THE Junior Doctors and Consultants in England, faced with a ruling class that is determined to destroy the NHS, have joined forces and will jointly undertake four days of strike action, beginning next month.
They are in fact striking a might blow against all those who want to destroy the NHS and return the working class to the conditions of the hungry 1930’s. During September and October, for the first time in the history of the NHS, there will be four days in which junior doctors and consultants engage in a coordinated and joint industrial action. They are in fact preparing the way for a general strike.
Junior Doctors and consultants have seen their pay drop in real terms by over a third in the past 15 years. Now the Government continues to refuse to even enter talks with either group to try to bring an end to the disputes.
So it is a fight to the finish between not just the Junior Doctors, and the Consultants against the Tories, but also the entire trade union movement has a stake in this battle to defend the NHS which is the greatest gain yet made by the working class.
It is a fight for survival. The capitalist order is sinking fast and it aims to take the working class down with it in a Tsunami of hunger, homelessness and mass unemployment. The NHS is a big drain on government finances and must therefore go! This is what the Tory Party is all about.
We have the spectre of the government that has already brought in legislation to smash the trade unions and the right to strike, all the better to return the working class to the dark ages. The junior doctors have already observed that ‘managing the strikes have already cost the Government in the region of £1 billion, and that figure – which is what it would cost to settle the junior doctors’ dispute – will continue to rise until the Government makes a credible offer to end the strike action.
‘Surely now’ reason the doctors, ‘the Government must understand that it cannot continue down this self-defeating road.’
However, the government is sharpening the struggle. There is a huge crisis of the capitalist system, banks that were once overflowing are now full of debt while wages crash and prices rocket.
Speaking on the Aslef picket line at Euston Station, Aslef’s leader, general secretary Mick Whelan, told News Line yesterday: ‘We’re here today because these workers who did their duty during the pandemic are between 4 and 5 years without a pay rise.
‘The privateers that they work for are raking in hundreds of millions of pounds and paying dividends to the shareholders while the workers get nothing.
‘We have a government that cares more for the profit of foreign companies rather than the British rail workers who work for them. ‘Therefore, while we’re still getting mandates in the high 90%, we’ll continue to fight for our futures.
‘We have a summer of solidarity and a winter of solidarity. ‘People are ready to take a general strike action now.
‘We need a total repeal of all anti-union legislation and the public order act so workers in Britain can have their voice and campaign and protest when they want, which should include any form of action.’
However, as we know, capitalism is not going to go down without an almighty struggle. It will foment wars, stepping up the class war to make the working class pay for the bosses crisis, and stoking up wars abroad to grab the resources of other countries.
For example the UK ruling class has insisted on taking part in the war in the Ukraine to try and smash Russia, with the bonus that such a war drives the cost of living sky-high at home, pauperising the UK working class.
It has gone from arming the Ukrainian fascists to organising the UK Defence giant, BAE Systems, for setting up a major arms factory in the Ukraine and signing deals to help ramp up supplies of weapons and equipment to Kiev.
The firm said the move will allow it to work directly with Ukraine to explore potential partners and ultimately produce artillery there.
Since the Russian intervention in February 2022, Britain has become the major defence supplier to Ukraine.
So the British bosses are fighting their own war on two fronts. At home they are seeking to illegalise the right to strike, starting off by seeking to smash the RMT and ASLEF trade unions, while abroad BAE is in discussions with the pro-fascist regime in Ukraine to assist it by building an arms factory in the Ukraine.
Next week, from September 10th, the TUC Congress is in session. It must respond to the demand of the workers and call a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers government and socialism! And about time too!
