Manchester, England. Friday
31st August 2007. A
demonstration and rally for
sacked nurse Karen Reissmann
takes place attended by her
striking colleagues, members
of public sector union UNISON,
who work in the British
state-run National Health
Service (NHS). In 1948,
expensive fees for hospital
stays and visits to the localmore

Manchester, England. Friday
31st August 2007. A
demonstration and rally for
sacked nurse Karen Reissmann
takes place attended by her
striking colleagues, members
of public sector union UNISON,
who work in the British
state-run National Health
Service (NHS). In 1948,
expensive fees for hospital
stays and visits to the local
doctor were abolished and
replaced by a new state-run
National Health Service
financed from general
taxation--deducted at source
from everyone's pay packets.
This gave Britain a health
service that was the envy of
the world--no one was saddled
with huge debts or denied
health care because they were
too poor. However, the
Thatcherite New Labour
government is currently
reversing this
process--privatising as much
of the health service as it
can. Millions of pounds of
government money allocated to
health care ends up in the
pockets of parasitical,
over-paid, management
consultants whose goal in life
is to turn the NHS into a
market driven pig trough for
profit-motivated private
health contractors. These
outfits cherry-pick the easy,
lucrative, elective procedures
and leave the difficult,
complex, less lucrative,
non-elective cases to what
remains of the state-run
NHS.Financiers also suck out
millions via the infamous
Private Finance Initiative
(PFI). See George Monbiot's
article in the Guardian about
the disastrous effect of PFI
in
Coventry:http://tinyurl.com/2f
bhmbPharmaceutical
corporations are another
notorious example of private
profiteering from ill health.
Michael Moore's film 'Sicko'
highlights this issue in the
USA and it will be released in
Britain in October.Karen is a
psychiatric nurse and member
of the anti-war party,
Respect, and is well known
throughout the North West as
an active campaigner against
cuts and privatisation in the
health service. Unison members
feel strongly that this is why
she has been singled out and
victimised.As Unison Branch
Chair and a member of the
union's National Executive,
Karen has already received
widespread support. This
year's Unison annual delegate
conference gave a standing
ovation to Karen on hearing
about the campaign for her
reinstatement.In this clip,
the strikers assemble at the
Victoria monument, Piccadilly
Gardens in central Manchester
and march to the Methodist
Central Hall, Oldham Street
for the rally.Earlier in the
week, on Wednesday 29th
August, from 7am, strikers
were out in force on the
picket lines at the hospitals
at Wythenshawe, North
Manchester and Manchester
Royal Infirmary, as well as
Chorlton House. Pickets were
all large and lively with over
100 at the lunchtime rally at
which Karen spoke. 'The sooner
management see sense and
reinstate me the sooner we
will all be able to get back
to caring for patients,' she
said as strikers cheered. The
strike is solid. Pickets are
confident.Everyone has been
shocked at management's
failure to arrange emergency
cover despite having 6 weeks
notice of the strike. 'It is
despicable that management on
Tuesday shipped vulnerable
patients to a private hospital
100 miles away in Darlington.
Management refused to talk to
us about emergency cover
provision after we said we
would not accept their demand
that 100% of ward staff need
to be made available. We care
about our patients. There is
no need for us to feel guilty.
Management have once again
have shown they don't
care.''Support is flooding in.
I have over 1000 emails on my
computer. This morning a we
received a £1,000 cheque from
one UNISON branch. At Fujitsu
the UNITE union branch, who
have just won their dispute,
gave us £2,000 as well as a
£250 from a collection. We
have set up a hardship fund
account ''Fridays rally is
important as it will show the
level of support we have had
from across the country.
Please join us and bring your
union banners'SEND
DONATIONSCheques can be made
payable to 'Manchester
Community & Mental Health
UNISON'Union office, Chorlton
House, 70 Manchester Road,
Manchester, M21
9UN.DEMONSTRATE: 9th
SEPTEMBERA demonstration is
being organised for Sunday,
9th September in Manchester.
Assemble 1pm at the Peace
Gardens, St Peters Square.
Please come and bring banners
to show your support.INVITE
SPEAKERS TO YOUR UNION
BRANCHKaren and members of the
dispute are happy to come and
talk to your union branch,
stewards committee or local
trades council. Telephone 0161
226 1381 to request a
speaker.Visit Karen's
solidarity
web-site:http://www.reinstate-
karen.org/This clip can be
downloaded in other video
formats
at:http://www.archive.org/deta
ils/karen_...

Category News & Politics

Tags NHS, strikes, unions, health, health-care, privatization, sicko, psychiatric, profiteering, neo-liberalism