Punjab Privatising Health Care

absorbs the implications and lessons of the socialist collapse in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the subsequent renewed offensive of imperialism and neocolonialism, it has to pass through a necessary phase of transition and regeneration. And as the primary class organisations of the working class, trade unions can provide vital inputs into this process of renewal and reorganisation. It is also important to grasp how the ongoing economic reforms are generating and strengthening the material conditions for the development of revolutionary trade unionism. With the reforms becoming such a key issue in our social and political life, every worker today has learni to view his immediate problems and struggles almost naturally in the context of the government's policies and the movements of global capital. The rise of the women's movement and also of greater HEALTH and education services have a vital role to play in the social and economic development of society. The health services help to make society physical and mentally sound and increase the capacity of people to work more. Education by improving the skill, talent and thinking capacity enhances the human capabilities to act upon the resources of the country to not only produce greater income but also achieve better management of the society. These two services are recognised at international conferences as of utmost importance in improving the quality of life. Countries have been made to commit a larger level of their income for upgradation of these services. Most recent such commitment has been sought from the participating countries' governments at the Copenhagen conference. Improvement in these two services is the primary responsibility of the government. Universal primary education and health services for all are also recognised as part and parcel of human rights of the citizens. It is in this context that the controversy around establishment of the Punjab Health Systems Corporation need to be viewed. In the wake of the new policy framework adopted in the country, the health department of Punjab has been making efforts to introduce 'commercialisation' in the environmental awareness provides a more comprehensive perspective to understand, expose and resist the operation of capital. And with almost every state government and established political party pursuing the same economic line, the class nature and political context of the economic policies are becoming increasingly clear to more and more workers, as are the limits of parliamentary politics and reactionary and reformist trade unionism." To take full advantage of these material conditions and further build and expand a revolutionary trade unionism among all sections of the working class is the challenge now facing AICCTU and other progressive forces within the trade union movement. Clearly their success or failure will affect not only the daily lives of India's workers, but the whole character of the country's future economic and social transformation.