THE WAR OVE NHS: the case for an all-out stı

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I the case for an a COHSE activist Andrea the union" said Albert Spanswick in arguing against indefinite strike action at this year's COHSE Conferençe. It's an argument (excuse) which made a lot of serise to some delegates who could not find any other reason to oppose the call for indefinite strike - and it swayed votes.

Arguing for indefinite strike action is sometimes like trying to reach infinity. Everytime you logically demolish one reason for not taking jit, another one appears.

There are some people -the trade union leaders for example - who do not want indefinite action because they fear its consequences. They know the power of the health workers' case. the tremendous swell of public opinion and the potential of indefinite strike linked to a It could bring the Tories down. Such action would politicise hundreds of thousands of workers. To the exteni that we are armed with the knowledge of our own strength, the trade union leaders and reformist Labour leaders could be the next to go.

' It is therefore not in their interests for " the working class to win against the Tories.

But not only cynics argue against indefinite action. Recently T heard a well-meaning branch secretary argue against supporting indefinite action by saying "my members can't afford it" - seemingly a caring argument.

NHS workers are already earning wages below official poverty levels, unable: to accrue savings, living from hand to mouth every week and sometimes not having enough food the day before pay day facing gas bills rent and electricity overdue.

Health Workers for they want to strike but how can we call them out?

But when this secretary was asked how we were going to win the 12% (more days of. action? more lobbies?) he didn't know.

Of course health workers can't afford to come out and lose their pay - but we can't afford not to. This benevolent secretary would condemn his members (possibly without consulting them) to continued low pay year after year.

It is no coincidence that miners and print workers for example, are comparatively well paid. They have earned it not by the odd one CALL US OL JOHN HARRIS leaders, only see patients suffer when hospital workers strike. Perhaps they should speak to some of the parents whose children died because there is no money to staff the paediatric specialist wards at Guys Hospital.

Maybe they could reason with the thousands of women forced to stay at home and care for an old or handicapped relative as geriatric beds are cut every month. Or they could speak to someone who knows that they will die soon because only a set number of pacemaker operations can be done in some districts due to 'savings' being required.

The facts are that people are suffering more under the Tories' health policies than they ever would because of industrial action. Hospitals are closing, wards are being run on a Shoestring budget casualties are being shut at nights and weekends (paving the way for closure, patients are forced to travel miles from home, and visiting is made impossible.

Yes, it is true that patjents, will also suffer dựring strike action. They will have longer waiting times 'for

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Campbell reviews the arguments on indefinit vs. selective action. "IT will bankrupt

40, NO T.U.C SCABBING ON N MINE