The Socialist 23 August 2017

Strikes get results

Coordinate the strikes to defeat the Tories

Glasgow jannies win famous victory against council cutters

Bin workers - fighting back wins!

Hundreds evacuated after Labour council dismisses cracks in tower blocks

Amazon tax halves as revenues soar - nationalise now!

RMT and the Labour Party affiliation debate

Defiant Barts NHS workers fight to stop Serco sabotage

Three-week Argos distribution strike

BA poverty pay dispute enters new phase of action

McDonald's workers vote to walk out in historic strike

Bin workers say: Sack Suez, stop rubbish cuts!

PCS: strikes to defend jobcentres

US: neo-Nazi violence reawakens resistance

Lewisham 1977: When socialists and workers defeated the far-right National Front

Opposing the National Front in Grantham

Charlottesville solidarity

The Single Market: a neoliberal tool of the bosses

Come to Socialism 2017

Chatsworth ward campaigners demand answers

Vital women's services under threat

Hull youth festival

West Midlands Young Socialists fight for free education on results day

NHS campaign receives Labour Party backing

Mutinies and strikes: when Bolshevism threatened British bosses

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Chatsworth ward patients and campaigners demand answers

Socialist Party public meeting in defence of Chatsworth rehab ward, 3.8.17, photo Paul Tooley-Okonkwo (Click to enlarge)

Mansfield Socialist Party

A highly charged and unusual meeting took place 16 August on Chatsworth rehabilitation unit at Mansfield Community Hospital. 40 people crowded into the ward day room, including patients (one in bed, six in wheelchairs), family members, former patients and many staff.

Facing them were the chief executive of the clinical commissioning group (CCG), the medical director of Sherwood Forest NHS trust and four other senior CCG and trust directors.

The CCG and trust asked to meet with #WeAreAllChatsworth as support for the campaign rapidly grows. They faced a grilling from every corner of the room.

'What will happen to me if the unit closed? Why haven't the trust and CCG worked this out before announcing closure? Where will patients with MS, Parkinson's, brain injuries and similar long-term conditions be treated, with no suitable NHS facilities nearby?'

None of these points were answered. The panel was forced to confront the patients' and families' refusal to lie down quietly and workers' passionate defence of their patients.

Ward leader Tom Hunt asked why the trust didn't hang on. Instead of making cuts, another government could be in power soon with more money for the NHS.

Chairing the meeting, Socialist Party Jon Dale asked for assurance that no staff members would face disciplinary action for participating in the campaign. If any such action were taken, he assured the trust, Chatsworth would turn from a local into a national issue.

Join our Save Chatsworth demonstration on 2 September. Assemble 11am at Mansfield Community Hospital followed by a rally at 12noon at Butter Cross Square
Messages of support to: [email protected]

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Coordinate the strikes to defeat the Tories