Save our NHS national demo - free bus places left

On Saturday 3rd November there will be a national 'Save our NHS' demonstration in central London. Socialist Party members will be out in force as always, arguing not just that the NHS is an essential serve, but that the privatisation and introduction of markets and competition needs to be stopped and reversed.

The NHS needs to be a public funded and democratically run organisation to be a success. Cuts and siphoning off money to the wallets of rich shareholders of PFI and private health companies removes money from front line services and results in overstretched staff, fewer services and the rise of the superbugs MRSA and C. difficile.

The demonstration, organised by the health union UNISON, starts at 11am at Temple Place, Victoria Embankment. UNISON in Exeter and Barnstaple are running buses to (and from) the demo. There are still free seats left on the buses, which leave Exeter at 7am and Barnstaple at 5.30am (from the Square). If you are interested in getting the Exeter bus, please contact Jim at maj_mij@hotmail.co.uk. If you are interested in getting the Barnstaple bus, please contact Sue Harte on 01271 322353 or unisonhealthndevon@hotmail.co.uk .

It is still time to drive out the profiteers and save the NHS! Please make it to the demonstration if you can!

Health and inequality in Devon

The most recent Annual Report of the Devon Directors of Public Health (‘Health in Devon’, December 2006) makes shocking reading. Acknowledging the persistent health inequalities in the county, it states ‘Recently published data from the south west public health observatory indicates a life expectancy gap of 18 years between the people living in the healthiest geographical areas of Devon, and the unhealthiest’. Yes, 18 years, in picturesque, sunny Devon, in the fourth richest country in the world.


There will shortly be a full article on this blog about this fundamental issue.

No to fire service cuts!

After the usual sham of 'consultation', Devon and Somerset Fire Authority have decided to axe 25 jobs in the fire service in Devon, despite a budget surplus of £1 million. The jobs will go in Barnstaple, Exeter, Plymouth and Torquay and will leave these towns and cities and the areas they serve undermanned. In the event that an aerial hydraulic platform is needed for a rescue, firefighters will have to leave their posts either manning another engine or fighting a fire to operate it.

It seems fire chiefs have learnt absolutely nothing from the tragedy in Newquay over the summer, when three people died in the fire at the Penhallow Hotel. Fire cuts in Cornwall meant there were not enough firefighters or working equipment locally to tackle the blaze. Firefighters and equipment had to come from Plymouth (50 miles away).

As with the NHS and the postal services, we must fight to retain adequate levels of fire cover. Cuts kill, and the Devon Socialist Party is campaigning for no cuts in firefighters, engines or equipment, and for firefighters to be properly paid for the dangerous but essential work they do. The Fire Brigades Union is urging people to write to the Chief Fire Officer for Devon and Somerset to protest against these dangerous and unnecessary cuts. Please send your letters of protest (when the postal workers are moving to rolling strikes next week) to:

Chief Fire Officer
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service
SHQ
Clyst St George
Exeter
EX3 0NW

Devon Postal Strike round up

Socialist Party and Socialist Students members visited the picket line at the Mail Centre in Exeter twice at midday and at midnight on Friday. Only 6 workers in this large mail centre scabbed, with the vast majority of workers solid in supporting this strike. When we raised the issue of the need for a new workers' party, pickets expressed firm support for our ideas and are mystified why the leadership continues to fund New Labour, who are behind the privatisation, cuts and job losses in the postal service and public services in general.

In Barnstaple the strike remained solid and the determination of the strikers to continue the fight was evident. Local Socialist Partymembers in North Devon are currently working to try and unite the public sector unions behind the postal workers and againstprivatisation and cuts in the public sector as a whole.

In Teignmouth and Newton Abbot, the determination to see this one out reflected what we saw and heard in Exeter. Socialist Party strike leaflets and 10 copies of the socialist were snapped up as postal workers welcomed a clear explanation of their cause. In conversations there was a higher level of political discussion than in previous strikes with many recognising that New Labour never repealed Thatcher's oppressive anti-trade union laws. Many of picket expressed anger at the media and the bullying attitude of some local managers. Tempers rose with the arrival of 'scab' agency workers at one point management threaten to call the police to arrest the socialist reporter, unfortunately for them they did not know where the picket line ought to be. This is the same management who refuse to give postal workers an opportunity to earn £8 an hour - instead they preferred to use agency workers at £18 an hour of which these receive £6.50 an hour.

Strikers felt that they were in a powerful position with the run up to Christmas. However they recognise that they will face hardship with the lack of funds for their families. During discussions the idea of setting up a South Devon Support Group was brought up. The need to build links with other unions and other members of the public was seen as vital. This would then link up with other groups in Exeter and North Devon.