Key to Cuts Fight

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STRIKES AND into the Health Service to be sponsored by the Greater London Association of Trades Councils and the South East Region TUC was carried on Saturday by a fifty-strong delegate conference.

The conference at Portchester Hall, had been convened by stewards of the occupied Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital as part of their fight against continuing moves by the Lib-Lab government to close the EGA.

The inquiry, to be composed of delegates from labour movement bodies, will examine the possibility of trade union action to mend the lift at the EGA; look into the state of accident emergency facilities in the Bethnal Green district and ascertain the availability of acute beds-beginning with the threatened St. Nicholas hospital.

Strike action

A firm call was also put out from the conference for the trade union leadership to lead extended and widespread strike action in defence of threatened hospitals, recognising the central importance of hospital occupations in the fight against the cuts.

The disgraceful record of the union bureaucracy in the fight against the cuts was demonstrated on Saturday by the fact that only one union official attended -a NUPE area officer, who left half-way through-and not a single representative from GLÄTC or SERTUC was present, though each of these bodies • were. cosponsors of the conference!

The theme of forcing the trade union bureaucracy to lead the fight against the cuts was taken up by many of the speakers.

A speaker from the Emergency Bed Service COHSE branch, whose members continued to refer patients to the EGA and played a large part in forcing Ennals to postpone the closure date, spoke of the complete lack of official support from the COHSE Sabotage The five members who were finally disciplined have appealed against the decision and the hearing is on Tuesday July 4.

Speakers from the South Oxford Nursery occupation blamed the NUPE leadership for the sabotage of their struggle to defend nursery facilities in Oxford, and called for a massive injection of cash into the social services and the linking of social service spending to inflation.

Docked wages Stan Hurst of the West London Hospital told the conference of the current dispute at his hospital where NUPE members are refusing to clock on and off.

The hospital management are going to enormous lengths to win this apparently minor dispute.

They have already docked 10% from the wages of all werkers involved, causing 160 to valk out, and are now preparing to transfer patients from two wards to a nearby hospital.

Full support

This is obviously an attempt to break the militancy of the West London NUPE branch which was the only hospital branch to embark on indefinite strike action when the Hounslow Hospital was raided.

There were also speakers from Bethnal Green hospital and the conference ended by pledging full support to the first workers occupation of a casualty department and called for Londonwide strike action in its defence.

•The Bethnal Green occupation has also underlined the importance of defending the victimised EBS workers, since, like at the EGA, the maintenance of casualty and emergency services depend upon the willingness of workers-in this case ambulance drivers-to defy management instructions and continue to bring patients for treatment.

The Bethnal Green workin, beginning at 8.00pm, received its first emergency case by ambulance at 8.05pm!

Health union branches must show solidarity with this action by ambulance staff.

Red racism, youth First campaignsunempioyment Youth Manchi, Peour of the tacubire Youth Louque SOCIALIST YOUTH LEAGUE LAUNCHED of Bethnal Green hospital, demanding free access to the accounts, waiting lists and future plans of the Area Health Authority.

This will add further weight to the fight for the protection of the NHS against inflation through a sliding scale of spending, and for the nationalisation without compensation of the private suppliers and contractors who continue to siphon profits from the flagging health service.

While leaders of the Workers Revolutionary Party continue to deny that their daily paper Newsline is financially backed by 'progressive' Libyan dictator Muammur Gaddafi, evidence has emerged of a far more startling cash subsidy to the WRP-from the reactionary Kuwaiti WRP Central Committee member Vanessa Redgrave financed and starred last year in a documentary film 'The Palestinian' , which is chiefly remarkable for its absence of any Trotskyist positions whatever.

The film has been extensively shown both in Britain and internationally. But it appears that the i WRP and the film's distributors have been none too choosy as to who it handles.

The Kuwaiti rights of the film were offered not to the Kuwaiti masses but to the semi-feudal regime's "Information Ministry" • for the sum of £13,000.

Delighted at the prospect of donning a left' face, and at the fact that the film in no way criticises the Arab bourgeois leaders who have betrayed the Palestinian struggle, the "Information Ministry" paid up in excess of the asking pricehanding over £20,000.

The extra £7,000, said the Kuwaitis, was 'in appreciation of Miss Redgrave's efforts support of the Arab cause"

It. remains to be seen whether such a handsome donation to WRP funds will be rewarded with increased and favourable coverage of Kuwait in the pages of Newsline.

THI EC SAVE THE E.G.A EGA supporters demonstration OUT NOW!

The first edition of Red Youth, the monthly paper of the Socialist Youth League (in political sympathy with the WSL).

Available from SYL, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London, NW5 1HR for 5p plus 7p p&p (for individual copies) or £1.44 for a year's subscription.

(Regular Socialist Press subscribers need only send PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report Mikardo

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EGA conference workers inquiry

PHOTO: Derek Speirs, IFL ENNALS OUT NO MORE HEL HOSPITAL CUTSI SEPT