On packed picket lines up and down the country, NHS nurses are once again taking
action that until very recently would have seemed impossible, and finding massivesupport for doing so. As the government belligerently refuses to negotiate,colleagues from physiotherapists to doctors greet us warmly as they too prepareto down tools and join us. Passers-by continue to honk their horns in support.Members of the public brave the weather to bring much needed supplies of coffeeand cake, to share a song, a laugh and their own stories of struggling to get by.---- It cannot be overstated just how extraordinary all of this is. The RoyalCollege of Nursing has never before called a nationwide strike in its 100 yearhistory. Indeed, until the mid-1990s the RCN was constitutionally opposed toindustrial action. Ambulance workers are taking part in the biggest strikes sinceThatcher took on the paramedics in the dying days of her administration and lost.How did we get to the point where NHS workers, traditionally less organised andmore reluctant to take action than most, are participating in some of the largestand most disruptive strikes of the current mini-wave?If we listen to the government and both its supporters and detractors in themedia, the reasons ultimately boil down to two things: Covid and Putin. This isextremely convenient for the Tories, as they can by and large get away withclaiming neither is really their fault-the catastrophic handling of the pandemicand aggressive NATO posturing notwithstanding. The argument is by now tediouslyfamiliar to everyone from GB News viewers to Guardian readers. Covid created ahuge backlog in non-Covid healthcare and the subsequent return to normal economicactivity increased demand and pushed up global prices. This, along with theinvasion of Ukraine, has led to double-digit inflation, eating into budgetsincluding that of the NHS.However, the roots of the present situation are both older and deeper than thisconvenient, superficial analysis would have us believe.I, like many nurses, still vividly recall working through winter crisis afterwinter crisis in the years before the pandemic, including 2017-18 when theInternational Red Cross declared a humanitarian emergency in a healthcare systemthat not that long ago could truly claim to be the envy of the world.During the height of the Covid pandemic I first became familiar with the term'moral injury'. Used in this context it describes the psychological andeventually physical effects on healthcare workers of repeatedly being exposed tosuffering and death that, despite their best efforts, they could do little about.Looking back this phenomenon has existed at least for my entire nursing career. Acommon refrain in break rooms and now on picket lines is that staff areexhausted, burnt out and demoralised because day after day and night after nightthey are simply unable to provide the levels of care that they aspire to.As time goes on, as the effects of years of austerity manifest, as the NHS slipsdown international tables on every measure, the level of care that can beprovided falls further, and the moral injury worsens. Meanwhile the governmentcan claim, truthfully, that it is spending record amounts on health (in cashterms, not in real terms per capita, the only measure that means anything), andan avalanche of preventable and unnecessary human suffering has led, before thepandemic, to the first drop in life expectancy since the second world war.Since the 80s, pay for 2.5 million public sector workers, including NHS staff,has considered to be based on recommendations from 'independent' Pay ReviewBodies. Every year a panel of 'experts' appointed by the government and drawnfrom the world of senior management and HR consultancy, provides ministers withrecommendations on pay. These are based on submissions from employers, tradeunions and, crucially, a remit that includes the overall budget set by thegovernment. On several occasions in recent years, and indeed in the case of otherPRBs in 2022, the government has not accepted their recommendations, which havein any case never been binding.And yet the government line, learnt by rote and repeated by everyone from the PMto whichever poor unfortunate Junior Minister for Paperclips has to face thecameras, remains the same: we cannot override the Pay Review Body. Never mindthat they did it last year in the NHS, or this year in two other cases, a pointthat they are surely grateful never seems to be put to them. In one sense thegovernment is entirely right to say that even restoring NHS pay to 2010 levels isunaffordable. In fact, the cost is earth-shattering. It would cost them aneconomic orthodoxy that lifts caps on bankers' bonuses and fails to tax wealthwhilst Victorian diseases of poverty rear their ugly heads and people freeze intheir own homes. It would cost them their jobs and their power.Because we have not seen this level of strike action in over 30 years, andbecause of distortions and outright lies across the whole political spectrum ofthe media, there is a lack of understanding about what these strikes entail. Thisis amplified in the NHS as the action is in many ways unprecedented. No colleagueI have met has any experience of going on strike.The public have been led to believe that well-paid people seeking enormous payrises are going to walk out and let people die, and yet despite this constantbarrage of misinformation most news outlets have struggled to find patientsopposed to the strikes. There are hilarious and heart-warming clips of BBCinterviewers desperately trying to get patients seriously inconvenienced bystrikes to condemn workers and failing abysmally. I invite you to watch them ifyou are ever feeling despondent and need to be reminded that 99% of us are on thesame side.In theory, our strikes are not "all-out" and picket lines are not about trying tostop all colleagues from crossing. Local strike committees agree 'life and limb'cover with employers and release a certain number of union members from strikingto provide these services. In practice, this means on inpatient wards, where Iwork, 'safe staffing' levels are agreed that are higher than what we have onnon-strike days, an admission that patients are not usually safe. Often, staffwho are opposed to the strike and not members of the union fill those numbersanyway, but the union will 'derogate' members (release them from striking) if needed.On the picket line, I have spoken to paramedics who say 75% staffing levels havebeen agreed, with strikers ready and willing to be called back by the union incase of emergency. Locally, they had the best response times in months. While Iwas there a member of the public had a seizure on a bus next to the picket lineand received the quickest and best staffed attention anyone has ever seen astwenty paramedics co-ordinated a response.Outpatient and non-emergency care is inevitably delayed. This can be veryserious, as people will have delayed diagnoses and increased anxiety, or waitlonger for treatments that would alleviate pain. However, all of us as patientsare experiencing this slow collapse of the system already, and much to thechagrin of the government and media, people know that the failings in their careare due to Tory negligence and that workers are fighting not just for fair pay,but for a better NHS. Our resolve is only strengthening as it becomes clearerthat what is needed is investment beyond anything countenanced by the politicalclass and a radical overhaul of health and social care to achieve a truecradle-to-grave public service.In the atmosphere of shared power brought about by collective action many willbegin to wonder what other impossible things they can make happen. How aboutunion leaders more concerned with empowering their members to fight thandefending their own sectoral privileges? A Labour Party worthy of the name?Industrial action that not only seeks to defend workers from attack but toactually advance their interests further? Action that brings workers facingsimilar struggles together and uses the strength in numbers they are starting towitness to actually win? Perhaps even to hear spoken aloud those two words thatare still only mentioned in hushed tones on the fringes of TUC meetings: GeneralStrike.Already rank and file pressure has forced all 14 health unions to collectivelyrefuse to engage with this year's pay review board. The government's latestanti-strike legislation is provoking a coordinated and escalating response.Indeed, in threatening to preclude the possibility of lawful action, it may yetlead many into open revolt. For the ruling class, what nurses and other NHSworkers are fighting for is dangerous: a country in which you can expect toreceive excellent and timely medical care whenever you need it, where social careneeds are met, where transport is affordable and reliable, where Uber-isationdoes not replace a universal postal service, where heating and eating is a rightand not a privilege.Our demands most moderate are: we only want the earth.Here at Organise magazine we actively encourage contributions from all folksstruggling for a better world. Not just the circle of anarchist communists wealready agree with. We like to print these with as little editing as possible,which does mean we don't always agree with all the political content, butrecognise the value and usefulness and support most of it.https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2023/02/06/a-nurses-eye-view-from-the-picket-lines/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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