allies. The charges that we are in any way comparable to the automatons of the Blair inner circle is risible.
"Our members are mainly ordinary working-class people who know how to combine political commitment to campaign for the interests of working-class people, while having a life and even being known to crack a joke or two. The biggest joke in all this is Ken Livingstone's silly comments."
Council Housing: Stop the sell -off
TORY AND New Labour housing policy has been catastrophic for social housing and for millions of working-class households living in sub-standard or overcrowded accommodation. Since 1981 two million council homes have been lost and only half a million housing association homes have replaced them.
A massive programme of house building, involving the regeneration of city centres is needed. New Labour shows every sign of doing precisely the opposite says JARED WOOD.
THE PROVISION of council housing after the second world war was one of the welfare state’s greatest achievements. Millions of working-class households escaped over-priced slums in the private sector.
True, the standard of council housing was varied and many ill-conceived ‘concrete jungles’ were created. Nevertheless, the development of council housing achieved huge steps forward in reducing overcrowding and sub- standard accommodation.
Housing has a major impact on health and a proven link to educational achievement. Yet government policy has switched to eradicating council housing and returning to private sector provision.
This new emphasis on privatised housing is generally seen through the policy of council tenants’ “right to buy”. But this is only one part of UK housing policy; governments focus on it, seeing it as a vote-winner. The wider crisis in social housing brought about by successive Tory and New Labour governments would not win many votes at all.
‘RIGHT TO buy’ was a flagship policy of the Thatcher governments. For tenants it seemed like a bet they couldn’t lose. They could buy their homes from the local council at a huge discount to the market value. Many households, especially in London and the South-east made well over £20,000 overnight.
But their gain was used as a smokescreen to hide a collective loss. Receipts from council house sales were ‘ring-fenced’ by central government, ie none of the cash received was put back into social housing.
In fact, government spending on housing actually fell sharply despite the billions coming in from right to buy. In the 1970s the government spent an average of £10.2 billion a year on housing. During the 1990s that had fallen to only £7.2 billion (1998 prices).
Right to buy also had a profound effect on council housing, making it more marginalised, less desirable. In some cases it transformed working-class communities into sink estates where vulnerable households are put as a last resort.
Studies by government, charities and academics have all associated right to buy with increased social segregation. More desirable council houses are sold off, resulting in geographical concentrations of low-income households. By 1996 over 60% of local authority tenants were receiving means tested benefits.
The right-wing social policy agenda of Blair and the Tories before him typecasts these households as feckless, lazy or part of an ‘underclass’. Many council estates are stigmatised in this way; their residents are assumed to be failures before they even start school.
Under such circumstances the best efforts of many households cannot hold back a tide of hopelessness that, together with the daily struggle to survive on inadequate benefits, stunts educational achievement, damages job prospects and contributes to rising crime.
The Honor Oak estate in Brockley, south London displays many of these characteristics (see box).
THE CONSEQUENCES of creating concentrated pockets of low-income households in poor quality housing are well-documented. New Labour’s Commission on social justice also pointed the finger at ‘social exclusion’, identifying inadequate, marginalised housing as a primary cause.
Despite this evidence the government does worse than nothing: In fact Blair’s New Labour attacks those who are suffering, single parents, people without work and especially anyone on long-term sickness or disability benefit.
On the Honor Oak estate Julie Gilfillan and other tenant activists are campaigning to open an Information Point, a “drop-in’ centre to provide support for people with mental health problems and other difficulties thrown at them by everyday life. The politicians have abandoned them but they’re fighting back.
Supported by their Socialist Party councillor, Honor Oak tenants have mounted an assault on Lewisham council. Their efforts have paid off. £12 million has now been put aside for repairs and renovations on the estate.
Julie and councillor Ian Page are quick to point out that this will only begin to make Honor Oak habitable. It won’t address the wider crisis of social housing in Britain. In fact it will do nothing to help other Lewisham council tenants either, for them the council’s housing strategy is wholesale privatisation.
This is made possible by The Housing Act of 1988 that took Thatcher’s right to buy policy even further. Not content with selling off council homes individually, the act encouraged local authorities to sell off their stock in bulk to commercial landlords and housing associations.
Once transferred out of council control, tenants lose their secured tenancy agreements for less protected ‘assured’ tenancies. Nationally, housing association rents are on average £10 a week more than council rents.
Lewisham council has already tried to convince 6,000 council households to transfer to Hillgreen Homes, a company set up to manage the sale of whole swathes of south-east London.
The council’s £750,000 PR campaign, with every house receiving a promotional video, was opposed by councillor Page and ‘Save Lewisham Housing’: The tenants voted to reject the transfer and remain as council tenants.
However, the New Labour regime, showing a far more passionate commitment to privatisation than local democracy, is coming back again with new proposals to sell off its tenants.
Mass sales of council stock will become the order of the day if the government and its acolytes in local government get their way.
LABOUR’S ONLY housing legislation to date is the 1996 Housing Act. Introduced after a hysterical campaign against noisy and nuisance neighbours, it has actually primarily been used to exclude those with the greatest financial problems from social housing altogether.
36% of all eviction orders under the act are against tenants in rent arrears, more evictions than for any other category of problem tenant. Overall, evictions from social housing increased by a staggering 365% in three years: New Labour – New Homelessness!
British housing policy aims to provide an opportunity to make profit out of social housing again. Capitalists resent the public sector - it’s funded out of taxation and also denies them the chance to make big bucks out of our basic needs.
But the private sector has proved incapable of providing affordable housing for those on lower or average incomes. In 1979, 210,000 new homes were completed. By 1999 it was down to 140,000.
Speculative homebuilders concentrate on executive estates for those who can pay, rather than affordable housing for those in need. Housing, like health and education, is an absolutely essential requirement. Workers and the labour movement have bitterly resisted privatisation of education and the NHS. We must also resist the privatisation of housing.
The right to decent, affordable housing was a key demand of the British labour movement early in the 20th century. As the experience in Honor Oak shows, there are many working-class people who can’t wait any longer.
Honor Oak is fighting back
ALMOST EVERY block on the Honor Oak estate, an inter-war development of tenement houses, is in serious disrepair. Damp is rife and many children suffer from bronchial conditions like asthma.
Tenants wait forever to receive basic repairs. There is also a chronic lack of community facilities on Honor Oak. Most of its shops have closed down together with the local pub, adding to its segregation from the increasingly affluent streets that it borders.
Honor Oak could conform to the stereotyped ghetto of the underclass, except that the community is fighting back. Last year Ian Page was elected councillor for the area.
Ian is the first Socialist Party candidate to be elected in London, following the party’s successes in Coventry and Scotland. Apart from a political programme that includes nationalisation of big business to pay for investment in housing, welfare and industry, Ian’s campaign was marked out by involving many tenants’ activists from the estate.
One activist, JULIE GILFILLAN, says: “Depression is rife. A few weeks ago a young woman, living alone with a new baby threw the child from the top-floor balcony and threw herself after it. Somehow they both survived.
“The baby’s now in care and the young woman’s on crutches. The council have refused to rehouse her and she’s been discharged from hospital to the same flat where she’s expected to climb four flights of stairs to her front door.”
There are widespread mental health problems on the estate but Julie believes many sufferers are not “ill” just desperate in the face of an intolerable situation.
“Kids see their parents going without. Not just those on benefit either. Many parents, including lone parents, work hard but they struggle all the same. The only way the kids think they can ever earn big dollars is through crime.”
Tenants who can break out of this trend and find stable, well-paid employment tend to move out, taking their ambition and optimism with them.
Weston Estate: No to Privatisation
TENANTS AND residents of Weston estate in Southampton have stepped up their campaign to stop the council selling off two tower blocks and transferring another to a housing association.
Tim Cutter
The newly formed Weston Independent Tenants and Residents Association (WRITA) now has hundreds of members and is continuing to grow.
The New Labour dominated council is trying to discredit WRITA and has set up a tiny official Tenants Association made up of council ‘Yes-people’. But an independent voice for local people has gained massive support.
One morning, myself and another WRITA member signed up over 100 people outside the local shops. The tower blocks aren’t the only issue causing anger.
We’ve been promised money from the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) buf even if the bid succeeds, many people feel they’ll have no real influence on how the money is spent. Their fears were confirmed when council officers proposed the make-up of the SRB panel which would decide which projects would be funded.
The council’s proposed make-up is 50% community reps and 50% “interested agencies” who are mainly unelected business people. This would mean that the community’s democratic wishes would be unlikely to gain a majority on the panel.
Like many other working-class areas, Weston desperately needs resources. But only a campaign by the community and working-class people’s determination can prevent the privatisation of housing and high rents that many housing association tenants face.
A lasting solution would need a socialist housing programme for the whole country so that we can finally end the scourge of homelessness and deprivation.
The Socialist Party Says:
· No council housing sell-offs: Build campaigns linking tenants and the trades unions to oppose housing privatisation
· For a massive programme of public investment into good quality, affordable homes
· Nationalise the banks, finance and construction companies in order to cancel interest payments from councils (some pay out up to half their housing budgets in interest) and use the money for housing as part of a socialist plan under working-class control and management
· An immediate rent freeze
· All tenancies to be “secure”.
· Involvement of tenants in planning and running of estates, to ensure social housing meets their needs
Lasting Peace remains elusive
AFTER SEVEN years of on/off negotiations, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process remains bogged down. Whatever spin the various participants put on the outcome, US imperialism appears unable to resolve the mutually hostile positions of the Palestinian and Israeli ruling classes - represented at the Camp David summit by Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak respectively. Huge problems, including the status of Jerusalem, refugees, a Palestinian state, and Jewish settlers, remain intractable on a capitalist basis.
A major obstacle to an agreement is the status of east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967. Israeli Premier Ehud Barak is committed to retaining sovereignty over an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, while for the Palestinians, Yasser Arafat formally demands a return of all land captured by Israel, including the city designated as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Neither side can afford to come back empty-handed; both men having staked their careers on achieving a settlement. In Arafat's case, his life could depend on it. He is reported as saying that the Jerusalem question is the one thing that could get him assassinated if he gets it wrong!
Arafat may well be right about this but he faces discontent on more than one front. His Palestinian Authority is facing growing pressure from its own people. Seen as little more than a corrupt and repressive dictatorship, it has presided over increased poverty, unemployment and destitution. This has fuelled the growth of the militant Islamic Hamas opposition, and led to defections of some of Arafat's former supporters. Some concessions on Jerusalem could save his skin, at least temporarily.
By the same token, Barak's premiership is threatened by domestic opposition. His Labour-led coalition is now a minority in parliament following the resignation of several small religious parties, while an increasingly militant working class is challenging the effects of his neo-liberal economic policies.
At the same time, Clinton, as the representative of US imperialism, wants to achieve stability in what remains a strategically sensitive region. He is also keen to deliver a foreign policy triumph as his legacy.
However, the best that will emerge is a diplomatic fudge which will leave the "facts on the ground" unresolved. These facts include nearly four million Palestinian refugees, stateless since 1948, Jewish settlers on former Palestinian land, and a Palestinian east Jerusalem surrounded by Jewish settlements and linked by a network of roads, which carve Palestinian land into a series of unconnected enclaves.
Clinton appears to be pressuring Arafat into a deal which would recognise Israeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem, while accepting the same area as the de facto capital of Palestine. There's talk of a financial package of $15 billion to underpin any peace deal, with Clinton cajoling Europe and Japan to help meet the $40 billion compensation demanded by Palestinians for refugees unable to return to Israel.
It's just this kind of shoddy compromise which will leave the Arab masses enraged, while invoking the wrath of the reactionary Jewish orthodoxy. It is a recipe for continuing conflicts.
As usual, the only people who could achieve a real peace, the working class of the region, are frozen out of the proceedings. Their voice is yet to be heard.