Danny Mcintosh 250 campaigners and health union activists attended a packed conference convened by Keep Our NHS Public in London on January 20.
Delegations were limited in number from each organisation to avoid a southern or London bias, and the geographical representation was reasonably wide, from as far north as Leeds and from the East and West of England, and the political diversity of the movement was also obvious, with various left wing currents mixing on the day with Labour, Greens, Lib Dems and many with no political affiliations.
A strand of debate throughout the day centred on the frustration of many that the trade working through NHS Together had not, as many had hoped, called a national demonstration for March 3- with many looking for ways around this to improvise some form of unofficial demonstration through central London.
An alternative approach was argued by many in the meeting, including John
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www.keepournhspublic.com Lister from London Health Emergency, responding from the platform on behalf of Keep Our NHS Public. insisted that campaigners had first and foremost to ensure that local and regional events called for March 3 were made as powerful as possible. This was vital in keeping up the pressure for national demonstration to be called by the only organisations with the resources to make it a success: the health unions.
For a national demonstration to show the scale of opposition we know there is to government policies, we need a huge turnout, not just a few
"If you really want to march through London on March 3 regardless of the lack of official support, please don't call it a national demonstration - because it will just give ministers and some union leaders a chance to argue that we don't really represent very much. It would set the movement back."
In his platform speech, Lister focused strongly on the impact that campaigning at local level had already been able to have, forcing splits among Labour MPs, delaying some cutbacks and forcing others to be abandoned.
Even the Daily Mail has been running articles critical of privatisation and the Private Finance Initiative.
He also urged campaigners to make use of the Early Day Motion from John McDonnell which calls for a moratorium on NHS cuts and privatisation pending a full investigation on resources.
This has drawn support from Lib Dems and some suggestions of support from the Tories, and offers an opportunity to put local MPs of all parties on the spot by challenging them to sign it: "We need more ministers forced to join us, more worried MPs banging on Hewitt's door complaining about the local impact of NHS reforms."
And he urged local campaigns to reach out to mobilise more active support from workers and build the strongest challenge to every threat to jobs and services: we need a national campaign, but its strength has to be a real fight at local level.
Other platform speakers included Tony Benn, consultant Dr Jacky Davis and Leicester campaigner and academic Sally Ruane.
Whatever the limits of the conference - and much more needs to be done to tap the full potential nationally - it is clear that the efforts of campaigners at local level and the existence of Keep Our NHS Public as a national focus have forced the issue up the political aganda and created more favourable conditions for a fightback.
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the next election.