35,000 at Greenham Those women have done it again!

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Occupations hold up hospital closures FROM 11 o'clock they started arriving. By 1 o' clock the din they made could have been heard in the Pentagon.

Those Greenham women had done it again. At least 35,000 women had arrived to make sounds at Greenham. As the first round of noises started, policemen and soldiers alike put hands to ears.

Foghorns, cymbals, saxophones, kazoos, drums, whistles, screeching and other noises poured out at a high rate of decibels.

This was a 'retaliation'. For many months at night both the army and the police have disturbed the women by revving up engines, shouting or throwing stones at tents, attempting to wreck us and demoralise the camp.

Fortunately someone has now bought a load of earplugs!

Visibly shocked

As the noise rippled round the perimeter from the mouths and hands of 35,000 women, many soldiers were visibly shocked.

Meanwhile, back in the forest between Orange and Main gates, next to the silos, some of us were plotting...

At 3 o'clock prompt the third round of noises sounded, and from the forest appeared a battalion of women with wirecutters. (Thanks to a 'Poison Girls' benefit gig which sent 90 pairs, supplies of wirecutters had been increased). As some of us cut, others held off the police and pulled at the fence.

In five minutes a section of fence was down. So we pulled out a carpet, threw it over the barbed wire, and charged up towards the silos inside the base, chased by very angry soldiers.

COMBINED forces of Labour abstentions and a rent-a-mob Tory turnout produced a 198reading in the House of Commons last Friday. The Bill would have amalgamated and extended the provisions of the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts, and incorporated protection against anti-gay discrimination.

Socialist Organiser is taking a break over Christmas: the next issue will be dated January 5.

(We need to have articles in by Saturday December 31 (for features) or Monday January 2 (for short reports).

Last week we promised the third and final part of John O'Mahony's article on the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis would appear this week: but since then we have received the coverage on the anti-union laws, by John Mellroy, which we carry as a special pull-our-and-fold eighs.

page supplement in this paper.

We felt we had to gire prioril to the fight against the anti-union laws: so apologies once again for a further postponement of Sinn Fein, and of some other features.

CIl

"There's a hole in your fence, dear major..." ON OCTOBER 25, workers Hayes Cottage Hospital occupied to prevent the scheduled closure on October 31.

Hillingdon Health Authority had voted to "temporarily" close the hospital in a bid to save a paltry £53,000 in this financial year. The closure was part of a scheme designed to save £l million in an effort to keep within cash limits imposed by the Tories.

On October 26, Northwood and Pinner Hospital, also in the Hillingdon Health District, occupied. They, too, were scheduled to close on October 31. Management have been reeling ever since, fighting a rearguard action to break the strength of the staff and supporters.

Both hospitals are small (30 beds) cottage hospitals - which means that the local GPs are responsible for treatment of the patients once they are referred. This cuts out the powerful consultants who are usually obstructive to this kind of direct action in defence of the NHS.

At both hospitals the GPs are supporting the occupation. Admissions have increased since the occupations started, and the hospitals are now nearly full.

The present round of occupations in defence of hospitals began in August with Thornton View in Bradford. Since then, enthusiasm and interest in occupations has grown.

Workers in Bradford helped with advice and support to Hayes and Northwood and now staff from those two hospitals are travelling around giving advice and sharing their experience with other hospitals which are threatened under the Tories' plans for mass destruction of the NHS.

At Hayes, a working class area of Hillingdon, community_support has been tremendous. From the first night of occupation there has been a twenty-four hour picket.

The gate has been locked and no administrators have been allowed in. Most of the staff had never even seen the administrator "responsible" for Hayes. Within an hour of the occupation he turned up, demanding to be let in to carry out his functions (to close the hospital!). He was told to go away.

Despite a week of intimidation harassment, staff stood firm would not let him in. He took writs against three workers but gave up trying to serve them after two weeks!

The strength and power of occupations is clearly shown in Hillingdon. Without this kind of action both hospitals would have been shut six weeks ago. Patient care in Hillingdon would have declined and jobs would have gone.

The workers, none of whom had taken any militant action before, have become politicised overnight. With the exception of two porters all the workers are women, many doing part-time jobs.

They had been "promised jobs elsewhere - but with SO many strings and conditions attached that it was obvious the promise meant nothing.

The ancillary staff have led the way. They have given a strong lead and a lot of support to the nursing staff encouraging them to stand up to management and explaining to them why the occupation is so necessary.

Leading role

Iwo of the ancillary workers became stewards after the occupation began and are now playing a leading role in the new District joint stewards committee.

Regular meetings of staff and supporters are held in the hospital so that everyone is kept informed of the latest information. A well-organised occupation headquarters is based in an office in the Occupations push workers to the frontline, making vital decisions daily. The slow rumbling union machinery is surpassed.

The consistent pressure of militants however has forced the hand of the union hierarchy. Thornton View, Hayes, and Northwood were made official immediately - whereas three Harrow Road, "official"

The local NUPE officiat has been supportive and helpful. The local COHSE official has hardly been seen - but given his record of selling out occupations, perhaps this is a blessing.

NUPE national officer Roger Poole was speaking at a local health cuts meeting when Hayes was occupied. The workers went to the meeting directly after occupying with the news and a list of demands. They insisted that everyone should come back to the hospital.

Poole of course pledged support but when asked about helping to organise supporting strike action he said it was "too soon" and a "local issue"!! How easy it is for the unions to pay the bills, give lip service to the workers fighting but still stay a million miles away from the kind of support which will keep occupations from being broken - supporting strike action.

The workers are now waiting for a District Health Authority decision. In November a vocal lobby of the DHA which resulted in the police evicting the public - including two elderly GPs -forced the Health Authority to look again at the closures.

Public opinion is overwhelmingly against the hospitals shutting. The local Labour group have pledged support and have tried to raise the issue at every council meeting.

EMI workers are on the picket lines and take regular collections. It is hard to find anyone in Hayes who want the hospital shut.

The occupation has already kept the hospital open for six weeks. It is very strong and will only be broken now by a conscious decision of the District managers to raid the hospital using the police and private ambulances.

The way to stop that happening is by other workers in the district pledging that if one patient is removed there will be strike action which will bring the whole district grinding to a halt. The joint stewards committee discussed it at the last meeting and will be holding meetings in the local hospitals to raise the issue.

Bickerstaffe and Williams taik a lot about fighting the cuts and stopping the Tory rundown of the NHS. If they put half as much effort into organising and defending workers taking direct action, then the threee occupations, Thornton View, Hayes and Northwood would already have promises of supporting strike

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118 defeat for Jo Richardson's Sex Equality Bill on its second

years ago it took COHSE four months to make St Mary's,