The "biggest party in the world" may be due to start this Friday in London, but only the lucky, the privileged and the wealthy got invitations. In fact the "rest of us" are told explicitly to stay away!
The Olympic organisers, the government, the corporate sponsors and everyone else who expects to make loads of gold out of this, now pretend that everything is beautiful in their Olympic Park.
No matter that security contractor, G4S, still cannot cope. Just this week its boss in Newcastle resigned and local Olympic security was passed to a local contractor. 1,200 more troops are to join the 17,000 already involved - never mind how motivated they may feel, given many are losing their leave and some are facing redundancy.
Of course, while the Games is looking somewhat precarious, it is nevertheless an excellent diversion from the ever-deepening financial and economic crisis, with the Spanish population the latest on the line. Or the revelation (by the US Senate Committee!) that British bank, HSBC was involved in £9bn-worth of money-laundering for Mexican drug lords, etc. Or the arrest of the boss of Anglo-Irish Bank. The Olympics certainly can and will bury the bad news... for now!
One may well ask how come giant G4S, with over 650,000 employees in 125 countries, could fail so spectacularly to put in place 10,400 security staff for the Games? Unless, from the start, it had banked on getting away with minimum security checks and training, while paying the minimum wage!
And wasn't "security" supposed to be number one priority for this government, with the "terrorist threat" considered so serious, that it justified putting missile launchers on the rooftops of nearby housing estates? Never mind the risk to local people!
Business for the boys
But, apparently, security wasn't serious enough for the government to handle it directly. On the grounds that the private sector is always "more efficient", they chose to subcontract the work, just as in so many areas of public services. Although, of course, the real reason has nothing to do with "efficiency", but everything to do with increasing the share of public funds going to private shareholders. The G4S case is just one more example of what happens when the profiteers take over. Dividends come first and the actual job comes last, regardless of the consequences.
In the case of the Olympics, the chaos created by private profiteering may not be life threatening. After all, the army/police can manage for the duration - which is only a few weeks.
But what about areas of public services where special skills are required permanently? Like in health, elderly care, education, transport, etc..?
In the NHS, for instance, contracting out of public investment turned hospitals into money-spinners for private companies and banks, never mind that wards or whole departments are closed because debt repayments come first. And too bad if this wreaks havoc with health provision and reduces the access to medical treatment!
Meanwhile, a parasitic galaxy of private sharks of all sizes, including giant ones like G4S, has been able to grow out of milking public funds, on the back of the whole working population which uses these services.
The rule of big business
The G4S scandal - and more generally, the on-going scandal of public service subcontracting - has something in common with the latest "rate-rigging" scandal involving Barclays: they all involve government officials at the highest level.
The fact that for years, every government, whether Tory, Labour, or ConDem, has been subcontracting public services, is not a matter of ideology. It merely reflects the demands made by the capitalist class on the state and its ability to get what it wanted from politicians, at a time when it wanted more public funds to boost its profits.
Likewise for the Barclays scandal. As it turns out, bank regulators knew about Barclays' dealings, and probably encouraged them, instead of stopping them. These regulators just did what they were told by the big British banks.
And how could it be otherwise? Who really runs the state? The "elected" House of Commons? Hardly. Its real powers are limited to issues on which the government "grants" MPs a vote - remember Iraq?
By contrast, unelected representatives of big business are present everywhere in government. For instance, one member of the House of Lords out of six is in the pay of big finance, and many of those, sit on committees which are supposed to put "morals" into banking! Another survey showed that dozens of "experts" are seconded "for free" by the big financial consultancy firms to ministries and even to each of the three main parties - but, "for free" doesn't mean that the big firms in question don't expect something in return, of course!
Yes, this is a state run by the capitalists for the capitalists. And it will remain so, as long as the working class does not exercise, collectively, its direct control over all aspects of social and economic life, at every level.