Pre Health March Reflections

dublin | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Thursday March 27, 2008 12:04 by Dr. Spock

When I first heard about this march a couple of weeks ago I began thinking about what people hoped to achieve.

When I first heard about this march a couple of weeks ago I began thinking about what people hoped to achieve. A focusless march is usually a sign that the far left are involved in the organization. A march is a simple thing to organize, makes it appear that you are doing something and doesn’t commit you to doing anything else. And very importantly, gives various far left groups an opportunity to sell their papers and recruit members.

The fact that the DCTU is involved gives the whole thing an air of legitimacy which wouldn’t be there if it only involved the far left. Unfortunately those involved from the DCTU are of equal narrow vision as the far left. The event is attracting a serious amount of publicity and attendance should be good but the organizers will not have the ability to harness the genuine disgust at the current state of the health service. The opportunity will be lost and the issue will become similar to the anti war sentiment expressed by 100,000 marching in Dublin against the war in Iraq.

The trade union leadership has allowed this march to take place with the support of the trade union movement (paying for buses etc..) because it suits them at this moment in time. It will put more pressure on the government at a time when the unions are entering into pay negotiations with the government. It will strengthen the unions hand in these negotiations. If the trade union leadership were serious about the crisis in the health service they could solve it tomorrow with the threat of strike action or actual strike action. The majority of medical staff are unionized and sick and tired of apologizing for the state of the health service. The majority of public patients would support such strike action if they felt that it was genuinely aimed at improving the service and not just looking for more pay or better conditions.

Afraid that my sentiments were too negative I wasn’t going to comment until I seen the media coverage quoting an expected turnout of over 70,000. Obviously the organizers have released this figure as a PR stunt not realizing that anything less than this figure will be viewed as disappointing. Given the current state of opposition to the government I would consider a turnout of over 10,000 to be a success. Anything above this would be excellent. 50,000 would be amazing. By mentioning 70,000 the organizers have shot themselves in the foot. This is a perfect example of their inability to utilize the deep anger at the state of health service. Almost everybody is in agreement that the health service is a disgrace yet nobody has managed to mount a serious campaign to challenge the situation. I don’t believe the current organizers have this ability and believe this opportunity will be wasted.

I sincerely hope I am wrong and turnout is as high or higher as expected. I sincerely hope that there is an actual plan to progress this issue. I purposely posted this before the march so I couldn’t be accused of jumping on any bandwagon. I am not just sniping from the sidelines, I have been publicizing the march in my job and have been leafleting my local shopping centre for the last two Saturdays.