FRENCH HEALTHWORKERS, who have been battling against a wave of cutbacks imposed under the now-ousted Chirac government, will no doubt be looking with interest to see if there is any change of policy under the new
As the general election approached, over 1,000 nurses, doctors and support staff at the giant
1,100-bed Perray-Vaucluse psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Paris set a new record for the longestrunning strike by French healthworkers.
For over a month pickets had been controlling all traffic in and out of the hospital gates on the vast.
sprawling site, While patients in the hospital were still being cared for under 'emergency cover' provision by the unions, all other work - catering.
cleaning, maintenance and other services — was at a standstill. And though ex-patients who referred themselves back for further treatment were being looked after, the bospital had closed to new admissions from other hospitals or outside doctors.
This cross between a strike and an occupation.
supported by all three of refusal to defend the NHS I'part of the capitalist srate?) against privatisation, the SWP line is simply a regression to crude syndicalism.
Hemmed in to the right and left by bankrupt policies, it is scarcely surprising that health workers appear to have lost the momentum of the struggles carlier this vear.
The harsh fact remains that national-level campaigning on the:NH$ has always been hampered by the lack of sullicient locally-hased lightbacks against cuts and the main healthworkers* unions (CFDT, CCT, FO), had already won back 82 of the 92 threatened jobs.
And when two Socialist
Outfook supporters visited the strike in mid-May, talks were taking place at ministerial level over the outstanding 10 jobs and the other main demand of the strikers — extra funding to provide adequate support services for patients discharged into the community.
The Perray-Vaucluse strike is just one of a series of disputes now hreaking out in French hospitals as cutbacks and growing pressures on services make themselves felt across the country. In the south of
France, healthworkers in
Cahors walked out on indefinite strike on 9 May.
Low pay, affecting all grades of staff, is just one of a number of common problems affecting hospitals in both France and Britain. Despite the much higher cost of living.
French nurses with 10 years experience earn only
69-10,000 a year, with comparable rates for qualified technicians and support staff; nurse care assistants carn a mere
£7,500, and ancillaries and clerical staff can expect only £6,600.
closures. The husb-fire spread of strikc action alter ite
Manheiter nurses* strike chuld not skip over this weakness: it needed to be backed up by more sustained campaigning and the building of local Traderships prepared in use industrial action to fight the cuts
Tr is not too late to begin: but it means battling to defend every bed, every job, and secking to
Tink local campaigns intu a serious national-level fightback.
That would be the best way to mark the 40th anniversary
TERRY SMITH
French healthworkers, as in Britain, complain of plunging hygeine standards, worsened since cleaning work has been contracted out to private
Despite the fact that waiting time for operations in France is measured in days rather than the
British system of months or ycars, the
French service based on payment or treatment with money later refunded partly from social security and partly from non-profit mutuelle insurance schemes is cumbersome and bureaucratic.
A CFDT survey found 50 per cent of France's
710,000 hospital workers still don't feel able to carry out their work properly: 44 per cent want improved conditions, while 25 per cent singled out low pay as their main complaint.
The fighting spirit of the
French healthworkers in combatting cutbacks could yet connect with their anger over wages and spill over into nationwide action. In any event, the
French hospital strikes offer a useful example to
British health activists as they face another wave of cuts and closures •
HARRY SLOAN
SOCALST OUTLOOK no B Jüly/Seplember 1988
Fighting section 28
THE CLAUSE is now law as section 28 of the local government act 1988, and the stop the clause campaign must turn to the next stage of the struggle. The next task is defending lesbian and gay equality work against the operation of section 28.
Two factors will help in consolidating and building the broad-based united front campaign which is key to taking the struggle forward. First, even though the clause was not stopped, the campaign achieved an historic success in mobilising, on 30 April, Europe's largest and most political demonstration ever for lesbian and gay rights, with significant support from all levels of the labour movement.
Second, the labour bureaucracy, taking its lead from the Association of London Authorities (ALA), has not collapsed at the first whiff of the law.
The section can be used either by the district auditor or by any individual asking for a judicial review. Such a legal challenge will take months to run its course.
The mare immediate problem is one of self-censorship. Local authorities may water down commitments to lesbian and gay equality work now, hoping to avoid threatened legal challenges being pursued. Also, without a clear lead from either their employer or their trade union, workers will face the same dilemina for fear of their jobs.
The ALA statement - that equality work with selfidentified lesbians and gay men is safe — is a positive stand. However, it leaves open the question of work in the education and vouth services (in particular positive images); which is the main rarget of the legislation, and where the first legal challenge can be expected.
Nor have the ALA and the bureaucracy as a whole organised to bolster local authorities against the impact of the legislation.
Demands raised over the SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no B: July/September
Philip Core symbolically smashes a replica of Michelangelo's 'David' at an arts lobby demonstration against Clause 28 next period must be first and foremost on self-censorship, and secondly on repeal of the legislation. Only when an authority is legally challenged do we need to move on to addressing non-implementation and non-
Anglo-Irish