In this abridged article published by the London Daily Mirror and based on his 1975 film, ‘Smashing Kids’, John Pilger describes how class remains the most virulent disease in Britain, resulting in record levels of child poverty.
EYEWITNESS TO THE TRIAL AND AGONY OF JULIAN ASSANGE
John Pilger has watched Julian Assange’s extradition trial from the public gallery at London’s Old Bailey. He spoke with Timothy Erik Ström of Arena magazine, Australia.
THE STALINIST TRIAL OF JULIAN ASSANGE. WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Today, at the Old Bailey in London, the extradition hearing of Julian Assange entered its final stage. Having reported the long, epic ordeal of Julian Assange, John Pilger gave this address outside the Old Bailey as the political ‘trial of the century’ got under way.
HOW BRITAIN COULD HAVE DEFEATED COVID. YOU CAN NOW WATCH “THE DIRTY WAR ON THE NHS” HERE, FREE
The Dirty War on the NHS was first broadcast in Britain on the ITV Network on 17 December, 2019. It was shown following the general election that saw Boris Johnson become prime minister – even though the future of the NHS was a major issue in the campaign.
The remarkable prescience of the film became clear when the COVID pandemic struck, and the NHS, crippled by bed shortages, the starvation of resources and accelerating privatisation, could not cope. This was the film’s warning – a warning also delivered in 2016 when a full ‘drill’ for a pandemic showed the NHS would barely survive such an emergency. The politicians and managers did nothing; the report of the results of the drill was suppressed.
The ideological assault on the world’s first public health service continued at the height of the COVID crisis with inept private firms given lucrative contracts for PPE and mass testing. The Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, an arch privatiser, announced in August 2020 that in future most GP consultations would be be online. Hancock’s association with the tech company, Babylon Health, is dealt with in The Dirty War.
The film’s website is www.thedirtywaronnhs.com
The following review by Jean Shaoul appeared on the World Socialist Website- www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/10/dirt-d10.html
ANOTHER HIROSHIMA IS COMING… UNLESS WE STOP IT NOW
In a major essay to mark the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, John Pilger describes reporting from five ‘ground zeros’ for nuclear weapons – from Hiroshima to Bikini, Nevada to Polynesia and Australia. He warns that unless we take action now, China is next.
THE CIA COUP AGAINST ‘THE MOST LOYAL ALLY’ IS HISTORY’S WARNING IN 2020
A battle to disclose the content of secret letters between the Queen and the Australian Governor-General at the time of a coup against a reformist government in 1975 has been won – almost. But the most revealing story of the overthrow of Gough Whitlam’s government lies elsewhere.
WHY BRITAIN’S COVID SUFFERING IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
In this seminal essay, two NHS doctors, Bob Gill and Sarah Gangoli, reveal why the sixth richest country on earth, home to the world’s first public health service, is near the top of the league of deaths and suffering from COVID-19.
THE DIRTY WAR ON THE NHS RELEASED BY UK CINEMAS FOR STREAMING FROM 13 APRIL
Next week Curzon Home Cinema will be streaming John Pilger’s film The Dirty War on the NHS, which was first released last December. This re-release could not be more timely. The government is telling us to stay at home and “protect the NHS”. John’s film spells out the reason why the NHS might be overwhelmed by the impact of the coronavirus: the lack of resources which are the direct result of the policies of the last ten years and the devastation caused by sustained privatisation. At the end of the film Professor Danny Dorling foresaw what we are now going through: “The NHS gave us freedom from fear …. now that fear has returned.” This is a film to enrage, but also to inspire: to make sure that when the pandemic is over, the NHS is rebuilt as a properly funded public health system.
The film will start streaming on Curzon Home Cinema on 13th April. And on the 15th April the screening will be followed by discussion with two of its main contributors – Professor Allyson Pollock and Dr John Lister at 8.30 pm.
A PANDEMIC IS DECLARED, BUT NOT FOR THE STARVING, THE PREVENTABLE SICK, THE BLOCKADED, THE BOMBED
A pandemic has been declared, but not for the 24,600 who die every day from unnecessary starvation, and not for 3,000 children who die every day from preventable malaria, and not for the 10,000 people who die every day because they are denied publicly-funded healthcare, and not for the hundreds of Venezuelans and Iranians who die every day because America’s blockade denies them life-saving medicines, and not for the hundreds of mostly children bombed or starved to death every day in Yemen, in a war supplied and kept going, profitably, by America and Britain. Before you panic, consider them.
JULIAN ASSANGE MUST BE FREED, NOT BETRAYED
On Saturday, 22 February, in London, people will march to the centre of British democracy: Parliament Square. They will set out at the Australian High Commission, which represents Julian Assange’s homeland. The silence on Assange and the meaning of his extradition hearing, starting 24 February, for justice and the freedom of all of us, must be broken.
