Cuts fight goes forward

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SAVE TREL CULT CONS DSLEY HOSPIT organising committee for the Area Health Authorities for the conference on cuts in secrecy. This secrecy must be the NHS to be held in abolished-all plans, discussions Sheffield passed the resol- and information should be The resolution represents the rof the NHS to aid the struggle culmination of a fight waged against the cuts. members of the Workers the health service budget to "This conference sa Moin additional financing to meet the arise out of policies beins delib- pillaged by the drug and An important step was wages.

taken last week when the ution printed below.

over about a vear, led by Socialist League.* that the problems taoin NHS and other public.

erately pursued by Labour "Faced with the acute economic crisis of the ospitalist system the government is attempting to find a solution within that very system by the use of such measuros wage control and cuts: public expenditure. In an attempt to offset à crisis of profitability and satisfy the demands of the IMF and private Industrialists the government is clawing back money from the public sector so as to provide private industry with subsidies, grants and tax concessions.

"Conference is opposed to all the cuts in public expenditure and resolves to fight against them in the labour movement on the basis of the following programme.

''1) Opposition to all cuts in government spending and for a reversal of all previous cuts.

We oppose cuts in other sarvices as a means of maintaining the NHS. Opposition must be both at national level, where the decisions are taken and at local level, where the effects are actually felt, in the form of closures and reductions in staffing levels. There must be no sacrifice of services or living standards, simply to maintain in office a Labour government.

Unionisation

"2) For full unionisation of the NHS and a campaign for large increases in pay to overcome the low levals in the NHS. This can only be achieved by fighting to break government wage control and by linking wage increases to inflation by means of a sliding scale of November been dubbed Students.

Their idea of a campaign for adequate grants for their million-strong membership is to send groups of students around London for a day performing "stunts"

Catering students are urged to turn up in their overalls, theological etudente will montininato i. . DEMUNILLO wu participate Ill a "pray-in" at Westminster Cathedral.

Penny Cooper, longstanding Stalinist treasurer of : NUS, claims that students are "bored' with the usual parliamentary. lobby and want a more active' form of protest.

These remarks are an insult to the membership of NUS. Of course students have not turned up in large numbers on Broad Leftorganised lobbies-since the Broad Left have continually turned these away from "3) At present the plans of cut-backs are shrouded in opened for inspection by trade union committees and to users "4) For regular increases in keep pace with inflation and needs of patients.

5) At present the NHS is supplier companies, which make anormous profits out of it. The upply to the NHS must be laken out of the hands of the nonopolies by means of their rationalisation. We must lupport an investigation into the inances of these companies by rade unionists working in them ind in the NHS as part of the rampaign for their nationalisa. ion. They must then be fully ntegrated into the NHS and nanaged by committees of workers and NHS users.

"6) These policies can only be fought for within the general fight for a planned socialist economy based the nationalised banks, finance companies and monopolies. The health service will remain a second-class service, designed to cure sickness rather than promote and ensure a healthy population, as long as it is subject to the policies of a government which places the interests of the capitalist economy above those of the working class. Only as part of a fight for a government which serves and is responsible to the working class can the interests of the workers in the NHS and its users be defended.

«To fight for this programme, conference resolves to:

a) support all occupations, strikes and other actions against closures and cut-backs.

b) fight for supporting strike action by other sections of workers.

c) challenge all those trade union and Labour Party leaders who refuse to fight against the. cuts and campaign to remove them from their positions d) elect a committee based DONT I on nominations from the conference and, delegates from participating organisations, • to co-ordinate the campaign and lead the fight for the EXTEND AND The resolution was eventually supported unanimously on the organising committee, which is composed of members of the WSL, Workers Power and the IMG, plus delegates from the Labour Party, NUPE and

----- pull-quotes -----

by the leaders of the National Union

COHSE BRANCH newsflas Kilo CONST

DEFEND #COI NHS-