Press Release: Campaigners call for large turnout for health march
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press release 
Friday March 28, 2008 11:02
by PBPA - People Before Profit Alliance
www.peoplebeforeprofitdse.wordpress.com
The People Before Profit Alliance join others in supporting the Dublin Council of Trades Unions national day of protest for March 29 demanding a decent public health service and is urging people to join this protest.
Press Release:
Campaigners call for large turnout for health march
The People Before Profit Alliance supports the Dublin Council of Trades Unions national day of protest for March 29 demanding a decent public health service and is urging people to join this protest. The crisis in our health services goes from bad to worse and we need immediate action. The crisis stems from the low levels of spending which is less than 90% of the EU average. This is in the context of historic low levels of investment in the 1980s and 1990s. Current levels of spending do not make up for past neglect.
Speaking in the run up to the National Protest, Ailbhe Smyth, Co-convenor of People Before Profit Alliance said “You can access the health services if you have money. The two tier system is deeply inequitable. It is easier for those with money to get treated while public patients wait longer than private patients and some, like Susie Long, die waiting.”“The government wants to privatise more and more of our health care. Through the policy of co-location they want the private sector to build private hospitals for private patients in the grounds of public hospitals. These are not being built to meet the health needs of patients but to make profit for private investors. This policy is now supported by the Greens despite their opposition before the election. It’s time to say enough!”The People Before Profit Alliance is a broad-based alliance of activists committed to opposing neo-liberal policies which dismantle public services. We do not believe that the provision of basic services such as health and education should be the source of profits for investors.
Rory Hearne, People Before Profit Alliance, Dublin South East stated:
“We are urging people to attend the protest to provide a strong message to the government that says no more health cuts, no more privatisation, no more hospital closures: we demand a quality public health service that is available to all. In our area the Government is closing St Luke’s Cancer Hospital despite the fact that it is the best hospital for radiotherapy treatment in the country. Closing St Luke’s is part of the Government’s agenda of running down the public health system in order to provide new opportunities for the private for profit health care companies.”
People Before Profit demands a publicly funded health service that is free to all. We oppose the centralisation of the service under the control of the HSE with no democratic accountability. We also believe that everybody should have access to local services which emphasise primary care and prevention.
On the recent news regarding care for the elderly Brid Smith of People Before Profit Alliance, Ballyfermot said “Funds are being diverted from care for elderly. It’s a disgrace to propose to take 80% of pensioners income to provide for their care since all if not most of them would have more than paid their share by working and paying tax all their lives.”
The People Before Profit Alliance are joined by many others who are actively campaigning for a better health service and are mobilising people for the march.
Councillor Joan Collins for the Crumlin/Kimmage area and of the ‘Supporting Save Our Ladys Hospital Campaign’ said:
“The proposed closure of Our Lady’s hospital in Crumlin is an absolute disgrace. Yes there is a need for a hospital of specialist care but not at the expense of closing more hospitals and more beds to go in the Health. The community and thousands of people nationally are opposed to the hospital closure.”
Des Derwin, President of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, said
“It is marvellous that such a wide coalition of groups, including the People Before Profit Alliance, are working so hard to make the march a success. They are backing up the united effort of the trade unions, patients’ and hospital groups, health professionals and community organisations to present one clear voice that it is time for a fully funded Public Health Service, accessible to all, now.”
ENDS
Contact details:
Ailbhe Smyth 087 2055433
Joan Collins 086 3888151
Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7In the old days, the order that Communist Party leaders stood in on the Red Square plinth on May Day rallies was watched closely for hints as to where the real power was, and who was actually in control.
This statement gives priority to Rory Hearne, an unsuccessful SWP election candidate, over Des Derwin, who is actually involved in the DCTU and in organising this march. The order looks perverse, until you ask yourself who are actually in the People Before Profit driving seat, and who are only there for show.
BTW, did anyone else see the posters around Rathmines? Not content with putting up the DCTU posters, the SWP have photocopied them and put 'People Before Profit Alliance supports' above them. Now is that designed to get more people to the march? Or to raise People Before Profit's profile?
On this life and death issue, you would think people would put the cause before their own group's agenda. Get to the march, and drown out chancers like these!
1. "This statement gives priority to Rory Hearne, an unsuccessful SWP election candidate, over Des Derwin, who is actually involved in the DCTU and in organising this march. "
Actually the quotes were added in order of when they were received by the writer of the press release.
So wrong on that count!
2. "Posters around Rathmines? Not content with putting up the DCTU posters, the SWP have photocopied them and put 'People Before Profit Alliance supports' above them. Now is that designed to get more people to the march? Or to raise People Before Profit's profile?"
If you were someone who is actually involved in helping organise for the demo you'd know about the problems with poster supply and actually People Before Profit contacted th DCTU and suggested producing our own and that was fine. As other organisations have done- labour party and wsm.
So wrong on that count too!
Would be good if you had a clue to begin with.
So please do get down to the march cause Kremlin watcher will be stuck on his computer trying to stir.
So get to the march, and drown out chancers like him/her!
www.peoplebeforeprofitdse.wordpress.com
You put the quotes together in the order they were received! Have you not managed to master the basics of word processing? With the wonders of modern technology, it's now possible to put a quote at the end of the press release even though you got it at the start! Of course, maybe it depends on the order in which you asked people for quotes. And maybe it depends on whether you, the person writing the press release, are one of those quoted in it.
There was a shortage of posters! Of course there was. The easy thing to do would have been to do a staright photocopy of the poster. This would have been the simple approach for someone who finds it impossible to rearrange paragraphs on a press release. You didn't design a better, more eye-catching poster, you just put an advert for yourselves on top of it. And you are using the opportunism of Labour etc to justify your own attempt to exploit the march for publicity.
Will this PBPA press release bring one single extra person out to the march today? I doubt it. But I also doubt if that was the point of putting it out. Hopefully a good turnout will marginalise these chancers.
1.
"You put the quotes together in the order they were received!"
Yes- because unlike yourself I've been busy helping to build for the march. My priority isn't petty squabbling.
2.
"The easy thing to do would have been to do a staright photocopy of the poster."
Well a straight photocopy of the poster is what was done. Don't know what you mean by a staright photocopy.
Look you stick to picking fights with people who are out doing stuff on your arse on front of the pc and the rest of us will get on with the job in hand.
Well done to DCTU, ordinary union members, labour, swp, pbp, wsm and others who have worked hard (unlike some) to build for the march with dctu and their own material. See you all there.
www.peoplebeforeprofitdse.wordpress.com
You say your priority was building for the march, yet you had time to put out a press release the day before to publicise your political party. You say your priority was building for the march, and yet you had time to do up a special version of the poster with an advert for yourself on it. I think it's fairly clear what your priority is.
Taking a couple of minutes out to expose what your crowd is up to didn't stop me building for the march. I'd say I distributed at least as many leaflets and put up at least as many posters as you did. And they were the leaflets and posters put out by the march organisers, not ones with an advert tacked on to them.
I'm just back from the march, and I think it could be the basis for a really effective campaign. Everyone of us who worked for it has done a good job. As for those who were working for something else, I think most people on the march can see through them.
Well done to all who came out yesterday. It was a good example of the left working together on an important issue and mobilising a significant number of people. It lays the basis for a good future campaign on the health service. The movement's strength is in its diversity: unions, patients groups and a wide variety of left organisations. A very positive development. Well done Des and the DCTU for taking the initiative. Hope to see you all on the 26th.
www.peoplebeforeprofitdse.wordpress.com
The strength of the march was those people who acted together in a common cause, rather than putting themselves or their own organisations first. Long may it continue.
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