The annual general meeting of the London region branch of the Socialist Health Association (SHA) in November turned out to be anything but fustian, officious and stultifying. The discussion cantered through the important topics of influence, worker thought control, permanent insecurity for victims of war and famine, and private wealth borrowing cheap to lend dear to the NHS.
On the first, the branch will continue to be encouraged to nominate delegates to enable SHA affiliation to London Region constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) and offer SHA speakers. Members should pass delegate names to the SHA London secretary before or at the same time as asking the CLP treasurer to inform SHA admin of the bank details for the payment of the affiliation fee. Admin will receive reports so as to understand the correlation of payments and delegates
We are encouraging affiliations to SHA by unions like the RMT and FBU, emphasizing the importance of grassroots connections and collaboration on issues such as outsourcing and NHS privatisation. Progress has been made on affiliations both at national level and at branch level with the aim of organizing more joint union events to increase engagement as well as to benefit from affiliation fees. SHA will benefit both by spreading its message and also by sourcing information based on important workface experience.
Many in SHA are involved in the trade union movement, for example on Lambeth Trades Council, on GLATC, and on LP liaison in Unite London and Eastern region. Progress has been made on a number of trade union affiliations both at national level (FBU now has a delegate on CC, work is still in progress on CWU, Aslef and Unison) and at branch level (particularly NEU, Unite and UCU) with the aim of organizing more joint union events to increase engagement as well as to benefit from affiliation fees. Local activities jointly with campaigns on housing, education and peace are also important.
On the rest, the meeting focused first on the NHS’s proposed mandatory training to tackle racism and antisemitism, which is actually biased and stifling of Palestinian solidarity activities within the NHS. The government should abandon the program and allow NHS workers without victimisation to support Palestine against erasure by Israel backed by the US.
There has been systematic targeting of hospitals and doctors in Gaza. The term “medicide” can properly be used to describe these atrocities. Some have been censored when trying to discuss the situation in Gaza at governors’ meetings. The impact of silencing on patients and pupils is damaging.
Secondly, the meeting opposed the so called Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the NHS. PFI contracts have cost the NHS several times more than the original investment, leading to financial strain on trusts year after year. MPs should speak out against it. The SHA will requesting a meeting with Health Secretary Wes Streeting and asking SHA delegates to take the model motion to CLPs. We have circulated a model letter to MPs based on a draft by We Own It.
The meeting turned finally the new asylum policy introduced by Shabana Mahmood, which includes prolonging the threat of deportation from 5 to 20 years, mandatory reassessments every 30 months, and stricter conditions on public funds and family reunion rights. We are concerned about the policy’s impact on vulnerable individuals, including children. The use of unreliable AI-based tools for age estimation is wrong. We are calling on MPs to oppose the changes and promote a rights-based approach to asylum policy.
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