Britain's Health Services
1942-10 1942 1940s 40 pages the common-sense to combine together and, within the Trade Union machinery which already exists for their benefit, do something themselves for the betterment of their lot. All progressive workers and Trade Unionists in the health services must consistently campaign to bri...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : Communist Party of Great Britain
October 1942
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/1A26859C-9887-4315-9F61-237FF79B8E25 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/758DE87F-3A12-41F9-8724-F6107715E8F9 |
| Summary: | 1942-10
1942
1940s
40 pages
the common-sense to combine together and, within the Trade Union machinery which already exists for their benefit, do something themselves for the betterment of their lot. All progressive workers and Trade Unionists in the health services must consistently campaign to bring this simple principle before their colleagues, and no effort should be spared to develop Trade Union Organisation in every hospital and among all health workers. Ideally there should be one Trade Union for all workers in the health services. At present there are quite a number — the National Union of Public Employees (N.U.P.E.), the National Union of County Officers (N U.C.O.), the Medical Practitioners Union (M.P.U.), the Mental Hospitals and Institutional Workers Union (M.H.I.W.U.) and the General Workers Unions. Wherever branches of several Unions already exist within one hospital they should form a Trade Union Committee on the lines of factory Shop Stewards' Committees and work out a common programme for joint action. The Communist Party's policy as outlined in this memorandum forms a good basis for such a programme, but naturally the policy must be extended and applied to the specific problems inside each hospital concerned. If there are to be efficient health and hospital services in Britain, then the people involved in providing them must be adequately paid and enjoy fair conditions of labour. But good pay and reasonable conditions will only be achieved if there is strong 100% Trade Unionism among all grades of health workers. It follows from this that the betterment of the health services and all that that means to the nation in the present struggle is inextricably linked with the building up of the Trade Union movement in the health services, and we should never forget this fundamental fact nor lose an opportunity of pointing it out to our fellow workers. CONCLUSION "The health of the people is the concern of the people themselves." This famous slogan, which 25 years ago formed the basis for a completely new approach to health problems in the Soviet Union, might quite well be used in relation to the situation in Britain today. No longer should we consider illness to be "a visitation of the Devil " — something beyond our power to control. Every 27
15X/2/103/252 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |