The five-day (25-29 July) walkout by 50,000 resident doctors in England has begun. Their union, the British Medical Association (BMA) says that, despite above-inflation pay rises given since their previous wave of strikes, pay is still down by a fifth since 2008, in real terms. Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting has outrageously said doctors need to ‘feel pain’ to end the strike and his party has accused striking doctors of putting the NHS at risk, when it is their policies of cuts and privatisation that is doing so. Socialist Party members joined picket lines around the country with reports and photos below.
London (report by Adam Powell-Davies)
“What do we want? Fair pay! How do we win it? Strike!”, was one of the many chants roared by strikers on the picket line at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Joining the striking resident doctors and supporters – which included Socialist Party members – was a swarm of journalists. But many of the pickets refused interviews, partly as a protest against the establishment media’s disgraceful coverage of their strike. One expressed his fury at the anti-BMA headlines covering many of the newspapers that morning, singling out a Guardian think piece in which Wes Streeting called the doctors’ strike “unnecessary”. Clearly the Labour government is doing all it can to stop the BMA from inspiring other sections of workers from fighting, and the capitalist media is backing them up. Our Socialist Party leaflet pointed to Labour’s recent partial U-turns on disability benefits and winter fuel payments, which show that this government can be beaten back by sustained trade union action.
- For other areas, click here.