A Vitality Which Will Brook No Obstacles in Safeguarding the Health Service

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A Vitality Which Will Brook No Obstacles in Safeguarding the Health Service

The demonstration on Saturday, November 3, to Defend the NHS was marked by its vibrancy and high spirits, and its character throughout was that of a determination to safeguard the NHS’ future. The march and rally had been styled a celebration also, and everything had been done to give it this celebratory character. But neither desperation nor euphoria was appropriate among the ten thousand demonstrators. This was a not celebration of government reforms but of the constant fight of health workers on every level against anti-social reforms and for pro-social reforms. One could say that every placard, banner and slogan had a purpose, had a message to unite health workers patients and public together in refusing to accept the direction in which the NHS is being taken by the government and local trusts and to stop it being used to pay the rich in a many different ways.

Whose NHS? Our NHS! Who decides? We decide! This was the profound issue raised by the slogans and asked and answered on the demonstration. Health workers, patients and people should all unite and take the initiative into their own hands to decide how to safeguard the future of the NHS today. It gives the impetus to involving people in discussing solutions based on the real problems and needs to improve health care and eliminate inequalities, with the perspective that it is our NHS and we should decide its future. At the same time, it challenges the constant "modernisation" schemes which are not intended to address real problems but are aimed at transforming the NHS into a health care system controlled by the monopoly corporations. It this movement for empowerment of health workers and patients that is harbinger to the new society based on empowerment of the working class and people to take the decisions on the health service and all important matters in society as a future prospect.

At the rally in Trafalgar Square, a theme had been set, with people speaking about their love for the NHS. I love the NHS was the slogan on the platform. But what kind of love were they speaking about? They spoke about the NHS, their experience and their concerns for its future under a government that is determined to privatise it. The love that is required is social love, the values of the working class movement. Only this love is a reality. This love is for the right of all in society to have all their needs met for health care, the values of all for one and one for all.

It was announced from the platform that this was the largest manifestation of the "nhs together" campaign to date. This shows that by taking up the defence of the health service’s future, the working class movement is responding to its own developing consciousness as a movement that takes up responsibility for society and the needs of all for a modern health care system. It was a demonstration and is a movement that unites health workers in public and private sectors, and of all nationalities, in defending the rights of all against a health service being increasingly used to pay the rich at the expense of meeting those needs. It unites young and old from all walks of life, people of different political beliefs all united in this movement to safeguard the future of the NHS.

The determination of the health workers who gave the demonstration such vitality is that ways shall be found to take this spirit to unite all the forces into all campaigns, into every nook and cranny of the movement, to imbue the movement with the spirit and the passion to provide solutions to overcoming every obstacle to its advance. This is a matter of conscious participation, of collectivising experience, of combating disinformation, of smashing the silence about the extent of privatisation. It is a matter of relying on the potential, the power, of the people themselves, health workers and society as a whole, in effecting change, in defending the NHS, in upholding the public good and the demand that social programmes are motivated not by private enrichment but by social love.

It is our NHS! We will decide!