Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

thousands join london #may18 NHS rally - pics and report

rikki | 19.05.2013 17:59 | Public sector cuts | London

several thousand people took part in the march yesterday to show disquiet and resistance to the implementation of new legislation that will bring charges and further cuts to a beleaguered NHS.

march assembles
march assembles

setting off (with PLO intruding)
setting off (with PLO intruding)

happy birthday
happy birthday

waterloo bridge
waterloo bridge

RIP
RIP

barclays strand banner drop
barclays strand banner drop

downing street
downing street

chanting
chanting

home-made banners
home-made banners

whitehall
whitehall

speakers
speakers


click on photos for larger versions - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise all rights reserved, contact author.
---------

at the end of april, a crucial lords vote (245 to 146) failed to throw out 'section 75' (of the health and social care act). this regulation requires the NHS to put ALL its services to tender unless the commissioners can prove there is only one provider capable of delivering (any such decision being open to costly legal challenge from private healthcare companies).

many believe that the legislation will lead to the gradual but wholesale privatisation of the UK healthcare system, and after 65 years of NHS it marks the retirement of public healthcare. additionally, the legislation has been devised and passed with little or no democratic mandate and in fact breaks firm promises and assurances that ministers have given. the full scope of the new act has received little analysis and coverage from mainstream media, and the unions, while offering lip-service to resistance, have failed to provide any real opposition to the government's plans.

yesterday then, marked a huge achievement for a small grassroots group calling themselves 'NHSdirectaction' who have brought together local health campaigns, doctors, trade unionists, concerned residents, and the 'occupy' movement, and managed mainly through social media to pull together a very impressive london march and rally in protest at the new legislation.

a little after midday, i guessed there were maybe a thousand people gathered behind the royal festival hall, but more and more kept arriving, and when the march set off across waterloo bridge at 1pm, it was clear that this was big. i waited more than fifteen minutes for the whole march to pass, and heard that the front of the march was already in the strand before the end had set off .

working my way through the crowd what was also clear was the breadth and scope of the protest, representing a huge range of ages and cultural backgrounds from all over london. the presence of many and varied local campaign groups showed how the cuts and changes are already impacting services all over the capital, signalled by the home-made banners mentioning dozens of different hospitals and other services.

on the strand, two protestors had targetted a barclay's bank branch by climbing scaffolding to attach a large banner 'barclay's - PFI bleeding the NHS dry'. with a megaphone, they were addressing the crowd, leading chants, and generally making a lot of noise. two police vans turned up, but the protestors later climbed down and were allowed to leave with no further action.

meanwhile, the front of the march arrived at downing street, and a small plinth and a van with sound system provided the stage for a variety of speakers while a massive 'save our NHS' banner was held up in front of the gates.

while the speeches took place, a petition was delivered to number 10.

the theme of many of the speakers was to build a grassroots coalition of local groups to resist the changes, while also calling on unions to wake up and provide national resistance.

a little after 3, the protest ended and slowly dispersed. policing had been fairly low-key, but there were two PLOs, (protest liaison officers) intruding and gathering information as they do, and some covert FIT (forward intelligence team) officers in attendance too.

nhsdirectaction can be followed on twitter @NHSDirectAction and upcoming events are viewable at  http://defendlondonsnhs.wordpress.com/upcoming-events/

for occasional live reports from london actions follow @indyrikki

rikki
- e-mail: rikkiindymedia(At)gmail[d0t]com

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Walking — Cynical Cyril.
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech