workers fight Eastleigh, Hampshire, shot to prominence with the death of MP Steven Milligan.
But local rail workers are also determined to draw attention to their fight for jobs. British Rail plans to close its depot at Eastleigh. Over 500 jobs could be lost, hundreds more transferred to Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Basingstoke depots.
Southampton/Eastleigh Airport, adjacent to the Rail Depot, is undergoing a major expansion. BR's land will shoot up in value.
Railworkers aim to make Rail Privatisation and defence of Eastleigh depot key issues in the by-election. tal through a "merger" with St Thomas's has been met by an immediate mass campaign.
A broad coalition of local organisations headed by the Community Health Council, and including the Guy's UNISON Branch, has already begun petitioning, posters and a round of stormy, packed public meetings to fight the closure.
Even Southwark's union-busting Labour council appears willing to back the campaign, as does Bermondsey's Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, whose speeches call for links with the unions and a policy of in the leg, that is lagging behind in the fight, with neighbouring Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey leading her own campaign of radio interviews and letters to newspapers in support of the closure!
UNISON's London head of health also displayed typical incompetence by failing even to circulate UNISON health branches to publicise the first big union demonstration in defence of Guy's, leaving the field clear for Socialist Worker posters and banners.
Despite these problems, the fight for Guy's, keying in to a strong local working class SAVE LIVES population, has tremendous potential for regenerating the struggle for London's hospitals, which had fallen back slightly in the aftermath of Bottomley's decision to close Bart's and her retreat from closure of UCH.
With Hammersmith Hospital likely to be the next announced for the chop, and other local hospitals under fire in outer London, the scene is set for high-profile struggles on the NHS in the run-up to the local elections in May. • Details on the Guy's campaign from the CHC on 071-703-9498.