"We don't want occupations"

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Secondly, the soft left have a naive, and mechanistic conception of everything in the party moving inexorably left. This view has been strengthened by the removal of the right wing domination of the DLP, and partial removal of the Right in the Stoke North constituency.

They have a simplistic idea that in the next few years the Labour Group will automatically be won over to the left.

The implications of this for the soft left are two-fold. Firstly, sit-tight now, don't rock the boat of defending the working class from these attacks has been to print 25,000 leaflets advocating that petitions should be sent to the District Health Authority!

The Party leaders bluffed and shammed for a while, but it was plain that they don't want to fight back.

When Socialist Organiser put La leaflet advocating occupations to fight closures, Ron Swann, secretary of the Labour group, went to the press and denounced SO and its politics.

"In particular the [Labour)

party should not be associated with recent comments made about hospital occupations" , he told the press.

A week later the City Coun cil's policy committee came out in support of the District Health flops on After all, it might end up criticising their official campaign. The item was kept at number six on the agenda, leaving no time for a proper discussion.

In true bureaucratic manner reminiscent of the old right wing which dominated the local labour movement until a few years ago, they interrupted and harried SO supporters from the Chair.

Even so, they didn't have things all their own way, and an important proposal was won to organise a meeting, and invite a speaker from one of the hospital occupations.

SO supporters had made a number of proposals for action by Briefing:

*Lobbies of the DHA.

*Aproach health unions for joint meetings.

*Production of a broadsheet outlining our strategy.

a) Support for occupations.

b) Build a national campaign around the February 25 conference in Bradford.

c) Offer practical Authority's proposals!

The official Stoke Labour Party campaign has been shown up as crude and empty anti-Toryism. They have no intention of fighting the Tories.

Like all the soft left's politics, it is geared to winning liberal public opinion to moral indignation at the Tories. And nothing more... health cuts groups like Friends of Westcliffe. lutions for Labour Party d) Circulation of model resotrade union branches.

*Organise a meeting with speakers from hospital occupations.

Every proposal other than the last was defeated.

Clearly feeling themselves under -pressure, the soft left have now announced that the official Labour Party committee will meet on 6 February - just one week before the next DHA meeting, when the reorganisation proposals will be discussed.

It is important that everyone in Stoke who wants a serious fight against the cuts attends the meeting on 6 February. The soft left should not be let off the hook. But it is clear from the experiences so far that they will not fight - except against the left.

In which case SO will be spearheading the campaign y future lobbies of the DHA, attempts to link up with 1 Dcal hospital militants.

views, as at Westcliffe." TraDition word result BHAG in the loss of four hospitals -Biddulph Grange Orthopaedic (84 beds), Lymewood Geriatric (36 beds), Westcliffe (146 beds) and Leek Memorial (21 beds).

In each case patients are to be transferred to the City General Hospital or other hospitals in the city centre, taking health care out of the local community (which for old people is important). In return for these closures, they propose over the five years to provide just two additional geriatric beds.

Yet, as the Friends of Westcliffe point out in their leaflet, 'there will be a 13% increase every ten years in the number of retired people, and many of them will need care."

Leek, whose geriatric beds are to go, has the oldest population in Britain!

At the other end of the age spectrum, there will be an overall reduction of eleven paediatric beds. Amazingly the DHA are passing off these proposals as an expansion of health care in the area.

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