cervical cancer and about 1,000 could be saved. The scandal of the recent deaths highlighted the inadequacies of the health service and uniortunately will not be isolated exceptions.
The medica. profession is secretive and very careful about what information they give out and to whom -. intormation is power. But suddenly it's our fault for not asking for the results of our smear tests.
Women all over Britain are now being told to contact their doctors to check the results of the last smear test they had. But doing this is highlighting the problems facing the health service and some of the mistakes that have been made - some doctors have no record of the result being returned from laboratory: some labs have refused to process the smear because they only have facilities to do one test per woman every 5 years, unless the medical need is specified.
At the moment doctors laboratories are being helpful but the basic problem is the system cannot cope with the demand.
Frank Dobson MP (the Shadow Health Minister) has produced a paper which points out that it would only cost £16.2 million to set up a national computerised call and recall system, million per year to run thereafter. This would ensure that every woman would be called to be screened regularly. The cost in terms of the NfS budget is a pittance and when set against the lives it vould save, such spending is essential ¡ we assume the Tories don't actually
including who who make 81983 Copter Sow, Serene headlines why don't they sort out this tiny have expenditure: recall but the state of the pathology laboratories. They have been cut bac them regularly. to start having smears (30 years). and cervical cancer. r Cuts K Worse pay the K Poor service K More central control and K Jobinsecurity K Redundancies and f2.4 More central control →
H!! BILLIONS. jos "Dear Mr. President: now that you've spent so much on defense to protect our way of life, maybe you could do something to make our way of life worth protecting. that some should vant to kill about 1.000 women a bit of old). present 'he real answer is not the problem of and run down for a long time now and wastage" ( they would not cope if the women eligi- ble for cervical smears started to ask for vice All this is not taking into account the fact that the present recommended age the time gap between smears (5 years), are both totally inadequate to combat There is a lot of evidence that more and more younger HEALTH * Cuts → Closures → FATE Poor service → Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 16
women are getting cervical cancer and "strains" of the cancer are taking a hold that is beyond help within the present 5 year time gap. Women have cervical smears evey 2 years trom the time they become sex- ually active (on average 19-20 years If the Path. labs can't cope with the inadequate recommendations just imagine how hopless it would pro- ve if faced with the demand that is ac- tually requireed. The rundown, cut back and "natural of Pathology laboratories means they could not provide the ser- demanded by the recall system Frank Dobson wants. To put the path. labs back on their feet would cost a lot more than f16.2 million - and that is why about 1,000 women a year will die needlessly. The cuts do kill. Merambor 1984 EMERGENCY mome Bullete • London Haalth Emergency Sef up to cash ,in on HERE COME THE INHS PROFITEERS Down go NHS standards! Free newspaper against NHS cuts and privatisation from London Health Emergency, 335, Grays Inn Rd., London WCI.
Crises are bursting out all over, but many Marxists are caught napping POP GOES THE Tanks called on the streets of Bolivia's capital, La Paz, by the popular front government during the 16-day general strike.
perialist chiets, it must seem that the FOR many Western bankers and imwhole world is eruptina into an uncontrollable rash of crises. The last month has seen three massive general strikes paralyse the economies of Bolivia, Denmark and Sudan, along with a new peak in the mass resistance of the black working class to apartheid rule in South Africa. In addition there has been a substantial escalation of the Iran/trat
Tand a continuing failure Zionist strong-arm tactics to control the Arab masses of Lebanon.
In Bolivia ten thousand defiant dynamite-toting miners converged or he capital La Paz at the vanguard oi a 16-day general strike, demanding index-linking wages to protect against the country's 3,400% inflation. Eventually the strike was called off by union leaders after a 500% pay settlement was accepted. But the popular front government of President Siles still looks extremely shaky, with the grim prospect that former mintary dictator postoned or cong
now-postponed coming elections.
Denmark's official national strike by 300,000 private sector workers, supported by increasing numbers of
SCHEMA! Recent major events in Bolivia, Sudan and Denmark have emerged in a way not expected by the largest international grouping of Marxists. HARRY SLOAN looks at the implications. public sector employees, began in opposition to the imposition of a wage-cutting 2% pay increase by the right wing government. The strike continued in defiance of emergency legislation, and was backed up by a 100,000-strong demonstration in
Copenhagen. Though union leaders
have done their best to hold back the
action, this colossal show of strength,
paralysing much of the country, is a
further reminder of the potential power of the working class (and a stark contrast to the British TUC's miserable betrayal of the miners' strike).
In Sudan, growing mass opposition to the corrupt and reactionary Numeiri regime culminated in a 3-day general strike in Khartoum in Socialist Viewpoint, No. 5, April 1985. Page 17
| which police and armed forces refused to mount their usual campaign of brutal repression. Instead army chiefs moved to depose Numeiri throwing a new level of uncertainty into the affairs of a country bogged down with a staggering foreign debts, mass starvation, and tacing a popular secessionary movement in the south of the country. Sudan has been utilised by US imperialism as a strategic foothold in northern Africa; but as with the Shah of Iran, US military aid has done little in the last analysis to butress Numeiri against a genuine upsurge of mass opposition.
None of these very different but major political developments come out of a clear sky. Each was the product of a process of class struggle which created the basis for a sudden explosion of militant mass action. Similarly, the new escalation of brute repression by the apartheid regime in South Africa, gunning down black Protestors in a grotesque replay he
anniversary Sharpeville massacre, flowed out of the sharpening polarisation betweeen the black working class and the white capitalists.
To understand and be ready to res.
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pond with clear policies and analysis in such rapid developments is the key reason for the development of Marxist analysis and the building of Marxist
But at least one international Marxist current has been caught