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From The Socialist newspaper, 13 April 2016
Huddersfield A&E fightback grows
Marching to save the NHS, photo by Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
Mike Forster, Huddersfield Socialist Party
The campaign to save accident and emergency services in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, is mobilising all its forces for a public 'consultation' on 18 April.
Previous sham consultation meetings have been really well attended. Not a single voice has been raised in favour of the closure.
So far, we have distributed 12,000 leaflets calling on local people to attend. The clinical commissioning group, responsible for the proposed cut, has only booked a room for around 450. We can expect a huge overflow of angry residents outside the venue - yet more evidence of a flawed consultation.
The newly formed 'Youth for HRI' group has also produced 3,000 flyers calling on young people to come, and will be marching from the town centre to the venue.
As well as the active youth group, there are 14 local groups which have been set up to organise and mobilise local communities. These groups are now meeting every month with a programme of major events.
Huddersfield has never seen anything like this depth of local support or energy since the days of the campaign against Thatcher's hated poll tax. Militant, the Socialist Party's forerunner, similarly played a leading role in that movement.
- Facebook 'Lets save Huddersfield A&E', Twitter #HandsOffHRI, handsoffhri.com
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 13 April 2016:
Panama Papers
Panama Papers reveal corrupt system of the 1%
Reactionary EU campaigners implicated by Panama Papers
Another Fifa corruption scandal
Houses for offshore investment, we're stuck at home
Socialist Party workplace news
Nationalise to save all Steel jobs
Save BIS Sheffield: we won't be a Northern Poorhouse!
RMT branch calls for TUSC backing to continue
Doctors fight on against imposed contracts
Construction workers defend jobs and pay
Review: Militant by Michael Crick
Review: 'Militant' by Michael Crick
Refugees
Solidarity with refugees: fight for jobs, homes and services for all
Campaigning for scholarships for refugees - and free education for all
International socialist news and analysis
France: full-scale struggle with government is erupting
Bangladesh: stop the Rampal power project
Brazil: solidarity with attacked civil servants
International Panama Papers protests
EU referendum
Bosses back EU to boost NHS sell-offs
Socialist Party campaigns
Library occupation ends with march on cutting council
Sales of the Socialist on the rise, read all about it!
No A-level courses in Knowsley thanks to 'academies' system
Workers and youth unite to defend vital services
"Not the church, not the state - women must decide their fate!"
Defend the NHS
Huddersfield A&E fightback grows
Demonstration to defend the NHS in Leicester
Worcestershire: hands off our health service!
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