The regional deputy and spokesman for the right-wing People’s Party (PP), Pedro Muñoz Abrines, called the 600,000 strong demonstration in defence of the Public Health Service and against the cuts ‘a failure, with the usual suspects and their placards.’ Some ‘failure’!
The silence, at the time of writing, of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the President of the Madrid community speaks volumes. The PP in reality have been taken aback at the scale of the movement and the determination of nurses, doctors and health service workers to defend the public system.
The spark has been the reopening of out-of-hospital emergency services, which have been closed since the pandemic. Opened without a single doctor on duty in many cases, with sudden changes in the timetables of health professionals and changes in opening hours, only communicated in the early hours of the morning before.
Often there is video-conferenced medical attention in the absence of a doctor at an emergency point. This intolerable situation, which affects both the workers and the public together, has been the straw that broke the camel’s back. There have been weeks of tension between unions and Ayuso’s government. There have even been resignations and dismissals among managers and technical posts in the Regional Ministry of Health in the face of the organisational chaos, together with a strike by health profesionals. The situation has reached boiling point.
The protest is reminiscent of those of the era of cutbacks in public services and the cycle of mobilisations that led to 15M. Spokespeople of Red de Solidaridad Popular Latina-Carabanchel, and supported by the Federación de Asociaciones de Vecinos (FRAVM), among others, say that there is a red line as regards cuts to the health service and their consequences in regards to the quality of service which people will not cross, and there is momentum for more mobilisations.
Ángela Hernández, secretary general of the doctors’ union Amyts, said, “the demonstration has been much bigger than they imagined,”, and she is confident that Ayuso “cannot ignore it”. The other unions agree, from UGT to CCOO, including the nursing union, Satse, and CSIT-Unión. It must be recognised however, that the union leaders cannot depend on the ‘good nature’ of the right-wing populist Ayuso, whose administration has been totally responsible for the state the Madrid health service is in. People have not forgotten that it was the PP which cruelly left older people to die in care homes during the pandemic, due to their corruption, privatisations, and mismanagement.
For this reason, the leaders of CCOO, UGT, the parliamentary left, Más Madrid and UP have to be called out for their disastrous policy of the demobilisation of protests. The grassroots should push forward and demand a 24-hour general strike in defence of the health service, education and public services. A general strike in Madrid would be a powerful step towards getting rid of the reactionary populist government of Ayuso.
This mobilisation in Madrid is a clear answer to the ‘respectable’ parliamentary left who have the illusion that the health service and public services in general can only be defended by them. They have consistently tried to demobilise movements as they expend hot air in the national and regional parliaments. Fine words will not defeat Ayuso! The grassroots and neighbourhood organisations, along with the health unions have shown the way. The only language the right understand is action. Forward to a Madrid general strike!
A massive programme of public investment for the creation of jobs with decent, socially useful conditions, such as in health, education and dependency services and a sustainable recovery of the productive economy. For free and quality public services.
Defend and expand the public health service. Reverse all cuts and privatisations immediately and bring private hospitals, providers and resources into the public system.
Immediate recruitment of the necessary number of health professionals to deal with this crisis, plus sufficient staff to ensure rapid and quality care from primary care to specialists to hospitals. All necessary material resources and safety equipment for health workers and other essential workers must be made available immediately.
Nationalisation of the pharmaceutical sector to serve the needs of patients and not the profits of big business.
