Dear {contactfield=firstname|reader},
We hope you can join our Zoom meeting this Tuesday 18 November at 7pm: “Defeat Starmer-Streeting budget cuts and privatisation! For a unified fightback by NHS workers!” Register here and receive a link to join.
Fifty thousand resident doctors employed by the National Health Service (NHS) in England began a five-day strike on Friday in pursuit of a pay increase. The strike is the 13th walk-out since the doctors first took action in March 2023 against the then Conservative government to address years of pay erosion and a training system that locks out tens of thousands of fully qualified doctors, while patient waits grow longer and services deteriorate.
Streeting has stepped up his denunciations of resident doctors, accusing them of holding the country “to ransom”. After a resident doctor phoned LBC Radio, saying doctors didn’t want to strike but were fighting for a pay increase reflecting their worth, Streeting replied, “Own it and own the damage it will do to your patients”.
Streeting has unveiled a 10 Year Plan for Health involving deep cuts, a massive jobs cull and privatisation that will see the destruction of the NHS as a public health service freely available to all at the point of delivery.
But the British Medical Association and other health unions are blocking the necessary fightback. The BMA leadership has repeatedly sought a compromise from the Labour government, where none is on offer. They are isolating the fight of resident doctors and preventing a challenge to the Labour government's pro-market agenda.
NHS Fightback has called this Tuesday's Zoom meeting to discuss the current strike and the crisis facing NHS workers and patients. Resident doctors and NHS staff will present a strategy to fight, based on mobilising a rank-and-file workforce of 1.4 million.
The billions squandered on private profiteers and hiked-up military spending must be redirected to the NHS and social care. This is a political struggle against a right-wing government of big business, a fight that involves the entire working class. Join this vital discussion!
