The mass frame-up of the 76 Glasgow anti-fascist pickets received another body-blow last week. Despite the suspension of the main trials at the Glasgow Sheriff Court in order to allow appeals at High Court level, the trials of 13 demonstrators went ahead at the Govan police court. The 13 had been seized from a crowd which chased the fascists out of town after their meeting.
The normal function of this court is to act as a rubber stamp for the Govan police, but on this occasion the concocted chache nas been so mconsis enterat only six fines have so far been notched up oy me prosecumon, with one trial to go one deencant was somonished ano live others received 'not proven' verdicts.
The first frame-up to be thrown out of court vas that against Alan Rae, AUEWTASS Divisional Council member and olice convenor at Joln Brown engineer ing. Veronica Kent. a fascist from Rirmin gham, claimed to have been assaulted by Rae: but the magistrate commented: If Her sue must talk ran a very 1ool st man indeed.
Kent tried on the now standard NF ploy of claiming on oath that she was no onuer anNis member she caimed that she had travelled from Birmingham to meet her fiance, another former' NF member from Plymouth, and that they nad discovered mat Ine Ni meeting was taking place purely by chance!
As the trials progressed, charges were thrown out in tour turther cases. The only defendant yet to appear is IMG membertonn r'ord wnse nar was acterred to Tuesday 30 September. A picket of the court was being mounted by IMG and IS in an effort to clinch the tie-breaker.
The major threat to the campaign against the tramc-up trials, however. now comes from among those who are supposea to be caome ine cerence in court ar cording to some of mose present, the Trades Counch s lawyer, Acit Bovey, has told a meeting of his defendants- largely CP members- that he may have to withdraw from the case unless certain onerous Jinancial conditions are met.
This has provided the cue for a direct appeal from Trades Council secretary John Reidford and vice-chairman Hugh Wyper-both defendants in the first trial that remaining defendants should change their pleas to guilty on reduced charges. Serendants nave aiso been intormed n they will have to pay their own fines. It scems that while the Trades Council Defence Fund can afford to pay out £360 legal costs to two defendants who took private legal advice, it cannot cover the 1450 in fines so far incurred although a total of £1,070 has arcady been collected Many CP defendants, furious at these cases through: and the whole matter is certain to be raised from the floor at this week's Trades Council meeting. Meanwhile, all contributions to the Defence Fund (clo Glasgow Trades Council. 83 Carlton Place, Glasgow G5) should be marked for payment of fines only' to ensure that they are not used simply to swell a lawyer's ward-chest James MacAllister
Last week two major unions in the National Health Service responded to Barbara Castle's proposals to gether, while NUPE welcomed the proposals but urged the Labour Government to speed up the pro...LET THE PATIENT DIE cess.
Predictably, the response of the reactionary hierarchy of the medical profession was to foam at the. mouth. So far seventeen organisations, ranging from the Royal Colleges to the British Medical Association, have said they are totally opposed to any moves to oust private practice from the NHS. In a statement, they threatened to sabotage the functioning of the NHS, warning of a full-scale 'confrontation between the Government and the medical and dental profession'.
It was NALGO which touched off the row now brewing over the issue of private practice. Following successful resolutions at its national conference this year, NALGO has circulated all its branches with directions for a campaign against the expansion of private practive through the planning permission procedures of Local Authorities. NALGO has also backed the Medical Committee Against Private Practice and is supporting its national conference on 11 October. As well as the total abolition of private practice, NALGO also called for all existing private health facilities to be taken into public ownership and for the nationalisation of the drugs industry.
PRIVATE phase out pay beds from NHS hospitals while allowing private practice to flourish outside. has announced its 'great reservations' about any proposals that do not abolish private practice alto9,000 when existing private beds in the private sector are joined by those at present in NHS hospitals.
This figure of 9,000 amounts to the equivalent of over 10 vèry large hospitals - all in the private sector!
And of course, all these private hospitals will be staffed by NHS trained nurses and will continue to attract trained and ancillary staff away from the miserable wages and conditions of the National Health Service.
ate practice has been at the centre of a row affecting the vital interests of the whole working class - the future of the NHS. In 1974, on the crest of a wave of mass action by health workers - especially nurses - direct action was taken in several hospitals to boycott private facilities and demand the Labour Government take action.
Since then, hospital workers have continued to campaign against private practice as the most obvious threat to the NHS.
TIDY PACKET Barbara Castle's response to this of the Wilson Government. The cut out a few sores and leave the cancer to take its course.
This is not the first time that priv- NALGO and ASTMS all took clear conferences this year. NALGO's for beginning a real campaign. . red weekly 2 october 1975 NALGO ical manoeuvre, presented as a minor concession for the defence of the NHS in order to head off the strug gles against the real menace to the survival of the NHS - the policies Labour Government is prepared to Apart from the TUC, which came out against private practice in 1973 - why so silent now, Len? - NUPE, positions against private practice in and out of the NHS at their annual recent declaration against Labour's latest proposals on private practice goes even further and lays the basis The Medical Committee Against Private Practice has received major Barbara Castle - just what the consultant ordered?
support throughout the workers movement for its conference this month. NALGO has supported this initiative, along with the Socialist Medical Association and the Institute of Workers' Control. A united campaign against Castle's latest proposals by all of these bodies - involving conferences, demonstrations and industrial action - could become the rallying point for a struggle to defend the National Health Service from Labour's attacks and expand it under workers control to meet the real needs of the working class.
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