Health Workers in Defence of the NHS!

This morning NHS workers across England proudly stood together on picket lines for four hours, taking part in coordinated strike action that now encompassed eleven health unions. With such critically important workers tirelessly providing life-giving care around the clock, their dispute over poor pay is well-supported by the public — with their  real pay having fallen by over 12% in the last four years.

Yet it is clear that this ongoing dispute is over more than fair pay, with the onslaught of underfunding, cuts, and privatisations, providing more than enough reason for health workers to go on strike to save our NHS.

But for these health strikes to make a real difference to the Government’s fat-cat attacks on the longevity of the NHS, it is necessary for coordinated strike action across the entire public sector to be organised. Such a strike could in turn be supported by a broader national demonstration in defence of the NHS.

When I raised these ideas with workers on the Leicester General Hospital picket there was general support for such actions, and a clear understanding of the need to escalate strike action, much like the Trelleborg workers in Beaumont Leys are currently doing.

With the Labour Party proposing no concrete and meaningful solutions to the destruction of the NHS, more than ever it is evident that we also need a new workers’ party that defends the NHS, one that calls for:

• Cancelling Private Finance Initiative (PFI) debt. Return the money to local health services and staff pay, rather than generate massive profits for multinationals
• Stopping privatisation and marketisation of the NHS. End private companies profiting from ill health. End expensive tendering for services every three years
• Nationalising big pharma and returning the profits to the NHS

There is plenty of will and plenty of money in society to implement such an audacious program; the only problem being that the super-rich tend to be somewhat tax-shy — shy to the extent of over £120 billion each year. This is precisely why I will be standing as a candidate for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the coming General Election; standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Leicester’s two TUSC-affiliated Councillors to fight for survival of the NHS, and for a better world for all.