The Socialist 27 January 2016

Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill

Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill

Davos summit: a broken capitalist system

Google pays pittance for avoiding £2bn tax

Red doors and wristbands scandal

Steelworkers may face benefit cut-off for not seeking bar jobs

Oscars snub black artists: fight racism and austerity in the arts

Labour councillor smears TUSC policy as 'BNP'

Them & Us

Top tweets: #TraditionallySubmissive

Teaching: a perfect storm is brewing

Teachers need national strategy for a national struggle

A day in the life of a teacher and mother

New wave of protests in Tunisia

India: student death exposes caste oppression

Tories 'Prevent' civil liberties

Labour councillor suspended for fighting cuts

Dave Nellist's byelection appeal to Jeremy Corbyn: 'let's discuss how to fight the cuts'

Labour election post-mortem: nothing to report!

The dark arts of Labour's right

Councillors must fight to defend our services

'People's budgets' and local democracy

Lewisham: no backsliding in council cuts fight!

"I have left work many times in tears" - a council worker

Trade union bill will stretch resources and limit action

Birmingham teachers strike to resist academy attack

24-hour tube strike suspended

Care services under threat in Haringey

Workplace news in brief

The end for deep coal mining jobs in Britain

Obituary: Dean Meehan 1962-2016

Letters

Protesting against closure of Huddersfield A&E

Coventry children's services closure protest

New Socialist Party branch fights against St Austell austerity

Socialist Party discusses the fight for socialism

Socialist Students bake-off

PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT

020 8988 8777

[email protected]

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/886/22091

Search the site	Printable version

Home | The Socialist 27 January 2016 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook

Angry campaigners protest against closure of A&E

2,000 demonstrate against Huddersfield's A&E closure, photo by Iain Dalton (Click to enlarge)

Mike Forster, Huddersfield Socialist Party

Anger is palpable wherever you go in Huddersfield. Ordinary people are organising events everywhere against the closure of the town's A&E. An online petition has already topped 100,000!

On 20 January, the Calderdale/Huddersfield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) met to reach its final decision on a very secret consultation about the future of accident and emergency provision in the area.

The decision was picked up by the media and a huge groundswell of opposition sprung up all over the town: a Facebook group has already attracted over 40,000 members. A protest of around 2,000 on 23 January in the town square heard speaker after speaker condemn the move.

Huddersfield has never seen anything like it! The CCG will live to rue the day they took us all on.

There's no doubt that if this proposal goes ahead, people will die. The nearest A&E is at least 30 minutes away, but much longer in rush hour or if you live in far flung communities.

And this is in Halifax, a PFI hospital which is being drained of money to pay off a colossal debt.

The strength of the campaign is that it's lead from below. Although local MP's formed a 'united front' to fight the closure, people completely new to the struggle have been thrown into the leadership which has invigorated the campaign.

The Socialist Party have collected nearly 15,000 signatures on this issue in the last year and our campaign stalls have now been transformed as we engage in the campaign, mobilising young people in particular.

On the first public rally we raised almost £250 in paper sales, badges and fighting fund. There will be no going back from this.