Up to 100 people turned out for a rally in Maidstone, on July 1, as part of a campaign to stop the privatisation of NHS Logistics.
NHS Logistics is the not-forprofit service that provides medical supplies, food, blankets and other essential supplies to the National Health Service.
New Labour are intending to sell it off to DHL/Novatia, a private company, who will obviously turn this important part of the NHS into a business run primarily for the sake of profit.
The rally in Brenchly Gardens, called by the NHS Logistics South branch of Unison, attracted wide support from Unison members and trom the Left across Kent.
But the presence of trade unionists from other public services was also significant.
Vince Maple from the PCS and Jon Clark from the recently reestablished Medway Trades Council both spoke from the platform. They joined John Lister of the Keep Our NHS Public campaign and a good cross-section of Unison activists to denounce New Labour's plans.
The rally has served as an important boost for efforts to establish local campaigns against NHS privatisation across the region, and to link those campaigns into a wider network. It was noticeable, too, that calls for broader action opposing all public sector cuts and privatisations were greeted with enthusiThe key now is for activists to follow up with further practical steps. A public meeting is already being planned in Maidstone on July 19 to take the campaign forward, while trade unionists from Medway who were present at the rally have move.
But it is crucial to ensure that campaigns against privatisation try to connect with workingclass people beyond the established circles of active trade unionists and the Left.
Even in Brenchly Gardens, a public space where there were reasonable numbers of people not directly involved in the rally but obviously aware of it, there seemed little visible effort to engage with them
The relative success of Respect so far has shown that it's possible to build well beyond the "usual suspects", and that
Caught the first time: Hewitt even apologised for mistakes in privatising PCTs - then her department tried it once again have become a by-word for inflated costs, bureaucracy. inefficiency, exclusion and fraud.
But however much Hewitt denies a mission to privatise the reality is that every aspect of government health reforms now focuses around maximising the involvement of the private sector, while all of the cutbacks and closures centre on the NHS.
Having been criticised in the courts for a failure to consult local people in the imposition of private sector GP services in Derbyshire, ministers are looking to evade future consultation by negotiating a national contract that would impose private sector GPs on 30 "under-doctored" areas around the country: the target is to privatise 15 percent of GP services.
In Kent, one Trust Chief Executive is openly predicting that the private sector will take over the large majority of waiting list operations: BUPA has just picked up two new lucrative contracts to deliver NHS-funded care in new treatment centres - while existing NHS capacity faces Launching the Kent fightback in Maidstone lesson needs to be taken on board.
The Maidstone rally was, potentially, the springboard for a
UNISON campaign that can continue to gather both momentum and support across Kent and the SouthEast in the coming months.