Join us today!
Printable version
Link to this page: https://archive.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1161/33526
From The Socialist newspaper, 6 January 2022
Coventry: Private profits from hospital parking charges
Coventry Socialist Party campaigning against hospital parking charges (Click to enlarge)
Coventry Socialist Party members
At our last Socialist Party campaign stall of the year on 18 December, we gathered more signatures in support of the bin workers' strike.
That strike was delayed until the new year, because the workers forced the council back to the negotiating table with a better offer. So much for being told that the council couldn't pay more!
And we gathered dozens more signatures against parking charges at the hospital, including from NHS workers. The headline on the last edition of the Socialist was relevant: "Tory cuts and privatisation leave NHS in crisis", and there was an article about the bin strike inside (see socialistparty.org.uk), which meant more people wanted to buy the Socialist.
An operating theatre nurse signed our petition telling us she cannot even get a staff pass that would let her pay 'only' £50 a month, because her shift pattern of three 12-hour shifts disqualified her. So she is paying £30 every week, £1,560 a year, to work for the NHS! And the vast majority of that goes right into the pocket of private company ISS that runs the car park.
Among other people signing was a woman who told us her son had a brain tumour dealt with at the hospital. The cost of visiting was a fortune.
No staff, patients or visitors should be paying to use the car park. The car park shouldn't be in the hands of a private company making gigantic unchecked profits off ordinary people's misery.
The Socialist Party says:
- End all hospital parking charges
- End all PFI schemes and privatisation, renationalise the NHS
- A 15% pay rise for all NHS workers
- For a fully funded, socialist NHS
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- We must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 6 January 2022:
News
Tories' cost of living squeeze - build the workers' fightback
Blair knighted for services to the rich and powerful
More fares misery for passengers - renationalise the railways
Schools: union action needed for Covid safety
Capitalism in crisis
Britain in 2022: Build a coordinated working-class fightback
Workplace news
Strike threat forces Tesco to improve pay offer
West Mids metalworkers strike over pay
Sheffield JustEat couriers escalate dispute
Scunny scaffs enter twelfth week of strike action
S. Yorks Stagecoach workers start indefinite strike
International news
Chile's working class delivers a landslide vote against ultra-right Kast
Socialist history
New unionism - when mass workers' action changed Britain
Local elections
TUSC appeals for widest possible anti-austerity socialist unity for May elections
Campaigns news
Coventry: Private profits from hospital parking
Fighting Fund - 162% of target, £162,000 raised
Trinity Centre: Shameful eviction by Newham council
Obituary
Obituary: Kate Jones - 1953-2021
Home | The Socialist 6 January 2022 | Join the Socialist Party
Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook
2021