NHS cash is not enough!
TONY BLAIR panicked in the face of public anger over the NHS last week. He conceded that
NHS spending is too low, that health workers are underpaid and billions extra needs to be
given to begin to revitalise the NHS.
But, as welcome as extra money will be, it’s not enough to rebuild the NHS. This is
another token gesture from New Labour to try and regain credibility.
Blair’s panic response exposes how little Labour has actually done for the NHS. Now
people will be scrutinising these new proposals and their effect very closely.
They’ve deceived us many times before over the state of the NHS and its funding. But
they’re still doing it!
Blair’s claim that his plan will take until 2006 to revitalise the NHS will mean six
more miserable years for those desperate for treatment and beds and for overworked staff
living on poverty pay. The government has at least £31 billion available to spend,
according to the TUC. That money should be made immediately available.
But four times that amount has been given to the rich in tax cuts since 1980. There should
be a wealth tax as an immediate emergency measure to stem the NHS funding crisis and
provide money for other decimated services like education. But we also want a socialist
programme to save the NHS not New Labour’s pathetic platitudes. That means more than
providing extra money.
It means not running the NHS like a business. It means stopping privatisation, which is
cutting resources and worsening health workers’ conditions. It means nationalising
the drug and medical equipment companies under working-class control and management, to
stop them ripping off the NHS.
Blair’s panic measures are a desperate attempt to regain credibility after his
opinion poll ratings have slumped 25%. But the health cash is not being backed up by firm
promises. To ensure that New Labour begins to deliver we need to mobilise mass action by
working-class people to end the NHS emergency.
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Pinochet
SOCIALIST PARTY member JOHN REID - a regular attender on the 16-month long anti-Pinochet picket - reports on the anger, dismay and sense of betrayal as news was received that Home Secretary Jack Straw was letting the brutal dictator off the hook and allowing him to return to Chile.
FEDOR CASTILLO was held prisoner in Santiago football stadium after the 1973 military
coup and tortured by Pinochet’s thugs. He still bears the mental and physical scars
of his ordeal, including problems with his lungs.
Fedor still finds it too upsetting to talk in detail of his ordeal as do others on the
picket. He remembers his two dear comrades and friends, Alex Jakar and Ulysses Marino, who
were held with him and were tortured, murdered and disappeared.
Fedor says: “this is a political deal not humanitarian, all documentation on
Pinochet’s tests and the secret talks between Britain and Chile should be made
public”.
Another person on the picket who declined to be named also suffered brutal torture.
“Straw will have to explain himself to the British public and the victims of
Pinochet. When Pinochet returns to Chile and takes up his post as Senator, he has said he
will return to public life. He has been fit and mentally alert enough to make statements
and to entertain guests and politicians.”
MABELLE BORJA’S comments were damning: “We have been shafted by New Labour,
betrayed by a man of straw.”
It seems that a political deal was drawn up as early as last September in New York between
Chilean foreign minister Juan Gabriel Valdes and British foreign secretary Robin Cook. As
an ally during the Falklands War and as a market for exports, British capitalism is
anxious to fully restore its relations with Chile.
Unfit for trial?
PINOCHET WAS tested by doctors who, according to Straw, declared him unfit to stand trial.
He allegedly failed a senility test, although the documentation has not been released.
During his stay in Britain this allegedly senile man has met with and talked with a whole
range of right-wing politicians including Thatcher.
It now emerges that the doctors who examined Pinochet did not state he was unfit to stand
trial and conceded that he could recover.
Pinochet’s alleged senility is as convincing as that of former Guinness boss Ernest
Saunders who was released from prison supposedly suffering from pre-senial dementia and
then made a miraculous recovery. Expect the same miraculous recovery when Pinochet returns
to Chile.
Pinochet will attempt to return in triumph but he has been humiliated over the last 16
months. A new generation of workers are aware of his brutal and bloody legacy. Over 70% of
Chileans think he should answer for his crimes.
The working class of Chile now must exert mass pressure to put this tyrant on trial and
make him answer for his crimes.
Vote Roger Bannister
AFTER THE government’s NHS pay announcement, Socialist Party member and Campaign for a Fighting and Democratic UNISON (CFDU) candidate for UNISON general secretary has called on the union to reject the insulting offer and reinstate the ballot for strike action amongst UNISON’s NHS ancillary staff members.
Roger said: “Top consultants will get a £4,000 rise to £124,000 whilst nurses will get less than £10 a week to bring their wages to less than £15,000. Ancillary workers will get less than £10 a week, which is not even enough to bring their wages up to £5 an hour, UNISON’s minimum wage demand.
“I call for UNISON to reinstate the strike ballot if the government don’t increase the offer. The ballot, amongst UNISON’s 250,000 ancillary worker members, was suspended last year for no good reason.”
Ballot papers for the general secretary election are now being sent out to the nearly two million members and retired members of UNISON earlier than scheduled. No doubt union officials hope to get votes in before Roger’s campaign gets through to all areas. A vote for Roger Bannister is a vote for a leadership campaigning for properly funded public services.
Roger says:
- He will not take the £74,000 General Secretary’s salary but will live on the average wage of a UNISON member.
- National action to defend jobs and services, an end To PFI/Best Value.
- End low pay, for a minimum wage of at least £5 an hour with no exemptions.
- Bring the privatised utilities and services back into public ownership.
CFDU leaflets and posters are available from Glenn Kelly on 020 7251 8449. The ballot closes on 18 February.