Report by John Khar
Yesterday, supporters of Marxist World met in London to join the demonstration against further cuts to the NHS under the slogan #OurNHS.
Hundreds of thousands of people showed up for the march from Tavistock Square to Parliament Square. All the major trade unions such as Unite, Unison, CWU, FBU, GMB and the NUT all had a presence, accompanied by groups such as the Ian Allinson Campaign for Unite General Secretary, Momentum and, of course, Marxist World.
Multiple speakers at the event, including Jeremy Corbyn, put forward the argument that the current crisis in the NHS was simply an issue with the Conservative Party’s ideology, with Corbyn claiming ‘it is the fault of a government who have made a political choice’. Marxist World supporters put forward the argument that, rather than an ideological problem, the crisis in the NHS is a systemic one. Attacks on our public services are not random choices by the government – they are a necessity for the bankrupt system of capitalism in an attempt to cut taxes, bring in the private sector and restore profitability.
Marxist World supporters argue that the only way to properly protect workers from future onslaughts on the NHS by capitalist governments is for the NHS to be run under workers’ control. Not only does this protect health workers but it is the only way to make the NHS truly ours!
Supporters of Marxist World put forward these arguments in flyers we handed out at the demonstration. These flyers contained the core demands to cancel PFI debt, for the renationalisation of outsourced services with no compensation and for the NHS to be run under workers’ control and management.
In addition to handing out over 1,000 flyers, 26 copies of issue 3 of the Marxist World journal were sold, highlighting that a layer of workers are interested in Marxist theory!
We also had productive discussions with other organisations and individuals at the demonstration. We made many important links which we hope to follow up on.
The demonstration itself was sadly poorly advertised and this obviously limited the attendance of the demonstration, which could have easily been half a million strong if taken up seriously by the trade unions and the Labour Party. In the future, all on the Left have a responsibility to ensure that workers are made aware of what they can do to oppose attacks on their basic services! As usual, the press barely gave the demonstration coverage. Only the obvious strength of our united action forced them to give recognition to the demonstration.
Despite all this, it was incredibly encouraging to see the determination of workers to not only defend hard-won basic services like the NHS, but also the receptiveness of workers to Marxist ideas, even after creeping disillusionment with Jeremy Corbyn and years of austerity measures.
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