[The leaders of the Royal College of Nursing…]

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The leaders of the Royal College of Nursing are a 'conscious force for dividing nurses from the majority of. hospital workers.

But it was difficult not to feel a sense of awe at the - strategy for "action" put forward by the RCN leaders to prevent their membership turning towards the trade unions.

When the membership voted heavily against taking industrial action, The Daily Telegraph searching for the highest compliment it could pay, compared them to bishops (who are apparently being offered an 18% pay rise).

But since the RCN is an organisation which has always ruled out strike action, and since nurses who do not accept this Florence Nightingale approach already belong to trade unions, the 2,639 nurses who voted in favour of taking action must have disconcerted the RCN leadership.

In terms of the 130,000 membership this is a tiny number, but they made up 30% of those 8,500 who attended the special meeting at which the vote was taken.

The RCN leaders began agitating for a special offer from the government to prove that they could get a pay rise without taking action.

The deal was that nurses should get the money and the Government should get in return an example to hold up to the working class of the success of no action.

Things don't work like that under capitalism. The nurses' 'no strike' pledge is similar to the deal junior hospital doctors are trying to negotiate.

If the government were to guarantee the wages in real terms of either or both of these sections, there would be other leaderships in the public sector making a bid to be included.

The Government cannot afford to maintain the wages of any section against inflation without • meeting similar. demands from such a wide strata of workers: that it could not meet the claims without throwing away, not only its 5% policy, but also its defence of capitalist profitability Weapon The press does not have to take such considerations into account. In the nurses they have found the perfect weapon against the majority of public sector workers.

Prefering to forget about the thousands of nurses who have already joined NUPE and COHSE, Fleet Street wheels out its cliches about heroines and angels.

It was at this point that RCN leadership unfolded their secret weapon. They would hit back with .. a 10 million strong petition, and a 'vigil of reproach'.

The Express was estatic. So écstatic that it wanted part of its front page preserved.

The main headline said simply 'Shamed' and below that 'Nurses silent vigil'.

Screaming?

About a third of the front page was given over to a disc with the face of smiling nurse for is she screaming?) which Express readers are asked to cut out and stick on their car windows.

It reads More Pay for Nurses! In smaller letters: 'It won't hurt too much Jim' and in smaller letters again: 'Daily Express, The Paper that cares'.

The text started:

Nurses pledged never to strike are planning a silent vigil outside Parliament to shame the Government into a decent pay deal ... No banners, no slogans, no demos-just a constant silent reproach to MPs and Ministers."

The paper also said that senior nurses were to go on a 'strike in reverse'-'Giving up four hours each week helping patients in wards' Quite what pressure these four extra hours exert, the paper does not say. But then it is the paper with heart-not brains.

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Page 6 SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday 7 March, 1979