Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the private corporation running a notoriously poor service on Britain’s busy Southern Rail network, are currently embroiled in a standoff with their staff. While the immediate cause is GTR’s attempt to cut crucial safety workers, the dispute goes to the heart of arguments over who should own Britain’s railways and how they should be run. Unfortunately for GTR, with Jeremy Corbyn putting the renationalization of rail at the center of his Labour Party leadership campaigns, the issue has assumed an even greater prominence.

Jacobin’s Duncan Thomas spoke to Tom Haines-Doran, a researcher at the University of London, on the significance of the strike and the consistent failure of rail privatization.