"New Worker Online (by way of Scott Marshall )" a écrit : > Editorial - 14/7/2000. > > Blue cloud. > > LAST week the King's Fund reported that the shortage of nurses, especially > in the capital, has reached crisis proportions. London has 5,000 nursing > vacancies and the country as a whole has a shortfall of 17,000 nursing jobs. > > The crisis has deepened largely because nurses' pay has not kept pace with > the sharp rise in housing costs -- particularly in London. > > At the same time the British Medical Association (BMA) warned that the > continuing shortage of NHS beds has led to seriously ill patients being > cared for in low-dependency wards where they do not get round-the-clock > nursing. They said that other patients are being discharged from hospital > too soon. > > The BMA also pointed out that this is no longer just a "winter crisis" but > a problem all year round. > > None of this worries the Tories who announced last Tuesday that they would > cut spending on schools and hospitals in an effort to meet their promise to > keep taxes low. > > The Treasury says these proposals amount to a cut in spending of £4.3 > billion in the first year and a total of £16. 1 billion by the third. > > To some extent this scandalous proposal has been sidestepped by the > capitalist media who have focused on differences between Tory leader > William Hague and Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo over the details. > > Labour minister Andrew Smith said of the Tory plans: "Now they have > admitted what Labour has always said -- that their tax guarantee is a > public spending cuts guarantee, so extreme that it will hit the health > service, education, law and order and transport." > > Not that the Labour government has any cause to be smug. The crisis in the > NHS and other public services makes it vital to put the government under > mounting pressure to increase direct taxes on the rich and to raise social > spending. At the same time no effort must be spared in the struggle to keep > the Tories out of office for good. > > **************** > > Unnatural disaster. > > THE scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa and other third world countries is a > tragedy so huge that it is hard to take in. It is estimated that unless > medical care is made available as many as 30 million people will die. > And even this is not the whole story because the AIDS pandemic is not the > only health crisis these countries are battling against. > > Health education programmes and preventive measures are of course > essential. But this alone does not solve the problems facing the millions > who are already suffering and it does not address the desperate poverty > that denies people a healthy diet and medicines. > > The capitalist media seems quite good at pontificating about what African > governments should be doing and saying. More to the point is what the > imperialist powers should be doing now. After all it has been these > exploiters who have for so long been the parasites bleeding the third world > dry. > > We need to take up the call from Africa and add our voices to the calls > for drugs to be made accessible to all who need them. The profit-hungry > giant drugs companies are coming under fierce attack -- and rightly so. > > Of course, while the media spotlight is on the drugs companies they will > be painted as the "unacceptable face of capitalism". Yet they operate no > differently from any other capitalist outfit. The forces which drive them > are in the very nature of capitalism itself. > > Capitalism kills millions to enrich a few. Poverty will only be eradicated > when capitalism itself is in its grave. > > New Communist Party of Britain Homepage > > http://www.newcommunistparty.org.uk > > A news service for the Working Class! > > Workers of all countries Unite! _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
