[Front page of the October issue of 'Health…]

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Front page of the October issue of 'Health Services', journal of COHSE reports closure of St. Benedicts. Yet COHSE leaders made no call for strike action to prevent its closure. sortiruse ompd rih sakem w he psn mes.

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Tears bone made sise it Service.

The team of administrators, led by Mr Terry Hunt, have sunk to unbelievable depths in their attempts to close this small hospital.

They have sacked a consultant at the hospital for publicly declaring that the patients were too ill to be moved; they have interfered with patients' personal belongings; and they have bundled seriously ill patients into mini-cabs against their will.

Finally, they organised Friday's raid in the full knowledge that the neighbouring Camden and Islington AHA have agreed in principle to take over the running of the hospital.

Activists among the staff and local trades unionists have fought the closure every inch of the way, but the handful of pickets present on Friday were unable to prevent the raid.

The ambulances, owned by 'Medi-Link' were escorted of the administrator's office.

Protest action

There is now one very seriousiy ill patient left at St. Columba's but supporters of the campaign have decided not to continue with the picketing but to concentrate instead on lobbying Camden AHA and organising protest action against the raid.

A mass demonstration has been called lor December 10 to coincide with the next meeting of Kensington AHA at Bishop's Bridge Road, London W2 at 4.30 pm.

Two lessons can be learnt from St. Columba's. First, the psychopathic AHA bureaucrats: who organised the raid must be driven out of the health service, never to return, and the administrative system which allows such insanity should be replaced by elected bodies from the hospital unions, labour movement and community action, either at St. Columba's or during the St. Benedict's occupation.

It is only the spreading of struggles such as these which will defeat the health cuts once and for all, and the union leaders must be forced to mobilise and encourage strike action.

Camden Ambulance Station NUPE branch have called on the London Division of NUPE to organise a delegate conference to plan a strategy of action in defence of threatened hospitals and against the use of private ambulances.

This call should be taken up and supported by every health service union branch in London, so that the raids which took placemats are never all and st COlLIlD&S c uce dowet lo happen again at any hospital. Women's Rights in the Labour Party" called by Women's Fightback.

The size of the conference was an indication that women are beginning to organise within the Labour Party, reviving moribund women's sections: and fichting against the sexism of the leadership.

A large range of issues were discussed in eight separate subject-based workshops, including Childcare, Health, Violence and Sexual Politics and Housing and Social Security.

The time allowed for reportbacks to the plenary session was so short that it was impossible to get any but the sketchiest idea of what was discussed in the other workshops.

In fact three groups were unable to report back at all.

The emphasis on drafting policy also made it hard to tackle the problem of how to fight for action to bring down the Tories or to take up the rcord of Labour's leaders both in government and in opposition.

This was highlighted by the total absence of any discussion about the republican hunger strikers and the women in Armagh Gaol-despite the fact that one workshop actually talked about prison conditions in Britain.

This was remedied by spirited speech in solidarity with the republican prisoners from a Socialist Challenge supporterwhich had to come from the floor, against opposition from the chair.

Although it marked a useful beginning to fight for women's rights in the Labour Party, this conference will have to be built upon if anything tangible is going to be achieved.

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With the unemployment rate in Coventry already above the national average, Talbot management last week made their own contribution to the growing Pare 5

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