KLEINS PICKETED Campaigning against the cuts in Hammersmith

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Recently a demonstration of nearly 400-mainly women and children-took place outside the West London Hospital in Hammersmith.

This was in protest against the proposed closure of the 60 bed maternity unit at the hospital.

Socialist Press interviewed one of the organisers of that demonstration, Val Gorter.

Can you tell us something about the background to the proposed closure of the West London maternity unit?

The West London is the obstetrics unit of the Charing Cross Hospital which does not have one.

JO With workers by the thousand taking to the streets to oppose Tory policies there is plainly no lack of militancy in the organised working class.

Yet the existing trade union bureaucrats and Labour leaders -whether right or 'left'-have no perspective to offer those workers prepared to fight in defence of jobs, living standards, social services and democratic rights.

These can only be defended through policies which start from the independent interests of the working class, which, as an international class, nothing to gain and everything •to lose from attempts to restore the profitability of their "own" employing class.

In a period where the contradictions of the anarchic capitalist system force the wholesale closure and destruction of the productive forces of society, oniy a socialist planned economy on a world scale offers a way forward.

To achieve such a perspective a leadership is needed which, in today's struggles fights Please send me more details of the Workers Socialist League.

Name .

Address Send to .: BM Box VC It had been planned . to include an obstetrics unit in the new Charing Cross but this was not done.

A couple of years ago there was a plan to transfer the 60 beds to the Queen Charlottes but it had only 30 beds available and it is not directly under the control of the AHA but has its own board of governors.

By the end of 1979, no agreement had been reached and the discussions ended.

On 16 January notice was givèn of the proposed closure of the unit and 31 March was the last day for objections to be made-the closure is to be effective from January 1, 1981.

How did you get involved in the fight to save the beds?

I had my second child at the hospital. A few weeks ago | wrote to the local paper against the closure.

Some other mothers got in touch with me as a result of the letter.

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to advance workers beyond trade union militancy, protest politics and illusions that capitalism can be abolished through parliament.

The Workers Socialist League is a Trotskyist movement fighting day in and day out to build such a principled leadership in the working class in Britain.

.. Internationally, we are affiliated to the newly-formed Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, which fights for the reconstruction of the Fourth International and the building of revolutionary parties in every country to lead the struggle against imperialism and against the parasitic Stalinist. bureaucracies in the deformed and degenerated workers' states.

We invite all readers of Socialist Press to seek more details of the WSL and its work, and to join us in the struggle for socialism.

NOW AVAILABLE Labour movement bulletin on Ireland with background articles on witch-hunts in Oxford and Tameside. 25p including p&p from WSL, BM Box 5277 London WCIV 6XX.

ltch-hun A labour movement No. 3, March 1980 - belletin on IRELAND 10p We decided to organise a petition against the closure of the unit-and we have got thousands of signatures so far.

We then decided to have a demonstration outside the hospitai followed by a protest march to the South Hammersmith Community Health Council to hand in the petition on 31 March.

How did you work to get such a good turn-out on the demonstration?

Well, everything has happened so quickly. We haven't set up a committee or organised ourselves.

A lot of work was done by phoning mothers, who phoned their friends.

We put up notices in mother and child clinics, contacted one o'clock clubs and persuaded the local paper to put in a notice advertising it.

Is there anything particular about this maternity unit?

Yes. In fact it was voted the equal best maternity unit in the country, along with the John Radcliffe in Oxford.

It uses what is known as the modified Leboyer method. It takes a more humanist approach to childbirth and treats it more as a family rather than a hospital affair.

The aim is to alleviate the traumas of childbirth. It is so popular thạt they have had to restrict the area from which it will receive patients.

In 1974 there were births and in 19782,000.

Where would mothers this unit were closed?

We would have to go to Hammersmith, to the Westminster-or the Queen Charlotte Hospital which is too far away for women in this part of the borough.

How much money does AHA estimate it will save?

Well they say it costs £710,000 plus £115,000 on the special baby unit at the Charing Cross which would have to close as well.

EUROPE They would run the West London as a geriatric unit at a 'cost of £500,000 so they aim to save about £300,000.

The Variety Club of Great Britain has offered the money to transfer the special baby unit to West London.

Are there other cuts being made in the NHS locally?

Yes, there has even been a 20% cut in the famous child development centre run by Dr. Jolly.

They have stopped microfilming the medical records at the Charing Cross.

There is an AHA proposal to close the 18 bed psychiatric unit at Temple House; 79 beds were closed at St. Stephens last September as were 20 female plastic surgery beds at Roehampton.

Putney hospital has been "temporarily" closed. But the Chiswick Maternity _ Hospital closure years ago was also meant to be temporary-and it is still closed!

The Western Hospital is to be soid off. Perivale Maternity Hospital is also threatened with closure, along with three wards in the Hammersmith. Have you had any contact the unions at the hospital?

The NUPE branch chairman came out to support the demonstrators, but we have not worked out more formal approaches. There has been some discussion in the Labour : roup on Hammersmith's Tory-controlled Council.

What do you plan as the next step? For example are you going to lobby the AHA meeting on We have not organised anything as yet. We will probably organise a lobby of the AHA meeting, although it is difficult to get people right over to Hounslow for it.

Since this interview a group of mainly parents, together with the West London Hospital NUPE chairman have met and formed a Campaign to Save West London Hospital Maternity Unit. They are organising posters, stickers, leaflets and a public meeting to be held early in May. delivery tried to cross the picket line. The convenor of the dockers was contacted and said he would prevent the firm's lorries being loaded.

The boss of the delivery firm then phoned Klein and instructed his driver not to deliver. The only van to cross the picket fine now is the bosses van in which he ferries scab workers, cloth, finished articles and rubbish.

Blacking The solution to the dispute lies in stepping up the picketing and stopping the bosses van. Strikers are asking for the company's goods to be blacked.

• They make men's trousers and jackets under the trade name of Bendyk.

Donations are desperately required as none of the strikers, mostly women, are being paid.

Please send donations to c/o John Catteral!, "VOSCOp»* Klein. Brothers Dispute Fund 39 Fir Street, Cadishead, Manchester. cisrun ises the

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