Hi
Just back from Ealing hospital where trot group Workers Revolutionary Party were staging an 'occupation' outside the maternity ward of Ealing hospital in Southall. Earlier they had a march (on the 24th) from Southall Broadway to the maternity ward which is scheduled to not accept any new mothers on the 24th nd will completely close down on the 1st July. This is probably the start of closing the whole hospital down ward by ward so the stakes r certainly high, the next nearest hospital to southall is uxbridge nd the nearest to greenford is park royal which in both cases r a nightmare to get to and will be packed (they already r so if ealing hospital closed then ud get another 70,000+ patients to these other hospitals). A WRP women with typical populist rhetoric said that everyone would be affected by the closure. This is of course rubbish as the local bourgois will be well catered for by private clinics (I suspect Ealing hospital will provide some of these private facilities). The result of this will be that people will be forced more and more into the family reproductive unit and the church/ngo complex. In west london the Indian and Polish patriarchal structures will be massively reinforced meaning misery especially for young women.
The first thing I noticed is that its not an occupation it was just sitting outside the maternity ward. The people there (all WRP I think) cud have been patients, they were causing no disruption (except annoying people by constantly trying to sell their newspaper/sign petitions etc). I had to ask them 'is this the occupation'? because i cudnt tell that they were occupying (cos they werent). After 30 mins a guy tried to recruit me to young socialist then later tried to get me to a socialist summer camp (only £325 for the week).
There was a banner saying 'occupation' on the wall and they (WRP) were giving out leaflets advertising 'their' march (led by west london council of action the WRP front group ) and 'work stoppage' (for 2 hrs) this Wednesday in Southall Broadway...it was a complete joke. Everyone is indian except for two old English guys, everyone is older/retired, the rhetoric was old/tired, the community and family was constantly mentioned, blah, blah you get the idea.
All the slogans about saving the NHS but if a campaign increases recruits their aim is fulfilled
Thoughts
- How do u stop a hospital being closed? How can it be done without appealing to patriarchal structures, such as the family, the community etc and without demands to the state? Has this ever been done?
- How can we have collective medical/social care, once the state doesnt provide it anymore? Home births to replace maternity ward? How cud this be arrange by non-patriarchal (egalitarian) means in an area such as Southall where the population is Indian and the patriarchal extended family reigns as the dominant reproductive structure? This seems to be an urgent question over the coming years for feminist comrades.
- What is the role of women in the division of labour of care (both medical and social). Can this be subverted (by men doing it for example) in an area such as Southall?
All questions for the anti austerity movement...
You ask all the right questions autonomice, and the answer is the same throughout. We dispose of antiquated and repressive structures like patriarchy in the same way we will get rid of the State; supply proper effective health care and education for everyone alive throughout the world; replace compartmentalised feminism with a passion for all humanity regardless of skin colour and sex, and we'll do this by building a new society in which we will all contribute freely and happily what we are best capable of freed from capitalism's horrific and unnecessary restrictions.
To do this requires a revolution, which is long overdue. But it's the only thing left for us which could work, and incidentally save the planet too. The anti-austerity movement is a sort of start but needs to develop into anti-capitalism else it'll get nowhere. After all 'austerity' is only the latest in a series of killer diseases all the product of capitalism itself.
Fake occupations by fake revolutionaries such as Trotskyites don't help at all. In fact they only hinder by adding confusion to the maturation of working class consciousness. But then that's what the bourgeois Trotskyites are there for: to prevent the development of real class consciousness and of the need for working class solidarity.