SPEW Tactics

I have just finished reading a SPEW political pamphlet about defending the NHS.
What caught my attention was it was the first SPEW pamphlet I have ever comes across which discusses actual tactics recommend by SPEW.

Here were the points:

What can you do to fight service closures or privatization in your area?

Is your local hospital,A&E,maternity unit or children ward under threat of closure? Are there plans to privatize community services? Here are some ideas about how to campaign and fight back against cuts. Contact the Socialist Party for more info,resources or help with the campaign.

1) Organize a public meeting once you hear about local services under attack. Contact the local press,papers,radio and TV.

2) Find others to work with who are willing to take responsibility for doing certain jobs within the campaign- you'll need a treasurer,press and publicity organizer, secretary and chair among other roles. Meet regular as a smaller group to discuss the campaign strategy. Involve as many people in different ways as possible.
3) Contact local councillors and MP's. If they are not already involved put the them under pressure to support the campaign through lobbying and petitions.

4) Attend any consultation meetings to put forward the arguments against cuts.

5) Contact all the trade unions who represent workers affected by the proposals. as well as approaching local union reps, try to talk to rank and file workers by organizing stalls outside hospitals ans other workplaces.

6) Petitioning is a good way of raising awareness, either on stalls in town centres or knocking on doors to drum up support for the campaign. Keep a list of supporters to contact regularly about events. Email lists, Facebook groups and twitter are all useful.

7) Contact the press regular. Get supporters writing letters on a weekly/daily basis to get the debate going and force the health bosses to come out the woodwork.

8) Refer proposed changes to the council's overview and scrutiny committee and involve the health and well being boards. Make them aware of the public opposition to the plans. They have the power to hold up the process and even take legal proceedings.

9) Organize a local march or protest (at least once) as a way of showing opposition to the plans.

10) Consider standing anti-cuts candidates in local or even national elections. Politicians
will take the campaign more seriously if they think their electoral position may be challenged by a local community activist.

11) Make links with other similar campaigns, locally and nationally, to find out what has worked in other areas.

12) Support health workers in any actions they are taking; trade union action is the most effective way to defend the NHS. Uniting community campaigns with trade union action makes a campaign stronger and more likely to win.

13) Take legal advice. Consider whether there may be a legal case against those making the changes-as in Lewisham and the Leeds children's heart surgery campaigns.

14) Join the Socialist Party. Get involved in fighting to change society for the better and guarantee a decent health service into the future/

Be totally honest. Were any of these numbered points any good? Were all numbered points bad? Some numbered points bad or some points good? What kind of resources and help could SPEW realistically offer? I think many Libcom would strongly disagree with point 14. Point number 11

11) "Make links with other similar campaigns, locally and nationally, to find out what has worked in other areas."

is most interesting as it implies maybe adopting new ideas and tactics outside of the suggested points by SPEW here