HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

SouthCoast Indymedia

Panic at NHS direct action call

Tim Loughton | 06.10.2007 14:18 | Health | South Coast

PANIC has greeted calls for direct action by Sussex hospitals campaigners.

The local newspaper has reported that "police are investigating" and a local Tory bigwig has condemned as 'dangerous' any show of public defiance at a crunch meeting on Monday October 15.
The commotion was caused by a leaflet distributed anonymously in Worthing entitled "Real democracy can save our hospitals" and calling for a "citizens' take-over" of the 7pm meeting at Worthing Pier.
Worthing Hospital is one of three in West Sussex threatened with downgrading under local health chiefs' ironically-labelled 'Fit for the Future' proposals.
The so-called consultation has proved a sham - residents have been locked out of meetings, key questions have gone unanswered and, of course, the obvious option of no cuts at any of the hospitals is not on the official agenda at all.
Although the local KWASH campaign has been fairly effective in holding A to B marches and the inevitable petition, it looks to be fighting a losing battle and to exist more as a pre-election vehicle for its Tory leadership than a genuine anti-cuts movement.
Murmurings of discontent in the ranks have led to the idea of stepping out of the cosy KWASH box and making it clear to the NHS money men how angry Worthing people really are at the threat to their health service.
The report in the Worthing Herald on October 4 was headed: "Police probe attempt to 'take over' meeting."
It stated: "Organisers of a major protest against hospital cuts have appealed for people not to support a plan to 'hikack' the next official event.
"Campaigners fighting to keep full, consultant-led services at Worthing and Southland say leaflets were circulated in Worthing at the weekend, encouraging people to disrupt the next major meeting, planned for Worthing on October 15.
"The unsigned leaflet invites people to invade the platform and take over the proceedings, so that a full, 'democratic' vote can take place. Police are investigating.
"Hospital campaigners want people to join a peaceful massed march before the 7pm meeting at Worthing's Pavilion Theatre, but have called on supporters to strongly reject any idea of invading the platform or disrupting the meeting.
"KWASH chairman Tom Wye said: 'This call to take over the platform is dangerous and unhelpful in the extreme. We can get the strength of feeling over without resorting to these kinds of tactics and I must stress that such action would do the cause great harm'."
The official KWASH march leaves from Homefield Park, Worthing, at 5.30pm. Other protesters are staging a mass cycle ride from Worthing station, at 5.45pm. Both protests end outside the meeting at the Pavilion Theare, Worthing Pier, which starts at 7pm.

Here is the full text of the leaflet.(Apologies to the authors for any errors in copying it out)

Real Democracy Can Save Our Hospitals

The so called consultation on the future of our local hospitals has been a complete and utter sham, as anyone who has been involved will have realized. And as it nears its end, we are left with the horrifying probablity that it is going to spell the end of Worthing Hospital as we know it.
The West Sussex Primary Care Trust meeting at the Pavillion theatre on Monday, October 15 (7 - 9pm) is the last chance for the people of Worthing to make it totally clear that we will NOT accept the downgrading of any part of our local health service and that we reject the false ‘choice’ they are offering us, playing off one vital local hopsital against another.
We cannot afford to just sit back and watch the PCT’s Powerpoint propaganda and soothing words of reassurance, and then listen to them skirt around any tricky questions we are lucky enough to be allowed to ask. All that will happen is that they will go home, breathe a sigh of relief that it’s all over, tick the box marked 'public consultation' and then go ahead and rip the heart out of our hospitals.
If we are going to have an impact on this vital issue we are going to have to refuse to play their little game by the rules they have invented. We propose that we, the people of Worthing, should peacefully but fearlessly take over the running of the October 15 meeting as soon as possible into the proceedings and replace the hollow sham they have planned for us with a powerful expression of real democracy.
In particular, we must achieve the one thing the NHS bosses are too scared to allow - a vote of all those present as to whether they support the downgrading of any of our local hospitals. If this show of hands, in addition to all the petitions, protests, etc, proves the overwhelming opposition of local people to the misnamed 'Fit for the Future' proposals, it will confirm that there is NO LEGITIMACY to any decision to downgrade.
How is it that we are supposed to live in a democracy and yet even when we all clearly express our opposition to something planned by the authorities, they ignore us and still go ahead anyway?
We have to do something! Please do your bit on October 15 by getting to the meeting early and helping the attempt at a citizens’ take-over of the meeting, either by physically joining in, by blocking any move to stop it happening or simply by applauding and supporting those taking part.

PEOPLE POWER IS THE ONLY OPTION WE HAVE LEFT!

Tim Loughton

Additions

The use of direct action to save hospitals

06.10.2007 17:22

In light of the recent negative publicity in both the newspapers and radio, in relation to an escalation in activity to saving our hospitals, I believe that we need to analyze how the campaign has progressed since conception, how objectives have been achieved in other campaigns and how direct action could benefit this.

Following the initial announcement that certain hospitals may be closed or downgraded, a sustained public relations campaign was formed being led by 'Keep Worthing and Southlands Hospitals (KWASH). This has been successful in uniting people, organising public meetings, collecting names on petitions and leading protest marches through the town. But what has actually been achieved?

Worthing Hospital is still threatened with being downgraded and losing its A&E department, intensive care, orthopaedics, maternity and other essential services.

Nothing has changed since the start of the campaign.

There are similar organisations working to save both St Richards in Chichester and Princess Royal in Haywards Heath. Both of these groups are using similar tactics and have only achieved similar results. At the moment there is only one guaranteed outcome and that is that services including A&E will be lost somewhere in West Sussex which is totally unacceptable. These campaigns have only served to divide and weaken people's effectiveness. We should be working together and saying that any closure anywhere is unacceptable.

This is where direct action comes in.

Direct action in one form or another has been used through generations, achieving results where other campaign tactics have failed. This could be by holding illegal and spontaneous protest marches, office occupations, blockades, criminal damage and other often frowned upon methods. But when you look deeper they make sense.

If those techniques currently being used were effective do you think they would be allowed? As has been learned, those that are effective have been made illegal so we are left with a moral dilemma, working within the law and being ineffective or breaking the law and achieving results.

People are scared of taking the next step. Quite understandable as the unknown can often be frightening, but when you realise the extent of the repercussions, things aren't quite as bad. There is only the law stopping you and the law is only relevant if you let it. What is a criminal record if you are retired or not working and don't need to inform anyone of it? It is worthless.

We are lucky in the hospital campaigns in the range of support that we have. Many of the supporters are of the older generation whose arrest will have few implications upon them except for the inconvenience of possible court appearances. We can use this to our advantage and already people have been speaking of taking such risks.

We have parents backing us. If someone was violently attacking or killing their children they wouldn't just stand there and ask them nicely to stop, write the attacker a letter or hold a sign or banner. They would physically intervene.
What is the difference here? The closure of A&E and intensive care could lead to the death of their child.
If you aren't prepared to fight for your loved one what are you prepared to fight for?
People are beginning to realise this.

We need to match the Primary Care Trusts (PCT) determination to close departments with our determination to keep the services open. They will use every tool in their toolbox to achieve their aim, we must use ours.

Leaders of other campaigns may say that to begin to act outside of the law or to begin a hard hitting campaign might weaken their current efforts. To this I would remind them of those that died in the concentration camps in the war. If someone dared to stand up to their oppressors they were dragged back by those being held captive for fear of reprisals. Look what happened to them all in the end. Infact it was those that took part in uprisings that had higher chances of survival than those that conformed.

Both the current and alternative methods can work effectively in conjunction with each other. There is no reason why one should weaken the other.

Hope is one of the greatest things that can be given to people to keep them quiet. If you give them hope that things will change then they will stay inside the law getting on with their lives thinking that others will achieve the results for them. This can be seen by the current low turn outs at the meetings. 500 people out of the towns 100,000 residents is not enough. We need more.
They are giving us hope, unrealistic hope. We must realise that services will be cut and that this is unacceptable. It could be your loved one that dies or someone else's. Whoever dies as a result of cutbacks and money saving is irrelevant. Life is precious and a value can't be put on such things.

The violent and illegal activities of both the suffragette and the civil rights movement were widely criticised at the time. Now those that took part are celebrated and we are thankful for their sacrifices and the methods that they chose.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a dress rehersal and we will get another chance. Once these services are lost they will be gone forever and further savings will be sought in other areas.

Taking into consideration the above, we must now ask how much we love ourselves, our friends, family and neighbours. Those that follow us wont judge us by how many signatures on a petition we collected nor how many marches we held, they will judge us only by whether we were successful or not. Let's give them reason to celebrate our actions.

Campaign for option 4


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

South Coast [navigation.actions2016]

South Coast [navigation.actions2015]

South Coast [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

South Coast Actions 2013

G8 2013

South Coast Actions 2012

Workfare

South Coast Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

South Coast Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

South Coast Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

South Coast Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

South Coast Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

South Coast Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

South Coast Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

South Coast Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

South Coast Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

IMCs


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