THE sight of the junior doctors of the British Medical Association and the RMT union beginning to form an alliance in order to defend the NHS and fight the savage anti-union laws that are being prepared so as to keep wages even lower, has brought an immediate response from Labour traitors such as the ‘Labour Leader’ Sir Keir Starmer.
Starmer, who has threatened to sack shadow ministers who went on workers’ picket lines has leapt in to say that far from defending the NHS and the right to strike he stands for the privatisation of the NHS and bringing in the private sector so that the bosses can make huge profits out of privatised health care.
Senior doctors have already warned that the NHS is in crisis, with services under huge pressure this winter.
Asked if any ‘reforms’ for the health service were off the table, the privateer, Starmer, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: ‘No, we want to look at all sorts of reform.’
Just before Starmer spoke up about knifing the NHS, over 300 junior doctors rallied at Westminster Hall and cheered RMT leader Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT union, as he asked the junior doctors: ‘What kind of society do we want to run? What kind of future do we want? Is it to be everyone for themselves? We need egality for some true redistribution of wealth.
‘This is not just about taxation. We are all workers. We create the wealth in all sectors. The wealth of our society is made by all of us and should be shared for all.
‘Retail and distribution workers … Some are forced into destitution. We are members of society – the state of society, the economy and politics is all our concern.’
Referring to the new anti-union laws that are being prepared, he said: They’re trying to bring back the idea of new trade unions. Politicians, Tories and Labour do nothing for us. We have to go into our workplaces, towns, communities and campaign on everything: Housing, identity, public services including the NHS.
‘Trade unions must be campaigning that the wealth of our society is distributed for everyone. There are the super-rich, and oligarchs here, not just in Russia.
‘There is control of the media by the Daily Mail, or bile, the Express and the Telegraph. They say we are ‘‘greedy’’, ‘‘militant’’, ‘‘misled’’ or ‘‘communist’’. They are saying that somehow our members are being betrayed.
‘You’re not customers. You have to build and control it and direct your leadership. You have to build up and demand change. Don’t worry about careers. Your cause is right, it is about pay RESTORATION.’
He added: ‘Privatisation is snake’s counselling. They are doing it to the NHS, to schools, lecturers. They have done it for years on councils, ripping up what trade unions have negotiated.
‘This is the fight of our generation, of our lives, for the future, for patients. We cannot lose, as we have already started to win with the BMA and the RCN.
‘Consider how you can integrate with the workers movement. There are no special privileges any more. We need a single workers’ movement to bring us all together.’
He added that: ‘This government said it would only put money on the table if there was more productivity in the NHS. My wife is a nurse. People are burnt out. There is nothing more they can give.’
He added: ‘The words are PAY RESTORATION to keep up with the cost of living crisis. You have to have cash if you go to Lidls and pay your bills, not claps.’
Prof Philip Banfield, chairman of BMA Council had opened the rally, saying: ‘Every day I am 100% committed to restoring your pay and doing my utmost.’
He added: ‘With rising pressure on living standards it is more important than ever to show workers will stand up. Safe railways are needed to get to work. Railway workers need doctors. There is no divide between them and us.’
What is required is for the union leaders to demand and force a meeting of the TUC General Council to call a general strike to bring the Tories down and bring in a nationalised and planned economy and socialism. Only the WRP fights for this policy. Join it today to organise the British socialist revolution.
