THE Chase Farm occupation was ended at 9pm on Saturday night after the police received government orders to evict the occupiers.
The occupation began at 4pm after Bill Rogers the secretary of the North East London Council of Action told a rally on the steps of the Chase Farm Clock Tower, ‘We have been campaigning for six years against the closure of this hospital.
‘The Patient Liaison is shut already. It has been reported that the hospital is dangerously short of staff.
‘Part of the Eye Clinic is closed. 600 administration staff have been told to reapply for their jobs. 350 will lose their jobs.
‘We’re going to carry out our occupation. We’re going in to occupy.’
The rally took place at the end of a thousand strong March through Enfield (see page 6) which received enthusiastic support.
His announcement of occupation was greeted by cheers with people saying, ‘We’ve been waiting for this.’
The police did not intervene to prevent marchers from occupying the Clock Tower. In fact, they entered the Clock Tower along with the marchers.
This was after a police officer led the marchers into the hospital site and straight to the Clock Tower.
The police at this stage were saying that they wanted to keep the hospital open, and were complaining about attacks on their jobs and pensions.
Inside the Clock Tower, police officers again stressed that they wanted to keep the hospital open and that they were ‘neutral’ and only there to see that everything was OK.
Once inside, the occupiers were treated to tea and biscuits and told that they were a a welcome sight.
This surprising atmosphere ended with the appearance of a manager just before 8pm.
He told the marchers that they must leave and when he was asked who he represented, since the marchers represented the community, he said that he represented the Secretary of State.
At the same time the doors leading to the toilets and the rest of the hospital were chained up.
At 8.30pm five security guards appeared. They were told to clear the Clock Tower.
Only one made any attempt and attacked Bill Rogers, Secretary of the NE London Council of Action, but was forced to give up.
With that, the ‘neutral police’ forgot their neutrality and some 30 officers began to drag the occupiers out of the Clock Tower.
There was no physical resistance but there was a refusal to cooperate with this procedure.
In the course of this, two of the occupiers were arrested and one was injured. Both spent the night in the cells at Edmonton Police station.
Bill Rogers tolds News Line: ‘Everything changed when the manager said that he represented the Secretary of State.
‘He had obviously received his orders that the occupation must be ended before it began to spread.
‘When the security couldn’t do it, police “neutrality” ended, and they cleared out the occupiers, arresting two and hurting one.
‘We were cheered all the way through Enfield. People were overjoyed that the hospital was being defended.
‘We are going to continue and step up our campaign to save Chase Farm.
‘We are demanding that the trade unions act now in defence of the NHS. They must organise occupations at Chase Farm and at all of the threatened hospitals.
‘Such occupations will be like a tsunami that will have the support of millions to sweep the government away and lay the basis for a workers’ government.
‘The fight goes on. We will be back picketing Chase Farm hospital on Monday.’
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