La vital role in building a united movement around the fight in the NHS:
* Opposition to all cuts and hospital closures. No reductions in staffing levels. No reductions in services to patients, especially those poorly catered for such as women, the old and the mentally ill. For the abolition of all prescription and other charges.
* An immediate injection of one thousand million pounds into the This to be the first step towards ending the decline of the NHS. A sliding scale of expenditure for the NHS so that it is fully protected. from inflation.
For the immediate nationalisa• tion of the drugs industry and all medical supplies industries. The opening of the books of all these compales For the complete abolition of all private practice both inside and outside the NHS and the nationalisation of all private health facilities.
* For a health service under the control of the working class. the extension of preventative medicine and an occupational health service accompanied by an extensive programme of health education. For free abortion on demand.
* For a workers' inquiry into the running and organisation of the NHS and the ending of the control of the medical hierarchy. All the books and records inside the NHS to be opened up to the inspection of the Social workers in another London borough have come out on strike -this time in Southwark, where there was a one-day stoppage on Friday 28 August to protest about staff shortages and cut-backs in expendiThey picketed area offices. gave out leaflets calling the public's attention to the cuts, and marched to their head office and to the Department of Health and Social Security to hand in a petition to Barbara Castle.
Ine neca to take some action became immediate when a confidential report was discovered. This report proposes that staff vacancies should not be filled; instead there should which a special committee would decide whether or not each particular post should be refilled.
Social workers already estimate For that they are 25 per cent down on staff in residential homes (for children and the elderly) and 20 per cent down in area social service offices. In one area where several workers are leaving, these proposals would result in a 75 per cent reduction of staff! Leaving the report aside, there still remains the tact that the majority of the council's expenditure on social services goes is no sign of expansion to meet expanding need.
The Director of Social Services has taken the line that the situation cannot be resolved by strike action inition exist to meet needs where they are to be found - so he will in Tower Hamlets three weeks ago showed that social workers are beginning to be aware that it is not in the interest of the working class for them to go on providing inadequate services, and that the only way to obtain resources is to fight for them before the damage is irrepar- that social workers almost by defnot negotiate. But the similar strike MEH REM NO DELAY - FILLING SUC A WORK VACANCIES able. And it is no accident that the recent struggles have been in boroughs like Tower Hamlets and Southwark, which have some of the highest proportion of working class residents and where councils have always been Labour Party controlled The Labour Government's cutbacks and the rising cost of living are most clearly apparent in these areas, where there is nothing to cushion or hide the capitalist crisis: all the resources are stretched to the the limit - housing is bad, hospitals full and health services inadequate schools badly equipped and staffed, youth unemployment high. With nothing to fall back on - not even the traditional 'soft police' of social workers - capitalism is making the working class pay in every aspect of its existence.
Hopefully from the basis of the twin struggles of Tower Hamlets and Southwark there will be a linking up of demands, ideas and perspectives so that this can spread to social services in other areas in London and outside. We urge other sections of the trade union movement in these localities to give support and publicity to these struggles.