Sick? Passport please! by Jessica

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BANGLADESH HELFARE .C1o9 WORKERS ASSOCIATION OWER HAMLETESRALS INCH!

FRASTOP AND " THe.

UNITE BILL FIGHT INDIAN TION GRAUP SMASH ACIST AMPAIG

MIGRANTS

KA HERE TOLE ON OCTOBER 1 last year internal checks came into force in the National Health Service.

The aim is supposedly to prevent abuse by overseas visitors who are not eligible for free health care. Tory minister Norman Fowler reckons that £6 million a year could be saved, {l million from overseas students alone.

An independent survey conducted in Manchester revealed that less than 1% of patients would be liable to pay, and the figure of £6 million is no more than a guess.

The checks are thus not aimed at saving money, but have another purpose.

The implementation of internal controls is a twofold attack on the working class. Firstly, it is a direct attack on black people.

All black people will be seen firstly as visitors, and will have to prove their right to free health care. A new form with three questions has been introduced, but in many places the person's passport will be, and has been, asked for as proof of eligibility.

Secondly, this could be another move towards privatisation of the NHS, with insurance schemes in place of universal care. It is a first breach in the principal of provision for all.

At the 'No Pass Laws In Health' conference held in December last year, the trade unions involved had the opportunity to put forward their programme of resistance.

Checks

CoHSE, represented Malcolm Macmillan, recognised that the che cks were discriminatory against 'non-whites' ', and that both the trade unions and the public had been hoodwinked.

CoHSE's proposed plan of action is non-cooperation with the scheme on the grounds that abuse is insignificant. But if members are threatened with suspension for not implementing the checks, then CoHSE is not prepared to take any industrial action or risk any jobs over this issue.

The reason for the lack of resistance against the checks was put down to the unwillingness of members to fight. Apparently the same reason goes for NUPE and NALGO not having any policy of resistance, not even non-cooperation.

Alternative arguments were however put forward. Andrea Campbell, CoHSE Broad Left candidate for general secretary, argued that if the leadersip of the unions were willing to back up their members, then those members would be more likely to fight.

Writer Amrit Wilson rightly pointed out that the NHS has been, and is, increasingly used as an instrument for racism. The lack of provision for such illnesses as rickets, sickle cell, TB, etc., and the much lower level of wages for jobs where a large proportlon are black workers, shows the racism in the NHS.

The checks are just the latest move in what is becoming a 'state war' against black people. The checks are not separate from the severe exploitation of black people both in this country and in other countries bled dry by the multinationals.

Nor are they separate from the new immigration

Daniels

controls, the 1981 Nationality Act (now implemented), the threat of deportation or forced repatriation, and the police's moves towards increased 'crowd control' and control of street crime. These new checks represent a new expansion of internal controls of black people.

Speakers

All Socialist Organiser supporters should invite speakers from this campaign to black, community, women's, and labour movement meetings. We need lo mobilise now to fight for a leadership of the labour movement that will fight state racism.

For more information and speakers: No Pass Laws to Health campaign, c o 146 Kentish Town Rd, London NW1 [01-607 2461 or 01-485 6672).